PR Message: We're Really Close

I'm reading the same tea leaves as anyone who is glued to the driverless news. What came across my laptop screen today was like a slap in the face or a bucket of cold water thrown over my head. The tea leaves are screaming now "WAKE UP!, Driverless is super close," if not ready. That does not mean that tomorrow we will see these vehicles everywhere, but it does mean that the following companies and agencies would not be spouting what is below unless the technology were already there. 

Evidence from China

Chinese Google counterpart Baidu is publicly committing itself to driverless mass production in five years, after testing in 10 cities. 

You can't predict with such confidence unless you already have the vehicles. Now it's a question of developing public confidence, a legal framework, and mass production facilities.

Evidence from the down under neighborhood

A New Zealand transit conference audience was told this week that sometime between now and 2035, though the speaker is betting on 2020, that driverless transit buses will be in operation and penetrating the market. Obviously this is a progressive transit conference - and likely not an audience with belligerent union labor. We're not talking Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco, London (they are otherwise engaged with Brexit at the moment), Paris or some other major city. This is New Zealand, with cities like Wellington and Auckland. If driverless will be happening there within 10 years, you are talking Poughkeepsie, Providence, Sacramento, and Omaha. (I predict NYC will be last because those bus drivers will not be getting out of the drivers seat without a fight.)

Evidence of cute, bunny shuttles reproducing

Transdev, a manufacturer of cute - my word - driverless shuttles that operate on private campuses - meaning private, unregulated, roads - is looking for opportunities. Now that cute shuttles have popped up all over, this company is seeking paying customers who are early adopters, like the people who bought the original Apple computers in the early 80s. (I did my first resume on that thing; you had to manually code everything. It was my brother in law's and he bought it for drafting his PhD thesis.) 

Transdev will compete with others in a field getting crowded with cute driverless transit - or transit-like - shuttles. There's Olli from Local Motors, the taxibots in Singapore, EasyMile, etc. 

Maybe my dream for some driverless demonstrations in the next year will come true. Now there's competition. A dollar a ride? Ride free? I'm hoping.