What’s a piece of technology you’re convinced will exist in 20 years?
Self-driving cars.
Right now I compare adaptive cruise control to seat belts. When seat belts first showed up, they were a luxury. Today they’re required, and you can get a ticket for not using them. I believe we should treat adaptive cruise control the same way now—not as a nice option on the window sticker, but as baseline safety equipment.
From there, the line to full autonomy is not science fiction; it’s the same arc, only faster. Twenty years from now, I can picture kids rolling their eyes at our stories: people used to drive? Hands on a wheel, feet on pedals, eyes glued to traffic? They’ll look at us the way we look at people who once thought seat belts were optional.
“Only cars drive,” they’ll say. “How silly you are.”
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