Originally published at: Here's why we don't have robot butlers yet - Boing Boing
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I thought it was going to be something about people wanting an actual human to order around than a machine to press buttons on.
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""Air travel hasn’t improved much in the past 50 years, "
Faster planes. Quieter planes. More efficient planes. Planes with greater range. Cheaper cost per mile per person. Safer planes. Better able to land in terrible weather, sustain themselves in flight after problems do crop up, survive crashes and fires without killing all the occupants (cf the recent crash in Japan). Air travel has improved tremendously. The EXPERIENCE of air travel has not improved as much as the technical improvements, but that is bc of the decisions of giant corporations, not because of a lack of advancement in the engineering and design.
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You’re correct on many of your points, but speed really hasn’t improved for commercial jet passengers in the last half century, or maybe longer. The Boeing 707 was introduced in 1957 and had a max cruising speed of 593 mph. A 737 has a max speed of 588 mph (or as low as 485 mph, depending on which model.)
As to the author’s larger point, the rate of improvement has definitely not continued at the same rate that the first 50 years of air travel did. The difference between the Wright Brothers’ plane and a 1953 Lockheed Constellation is absolutely enormous. The difference between a Boeing 707 and 737 is certainly important, but nowhere near as significant.
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Oddly phrased question given that we put a robot on freaking Mars within two years of putting a human on the moon.
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well, it got very fast from this
to this
and then pretty fast from this
to this
and then the basic concept didnt changed much after that.
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“Pass me my tea, Brian, there’s a dear.”
“Oh, I’ll have a couple of ginger nuts too, thanks.”
“My hot-water bottle? You’ve already done it? Thank you.”
“No, no, eight-thirty is plenty early enough for a wake-up call, thank you, Brian. I’ll have the eggs poached for breakfast, I think, yes.”
What? You don’t have your robot butler yet?
I’ve given my Brian a surname - he’s a Jeeves now.
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I thought it was because of this (B1-66ER)…
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I thought we settled this back in 2016:
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Hey! Don’t forget that passengers dressed more formerly back then. (And possibly smelled better.) That’s important. 
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Don’t be so sure that they don’t smell better now. The greatest advancement in aviation during my lifetime was the elimination of smoking onboard commercial flights. A couple months ago I visited a casino for the first time in many years and was immediately reminded just how awful is is to be in an enclosed space full of smokers.
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snork
Self-driving car: Coming Surprisingly Soon
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“Ahh! It’s coming for us RIGHT NOW! Run for your lives!”
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self-driving cars that everyone can buy and use? Not quite.
self-driving cars operating in some limited areas that you can use as a taxi right now? yes!
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We have a robot butler. Her name is Rosie and she cleans floors. As she moves from room to room to sweep, vacuum, and mop she turns on the lights as she goes; with her eye she watches out for obstacles on the floor. She can avoid and even identify cords, shoes, and other stuff*.
Sure, like the article’s dishwasher, she’s limited in the scope of her duties. She can’t fetch me a light snack, or prepare the house for a party. But I can summon her to mop the kitchen if there’s been a spill, and that’s pretty darn futuristic!
* Euphemism for dog poop.
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Be glad for the avoidance.
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Well then, why don’t you have a war where you have to drop giant bubbles straight down from your 9-vaned torus winged craft? [Spins up an AI to get very nervous about it and produce oil^wsoy paintings.]
Also, Friend with a Truck as a service s.b. Friend With A Bus, but it isn’t.
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While Jeeves could butle with the best, he was essentially a gentleman’s personal gentleman.
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Apart from Concorde, but that was always a kind of vanity project. It never achieved commercial viability.
I’ve been flying for over 30 years. The differences I’ve experienced are:
First class and Business class have got amazing, with actual lie-down beds and so on.
Economy class had got subtly shittier, with slightly narrower seats closer together. I strongly deny that I myself have got a bit wider.
On-board entertainment has been transformed. You used to get a choice of one film shown on a few CRT displays in the ceiling. Now you have a huge selection of films, music and TV on the seat-black display, plus the sky map and so on.
Airport security and immigration got worse and worse to go through, but now they are starting to get better. (Nothing to do with the actual planes, I know, but it’s part of the overall experience.)
It’s still like a miracle that you can get into a metal tube and be transported half way around the world in a few hours.
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