NEWS

by Ken Pyle, Managing Editor • September 29, 2018 • 0 Comments

http://viodi.com/2018/09/29/viodi-view-09-29-18/

The recent announcement from Babcock Ranch – the Florida planned community, which aspires to be an environmentally friendly and technologically advanced city of 50,000 people – regarding its pilot of an autonomous school bus hints at how automation will have an impact on almost all facets of life. It is difficult to see how the Babcock Ranch school bus example could be justified by cost-savings, as an on-board adult will still be needed to ensure the safety of the kids.

In rural America, however, the on-board adult’s role could potentially shift from driver/safety-monitor to tutor, while the student experience could change from bus ride to a kind of mobile study hall (e.g. see this ViodiTV interview). Of course, connectivity and interactivity would be a requirement to create these moving learning centers and that would be an opportunity for rural communications providers.

Autonomous school buses could be one of the rural opportunities that Princeton Professor Kornhauser alludes to in the Korner.