

Robots and automated cars will require our cities to become machine-readable - bootload
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2011/10/robots_and_automated_cars_will_require_our_cities_to_become_mach.single.html

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jfruh
Beware any utopian scheme that involves the large-scale reworking of existing
settlements. The cities where most humans live are complex systems and decades
(or, in many cases, centuries) old. You can't just completely rework them
without enormous expense and disruptions.

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tectonic
Stick QR codes to everything? Or QR codes only visible in IR, so as to be less
annoying?

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wladimir
If it's not necessary to be human visable/readble, you could also embed RFID
tags in walls / the street.

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melling
How about automating the supermarket in the same manner as the library? I
usually get the same stuff. I'd like to place my order over the web then
walk/drive over to pick it up.

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robertskmiles
Many supermarkets offer this functionality, but the products are collected by
humans. It would be tricky to implement a robotic system that you could
maintain and operate for less than minimum wage. There's also the additional
problem of what to do if they don't have the specific thing you asked for.
Finding a 'reasonable replacement' is actually a nontrivial problem for AI to
solve.

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baddox
Interestingly, the article never mentions computer vision, which seems to be
the main area of focus for autonomous cars such as Google's.

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vecter
Vision is pretty good, but if all cars, roads, lanes, and intersections were
lined with nodes emitting wireless signals, vision would be less important (I
guess except for avoiding running into jaywalkers, etc.).

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nraynaud
I'm really eager to see google cars in an old medieval european city. The
"hunt the traffic light behind the tree that's behind the parked truck just
after the bend" game might prove a bit funny in the beginning. After a while
I'm sure they'll find solution where they don't rely on direct vision for
that.

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Dnguyen
Anyone thinking of the implication regarding terrorists? Now they don't even
have to be in the cars! Set it up somewhere and let them go. It's scary!

