When tides will change...

I've been thinking of writing this down some time now, so that when it actually happens I'll remember I did think about it.

- Canadian dollar will be worth more than the U.S.
- Apple will start building their product in the U.S.

Please feel free to add your own "predictions" as comments. No date stamps are required - dating is waaaay more difficult than saying something will eventually happen.

(such a bad prediction the dollar rate one - seems Canadian momentarily outvalued USD already in late 2007)

Cont'd...

Brad Templeton seems to think fondly of robocars in our (near) future:
http://www.templetons.com/brad/robocars/roadmap.html

I just don't have the confidence they'll make it any time soon, if joined human/automated roads are the target. Let's change this into a prediction:

- Fully automated F1-like races, where the cars drive themselves.

I don't know what would be the fun of it, though. But it would certainly be a real test for the AI of the cars. Are they ready to take risks? Are they ready to not take unnecessary risks? Will they be overwhelmed by the amount of information they'll get from the sensors or are they able to focus on the necessary information?

Once this is done, the next phase would be:

- Joined human / automated F1-like races.

This happened in chess. Kasparov lost to the IBM Deep Blue, when enough reruns were made. It was not a fair game - the way a computer plays a game is so different from the way a human plays it. Same here.

Around _that_ time we might be considering putting completely automated vehicles into public traffic. They would need to pass the regular driver's education tests (s.a. in Finland) first, of course. If they do, I guess they would be as qualified as the average human out there.

But are they allowed to surf the Net while driving...?

Masdar on CNN

First time I come to see Masdar being mentioned in regular news. CNN has this story on the city's progress:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2009/06/26/zero.carbon.city.cnn

To many, this might mean the first touch they have to this project. We should expect much more news about it, later in the year.

The video uses some old concept footage, i.e. showing PRT lines up in the air. They will be below the pedestrian level, and following building arrangement (= there are "roads" and "blocks" below the surface).

Masdar vehicles are called "space age time", which gives me a smile. I thought space age started in the 1960's... :) It's curious to know, which terms reporters find describing this technology. They also used the term "people movers", which I've been told is an inadequate term for PRT's. I still think it describes what they do best.

Did they say "15 billion into the venture"? Really? That is 300000 per inhabitant.

Addendum: An interview with Luca Guala has more detailed info.