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"At its best, SF is the medium in which our miserable certainty that tomorrow will be different from today in ways we can't predict, can be transmuted to a sense of excitement and anticipation, occasionally evolving into awe."
- John Brunner
 |
| Autonomous Truck | ||
| A truck that drives itself and unloads itself. |
| The truck was massive, rumbling under its tightly packed load. In many ways, it resembled conventional human-operated transportation vehicles, but with one exception -- there was no driver's cabin. The horizontal surface was a loading stage, and the part that would normally be the headlights and radiator grill was a fibrous spongelike mass of receptors, the limited sensory apparatus of this mobile utility extension.
Aware of the three men, the truck slowed to a halt, shifted gears and pulled on its emergency brake. A moment passed as relays moved into action; then a portion of the loading surface tilted and a cascade of heavy cartons spilled down onto the roadway. With the objects fluttered a detailed inventory sheet. The truck had begun to move away; abruptly it stopped and backed toward them. Its receptors had taken in the fact that the three men had demolished the dropped-off portion of the load. It spun in a grinding half circle and came around to face its receptor bank in their direction. Up went its antenna; it had begun communicating with the factory. Instructions were on the way. |
| Technovelgy from Autofac,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Galaxy in 1955 Additional resources -
|
Here's a look at the illustration that accompanied the original story:
(Autonomous truck from Autofac)
Compare to the electrotruck from The Corkscrew of Space (1956) by Poul Anderson, the tractatruck from The Moon is Hell (1950) by John Campbell, the planetruck from The Slave Ship to Andrigo (1951) by Ross Rocklynne and the automatic truck from Mechnocracy (1932) by Miles J. Breurer.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Autofac
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and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to Autofac
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Autonomous Truck-related
news articles:
- Embark Autonomous Trucks Still Need Humans
- Dockworkers Protest Driverless Trucks
- No Autonomous Trucks? Wait, What?
- Rivian Actually Making Electric Self-Driving Trucks
| Tele-Driving Offers Jobs For Tele-Drivers, Not AIs |
| GM Scraps Cruise Origin Robotaxi With No Steering Wheel |
| GoSun EV Solar Charger Drapes Onto Your Car |
| 'Autonomous' Waymo Improves Driving With Remote Human Operators |
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'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
'... the glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.'
'The slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector...'
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'
