Genre:
Non-fiction
Description:
“The purpose of this article is to explore what might happen when
autopilot automobiles become accepted and used in America.
This short book will stimulate your thoughts.”
Author:
No information available.
Appraisal:
The title sounds fun, if a bit vague as to what the adventures it
refers to might mean. The short description clarifies. While I suppose someone
could think they’ll be reading a short science fiction story of some kind, I
assumed what I’d find would be non-fiction. I was right.
Strictly speaking the short (make that extremely short) book
technically comes through on its stated purpose. I suppose it even stimulated
my thoughts a bit. But those thoughts were as likely to be “isn’t that obvious”
or “you can’t be serious” or “what’s the point of this book again?” as actual
thoughts about self-driving cars.
The book is primarily a bunch of questions. Some of them, such as
wondering on various aspects of how the insurance for self-driving cars will
work, are valid questions. They need to be asked and answered before
self-driving cars owned by an average man-on-the-street hit the road. Bringing
this consideration to my attention might even be useful although it is
something that will have to be resolved before you or I will be able to buy our
own self-driving car. Whatever the resolution, the average person is unlikely
to have much input into finding the answers.
But many of the questions seem to be stretching for things to be
concerned about and either aren’t that big of a deal or will have to be
resolved before these cars become widely available, just like with any new
technology, like that horseless carriage Henry Ford invented. Won’t it scare
the animals with all that noise? How are people going to refuel it? How will
short people drive it if they can’t reach the pedals? What about really tall 8-year-olds?
This book’s premise is interesting. But why not answer some of the
questions? I’m betting the answers are out there for some of them, or at least
some possible answers. As it stands it feels like a pointless exercise in
fear-mongering.
Format/Typo
Issues:
A small number of proofing issues if we consider the term “self
driving cars” correct. If we go with the usage that appears to be most common
and think that this should be “self-driving cars” then we’ve got a big problem
with typos. I wrote this off as a style decision rather than error.
Rating:
** Two Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 1-2,000 words
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