Self-delivering car (Whistlecar)

A variant of the deliverbot would be a robocar technology that is only used when the vehicle is vacant. In other words, we might find ourselves with a technology that is trusted to move vehicles at safe speeds on the roads, but not to carry passengers. This could be used to deliver vehicles to drivers on demand, but which are still human driven once the people get in.

I’m going to use the term « whistlecar » for these, as the idea is reminiscent of how the Lone Ranger could just whistle for his horse, Silver, and the horse would appear from him to ride. (Since these cars will come from even further away, perhaps Gandalf’s steed Shadowfax is an even better metaphor.)

Whistlecars would deliver many of the advantages of robocars that I have outlined here, in particular the « car on demand » and « right vehicle for the trip. » The whistlecars would be able to park and refuel themselves on their own, with all the advantages that implies.

They would not, however, allow the driver to work, read or relax. They would still need a « road feeling » suspension. They would probably not be as good at reducing congestion or drafting other vehicles. They could be two-wheeled.

And they could still get in accidents. However, they would presumably be packed with accident avoidance technologies and as such would probably get into far fewer. However, since they themselves would not save lives, any accidents they had while delivering themselves would be attacked as a complete net downside; that could impede their deployment.

Creating a whistlecar may be much easier to do, technically, than a robocar. While moving itself from place to place, it can move more cautiously and slowly. It can also brake and turn much harder if it detects a problem. It can even slow or stop and set up a video connection to a nearby televalet (remote operator) to solve problems only a person can solve. They might use only a very limited set of streets until close to their destination.

Whistlecars would take a little longer to get to you when summoned than a full robocar, but otherwise would work fine if there are enough of them out there. The whistlecar makes the « carshare » concept considerably more appealing because the cars come to you. If you make an appointment, there would be no waiting.