Centroids: What might have been....
Some time ago I had an idea that, it seemed crystal clear, could earn someone a lot of money. Maybe, if that had come to pass, I might garner a little money for myself as a result. I was thinking strictly in terms of passenger automobiles. Simply put, treat the roof of a car as a sort of "flight deck" for use by a drone. Primarily this has to do with driving in mountainous terrain, viz., the 13 states that include large swaths of Appalachia, and the 10 large states of the West where many roads take you through the Rocky Mountains, Cascades, Sierra Nevada, etc. The direct market would be about 1/ 3rd of all drivers in the United States. There could be secondary markets like the Ozarks, Maine, and Upper Michigan. The concept is simple, with a drone you could, in effect, see around corners, viz, around curves on winding mountain highways. That would mean better driving safety, optimal speeds, and far less headaches. And drone technology is becoming ubiquitous, with micro-aircraft getting cheaper all the time, and more reliable. Uses are now widespread in agriculture, forestry, environmental monitoring, and for security purposes. Unfortunately no-one I sent the concept to at the time had any interest in the idea. In effect my idea went into the circular file. "What does Billy know about cars or drones? It isn't a practical idea, no-one would be interested. Besides, I have other things to do." Rationalize it all away, in other words. Put defense of one's ago before common sense or forethought. I imagine this was a fairly typical response. However, an important "customer" got the idea and is now running with it: The US military. Front line tanks are now being outfitted with drones. Maybe you saw the story on the news last night. I was wrong in focusing only on passenger cars. Drones could be very helpful for long distance trucks, for buses, for boats of many kinds, and for ranch vehicles. Well, someone is now poised to make a fortune from combining vehicles with drones. Unfortunately no-one gave a damn when I first had the idea and shared it with others. It would have been win/ win. But for some people if the idea comes from Billy the best thing to do is ignore it and come up with a dozen reasons why it is impractical, not needed, and unimportant. I have gotten rather sick and tired of that kind of dysfunctional response. Here is a case where I came up with a "million dollar idea" and recent developments have proven me right. For all the good it does me......... Billy -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
