Driverless car and robot driver

I have never been in a driverless car but I have wondered how I would feel trusting my life to a vehicle with an empty drivers seat.

I have always assumed that a drivers seat,steering wheel and pedals would be mandatory in case there ever was the need for human intervention even if only to slam on the brakes.

I recently came across this recent article  where Ford are working with a two legged robot called Digit who works with a driverless car and does deliveries.

This got me thinking as to whether having Digit in the drivers seat would make me feel more comfortable about the whole driverless car experience. You could even dress him up in a uniform and cap!!

I then started thinking as to what other advantages having a walking robot in a driverless car could bring.  A Digit type robot could for example :-

– Take the driverless car to shops for you and walk around doing the shopping. It could text you if stuff is out of stock and you could tell Digit what you want instead.

–  Save you having to get out of the car to fill up/recharge the driverless car on long journeys.

–  Go and get you a McDonalds  meal from the counter when the drive through is busy or get McDonalds breakfasts for you when you don’t want to get out of bed.

– Stand in queues at amusement parks for you until it is your turn and text you.

–  Take all your rubbish to the dump for you

–  Collect takeaways for you

–  Stretch up and put stuff in the roof boxes for you

I am pretty sure though that none of these are top priority tasks that are  being taken into consideration by Ford over their multi million pound investment build of Digit.

Although one obvious consideration though would be how much benefit a Digit type robot would bring to disabled driverless car passengers. Digit could carry disabled passengers to their car, help them into their wheelchairs at their destinations and then even push them around until they need to return to their driverless car.

For those living alone a talking Digit might be a great companion on trips and a great addition to certain households.

This brings me back to my earlier comment about how you may want to dress up you Digit and if you did put Digit in a suit and cap then it might inspire Hollywood to release an up to date film version of “Driving Miss Daisy” with a Digit as the driver!!