Let the Robot Drive

“The NVIV (Next Vista Inspiring Video) series of posts are written by Rushton Hurley and designed to provide students and teachers with fascinating discussion prompts.”

In Let the Robot Drive, Rushton features Zoox, a company working on self-driving cars.

He gives the following prompts to accompany this video:

“This story is from 2018, so one challenge you might take on is to see what you can learn about the company’s progress in the last few years.
In addition to learning some pretty cool engineering concepts, this video might help you think in new ways about old stuff, such as school. If you were told to create a school of the future, would you tweak the engine, or start over?
What do you know that could use a completely new approach?”

I think this is a great video to inspire students because I believe there is a high interest in self-driving cars. With this interest, students will be motivated to find out the latest information about them. I remember watching the cartoon “The Jetsons” and believing that none of that would ever be possible. I also think students have great imaginations and they will start thinking about ways to make old stuff better or even a newer useful version of them. It would be fun to have them get in groups to share their ideas and brainstorm together things that seem impossible but may actually be possible.

Please check out the video and think of other prompts you might come up with. Please share.