Americans spend about 300 hours a year in a car. That translates roughly into about 14,263 miles annually, at least according to a few minutes of Google research.
Take the specifics with a grain of salt but nobody would would dispute that we do a lot of driving.
Yes, traffic is bad in Lafayette, but mostly compared to how we think we ought to be living in a medium-sized town, not necessarily by a universal standard. By comparison, picture Atlanta during rush hour, or Los Angeles any time. But, nonetheless there’s no denying traffic, however long you spend in it, can feel like time wasted.
And that’s the appeal of the self-driving car. To some extent, it feels like we’ve been on the edge of a breakthrough with that technology for a decade. But here we are, driving our cars with our hands like Neanderthals well into the 21st century.
Colin Grussing hasn’t given up on the idea. Far from it. In fact, he’s busy “planting flags” as he likes to say, with his latest venture: aftermarket self-driving devices he calls “Palanquins”— named after the mode of royal transportation in the ancient world.
