Self-driving cars
Adrian Muller has a few predictions re autonomous cars and writes: "In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You don't want to own a car any more. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it you only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. The very young children of today will never get a driver's licence and will never own a car. It will change the cities, because we will need 90 per cent to 95 per cent fewer cars for that. We can transform former parking spaces into parks. About 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 60,000 miles (100,000km), with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 6 million miles (10 million km). That will save a million lives worldwide each year. Most car companies will doubtless become bankrupt. Traditional car companies try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will do the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels. Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi are completely terrified of Tesla. Insurance companies will have massive trouble because, without accidents, the insurance will become 100 times cheaper. Their car insurance business model will disappear."
Veganism goes mainstream
McDonald's has created a new McItem notable for what it lacks: animal products. The burger behemoth announced it will be serving the meat-, cheese-, and egg-less McVegan burger in Sweden and Finland starting just before the New Year. The innovation has some meat-lovers crying McGross as some animal-activists cheer McProgress. The McVegan features a soy-based patty, bun, tomato, lettuce, pickles, onion, ketchup, mustard, oil and an egg-less sandwich sauce. (Via oxforddictionaries.com)
