Joys of working and going to school while on-the-road.
Time to hit the road and hit the books.
Recently, parents that are able to work remotely have been increasingly opting to travel during the school season, taking along the whole family on exciting driving journeys to landmark locations and meanwhile making sure that their children still attend regular classes. This is not homeschooling, though that sometimes does occur, but instead a realization that if many conventional K-12 schools are teaching via remote learning then there is no need to be tied down to a normal homestead.
In short, two avenues seemed to have been suddenly opened all at the same time, namely that the parents do not need to physically go to an office for work and the kids do not need to physically go to classrooms for their schooling. No more stringent binding required to be in any particular physical spot or locale, having been demonstratively shucked clean and allowing you to roam free.
Such a twofer has provided an opportunity to do something that previously was only sparingly possible.
Up until now, you would have needed to overtly yank your kids out of conventional classroom-based schooling to go on roadway trips, teaching them yourselves during the on-the-road adventures. If the plan was to then eventually plop them back into the classroom after several weeks or months of traveling, this could be a tough transition for your children to handle. They would be cast as outsiders and likely no longer in synchronization with whatever the classes had been undertaking during your sojourn. The shock of not being at their regular classes and then summarily tossed back into the crucible could be difficult for many youngsters to cope with.
Once it turned out that by school administrative proclamation that students are okay to attend classes via virtual schooling (this arrangement differs depending upon where you presently live), there is no longer any essential difference between being at home versus being at the Grand Canyon or in Yosemite Valley.
Of course, this would not be feasible if the parents still needed to incur a daily commute to the office for their work efforts and otherwise had to be in a certain building for their eight-hour workday. In that case, the best you could do was a short trip while chewing up your precious vacation time. And, whether you would want to be teaching your kids about history, literature, math, science, and all the basics during those moments together was an altogether tough call.
Voila, along comes “roadschooling,” a new entrant in our colloquial vocabulary that entails attending conventional classes remotely and doing so while traveling the highways and byways.
To be clear and frank, this is not necessarily for everyone and there are lots of potential hiccups and gotchas that can mar the seemingly nirvana-like nature of trying this out.
When living in a house, there is usually plenty of living space to have your own private corner, giving you some modicum of privacy and quiet time. A family crammed into a car or RV might find themselves getting a bit claustrophobic and yearning for being apart. Another concern about being in breathtaking vistas is the ability to go online and do so with a reliable Internet connection that isn’t as slow as molasses. Yes, you might have an incredible view of the sky and the landscape, though at the same time you aren’t able to connect with work and nor are the kids able to connect with their teachers and classes. Making sure that you have consistent WiFi and a solid online connection is a vital element in successfully achieving the roadschooling vision.
In terms of being stuck inside a vehicle for hours on end, a counter-argument to be made is that being cooped up at home is perhaps just as bad or even worse than being carried around in your car or RV from a perspective of being confined. The moment that you arrive at a landmark location provides ample time to stretch your legs and see new sights. For those stuck at home, it is the same four walls, day after day, week after week.
Some twists and turns are to be expected while doing the road adventure approach. It will raise logistics issues that normally are taken for granted when living, working, and schooling from home. During the driving ventures, where are you going to park overnight? Are there fees in doing so? How long should you stay in location X before moving on to get to location Y? What happens if the weather takes a sour turn and you might get stuck in a place that grows wearisome to be in? Etc.
Anyway, some assert they are gleefully willing to deal with such issues and believe that the family bonding of doing these travels is well worth the intrinsic hassles. What provides the icing on the cake is that the children will not fall behind in their schooling and can keep up with their conventional classes.
Also, for parents that were leery of trying to do the teaching themselves, you can focus on your work or other efforts during the roadway voyages and let the professional teachers ply their trade (well, honestly, you still going to be involved in homework, school projects, and the like).
Shifting gears, looking into the future, consider what might happen as a result of this newfound way of living one’s life. Perhaps schools will regularly and routinely allow for remote learning, becoming a kind of new normal rather than being a one-time temporary exception.
