A fleet of passenger vans, each equipped with a global-positioning system and cellular phone … all linked by computer to a central dispatching program, would provide total customized coverage of every street and every neighborhood in town, 25 hours a day. Through the computer and the cell phones, drivers would receive destination instructions; using GPS, dispatchers would keep tabs on the real-time progress of each vehicle. Passengers would call up the service, be met with minimum delay, transfer only if necessary and relax while professional drivers took them to their desired destination.
Predictor: Penzias, Arno
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Time, reporter Barrett Seaman writes about future technologies – he relates an idea from Arno Penzias: ”Far simpler combinations of technologies could be used to create highly effective urban-transportation systems. Buses, subways and private cars would be superfluous under a plan proffered by Nobel laureate Arno Penzias at Bell Laboratories. In his vision, a fleet of passenger vans, each equipped with a global-positioning system and cellular phone … all linked by computer to a central dispatching program, would provide total customized coverage of every street and every neighborhood in town, 25 hours a day. Through the computer and the cell phones, drivers would receive destination instructions; using GPS, dispatchers would keep tabs on the real-time progress of each vehicle. Passengers would call up the service, be met with minimum delay, transfer only if necessary and relax while professional drivers took them to their desired destination.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Time
Title, headline, chapter name: The Future is Already Here
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?Did=000000001899061&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=1&Idx=
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney