Newton’s Sleep–?

Actually, I don’t really understand this story for its complicated language and background. I also searched this book online but had no results to help me to get understand. So I’m not sure what I can design for this world. 

Speaking of spacecraft which is the only information I could understand from the story, I was wondering if the transportation can be interactive. Of course their acts reflect what we have ordered them to do, but is that really a kind of interaction? 

Or maybe we can design the AI system for them, so that the driver can have conversations with the transportations,  especially the spacecraft, because the astronaut may feel lonely when they travel in the space and have far distance from people. Chatting with AI may cure their loneliness.