Convoys are historically desirable targets in warfare. They are also unarmed. Unmanned convoys can keep people out of dangerous situations while sidestepping the growing debate over the ethics of autonomous killing machines.
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Since Jeff Bezos made headlines with his plan for drone deliveries, many have offered their opinions on proposal. Many have declared it impractical or contrary to Amazon’s business plan, or just plain absurd. In Amazon’s constant quest for efficiency, CEO Jeff Bezos is hoping drones can bring the gap between payment and delivery down to thirty minutes. So far, this plan is nothing more than a good press release, as the FAA has yet to finalize the rules for flying drones. However, Bezos seems confident that the drones […] The town of Milton Keynes is planning a grand experiment on the future of transportation. The small two-seater autonomous vehicles appear to be an attempt to merge the flexibility of a taxi and availability of a trolley. As is mentioned in the article, the uncertainty associated with this project (and others like it) is in […] Nissan can now test it’s mostly autonomous prototypes on roads in Japan. The system is not yet fully autonomous, but can handle much of the routine driving. The system as currently described sounds very similar to Tesla’s autopilot goal mentioned in an earlier post on this website. Following similar announcements by Mercedes and Nissan, Tesla Motors has announced it, too, plans to build driverless cars. Or at least MOSTLY driverless. Tesla’s plan is being described as an autopilot – presumably primarily useful for cruising along highways. This is both more easily achievable and probably more socially acceptable than an instantaneous jump to […] Among other comments, this article describes how people might take advantage of a driverless car’s superior collision avoidance. The article predicts that the army will wait until civilian unmanned vehicles have been proven before deploying any themselves, and further that this is a “radical turnaround” of the normal process. However, we at the Asch Center consider this civilian-applications-first development cycle to be standard for logistics technology, as seen with the automobile and airplane. Many animals demonstrate effective group movement – schools of fish, swarms of insects, and herds. Nissan recently promised commercially available driverless cars by 2020, and part of reaching that goal appears to be cars that work with and around each to efficiently move as a group. An ambitious goal, but coming from a large automotive company with the ability to put a lot of money and expertise into the problem. As with electric cars, however, autonomous cars could remain a niche item for some time. |
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