There is a less apparent factor that could inevitably bolster the roadschooling possibilities involving the chariot or shall we say the car or RV that you’ll be using to undertake these family treks.
As such, here’s today’s intriguing question: Will the advent of AI-based true self-driving cars provide added impetus or serve as a catalyst for the roadschooling trend?
Let’s unpack the matter and see.
Understanding The Levels Of Self-Driving Cars
As a clarification, true self-driving cars are ones that the AI drives the car entirely on its own and there isn’t any human assistance during the driving task.
These driverless vehicles are considered a Level 4 and Level 5 (see my explanation at this link here), while a car that requires a human driver to co-share the driving effort is usually considered at a Level 2 or Level 3. The cars that co-share the driving task are described as being semi-autonomous, and typically contain a variety of automated add-on’s that are referred to as ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems).
There is not yet a true self-driving car at Level 5, which we don’t yet even know if this will be possible to achieve, and nor how long it will take to get there.
Meanwhile, the Level 4 efforts are gradually trying to get some traction by undergoing very narrow and selective public roadway trials, though there is controversy over whether this testing should be allowed per se (we are all life-or-death guinea pigs in an experiment taking place on our highways and byways, some contend, see my coverage at this link here).
Since semi-autonomous cars require a human driver, the adoption of those types of cars won’t be markedly different than driving conventional vehicles, so there’s not much new per se to cover about them on this topic (though, as you’ll see in a moment, the points next made are generally applicable).
For semi-autonomous cars, it is important that the public needs to be forewarned about a disturbing aspect that’s been arising lately, namely that despite those human drivers that keep posting videos of themselves falling asleep at the wheel of a Level 2 or Level 3 car, we all need to avoid being misled into believing that the driver can take away their attention from the driving task while driving a semi-autonomous car.
You are the responsible party for the driving actions of the vehicle, regardless of how much automation might be tossed into a Level 2 or Level 3.
Self-Driving Cars And Roadschooling
For Level 4 and Level 5 true self-driving vehicles, there won’t be a human driver involved in the driving task.
All occupants will be passengers.
The AI is doing the driving.
That is a significant form of relief for those pursuing roadschooling.
Rather than the parents constantly having to be at the wheel of the vehicle, typically trading off the driving duties, they won’t need to drive at all. No need to keep those weary eyes open during the late-night driving efforts to get to the next desired destination. No more dread about being stuck in the driver’s seat for hours upon hours at a time. And so on.
The parents can be working instead of driving. Or they can be spending more time with the children. Maybe volunteering to help out during the remote classes by aiding the teachers in some remote-viable way. The possibilities of reclaiming and reusing that otherwise lost time are nearly endless.
Oftentimes, parents have to reluctantly do the driving chore when it least impacts everyone else, thus, this meant driving at the midnight hour and going straight through until sunrise. Unfortunately, if you are also supposed to then work remotely during daylight hours, this implies that after an exhausting night of mind-numbing driving, you had to switch your hats and become the earnest remote worker. Instead, you can just tell the AI where you want to go, and sleep soundly throughout the night, waking up in the morning being fresh and ready for the day ahead.
Imagine another facet that does not normally seem problematic until it happens to you.
You arrive at a destination and want to go on an outdoors romp with the family, but the question arises as to where to park your vehicle. The parking lot might be miles from where you want to spend time. Do you hoof it all that way or do you try to find a local transport option, dealing with the added cost and aggravations involved?
Here’s what you would do with a self-driving car.
The AI drops you off at whatever spot you wish (assuming it is reachable via car), and then the AI finds someplace to keep the self-driving car during your outside activity. Maybe it goes a few miles away to park. Another possibility is that it goes into a roaming mode and stays in the area while continuing to remain underway. When you are done with the excursion, you request via your smartphone for the AI to bring the self-driving car back to pick you up.
One neat trick is that you do not necessarily need to get picked-up exactly where you were originally dropped off.
