Letter Never Sent Tell me when to go.

The Honda Puyo is an interesting concept car. When I think about cars in the future, this is the kind of thing I imagine visually.

In the future I imagine our cars will transition from being extensions and avatars of our selves to being more like intelligent partners. With the introduction of artificial intelligence and sophisticated navigation into automobiles, we will cede more control of the driving experience to our vehicles who will drive for us to take us where we want to go. After all, the point is to get somewhere whenever you like. Most people could care less about the actual driving part. With the car driving itself, you could sit back and nap or entertain yourself. No need to focus on the road because someone else will be driving.

In a way, this new partnership with our vehicles harkens back to the days when you rode astride your trusty steed to get from place to place. Even though you steered and told the horse where to go, it took care of the actual movement on its own and was pretty good at avoiding obstacles. You could even fall asleep in the saddle.

In the future, your silicon steed will probably have a distinct personality, voice, and name. Instead of starting up your loud, fossil-fuel-burning machine and driving yourself, you will approach the car, the doors will open for you, and you will say something like “Henry, pick up Jane and then drop us off at the movie theatre on Mockingbird Lane.” Then your car, Henry or whatever you name it, will do the rest while you check your email or play a game. I don’t think this is far off. We have most of the technological pieces in place.

DARPA has funded a project over the last several years to promote the development of autonomous driving vehicles. We have developed systems that can successfully drive cross-country. In November 2007, DARPA’s Urban challenge will take place on a course with traffic. The autonomous vehicles will need to avoid other cars and obey normal traffic laws.

It will consist of a 60 mile course on primarily paved roads, but this time, the vehicles will have to drive in traffic. They will have to stop at stop signs, look for other vehicles, obey the rules of precedence at intersections, obey traffic laws (don’t cross double yellow center lines), pass other stationary and slow moving cars, back up, park, make a U-turn and plan a new course when the main road is blocked, and take evasive action if a collision with another vehicle is imminent. Sort of makes a 132 mile drive on a closed course in the desert seem like a walk in the park.

The military’s interest in autonomous driving has to do with the desire to have robotic convoys who can travel through dangerous territory. Congress has mandated that one third of the US military’s ground vehicles must be able to operate autonomously by 2015, so this technology will quickly be a reality.

If we are improving so much year over year, it would not take long for this technology to enter the marketplace. We will probably ease into it with something like driver-assist and then it will just get better and better. As soon as cars can drive themselves, many of our traffic issues will improve due to removing the inefficiencies caused by bad driving.

Once we create cars that can drive themselves, then we can focus on the next step, which is to turn cars into a commodity rather than something everyone needs to own. It is highly inefficient for everyone to own a separate 3000-6000 lb vehicle that they only use for an hour a day. If cars could drive themselves, you could create a system where groups of people could fractionally own a vehicle or where you could order car service on demand from several nearby cars for hire.

The nomad life is appealing. Living in a city for a brief time, then picking up and moving again whenever the fancy strikes. Having someone to cook and clean up while you focus on the other things you enjoy.

There was a news item recently about a couple who lived for 22 years in a TravelLodge. While I would prefer to move around more than that, it shows that hotel living is a sound concept. In fact, a few generations back, when home ownership was more rare than it is now, it was common for people to live in a boarding house or hotel for extended periods of time. Now in our connected age of affordable travel and communications technology, the main obstacle is a feeling of rootlessness. But I don’t think this has to be a real barrier. It is at least possible to make an anonymous space feel like home.

I see people camping out in public places all the time: from comfy library chairs and study rooms, to Starbucks, and chain bookstores. Grab your gear and your headphones and you can pop into your personal bubble whenever you like. Watch your video, listen to your audio, read and rove where you will. In Japan, the government is concerned about people who live a transient lifestyle, but who may not be classically homeless. The concern seems to be that many people sleep, eat, and bathe in Internet cafes while living without a proper residence. Are they worried about this as a negative indicator of the economy or are they concerned about an increasing number of people who prefer to live between places?

The nomad lifestyle is made possible by technology and trends in business to provide more service. Just as it has become commonplace to eat food in a restaurant rather than at home, there are opportunities in providing facilities for sleeping and bathing outside the hotel setting. Many 24 hour businesses like gyms, truck stops and Japanese Internet cafes already provide facilities for their customers to shower and look to their personal hygiene. It would not be surprising to see new businesses popping up to provide the barest essentials of shelter and personal hygiene in a very low cost package. There may be many creative solutions to the problems of life that do not require owning a house or maintaining a permanent address.

The secret to saving money is to learn how to trick your emotional, animal brain. Here are a few tips I use:

• Before you buy something you don’t need, make sure you want it three or more times. Back in college when I worked at the Eckerd’s one-hour photo lab, this guy came in to check out our selection of digital cameras. He really wanted to buy this particular Olympus camera, but then as he handed the camera back to me, he said he was going to take a walk around the block to think it over. This struck me as very sensible. Often when you want something, the feeling is temporary. Before you buy something extra, make sure it’s really something you want.
• At the grocery store, load up your cart with whatever you want. Then before you check out filter out any items you don’t really need. By the time you filter, the desire for many things will have passed and you can put back those cookies.
• Think yearly for any recurring monthly expenses. Let’s say you sign up for cable at roughly $100 a month. Instead of thinking of this as $100 a month, think of it as $1200 a year (100 x 12). If you cut off the cable, you give yourself a raise of $1200 a year. Do this calculation for any recurring expenses you are considering taking on. I created a spreadsheet listing any current recurring expenses like bills, bank charges, internet subscriptions, rent, etc. Then I created a section where I show what I could cut every expense down to if I needed to make drastic cuts in spending due to job loss or other catastrophes. Anything you spend automatically every month is considered your “nut”, the bare minimum of your expenses before discretionary spending. Try to keep this as low as possible and you’ll have more money to invest and save.