Robotaxis, what next?.

Robotaxis in Zagreb

In the last few days, few things have stirred as much debate in the ICT community as Mate Rimac's, or Rimac Automobili's, announcement of launching a robotaxi network in Zagreb.

Congratulations poured in, but so did criticism and bets, and friendships were strained. Soon after, defenses of Mate Rimac's ideas began, categorizing people into supporters and, to say the least, skeptics.

Our knowledge is nowhere near sufficient to judge this project, and all that remains is to see it as an opportunity for Croatia to further establish itself in the ICT and automotive industries.

National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO)

Amidst all that transpired in recent days, it's an undeniable fact that the Government of the Republic of Croatia, as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO), which is expected to bring in 6.3 billion euros, included the Rimac Automobili project.

Through this, it provided quite clear support for green projects, as it also included the construction of a biofuel refinery in Sisak, as well as for ICT projects and companies.

Infobip, Nanobit… humans are “environmental beings”

Infobip, Nanobit, Five… and other companies have been filling newspaper columns with good news (about ICT successes) for a long time now.

Also, apart from tourism and some construction industry… there's realistically little left in Croatia. Furthermore, due to many different factors, 'Ireland' happened.

When an 18-year-old, at a crossroads deciding their future path, chooses a profession that will ultimately define their future, due to the fact that humans are environmental beings, they arrive at the only "correct" conclusion: I want to be educated in the field of ICT.

Most children's dreams of wanting to be pilots, doctors, or anything else fall by the wayside, and they traditionally succumb to pressure from both parents and their environment. And they choose to be a software developer or a system engineer.

Who we are

A person is "defined" by their skills. Our skills can change and improve over time, which is why we say that this is our current state.

Examples of our skills are:

• Active learning
• Active listening
• Critical thinking
• Judgment and decision-making
• Learning strategies
• Mathematical reasoning
• Negotiation, and
• Monitoring

For Monitoring, we say that we more or less frequently track or assess the performance of oneself, others, or organizations to implement improvements or take corrective actions.

Along with skills, we also have abilities. We can say that they are part of our genetics and are natural to us. They cannot be learned, but by understanding our own abilities, we can help ourselves find a job (and ultimately an education) that best suits our individual qualities. Every person is unique, and no two are the same.

Examples of our abilities are shown in the chart below:

Deductive reasoning:

This is the ability to solve problems by thinking methodically and reaching logical conclusions.

Inductive reasoning:

This ability is often used to predict and combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions about events that sometimes seem random and unrelated.

Information ordering:

Your ability to arrange things or actions in a specific order or pattern according to certain rules.

Mental flexibility:

This is the ability to generate and use different rules to group things, events… in various ways.

And so on.

Interests

Alongside abilities and skills, every person has certain interests. Something captivates them "from a young age." And that's why someone wanted to be a truck driver, someone a doctor, someone a baker, someone a development engineer.

Why is that?

It's simple. Someone has a strong interest in jobs that involve patterns, design, and models. Artistic professions often require self-expression and such jobs don't follow clear rules. Graphic design is an example of an artistic profession.

Someone has a pronounced inclination for jobs in structured environments with a defined hierarchy of authority. This means they often follow procedures and routines. Conventional professions involve working with data and details (instead of ideas), and often a clear authority structure. Accounting is an example of a conventional profession.

Someone has an entrepreneurial interest, someone else a research interest. Someone has a high interest in research jobs, which require a lot of thinking and considering ideas. Research jobs deal with establishing facts and mentally solving problems.

Someone has an interest in practical jobs, or outdoor work. Perhaps they like working with plants, animals, perhaps they want to be a plumber or an electrician.

And finally, someone has an interest in jobs that require a social orientation and sensitivity to the needs of others, so they should teach, nurse patients, or advise, e.g., in career selection.

Why might this be a problem?

Before, we had a distribution of people's interests across various fields; today, perhaps, everyone wants to do the same thing. Is that even possible?

Today, there are many universities, polytechnics, colleges, and higher education institutions on the market… And most of them put great effort and work into educating new generations, especially in the ICT sector. However, can they truly "shape" a person?

And finally

A friend says: "What's the situation like with you? We're down six people since the beginning of the year, and we're still under a hundred." It's a software vendor company.

The hunger for ICT professionals is insatiable. Can new generations "reduce" that hunger?

Is career guidance the solution? https://deepproject.hr/usluge/

Also, one of a person's "components" is the power of critical thinking and judgment. In general, it would be good if we did this more, and therefore it's unclear why someone should be attacked for critically questioning whether something is good, useful, or not for them/her/us.