Suppose that you did a hike and ended up on the other side of the valley or trails, and were too tired to hike back to the origination point (which is usually where you would have parked your car and therefore had no option other than to make your way back to there). With a self-driving car, you can instruct the AI to come to whatever spot you are conveniently at (again, assuming it is reachable via a car, which I mention since the vehicle is not likely able to drive onto trails or off-road places, at least not for a conventional self-driving car).
There are even more benefits that arise via using a self-driving car for these purposes.
By-and-large, it is expected that self-driving cars will be outfitted with inward-facing cameras and also have the interior lined with LED displays. The idea is that while you are routinely riding in a self-driving car, you can carry on a dialogue with workers at the office during your daily commute (they see you, you see them), or you might take online interactive classes that occur as you head home after a day of work.
The point here is that self-driving cars are already going to be wired-up and outfitted to accommodate the needs of doing remote working and remote schooling. Today’s cars are seldom equipped for this kind of activity and require you to figure out on your own how to make the vehicle into being more state-of-the-art for connectedness. Self-driving cars will generally be ready for this on day one.
So, self-driving cars will cope with the driving and as a bonus will already be ready-made for doing online remote activities.
There is talk of boosting our roadway infrastructure for further enabling an interconnected electronic world (see my coverage at this link here). This would possibly ensure that during the traveling itself, while in motion, you can just as readily undertake the online efforts as you might once you’ve parked someplace that has reliable communications options. Therefore, rather than only being able to do the roadschooling once the self-driving car is parked, you should be able to proceed unabated while on the highways too.
Here’s something that is a bit out of the ordinary and yet adds more food for thought.
Generally, self-driving cars will be set up to electronically communicate with other self-driving cars, doing so via V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) messaging capabilities. Most of the time, this would be used to forewarn one self-driving car about something that another nearby self-driving car has detected. For example, if there is debris in the middle of the road, a self-driving car could relay this status to other self-driving cars behind it, allowing the AI driving systems of those cars to judiciously avoid the debris or possibly opt to route onto a different path that avoids the debris entirely.
In theory, this same kind of V2V could be used for purposes that also contribute toward the roadschooling aims.
Imagine that you are nearing a small town and otherwise were not going to stop, instead pretty much passing through or bypassing whatever it might have to offer. Someone else that did stop and perhaps discovered a historic statue or maybe found a nifty science museum, they might mention this to the AI of their self-driving car and it could via the V2V (or equivalent) notify other nearby self-driving cars. The AI of your self-driving car could then mention this facet to you, and perhaps you and your family would opt to take a break in the travel and see the local hotspot.
I mentioned that this would not necessarily be the purer sense of V2V, since the V2V is supposed to be reserved for critical or vital driving-related aspects. As such, this might be arranged via other means and not specifically using the customary V2V.
In any case, one supposes that there is also the possibility of connecting with other families that are likewise doing roadschooling and arranging to get together. Perhaps you arrive at the Grand Canyon and want to pair-up with other families there that have children about the same ages as your offspring. There could be an online social media kind of capability to let you figure out who else is nearby and if desired get together with them, for fun and for joint schooling too.
Conclusion
Interest in doing roadschooling is currently hampered somewhat by the very means by which the road or traveling aspects take place, encumbered via the shortcomings of today’s conventional cars. As self-driving cars become prevalent, they would inherently provide functionality and features that lend towards readily doing a roadschooling sojourn. By then, perhaps having a job that allows for working remotely will be relatively commonplace, and likewise that having kids opt to attend regular school while being remote will be socially acceptable and fully accommodated.
One thing I did not mention is that the AI system might be able to help with the schooling of your kids. Just as we today see children asking Alexa or Siri about how to solve a homework problem, the AI driving system and other AI capabilities that will be accessible while inside a self-driving car are likely to include acting as a virtual robotic teacher. See my coverage on these advances, at the link here.
Please though do not let the AI do all the homework while the kids are skirmishing around on boulders and running throughout those lush forests. Keep the children focused on learning their ABCs and make sure the AI doesn’t cheat and surreptitiously earn the grades for your loved ones.
Be forewarned: The AI might just give it the old college try.
