Why Robots Will Solve the Problems of Delayed Trains

I was 40 minutes late into the office yesterday. Not because I’d slept in. Not because it was a Monday.

It was because of a ‘signal fault’ in between Wimbledon and Clapham Junction railway stations.

A ‘signal fault’. I’m guessing what that means is the train signals weren’t working. So instead of red, yellow and green…it was nothing. Now, on possibly one of the world’s busiest metropolitan train lines, this isn’t a good thing.

We can’t just have trains going willy-nilly all over the place. That’s just cause for disaster.

But I didn’t have many alternatives. Driving in would take at least another hour and a half probably. Peak hour in London isn’t all that different to peak hour in the middle of Mumbai.

I couldn’t get the bus; that’s just the same as the car, except smellier and full of more people I don’t want to talk to.

Walking meant I would have gotten there after dark. And riding a bike would mean having to join the MAMIL crew (Google search MAMIL if you’re unsure what I mean).

In my boredom at the train station I messaged Hayley. She just suggested I work from home. Now that was a valid point at the time. But I didn’t really want to work from home.

I don’t really like working from home at all. Don’t get me wrong, my cat is brilliant to talk to. Unfortunately, it’s always a one-way conversation.

The reason I like going into the office is people. Working in solitude can be beneficial from time to time, but more often than not it sucks.

I continued to stand on the platform, in two minds. Do I work from home, go stir crazy, talk to the cat…and eventually, actually go crazy? Or do I stand it out here and hope for a train sometime in the next hour?

Well I didn’t have to think too long. 10 minutes later, an express train came along, and I eventually made it in to Waterloo station and the office.

But it got me thinking. What if you could combine the benefits of working in the office with the benefits of working at home?

RoboSam signing on for the day

Is there a way that I could effectively do my job from home, from a beach in Cabo San Lucas or from base camp at Everest, yet still feel and interact like I was in the office?

I decided no, there wasn’t a way to do that…yet. But it’s the kind of technology that perhaps is only just around the corner. Perhaps it’s the combination of already existing technologies that will achieve my vision. It would make businesses more efficient, more profitable and in turn, better performing for shareholders.

Read the rest of this article at Money Morning