So try and stay with me here...

First, and this has nothing to do with my post, go see B's work at RALA tonight. She's showing and it is gorgeous, just like her. Now, onto the post.

**********************************************************************************

So I drove the Nissan leaf last weekend.



First, I think it is awesome that Tennessee, and Knoxville in particular, is at the front end of this new technology (and I mean new as in its wide disbursement not as in NEW new as electric cars are super old). There are a few shortcomings that are still yet to be overcome, range, infrastructure, change of mindset etc., but none of these are any longer so prohibitive that they cannot reasonably be overcome. But I see the Leaf as a beginning to something that I am really passionate about. With the Leaf, the car becomes more of an appliance or piece of technology that anything else, and I want my technology to be simple.

See Here and here.

My proposal. Knoxville is embracing electric cars and solar charging stations and I think the next step should be to embrace cars that are self driving. I have no more business driving a 2,00lb piece of machinery at 80 mph while drinking coffee and changing podcasts than I do repairing the HVAC system in a submarine. Computers love monotonous tasks and 99% of driving is super monotonous.

Is anyone else with me on this? Think of the decrease in road fatalities and DUI's, the increase in productive time, the real type of fundamental change in our transportation system that we are looking for. Cars could become, effectively, train cars on the highway, increasing efficiency and decreasing consumption. This notion has had me excited for a year and I want it so bad.

Knoxville needs to turn Innovation Valley into an actual valley that embraces meaningful and real change in our world.

Finally, and just because I read the Time article this morning, is there a group of people in Knoxville who are actively interested in the notion of the singularity? That this has my mind racing. Let me know.

And yes I did go hyperlink crazy on this post.