Driverless Auto Shows - Duckies and Detroit

I read Make Way for Ducklings to my kids about a million times, maybe two million times. I told them where their aunt and uncle lived in college and graduate school, and where I lived. I told them about the pretty duck pond and the duck boats. I told them about walking around the Public Garden and all around Boston, and about my many walks in Cambridge by the river. There's no sweeter book about Boston than Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey.


Beantown duck theme - for driverless

Some students at MIT, located steps away from Boston, in Cambridge, have created Duckietown and filmed this mythical place. It is full of rubber duckies in driverless vehicles - tiny driverless vehicles - that navigate oh so cutely and effectively. But these students, who live in pedestrian-and-transit-rich Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston (I am guessing), have not blessed Duckietown with any duckie pedestrians or bikers. Where are the ducks crossing the road? Ducks on buses? Friendly police like in Make Way for Ducklings? 

Oh wait, on that last one I forgot it's not an all-white 1950s world (actually written in 1941) of that wonderful, but not diverse, children's book. Police are not always nice and likely not concerned about a family with many ducklings.

But if you want to turn a child into a multi-modal, pedestrian-aware person, read the book. It is a classic of children's literature. And read another Robert McCloskey book, Blueberries for Sal, also a classic.

Fun, Detroit in January

No criticism here, but if you want to lure people to Detroit, June might be a better month. However, January 2017 will feature a new conference in the Motor City, a spin off of the Detroit Auto Show (which is officially named the North American International Auto Show). The new conference is called the AutoMobili-D and will be all about autonomous vehicles. 

I am betting someone actually paid someone else to come up with that rolls-off-the-tongue name. Seriously? Okay, it would be fun to go.

AutoMobili-D will be held for the first time on Jan. 8 in a dedicated 120,000 square-foot space complete with a dedicated indoor test track for demonstrating and letting visitors gain first-hand experience of the latest self-driving technology systems.   

This is being touted as a be-there-or-be-square event, though no word yet on whether any driverless players from outside the Detroit area - such as Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia - will be showing off vehicles.