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Tokyo, Japan: Driverless Taxis Soon On The Streets?


In this advanced tech nation, where robot hotel bellhops lug luggage and humanoid clerks check you in, this shouldn’t be unexpected. According to official reports, visitors will be able to hail computerized cabs in the Japanese capital city by 2020.

Consider the possibilities. If you remember the 1976 movie, Taxi Driver, would you want a robotically insane Robert De Niro (Travis Bickle) driving you around town? Also, after settling into back seat, will the automatic taxi driver automatically run up the meter by taking the longest route to your hotel?

If there’s a major pro sports event or convention in town, will the automatic taxi driver automatically up the rate 500 percent? Will the mechanical taxi driver refuse to take anyone wearing a hoodie? Will the robot taxi driver be programmed to laugh hysterically as it aims at little old ladies in wheelchairs as they cross the street?

Will we too soon have to say sayonara to Tokyo’s human taxi drivers?
Should There Be a Maximum Age Limit For U.S. Drivers? PDF Print E-mail
With nothing better to do, lawmakers in some states want to force people to give up their drivers’ licenses at age 80. They claim those seniors all have diminished eyesight and their slowed-down reactions make them dangers on the road.

Hey, I'm over 80 and still drive every day. I don’t drive as fast as I did 60 years ago, but I'm still safe and responsible at the wheel. There are drivers in their 90s I'd much rather share the road with than any drunk-as-a-skunk 18-year-old speeding to disaster. I know, because I was once one of those teenagers. Weren’t we all! I was lucky I didn't kill myself or anyone else by my booze-impaired driving.

It is totally unfair to set some kind of an arbitrary age limit where seniors are automatically banned from driving. Just as most teenage drivers obey all the laws and drive responsibly, the great majority of seniors on the road are at least as safe.

Although there should be no age limit for drivers, I certainly agree there should be more frequent driving tests for seniors. I'd recommend them every two years from age 60 to 70, and annually from age 71.

Each person in those age groups should be examined by physicians for eyesight, reaction times and other driving-related physical conditions. They should also be required to go out on the road or test track with instructors and be judged under all driving situations.
 
 
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