Catch Up On Your Sleep While Driving

Last updated on May 25, 2020

“Isn’t that crazy??!!”
Yes, it is!! It is dangerous! If you are talking about today, that is. You don’t want to sleep at the wheel, but what’s wrong in dreaming? (pun intended)

Imagine this.
Today you have a GPS that knows where you are, where you want to go, which way to go, where to turn, which lane to be on, and how long it would take you to reach your destination. So instead of telling you, “In 1 mile, take Exit 125, and then turn right,” what if the GPS could tell your car to do the same thing? I know what you are thinking: How can that be safe?? How does the car know if it is safe to change lanes, or if there is another car on its way?? This is crazy!!

Like I said, in today’s context, it is crazy. But who is talking about today? 🙂

Okay, you have come this far. Try and stretch your imagination a bit more. What if the cars were made to be aware of what is around them? What if they could ask each other things like “Hey Cabby, I need to change to your lane, can you please let me”? And reply like, “Sure Herbie, it’s all yours!” Next, Herbie tells every other car in the vicinity “I am going to change lanes to my right, in front of Cabby,” before actually doing so.

Does it make sense now?
This sounds simplistic, but if we could come up with a safe protocol that all vehicles on the road could follow, and build some fault tolerance on top of that, we could be catching up on sleep on our way to work one day!

[Next part of the article: Cars On Auto Pilot.]