If you fear that the Amazon droid delivery system is a step in the direction of robot world domination, than pull out your doomsday prep list. This is to be taken with, well maybe a handful of salt, but it is fun and scary to think about.
Recently, Amazons drone delivery system has been taken the spotlight in the world of tech, and it is a very interesting concept. An air drone delivering packages within an hour of purchase seems almost too good to be true. If some parts of the country have their way, gun yielding citizens won’t be the only ones shooting these drones down. In fact, the government will be the biggest obstacle for Amazon. Google however has made strides in the way of robotics.
We already have seen self driving cars from Google, but what if the passengers in those cars were delivery robots? Crazy an idea right? well maybe not. Lets start with the self driving cars aspect of this possibility.
In 2010, Google started testing cars that used a spinning camera attached to the roof of the car. These cars still had a driver in the seat, just in case emergency braking was needed. Testing has gone extremely well, and self driving cars have been legalized on public roads in Nevada, of course, and in Florida. On the same road as those two driven states (had to), California is on its way to reach the same legislation. This of course applies to public use, and for private use, Google has had these cars driving on the roads, with co pilots, for over three years. The testing of course hasn’t concluded, though results are beyond promising. Also to be kept in mind, just because legislation is being written, and in California, expected to be completed by 2015, manufacturers still need to develop these cars for the public to drive. While we wait for public availability of self driven cars, Google still is allowed to use them commercially, or at least for “testing” purposes. Now that we know a little more about the self driving car, lets add the second piece to the puzzle. The robot delivery man, and the connection to Android.
We reported recently about Andy Rubin, the man behind Android OS, has been working on some interesting projects of his own. The projects have led Google to acquire seven separate tech companies, all very hush-hush. The New York Times reports that in this secret world ran by Rubin, they are most likely working on manufacturing robots. That is to say, robots to help with manufacturing. Which leaves the question, why is there human sized, robots, that seem to look like they are off the set of some sci-fi film? Now we have the stretch to take, Google Shopper.
Google has developed the Google Shopper in the Bay Area, CA. This service allows you to shop online at actual stores, and then a friendly Google employee will pick up the item and deliver it to you same day. So it’s not too far-fetched to think that Google may, in the future take all these puzzle pieces and place them in the right spots, to bring us self driving, delivering robots. We just hope they follow the three laws, and not use one super crazy AI system to control them all. If they do, we will be in pretty big trouble, or at least, not get our packages on time.