America, One Moment at a Time — #38

Cab Came. But Where Was the Driver?

Our children told us they had booked a cab for us.

Nothing unusual about that.

The car arrived.

We got in.

And then my wife and I discovered something our children had conveniently forgotten to mention. 😄

There was no driver.

We looked at the steering wheel.

Then at each other.

Then at the screen.

The screen simply said:

“Please buckle your seat belt.”

Fair enough.

Even without a driver, somebody was clearly in charge. 😄

The car started moving.

It stopped.

Turned.

Waited for traffic.

Changed lanes.

And behaved as though having four passengers and no driver was the most ordinary thing in the world.

Meanwhile, I was watching everything rather carefully. 😄

But after a while, we relaxed.

We talked.

Looked around.

Took photographs.

And the driverless car began to feel almost… normal.

Then something else happened.

After our ride, we suddenly started noticing Waymos everywhere.

On the streets.

At intersections.

Even on the highway.

Before our ride, they were just cars.

After our ride, we seemed to have developed Waymo vision. 😄

Even at the airport, we found a sign pointing passengers towards “Autonomous Rides.”

And from the airport train, we spotted this colourful Waymo on the highway.

By now, I was beginning to see Waymos everywhere. 😄

And earlier on our drives, we had spotted something even more futuristic.

A Tesla Cybercab.

Another driverless vehicle. Looking as though it had arrived straight from the future. 😄

Perhaps that was the real surprise.

The future wasn’t somewhere ahead of us.

It was already sharing the road with us.

And perhaps that’s what experiences do.

They don’t always change what is around us.

Sometimes they simply change what we notice.

One more lesson from our American sojourn:

Keep your eyes open.

You never know what might be driving past. 😄