Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car
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- € 13,99
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- € 13,99
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A penetrating look at near-future disruption as truly autonomous vehicles arrive.
For decades we have dreamed of building an automobile that can drive itself. But as that dream of autonomy draws close, we are discovering that the driverless car is a red herring. When self-driving technology infects buses, bikes, delivery vans, and even buildings…a wild, woollier, future awaits.
Technology will transform life behind the wheel into a high-def video game that makes our ride safer, smoother, and more efficient. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicles will turbocharge our appetite for the instant delivery of goods, making the future as much about moving things as it is about moving people. Giant corporations will link the automated machines that move us to the cloud, raising concerns about mobility monopolies and privatization of streets and sidewalks. The pace of our daily lives and the fabric of our cities and towns will change dramatically as automated vehicles reprogram the way we work, shop, and play.
Ghost Road is both a beacon and a warning; it explains where we might be headed together in driverless vehicles, and the choices we must make as societies and individuals to shape that future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Townsend, president of urban-planning organization Asterisk City Group, takes a deep dive into automated vehicles (AVs) and driverless technology in his well-researched, and at times deeply disturbing, book. At first blush, AVs hold great promise for reducing traffic fatalities and traffic congestion, but they may also, Townsend argues, "open the door for an insidious infiltration of markets into every choice about when, where, and how we travel." Breaking the book into three "big stories" titled Specialization, Materialization, and Financialization Townsend explains how "self-driving technology will set changes in motion that reshape our world." Section I features an overview of AV development; while informative, this section occasionally suffers from purple prose. The takeaway here: planners should focus less on the software controlling individual vehicles than on those controlling traffic patterns as a whole. Section II examines the current reliance on "seamless materialization of online merchandise," which is driving the emergence of "last-mile" fulfillment changes. Readers will learn about "mobile warehouses," ghost restaurants, drastic changes in trucking, and much more. Section III alternately exciting and ominous examines the demise of free roads, the redesign of cities with "streets... designed for people, not vehicles," and new fiscal challenges cities will face as revenue sources (parking fees, traffic fines) disappear. This fascinating and complex book will strike a chord with technophiles.
