A solution looking for a problem?

摘要

I remember an advertising campaign by Unipart in the 1980s that went with "The answer's yes, now what's the question". It was not only a catchy slogan at the time, but also changed the way that many companies thought about customer service. I guess just putting those two words - customer and service - together in the 1980s was a bit revolutionary in itself. I was reminded of that slogan recently when I was reading through some articles on autonomous vehicles -many of which seemed to be saying "the answer is AV, now what's the question?". They left me thinking and wondering whether the whole area of AV, and to an extent connected vehicles, is an answer looking for a problem to solve. Is the whole march of technological advance driven by a desire to learn and push the boundaries of what can be achieved by ever evolving and developing technology, or by a desire to make a difference in the world?