Amazon is taking over, and not just in the sales space. Remember, they have the largest and most powerful computer offering on the planet. AWS is used by countless companies around the globe and has more compute power than most nations. To put this in perspective, AWS has more compute power than its 14 largest competitors *combined*. That includes Google. http://www.techrepublic.com/article/aws-now-10x-the-size-of-its-competitors-is-the-cloud-arms-race-over/
When you’re working with that kind of raw compute power, you can do things no-one else can even imagine. Think about this possible scenario: Amazon opens stores in key markets, and just outside them. The stores can be leverage as distribution points. They simply need Amazon lockers, which already exist, for direct pickup by purchasers and by drivers for the Amazon delivery service. Amazon no longer needs the USPS or Fedex. They control their own distribution. What’s to stop them from getting into international shipping via automated and containerized ships? Heck, I could even see them buying up old rail lines, like they did with dark fiber, just to run their own shipping backbone.
AWS is a juggernaut and it’s just starting to really build momentum.

I’ve been in EMS since 1997, worked in five states, and now and in Kentucky.

Here in Louisville, EMS has to transport to the closest medically appropriate hospital when possible, otherwise transport to the hospital of choice. (this means we try to get you to pick the closest hospital that can treat you, but if you want to go across the county, we have to take you there.)

In Lakewood OH, (the Cleveland area), we transported to one of two hospitals – the trauma center/child hospital and the closest hospital. No others.

In Slaterville Springs NY, (near – 60 miles from Syracuse), we had one hospital for two counties. So anything serious got flown.

In Harford County (north of Baltimore) it was closest medically appropriate hospital.

Many times people pick the hospital because of their insurance. If they go in to another hospital out of network, they get a huge bill, so they really insist on their hospital.

I have told people who want to go to a certain hospital “if you go there, you will die because they can’t treat you.” I prefer to go to the closest appropriate hospital so that I am able to get back into service sooner. But always the appropriate one, because i’m not able to respond to another call until i’m back in the area, not able to help “my” people.

Self Transport seldom is a good option. Like you read, we can start medical treatment when we arrive, and give the hospital heads up we are coming so they are ready for you. That and learning CPR is also a very good thing.

Here’s another consideration on the cattle question. You may want to consider getting ahold of some Cracker cattle. Here in FL they are becoming a sought after thing for the slow food movement and artisanal producers. Cracker steers are also popular with calf ropers because of being small and quick and usually they have horns. They are a motley small breed and probably rare outside of the Southeast. The advantage is that they have evolved to thrive on poor sandy grazing scrubland and bear their calves with few complications. I do know three ranchers who keep these cattle and due to natural selection they don’t need near as much care as the usual meat breeds. One rancher basically drives his truck out in the woods where they live, rounds them up for vetting a few times a year and markets the weaned calves once a year. I have no way to know how profitable these ranchers are but all three have been doing this for decades. One guy’s the third generation of his family raising Cracker cattle. Be the first in your area to sell this “heritage” breed and it might give you a different option for profit.

Jack,
Is an autonomous vehicle the end of freedom of movement as we know it? Will the freedom of driving only be for hackers or rich?

I have scary hypothetical questions. What if insurance companies raise premiums on vehicles that are not autonomous because they are actuarially more risky to insure? What if it becomes cost prohibitive to drive regular vehicles due to the insurance mandate. Ultimately commercial companies would all have autonomous vehicles because if they were not, they would be negligent if a driver kills a family because he fell asleep behind the wheel? What is the fallout from autonomous vehicles?

Would car companies be complicit in collecting driving information and preventing people from driving if they don’t have insurance? Maybe it will be like The Fifth Element (how many points do you have left on your license?) The cars of the future could be required to validate credentials over the cloud such as insurance and proper license in order to operate a vehicle. Ultimately the car companies will morph from strictly manufacturing to advertisers in order to maintain revenues.

If you have autonomous vehicles do people maintain liability or is it car companies? Will the state remove the automobile insurance mandate from the people? Will this cause insurance companies to shrink? Or will the mandate change to be that individuals all required maintaining umbrella coverage?

The environment of what we know to be true is changing a light speed and with the development of Amazon biometric data technology as well as the garment of other companies competing to product similar products will help facilitate this transformation.

Internet, satellites, drones, and biometric software, what other products developed by defense companies will be used in the market place. Skynet is here!