I Just Want A Holiday!!

This year was going to be our blowout holiday trip to somewhere further afield like Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Then the world went crazy.

So to get us to say Sri Lanka it now means flying through previously safe countries that are now declared war zones. My Insurance company says “NO”.

Flights are getting cancelled because of fuel shortages and people are getting stuck abroad for days and weeks unable to fly back home.

Fuel shortages are causing countries to have fuel rationing restrictions implemented.

Hotels and apartments are no longer offering free cancellation periods to make sure they will still get their money if your flight gets cancelled at short notice.

We are now being told that package deals are the only safe way to go. Good luck with that as the cheap ones went ages ago.

So where do driverless cars fit into all of this I hear you ask. Well currently not really but in the future….

When we started to look at holidays we only looked at places where you could still make your way back from if all the flights got cancelled. The only current options are trains and coaches. But what could happen in the future is that a driverless car could be an option. For us it could drive us all the way home or to the nearest port i.e. Calais or even to the nearest Eurostar station. It could then drive itself back home. Obviously this might be an expensive option but it could still be an option that gets you home.    

Also one of the problems we encountered was flight times. No one wants to be taking off or landing at 4.00 in the morning. We found one set of flights acceptable but the other awful. So in the future we could end up booking the acceptable flight and if cost effective getting a driverless car to drive us all the way home and arriving home at whatever time we wanted. We could stay longer on the last day at the resorts as we are no longer restricted by flight times and then find a comfortable car that allows us to sleep all the way home. Also we would not be fighting to get our hand luggage in the lockers or be subjected to the “actions” of the other passengers

Driverless cars in time following strict checks might be deemed extremely safe. As such they may be allowed to travel at much higher speeds than the current restrictions on the roads. As such they might then end up being faster than planes after you take into account check in, take off  and arrival check time delays. 

I have said that all of a sudden some places that were previously deemed safe have now been designated as war zones. So how would a driverless car deal with one minute being in a safe environment and the next in a designated war zone. It could be really bad if you are out on a trip for the day and this switch happens just as you are about to return home. Would the driverless car still drive you as I am sure your safety is one of it’s first commands? Would it be programmed to drive you somewhere safe and not back into a war zone.  What happens if you can’t override its decision and then can’t make your way home?

I expect that in the future you will be able to pre book your driverless car,like a taxi,so as when you arrive at the airport the car is waiting for you and it will have your route and plans already programmed into it. As  I mentioned some countries are now rationing fuel, taxis in one country are only allowed fuel on a Wednesday. So you might find that when you land at the airport the driverless may not be there as it has no fuel or barely enough fuel to get you to your first port of call. I expect the computer on the car would have tried to let you know this but it might be too late to do anything or you may already be in the air.

Another reason that the car might not be there is if your destination has changed to being in a war zone. I am pretty sure that the local authorities would be very anxious seeing driverless cars zooming around with no passengers in them. I would suspect that they would all be grounded for security reasons. They might still work if occupied but again I suspect the onboard computer would have some strict checks in place first. 

Perhaps a staycation is not such a bad idea after all.