Perpetual Computing Is Coming, And It Will Impact Self-Driving Cars

Dr. Lance Eliot, AI Insider

[Ed. Note: For reader’s interested in Dr. Eliot’s ongoing business analyses about the advent of self-driving cars, see his online Forbes column: https://forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/]

Perpetual computing.

It’s a new and upcoming area that we’ll be all thinking about in the next several years.

Imagine a computer that could run perpetually.

In fact, when you consider the matter, what is it that usually would stop a computer from running perpetually?

Other than the notion that it might breakdown from wear-and-tear or exhaustion, the other factor would most likely be electrical power. A computer that runs all of the time will need electrical power all of the time. Electrical power is typically a scarce and costly resource.

I’m betting that if you have a desktop computer, it is plugged into an electrical socket and thus you rarely consider how much electrical power it needs (when it is plugged in, your computer is considered “tethered” since it is physically connected with the electrical socket).

If you have a laptop, I’d wager that you do pay attention to electrical power and have found yourself scrambling to find a place to…