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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>spike<br><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, August 11, 2012 3:29 PM<br><b>To:</b> 'ExI chat list'<br><b>Subject:</b> [ExI] self driving cars again<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/googles-self-driving-cars-300-000-miles-logged-not-a-single-accident-under-computer-control/260926/">http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/googles-self-driving-cars-300-000-miles-logged-not-a-single-accident-under-computer-control/260926/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>I thought of an interesting idea. I have a relative who really wants to go touring the northwest, but she isn’t a good enough driver and has no companion. <span style='color:#1F497D'>..</span>. She doesn’t want to hire a driver, but wants to go road touring for a few weeks, one last time, just once<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span> spike<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Oh there are buttloads of money to be made here.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>If one has elderly relatives and is close to them, one is introduced to a whole nuther world, of which younger people are generally and blissfully unaware. There are skerJILLIONs of older people, and this includes a lot of those who have plenty of money and are eager to do things like I suggested above, go solo touring in a self-driving motorhome or camper. The reasons for this are perfectly understandable: the elders often have special medical needs and want to set up their medications and devices before they go. This is generally incompatible with staying in hotels, but would work just fine for a camper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>My great aunt knows her time is short and only wants one more tour, just one. She does not want to actually own the camper, but would rent it, eagerly paying a big premium. If one could buy a self-driving camper, one could rent it and keep it on the road all summer if not all year around. With the thing programmed to go only the speed limit, and most of the miles on the freeway, that under-worked engine would never even realize it has been sold. It would be as good as new after years of such service.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Furthermore, it creates a new market for something I haven’t seen in tragically many years, since my own misspent youth: a full service gas station. I haven’t seen one of those in California since about the early 90s. Are there any of them still around? If a 90 year old single geezer came riding into town, she would gladly pay 20 or 30 cents a gallon more for some lad to come out and wash her windows and pump her gas, perhaps look at the tires and check the oil.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Young people, I am not kidding: back in the olden days, gas stations hired guys to do that, for every customer. It was so creepy! I don’t like having people do for me that which I can do myself. By my great aunt really loves it and misses that. She has plenty of money and no children. She is an ideal candidate for that technology and that service. She has pleeeenty of friends just like her. We could set up full service gas stations and program the auto-campers to drive to those stations, or perhaps have a local slacker who is paged by an incoming geezer, who then comes over and performs the services for a tip.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Hey wait, better idea! We could have on-call harlots who are paged by an incoming lonely single geezer. He or she just shows up at the local station, checks over the van, fills it with gas, services the horny geezer, collects the cash and off they go to the next, um, pit stop so to speak. The elder returns to assisted living with tales of grand adventure to rapt attention from the other singletons, and you fill in the rest.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>