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Taxi Driver

October 14, 2016

In this society, a taxi driver was one of the most competitive jobs because robots drove taxies. Before auto-drive taxies were common, meaning no drivers; however, once there were some car accidents with no driver cars. After that, human beings became doubtful about no driver cars, even though the taxi companies announced that the crushes were very rare cases.  It was as if one is walking under a big boulder which was held by very thin strings. One knows that the strings were strong enough to hold the stone, but there is a sense of uneasiness. People feel uneasiness if something moves without reason, automatically. When a car which is parked by the road starts, people know in advance that the driver is in the car and gives a gesture like looking backwards or turning the staring wheel. However, when a no driver car starts suddenly, people are a little astonished because there are no pre-assigned movement. Of course, the blinker should be on, and other instructions might be given, like, "Attention, please. The car is moving, the car is moving." But even so, people feel uneasiness about a no driver car. In the taxi case, passengers could choose if they preferred taxies with a driver. But taxi companies didn't want to employ human drivers because they cost a lot, and human drivers' car accident rate was significantly higher. So taxi companies adopted robots as drivers. Because of high robotic technology, robots were made to resemble human-like appearances, and gestures, as well as voice tones. In fact, robots were made to resemble certain famous people. So, at first, there were so many Brad Pitt-like drivers and Nicole Kidman like drivers that were made. But, the boom was soon over. People were bored of beautiful women and handsome guys. Robots didn't change their hair style because their hair didn't grow. They didn't age. Beautiful women and handsome guys attracted people so their 'no change' appearances became outdated and eventually became boring. Next, Mr. Bean type of drivers became popular. This type of robot was funny, they imitated other actors and actresses and other famous people like a top tennis players or presidents of various countries. They would play roles of strange characters. They told a lot of jokes. As taxi companies were sensitive to people's preference, they made various Mr. Bean types. At first jokes were programed or the robots collected jokes from the Internet, but as time went by, robots started to make jokes by themselves. Robots soon learned what could make people laugh. They soon realized that people laughed the most at the type of situation where someone is slipping on a banana peel, although they didn't know why it was funny for people. But soon people became bored of the Mr. Bean type driver. Because these types of funny things are funny because they happen at random. People soon found that many robots would slip on a banana peel in order to entertain their customers. People began to feel offended. After the Mr. Bean type of robotic driver, the next generation was a 'skillful type'. One of their specialties were magic. Drivers performed a lot of magic while driving. The passengers were amazed by the robot's elaborate magic tricks.   But soon people found that these skillful robots didn't practice their magic like human magicians. The robots could learn any magic soon without hard training. The robots could memorize all the cards of a card game at once. Also robots could do acrobatic things. They watched those performers on the Internet and after a couple of trial and error, they began to succeed in acrobatic maneuvers, such as a somersault and cartwheel. Looking at their speed of development of their skills, people felt offended again and didn't want to see their shows anymore.   Eventually these skillful types of robots started to memorize all the things that he or she saw, and would repeat them to their customers, like, "Hi, I saw you two weeks ago in the downtown area at night. You were walking with a young woman, weren't you?"   As these types on interactions happened more frequently, people started to avoid these type of robot drivers, and therefore human drivers started to increase.

*maneuver :巧みな動き
*somersaut 宙返り
*cartwheel :側転
*interaction :話のやり取り