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"Writing about the future, I have a vested interest in there being a future for me to write about."
- John Brunner
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| Guide-Beam | ||
| A wireless means of controlling and directing the movement of a passenger vehicle. |
| He spun off down the road, allowing the car to operate on the New York guide-beam. It was safer that wy. And a lot quickr. He didn't mind having his car operated from a hundred miles off. All the other cars racing along the eight-lane highway were guide operated. Made accidents almost impossible, and meant he could enjoy the countryside...
Something picked up the car and hurled it from the road. The guide had failed. Interference. That was his last thought. |
| Technovelgy from Time Pawn,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1954 Additional resources -
|
This is how it appeared in Dr. Futurity six years later:
Compare with the Camden speedster from Robert Heinlein's 1941 story Methuselah's Children. Charles Stross came up with a very interesting variation on this idea in his 2007 novel Halting State; see driverless drones.
He spun off down the road, allowing the car to operate on the San Francisco guide-beam north. It was safer that way, especially on U.S. 101. And a lot quicker. He didn't mind having his car operated from a hundred miles off. All the other cars racing along the sixteen lane highway were guide-operated, too, those going his way and those heading in the opposite direction, on the analog south highway to Los Angeles. It made accidents almost impossible, and meant he could enjoy the educational notices which various universities traditionally posted along the route. And, behind the notices, the countryside.
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
