Will 'Olli' of his/her like be a part of our future?

-      Robert McLean

Is "Olli", or something like it, what we will be
using in an energy-restrained future.

Today, in Shepparton at least, was an example of why we need to shift intellectually and practically from fossil fuel powered, privately owned vehicles.

The morning was overcast, showery and the roads were quite wet as it had rained during the night, making the use of bicycles or walking quite challenging.

Driving my wife to work, I sat at a busy intersection wondering about how a shift to a different method of human movement, in a modern city embedded in the existing economic superstructure, could ever come about?

The idea that we each own our transport is so entrenched that any suggestion that we might do it differently is quickly dumped in the “ludicrous” basket and the lid slammed shut with accusations of it being utopian dreaming.

Climate change, however, is changing all that and so within decades, despite a perverse and misplaced dislike many have for “public” anything, we will have no option but to embrace something like what is proposed with this self-driving minibus.

Read the Phys.org story - “Olli, a 3D printed, self-driving minibus, to hit the road in US.”