When I was growing up, there were two sounds I could not ignore, but I was always torn between which one to pursue. One was my parents calling me to dinner and the other was the sound of the ice cream truck. I had strict parents, so I had only one real choice.
As could be expected, technology has caught up to this timeless dilemma. In Los Angeles this summer, Unilever is teaming up with Robomart, a mobile app, to allow anyone with a smartphone to summon an ice cream truck to their location. The goal is for the truck to arrive within 10 minutes. Once the truck arrives, you make your selection from some high end ice cream makers, retrieve your choice from an access door in the truck, then pay for it through the app. All I can say is that they better have a lot of trucks, especially at dinner time, and come in stealth mode so parents will not be alarmed. Of course, the parents could be the ones who summoned the truck. Change is always interesting. – Dr. Tom
