Taxi!

There was a headline in the business section of Friday's New York Times (I'm a hybrid newspaper user- I check in on the online version several times a day, but I also get a paper copy delivered and I read it pretty thoroughly) with the headline "Self-Driving Cars May Get Here Before We're Ready."

I will admit that I did not read the rest of this article, because the point had been made. I can predict what's in it with just a little thought. Self-driving car technology is far more advanced than the laws, rules, infrastructure, etc. that are required to support it. The time is out of joint, as that Shakespeare guy says.

One aspect of technological advance is that it is agnostic to what we need and are ready for. Advance can happen when we are ready for it, but it doesn't necessarily come because we are ready for it. Smaller or more specific advances can occur because there is a need for something, but then the advance lags the readiness. Electric refrigeration, antibiotics and cars themselves are examples of that.

The Web, invented in 1993, lest we forget, was an example of fortuitous timing. The Internet already existed. Personal computers were becoming popular and more affordable, and enough people had them who were beginning to think, "Gee, this is a great thing for spreadsheets and word processing (there were word processors before PC's) but as long as I have to put all the information into this thing in order to get anything out, it's nothing more than an appliance of sorts." The ingenious invention of HTML and its ability to link people to information easily came at a time when people were ready for it.

Smart phones too. They're probably the most revolutionary device there is as far as their effects on society, but cell phones had been around for a while and smart phones were evolutionary in terms of cell phone technology. All it really took was miniaturization and more powerful processing, which was happening whether or not cell phones existed.

Anyway, self-driving cars will probably have to wait for a while, because everything about the way our roads and driving laws and associated things such as insurance are designed is based on people operating the cars. Changing that is a massive bureaucratic task (although the insurance companies are getting ready for it). Whose fault is it if a self-driving car hits someone? Google? Yeah, good luck with that.

I'm sure there are plenty of technologies waiting for implementation. Some of them are just marketing-based, but cars and driving are fundamental to modern life and are almost inconceivably complex as systems, so next time you call a cab, it's almost 100% certain that someone will be driving it.