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"As a writer, I don't want to chew my cud. I don't want to have to spit out and regurgitate the same stuff again."
- Harlan Ellison

Robot Taxi  
  A taxicab with a robotic driver.  

The sedative calmed him down a trifle; he emerged and flagged down a robot taxi.

"Main Directorate building," he told the driver. "And take your time."

"All right, sir or madam," the MacMillan robot answered, adding, "Whatever you say." MacMillans weren't capable of fine discriminations.

Technovelgy from Solar Lottery, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Ace Books in 1955
Additional resources -

From Quarry (1956) by Kenneth Bulmer:

On the street again, they peered cautiously uptown. A single robot taxi, cruising in the hope of fares long since dead, passed on silent tires. Beyond it, at the intersection, they saw a streetcar stop, ding its bell, and go on.

See variations on this idea in Larry Niven's bubble cars from World out of Time (1976) or the tin cabbie from James Blish's 1957 novel Cities in Flight. A more recent take can be found in Alan Dean Foster's 2006 novel Sagramanda; see the automated taxi.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Solar Lottery
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to Solar Lottery
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

Robot Taxi-related news articles:
  - Autonomous Vehicle By Delphi Goes Coast-to-Coast
  - Would Robot Taxis Ease Carbon Emissions?

Articles related to Transportation
San Francisco Autobus
Volvo's Autonomous Truck
Eviation Alice Electric Plane First Flight
Robotaxi By Cruise Premieres in Austin, Texas

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