Guest Post by Eric Peters
They used to say the walls have ears. Soon, the road will have brains. Well, they’ll be connected to one brain – not yours.
They call it “smart pavement.” Everything is smart these days. Meaning, won’t leave you alone, is peremptory, controlling and most of all, nudging.
Doing what you want to do in a car especially is so 1990s.
So instead of just asphalt, it’ll be asphalt-plus. Sensors and receiver/transmitters embedded in the pavement – like chocolate chips in cookie dough – spaced at regular intervals. These will communicate with your also-“smart” car (you can’t buy a new car that isn’t “smart”) and your “smart” car will communicate with them.
You can image what they will talk about.
But you won’t be included in the conversation.
The Denver Post reported the other day that Colorado will be the first state to embed these little brains (and eyes and ears) in the pavement, ostensibly to “identify and warn drivers of hazardous conditions and sharp curves,” probably via the car’s LCD touchscreen – which in many new cars already helpfully lets you know when you’re speeding via an angry red icon, as well as other such things.
Continue reading “The Internet of Roads”
