Cyrus Radfar is a founding engineer of AddThis, which was acquired by Oracle. Commercial flight innovation was the next step forward, quickening travel and further lessening the geographical divides of the country. And, in the 1950s, the Interstate Highway System allowed the quick and cheap transportation of goods between suburban and rural areas, benefiting farmers and consumers. Rapid international travel gave rise to globalization which made the world small enough that a grocery store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania could be selling Mexican-grown produce. Each of these surges in transport technology created millions of new jobs, injected the equivalent of trillions of dollars into the economy, and changed the way people view time and space. We are on the verge of a new leap forward.

Late last year, I took a road trip with my partner from our home in New Orleans, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida and as we drove by town after town, we got to talking about the potential effects self-driving vehicle technology would have not only on truckers themselves, but on all the local economies dependent on trucker salaries. Once one starts wondering about this kind of one-two punch to America's gut, one sees the prospects aren't pretty. We are facing the decimation of entire small town economies, a disruption the likes of which we haven't seen since the construction of the interstate highway system itself bypassed entire towns. It should be clear at a glance just how dependent the American economy is on truck drivers. According to the American Trucker Association, there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the US, and an additional 5.2 million people employed within the truck-driving industry who don't drive the trucks. We can't stop there though, because the incomes received by these 8.2 million people create the jobs of others.

We wish we could say you look good for 60 years old, but real talk: You do not. Sure, you've grown--when President Eisenhower authorized you in 1956, you were just a glimmer of asphalt. Look at you now! Fully 47,662 miles of roads, bridges, ramps, and curves, the meshwork that defined American post-war expansion and exceptionalism. The Department of Transportation estimates that by 2030, you might have an annual 86 billion funding gap--and that's just to keep your flabby highways and bridges functioning. Actually improving the darn things could cost up 150 billion per year.