Beware any utopian scheme that involves the large-scale reworking of existing settlements. The cities where most humans live are complex systems and decades (or, in many cases, centuries) old. You can't just completely rework them without enormous expense and disruptions.
I think any place wheelchair-accessible is robot-accessible, and that's a standard we should be working towards. As for navigation, it needn't be too tricky. Something as simple as putting up navigational QR codes would help a lot.
The ambitiousness of this proposal seems on the same order of magnitude as existing infrastructure projects such as creating a city-wide electric railroad network or significantly upgrading a city's road/water/power grid.
Stick QR codes to everything? Or QR codes only visible in IR, so as to be less annoying?
If it's not necessary to be human visable/readble, you could also embed RFID tags in walls / the street.
How about automating the supermarket in the same manner as the library? I usually get the same stuff. I'd like to place my order over the web then walk/drive over to pick it up.
Many supermarkets offer this functionality, but the products are collected by humans. It would be tricky to implement a robotic system that you could maintain and operate for less than minimum wage. There's also the additional problem of what to do if they don't have the specific thing you asked for. Finding a 'reasonable replacement' is actually a nontrivial problem for AI to solve.
I've been wanting to build a company out of this idea for over 6 years now. Problem is you need a lot of capital from the very beginning.
we have that in some very big supermarkets in France. but you can also get it delivered (practical for old tall building without lift).
Interestingly, the article never mentions computer vision, which seems to be the main area of focus for autonomous cars such as Google's.
Vision is pretty good, but if all cars, roads, lanes, and intersections were lined with nodes emitting wireless signals, vision would be less important (I guess except for avoiding running into jaywalkers, etc.).
I'm really eager to see google cars in an old medieval european city. The "hunt the traffic light behind the tree that's behind the parked truck just after the bend" game might prove a bit funny in the beginning. After a while I'm sure they'll find solution where they don't rely on direct vision for that.
Anyone thinking of the implication regarding terrorists? Now they don't even have to be in the cars! Set it up somewhere and let them go. It's scary!