Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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Not so much a thought experiment as a single neuron misfire.

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Auto-Circle

Car drives itself around the block.

(+1, -2)

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When there is no place to park, and you need to run into someplace for a few minutes, or a quick dinner, wouldn't it be great if your car could just drive itself around the block until you're done?

Technologically, it's not that complicated; gas, brake, turn right, gas, brake, turn right. In fact I rigged up a prototype this morning using my KitchenAide mixer and some bungee cords. I couldn't figure out the part about dealing with one-way streets, but then it occurred to me that I won't be driving, so let them write tickets, HAH!

—	jimc, Dec 23 2003

[link]

Interesting principle. In the long term, it is any worse for the environment or for local traffic management to have a car circulating in a 'holding pattern' rather than queuing to get in and out of a car park? The obvious question is how you would get back into the car? The part about dealing with one-way streets is easy to solve - just go down them one way (not the other way).

—	dobtabulous, Dec 23 2003

If enough people did this, you'd just gridlock the streets around busy buildings. But it did make me laugh, so +.

—	krelnik, Dec 23 2003

You're driving me crazy :)

—	phundug, Dec 23 2003

Since this is already done with chauffeured cars, I'm sure it will happen once cars can drive themselves. Until that time, however, this is just magic technology.

—	DrCurry, Dec 23 2003

(+) for enthusiasm, but semi-baked in the latest William Gibson book, Pattern Recognition

—	normzone, Dec 23 2003

I like this. I can visualise operating it from a remote control device while I pop into the chippy for 10 minutes & on a saturday when I come back from the shop and have to park at the other end of the street and lug 21 cans of pet food home.

—	po, Dec 24 2003

goes into the parking lot and exits every 3 minutes going back in until you need it.

—	pashute, Dec 10 2023

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