The Driver in the Driverless Car

How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future

By: Vivek Wadhwa, Alex Salkever

Narrated by: Julie Eickhoff

Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Technology is advancing faster than ever - but for better or for worse? On the one hand, astonishing technological developments from personalized genomics to self-driving cars to drones to artificial intelligence could make our lives healthier, safer, and easier. On the other hand, these very same technologies could raise the specter of a frightening and alienating future - eugenics, a jobless economy, complete loss of privacy, and an ever-worsening spiral of economic inequality. How can we make appropriate decisions about whether and how to adopt new technologies? Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever propose that we ask three questions:

• Does the technology have the potential to benefit everyone equally?
• What are the risks and the rewards?
• Does the technology more strongly promote autonomy or independence?

They subject a host of new and potential technologies to these questions, but ultimately it is up to the listener to make the final decision.

©2017 Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever (P)2017 Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever

Excellent book, well researched!

This is an outstanding and well written book. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the future. Regardless of our wishes for simplicity, our inventions and creations have allowed for ease and further creation. This book describes some of this technology along w the advances of the human race in detail. Compared to our ancestors, we have created so many wonderful things that ease our lives. So many of us shun advancement and technology but it really beats living in a cave with a small fire and squirrels to eat.. very nice job writing this book Vivek and Alex!

NOT about driverless cars

1. Most of the book talks about everything but autonomous/driverless cars.
2. The book is a collection of interesting facts, but very few deep insights. It rarely connects the dots, leaving the listener to say "So what?".

Great read of emerging directions.

What made the experience of listening to The Driver in the Driverless Car the most enjoyable?

Not just trends, but tying them together, and the look at them from multiple facets (ethics, relation to other trends, impact to different classes, our possible reactions, which are started now, and much more).

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Driver in the Driverless Car?

For me the most memorable piece was scattered throughout... the assessment of the TRANSITION from now (when everyone is expected to have a job) to later (when many will not have the traditional form of a job). This is an inescapable and difficult time. I spent time processing some helpful thoughts from Vivek around this in particular.

What about Julie Eickhoff’s performance did you like?

She was very clear and easy to understand. I could absorb the material quickly.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The future is great; The transition is unprecedented upheaval.

Any additional comments?

The authors gave a lot of food for thought. We need to reassess some of our most deeply held beliefs, norms, and social expectations.

A peak into the near future

One of the best books that I have read, by far. It explains technology in plain simple english. It covers almost all future technologies, their current state and future prospects. It also warns us about their potential dangers and how to minimise them. Each and every statement made in this book, comes from a verifiable source. Also, I like the way moore's law has been explained w.r.t each technology. A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE.
- Sourabh Shankar

Very Insightful with an easy flow

Our world has changed tremendously since the day we were born and it will continue to change in ways we can't even imagine today. Looking at the How Technology Choices will create a new future, The Driver in the Driverless Car offers a comprehensive approach to shed a light on the different elements that will play a big role in our life such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Driverless Cars and more.

The overall structure of the book and its simplicity makes it easy compared that the topics covered are generally more complicated to understand by a non-technologist

Great easily digestible intro to the future

Heard of "this AI thing", know that there is such a thing as cars who drive themselves but not quite sure what that means, and curious on whether solar energy really can replace oil and gas?

Vivek gives a great intro to all of this and more, balances his tech optimism and hopes of utopia with realism and the occasional dystopic scenario.

If you're been to Singularity University, heard Vivek's talks a number of times, and dabbled in these topics for a while this book might not be for you - but if you're just getting started, jump in head first and enjoy!

The content is decent, but the delivery is lacking

While I enjoyed the actual content of the book, the reader sounds robotic and has odd inflections from time to time. The main thing keeping me from giving the content a five star rating is that it feels repetitive at times, and in my opinion the author was struggling to get to the desired book length (which isn't very long to start with).

interesting if you get past the robot voice.

interesting if you get past the robot voice.the last few chapters where probably the best.

Think Ahead

Excellent preview of what is coming. We have to be smart to control which path that we may go down due to greed and power.

Just right

Just right. Smart, courageous, concise. The insights on education were thoughtful and the musings on our driverless future were very accurate.