Ok, so this article on driver-less cabs just popped up saying NY’s Mayor de Blasio just signed with Google to have them put out a fleet of 5000 driver-less cars in Brooklyn and Queens.  They will be called Zippie.  Nice.  And that is not all; order now and get an ATM machine, vending machine spitting out mouthwash to condoms and btw the condoms will be a bit hit because I can see a trend starting on having sex in driverless cars, but that is another post.  They are even going to serve hot pizza!  What about the mess?  A 12 horse power vacuum will take care of that.  A vacumm?  How is that going to clean smeared pizza?

Does this all sound too good to be true by next year?  Yea it does.  Ok, so first off, even Google admits the driver-less car is not ready for sever weather like heavy rains, snow storms and icy roads.  This is NY we are talking about kiddies, if you ever been there in Feb.  Ug.  And serve food?  Its going to be a mess, and I’m sure some jackass will make it a worse mess.  What about legal issues?  Nothing talked about that in the post I read.

So here is what I think.. I think they are going to start putting in the ground work and doing limited tests in 2016.  Sure, you may be able to grab one of these Zippie’s next year, but I have a feeling there will be no food and running during limited times of the year ( good weather only) and limited routes.

Now you may be saying, “why such a downer man”. Actually, I’m pretty excited and looking forward to seeing even a few cabs running in limited conditions in 2016.  I want MORE cities to get in on this. Google will run the program so no one owns it. That is sooner then I would have expected from a legal perspective.  I think its great and cant wait for it.  However, lets not get crazy…. Hot Pizza?  Lets hold off on that for a bit ok?

BTW, Cabbie backlash in 3… 2… 1…