Roads Without Drivers
Name: Bill Stevens
Age: 27
Occupation: Accountant
Tuesday November 21, 2050, 7:30 AM:
Bill quickly put on his jacket and left his house. He was running a bit late for work. As his apartment door closed and locked behind him, a car pulled up to the streetway in front of Bill’s apartment. A few moments later, Bill’s phone buzzed with a notification from the ride-getting app: “Your ride is here, please head to the car on the street” was the message and came with a picture of the exact car at its current location, taken as the car pulled up to Bills’ apartment. Bill hurried to the car that was parked on the side of the street and scanned the code that was present on the car’s windows with his phone. A few moments later, the car door opened, and Bill got into the passenger seat. As the door closed, Bill put on his seat belt and the car began to drive. Bill had already entered the location of his workplace when he called for the ride and so after a quick scan of its interior, the car confirmed that its passenger was aboard and secured and began to head towards Bill’s office.
Even though he could work from home — Bill preferred going to the office as it was a nice, clean environment and he preferred a bit of work/life separation. Bill was tired this morning; he had not gotten a lot of sleep the night prior, so he decided to take a small nap in the car. Bill’s office was located approximately 100 miles away from where he lived, and the app indicated that the car would arrive at the workplace in 32 minutes and 23 seconds. From experience, Bill knew that these calculations were never off by more than a few seconds, so he set a phone alarm for 30 minutes, reclined his seat, and dozed off.
While its passenger was asleep, the car was speeding towards its destination. Like all vehicles nowadays, it was driven by an AI. In fact, all vehicles on the streets were AI controlled, humans had been banned from driving as of a new national law passed 5 years ago. AI cars had already dominated the roads by that point, the law just removed the last few stubborn drivers from the roads. Studies had shown that these AI driven cars were safer, faster, and more convenient than humans and they had quickly taken over the roads. From small cars like the one Bill was currently on to large buses and trucks, AI drivers oversaw the millions of vehicles on the roads in the country today. Most people no longer owned cars — only a few rich hobbyists still had them. They were driven around in their private properties for fun. Most people either just hailed a ride whenever they needed one or like Bill, subscribed to a service that would allow for faster vehicle arrival and better price per mile. Even without a subscription though, the price on these rides were cheap- they were subsidized by the government and so were very affordable.
The AI cars are all connected to a large area network and could all communicate with each other. By analyzing speed and traffic, they were able to travel at speeds deemed unsafe for human drivers. Due to their ability to communicate to each other through the network there was no more need for traffic lights- which previously had served to allow human drivers to communicate with each other. The AI cars could zip through intersections without any sort of noticeable delay. In fact, most road infrastructure such as stop and yield signs were no longer in use. There may still be stop signs and traffic lights standing in some places, but they were now a part of history. Thanks to perfect communication between cars, there had been very few road accidents since humans were banned from driving. The few that occur were the either result of bigger infrastructure problems such as an old bridge that had been weakened by a storm the previous night collapsing or issues unrelated to the car and road itself such as someone dropping a brick onto a speeding car from the top of a tall building.
Tuesday November 13, 2050, 8:00 AM:
Bill’s phone alarm buzzed him awake. As he opened his eyes, he recognized the buildings as the car was turning on the street where his office was located. Bill observed the cars on the same street as they sped through the rest of the way to the office. About 2 minutes later, the car pulled up to the front of Bill’s office and notified Bill that the ride was done. Bill got out of the car and checked his phone clock: 8:02, it was right once again. With a shrug, Bill headed towards the front office door to begin his day at work. Behind him, the car had already sped away.
There were several ways people traveled these days. The fastest was usually a single rider car experience like the one Bill used to travel to and from work. These were usually also the most expensive — Bill usually used these as he liked his privacy and could more easily catch some sleep in the mornings if he had to. He could instead have chosen a rider-sharing option which allowed other people to get in the car with him. Of course, this would be slower but it would also be cheaper.
After it dropped Bill off, the car drove to the nearest resupply depot. It had used up all of its fuel and needed to be recharged. The majority of AI cars were electric and when they needed to recharge- they were instructed to head to resupply depots or recharging stations that were present all across the country. These resupply depots were mostly automated as the cars would roll and be able to fuel up. Here they would also get both their interior and exterior cleaned and sanitized. There was some human supervision at these supply depots however. If a vehicle detects a potential issue or needed a regular checkup or maintenance, it would be inspected by the mechanics at a resupply depot.
Most of the cars on the streets were government owned. Each city had its own fleet of vehicles that were bought on tax dollars. Companies also owned vehicles depending on their trade and use. Lots of big companies had their own set of trucks that they used to exclusively ship their goods and products. A large chain store might use their own fleet of trucks to more efficiently send products to their stores. These companies needed to register their private vehicles on the government vehicle tracking site and had to pay a fee to the government to ensure access to resupply depots owned by the government (a majority of which are). Of course, companies could build their own resupply stations and some very large companies did. Other than shipping, there were some companies that looked to challenge the government’s grip on the ride-sharing market. Companies would offer incentives such as nicer, more comfortable cars to gather customers that wanted a more premium service.
Saturday, November 17, 2050, 10:00 AM
Bill was sitting on his couch browsing his phone when he got a notification that his delivery had arrived. He went outside and went to the car parked in front of his apartment. Bill had ordered some groceries from the store and had it delivered. From the trunk of the car, Bill grabbed his grocery bags and carried them inside. Confirming that he had taken his order, the car closed its trunk and sped away.
This is a relatively new service that Bill had just used. The cars served as an alternative to shipping services such as postal or FedEx. By specifying shipping, the car would look to confirm a package rather than a person. The advantage of this over something like FedEx was that it was cheaper if you had a subscription. This was also faster when shipping to the same city and so was commonly used to deliver groceries.
After Bill put away his groceries, he went back to browsing his phone. He was planning to go home to visit family for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and was debating between air travel and car travel. Bill’s family lived out of state about 800 miles away. While a plane ride would take about 2 hours, the car ride would be double that at 4 hours. Bill weighed the two options in his end — the car ride would be cheaper and more relaxing since he would be alone — but it would take 2 hours longer. After some thought, he texted his sister, Alice who lived a bit closer to home and asked her when she was going back home. After some discussion, Bill decided to take the car ride to pick up Alice and then head back home together with his sister. With his plans decided, Bill entered in the information. In 3 days, he wanted a car to come to his address and then drive to his sister’s place, then afterwards it would head to his parent’s address. After he submitted the information, a confirmation went out to both him and his sister about the details of their upcoming trip. Satisfied that he was done with his holiday plans, Bill went back to enjoy his weekend.
The advent of AI cars had greatly improved the standard of living for the residents of the country. Cheap and fast travel meant that people could have more opportunities for school or jobs. They could also travel to more places for a weekend trip as well. It took a bit for people to truly realize the possibilities that AI cars enabled but now they are just an integral part of everyday life.
