Desire to usher in a brand new age of self-driving autonomous vehicles, well I can't think of a right application than US Postal Vehicles with robotic delivery, are you able to? Consider if you will the growing budget gap, now in the 10s of billions that the US Post Office faces, and an excellent chunk of that's labor, and the pension funds from previous retired workers. Okay so, let's talk about saving money with the newest autonomous vehicle tech, shall we?
On MITs Technology Review Blog there is an interesting article posted on April 23, 2012 titled; "Will Automated Cars Save Fuel? Drivers who wish to use less fuel must look into not driving at all-by letting the automobile dominate," by Kevin Bullis. cutting edge engineering technology projects Indeed, I didn't even read this article before I discovered myself nodding my head, just within the title; you see, needless to say he's right! And you know what; just the other day I was on the patio out front and I heard the US mail LLV (long life vehicle) and postal worker drive up, stop, open and shut the mail box, put her foot on the gas and speed to another mail box, lickity split.
An autonomous vehicle wouldn't be in any hurry, it could have its main concern as safety, without any supervisor yelling at it to obtain the route done daily without the overtime on the clock. Without pushing the foot to the ground on the accelerator between each mailbox, it'd sip the fuel since it slowly went about its tasks.
Interestingly enough, there is another interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on April 26, 2012; "Google Seeks Partners for Its Autos," by Joseph B. White. Google has contacted every one of the auto companies to license or sale, or partner with them for all the systems and technology on their famous autonomous car, and they are even contacting insurance companies, and once all that is performed, you can bet that you will see endless applications, and entrepreneurs as companies check out leverage this technology to save lots of money and become more efficient.
Now then, back again to my comments on Google Partnering with the USPS to provide the mail via autonomous vehicles, well, these self driving cars and this technology is totally an ideal match for the mail delivery application. Consider if you will the planet of hurt our United States Postal Service is in today, as fewer bits of mail are now being sent, and each time they raise the price tag on stamps to cover it, more people and companies find different ways to provide their letters, invoices, Christmas cards, etc.
In Government Executive Online News (April 25, 2012) Amanda Palleschi wrote articles "Senate passes U.S. Postal Service overhaul," which told of the challenges the USPS has and still faces even with this latest round of bailout monies. Eliminating through attrition perhaps, human drivers of postal vehicles, and allowing automated delivery on the same route, to the same houses, at once, every single day, I am talking about it's as though self-driving cars were invented for this reason alone. Indeed, I really hope you will please think over all this and think on it, and I really hope to see self-driving autonomous vehicles soon delivering our mail.