When Your Beloved Dog Or Cat Is Inside A Driverless Car Expect The AI To Go Into Pet Mode

Dr. Lance Eliot, AI Insider

What is the most popular type of pet in the United States? Kind of a trick question, I suppose, since you undoubtedly first thought of dogs or cats. The answer is that freshwater fish are the most popular pet, consisting of an estimated 142 million of them.

I’ll give you another try: Are there more dogs or cats as pets in the United States?

Turns out there are about 88 million pet cats and 75 million pet dogs in the US, so cats come out to be the victor in terms of popularity by count. Dog owners would likely argue though that in spite of there being more cats, maybe we should count popularity by some other factor and dogs might therefore be considered the top dog, so to speak.

Putting aside the debate about which kind of pet is the most popular, it is somewhat surprising to realize how big the pet market is.

An estimated 68% of United States households have a pet.

The spending on pets in the United States is an estimated $70 billion or more.

That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of households. That’s a lot of people that either own a pet or maybe enjoy being with someone else’s pet.

I used to have a dog. I used to have a cat. I mention both of them since some of you might think I’m more of a dog-person or a cat-person — I’m an equal opportunity pet owner (I’ve also had freshwater fish, birds, reptiles, etc.). For my dog, I would occasionally take him down to the beach for a romp on the sand. He loved to run around and chase the birds and chase the waves as they crashed on the beach. It was quite a workout for him and he’d be tuckered out by the time we got back home.

Getting him to the beach was a bit of a hassle.

Animals Inside A Car Can Be A Daunting Matter

When I took him in the car to the beach,excitability would sometimes get the better of him while in the car. This meant that there might be biological emissions during his time in the car, including excrement and urine, which obviously is not what one usually hopes to have in their car.