In the 1970s or early 1980s car stickers started to appear on the rear of vehicles, with the wording:
Designed by computer
Built by robotDriven by an idiot
It was a parody of a successful advertising campaign for a car manufacturer whose model I cannot remember, but no doubt somebody might.
This mantra proved prescient and has stuck with me over the years, never more so, as the digital age has taken over our lives and seeing robots on an assembly line is regarded as the norm, and for the third line ‘Driven by an idiot’ could as easily be applied to many motorists driving in London today.
If you could take humans out of the equation, so the theory goes, the roads would be a safer place, and the subsequent reduction in overheads (the drivers) would be of huge interest to the likes of Uber.
That ambition of driverless cars has now become a reality thanks to the work, over many years, conducted at Warwick University. As soon as next year Jaguar is predicting their ‘Robocar’, a rectangular electric vehicle not dissimilar to the familiar electric cab could hit London’s streets.
With a top speed of 75mph and a range of 190 miles between charges, it can transport up to six people anywhere in London, and beyond.
The recent storms proved that this technology can save lives when two Tesler cars independently braked to avoid falling trees in the recent storm, thus saving the passengers from injury or death. These life-saving events help the argument that autonomous and computerised cars are far safer than human-driven vehicles as robots don’t drink drive, fall asleep, watch the passing landscape, or use their phone or i-pad whilst negotiating London’s complex streets.
Not until artificial intelligence has the ability, will these vehicles be likely to confront other artificial intelligence-led vehicles with road rage.
In the race to become a world-leader in autonomous technology, already the Department of Transport has been tasked with drawing up a digital Highway Code thus enabling self-driving cars on to the Capital’s roads by next year.
As the adage goes: ‘The most dangerous part of any car is the nut behind the wheel.’
On 26 April 1921 the first motorcycle police patrols went on duty on the streets of London, it’s not recorded how many speeding offences were booked that day
When Scotland Yard’s foundations were being built the headless torso of a woman was found, the murderer was never caught
Crutched Friars, Tower Hill takes it’s name from Fratres Cruciferi a Roman Catholic religious order that settled in the street in 1249
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital is the oldest hospital in London having been founded in 1123 by a monk named Rahere
The first Lord Mayor of London (who is an officer of The City of London) was Henry Fitz-Ailwin de Londonestone who held the position in 1189
At Guildhall’s Art Gallery the eastern entrance of a Roman amphitheatre can be viewed underneath the artworks
Princess Elizabeth (before becoming Queen) was first seen with Philip Mountbatten in public at the recently re-opened Savoy Hotel in 1946
A tennis ball was discovered in 1922 in the rafters of Westminster Hall dating from before 1520 it was stuffed with dog hair
The Ryde to Shanklin train line on the Isle of Wight uses for its rolling stock 70-year-old London Tube trains from the Northern Line
Performed at 10 pm for 700 years The Tower of London’s The Ceremony of the Keys is the world’s oldest surviving continuous military ceremony
Over 25 per cent of all people living in London were born in another country and more languages are spoken than any city in the world
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