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"...a few centuries of coherent humanist thought, set against a million odd years of evolved killer ape tendency. No-one's going to give you very good odds on humanism, are they?"
- Richard Morgan

Remote Control Taxicab  
  A cab that is piloted by a remote operator.  

Very early reference to this idea, an interesting counterpoint to the idea of an autonomous cab (which Dick talks about in The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch [1965]) or a regular cab that is piloted by a robot (which Dick talks about in A Present for Pat [1952]).

Beam started slowly back toward his lab. Then, abruptly, he changed his mind and turned in the direction of the business area. When a free-wheeling cab came by, he hailed it and clambered in.

“Where to, sport?” the starter at cab relay asked. City cabs were guided by remote control from one central source.

Technovelgy from The Unreconstructed M, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Science Fiction Stories in 1957
Additional resources -

Compare to the driverless drones from the 2007 novel Halting State by Charles Stross.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Unreconstructed M
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to The Unreconstructed M
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

Remote Control Taxicab-related news articles:
  - Waymo And Tesla 'Autonomous Cabs' Are Piloted By Remote Drivers

Articles related to Transportation
SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth
CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride
Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked
Japan Automated Cargo Transport

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