Planning Ahead

You're probably sitting at home wondering how you should invest your excess capital to increase your personal wealth in the uncertain days that lie ahead. Fortunately for you, I have the information you need to make your current massive stockpile of money even larger.

The key is to anticipate changes in the market and move money from dwindling markets into ones that are going to grow rapidly. There have been plenty of disruptive innovations over the past century, and those who have correctly foreseen their consequences have reaped the rewards. Today we're going to take a look at one change that will have a tremendous ripple effect: the autonomous vehicle.

Now, the core software and hardware are already spoken for, but you don't need to invent the iPhone to make a killing on iPhone cases. Let's look at a few markets that will open up when autonomous vehicles become common.

1. Hotel on Wheels - This is for those of you with very deep pockets. You'll need an agreement with a company with working autonomous driving hardware and a fleet of recreational vehicles. From there, the main problem is counting all your money. Customers spend a day sightseeing in a city of their choice, and spend the night in one of your traveling hotel rooms. When they awake, after a fitful night's sleep, they are in another tourist destination up to four hundred miles away. Naturally, you'll need to tune your autonomous vehicles so that they accelerate and decelerate smoothly. Providing room service is left as an exercise for the reader.
2. Carports - As fewer people chose to own motor vehicles, the demand for carports will skyrocket. After all, who wants to have to walk through pouring rain to get to a robot taxi? The cost on this one is quite reasonable. You'll only need metal roofing and some pillars. Since your customers are no longer paying to maintain their own cars, they'll have plenty of money to pay for the convenience your carport provides.
3. Garage Door Openers - Most homes have garages, but what good is a garage when you don't own a car? Consider it a built-in, mildly climate-controlled, carport. How do you let the robot taxi inside your garage? Waiting for the car to pull up and then opening the garage door will get tiresome. Plus, you'll have to take your garage door opener with you to open the door to let yourself back in. You could leave your garage door open permanently, but since most people keep valuable possessions inside their garages, this option will be unpopular. The answer is to allow robot taxis open your garage door when needed. The capital expensive for this option is moderate. You'll need a website, some encryption experts, and a manufacturer for programmable garage doors and openers. When your customer calls for a ride, a one-time-use code will be sent to the eligible car, allowing it to open your garage (and close it again if you're not already waiting). When you're ready to head home, another code will be generated and used the same way.

So, sit back and enjoy your new-found prosperity. The future is going to be very profitable. Unless your job in any way depends on driving a vehicle or serving people that drive them. In that case, you're probably going to want to give serious consideration to what you're doing with your life.