Road to the Future

Road to the Future

For years, companies and techno-bros have been saying that self-driving cars are ready to roll. Now companies like the ride-hailing service Lyft are actually letting customers take rides in autonomous vehicles. And at CES this year, John Deere unveiled a self-driving tractor that lets farmers put the latest automation tech to work in the fields. But if the time for self-driving vehicles is finally nigh, what does that mean for the workers who make a living behind the wheel?

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED staff writer Aarian Marshall joins us to talk about the increasingly near future of autonomous vehicles. Then, a conversation with Jody Kelman, the head of Lyft’s autonomous driving division, and Aubrey Donnellan, a cofounder and the chief operating officer at the John Deere subsidiary Bear Flag Robotics.

Show Notes:

Read Aarain’s story about autonomous cars. Read Will Knight’s story about John Deere’s self-driving tractor. Watch all of the talks from WIRED HQ at CES.

Recommendations:

Aarian recommends the HoMedics TotalComfort Portable Ultrasonic Humidifier. Mike recommends the Substack newsletter The Signal from David Katznelson. Lauren recommends Brandon Taylor’s Substack Sweater Weather.

Aarian Marshall can be found on Twitter @aarianmarshall. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

If you have feedback about the show, or just want to enter to win a $50 gift card, take our brief listener survey here.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Jaksot(427)

The Argument for Making End-of-Life Decisions Early

The Argument for Making End-of-Life Decisions Early

Back in March, counter-culture icon and founder of the Whole Earth Catalog Stewart Brand made a statement on Twitter that surprised some people: He had decided, and had communicated to his wife and th...

1 Touko 202028min

Open For Business

Open For Business

Depending on where you live, the stores, parks, playgrounds, and offices in your area could be shut down for the rest of this summer. Or, they could all be open again right now. State governments have...

24 Huhti 202034min

Will Contact Tracing Work?

Will Contact Tracing Work?

Even amid a global pandemic, the world of tech keeps on turning. Some companies have responded directly to the outbreak, offering up smartphone-based contact tracing and wearable solutions to help slo...

17 Huhti 202027min

The Race to Make a Vaccine

The Race to Make a Vaccine

Researchers around the world are toiling to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. But the creation of a working vaccine that can be safely distributed to a broad population requires a tremendous amou...

10 Huhti 202031min

Supply Demand

Supply Demand

The coronavirus outbreak is accelerating in the United States. According to projections, the number of Covid-19 cases in the US is expected to peak around the middle of April. Meanwhile, medical pract...

3 Huhti 202033min

Pandemic Panic

Pandemic Panic

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be hard to keep track of what's real and what's not. There is a constant deluge of news from across the world, some of it is based on false assumptions or...

27 Maalis 202028min

The Generation Gap

The Generation Gap

As the number of coronavirus-caused quarantines has spiked across the globe, people are being driven into isolation en masse. In some countries, social distancing measures have been helping, but they ...

20 Maalis 202023min

Socially Distanced

Socially Distanced

As COVID-19 sweeps across the world, it has prompted thousands of people to isolate themselves to avoid spreading the virus. This week on Gadget Lab, we look at what happens when schools and universit...

13 Maalis 202035min