Drive Through Window
Let me rush to answer this new objection before it even is properly voiced. "How is it, Dr. Neutrino, that you have such a solid net connection, such a panoply of sophisticated bio-ware gear but you don't know how to drive a car?"
Look, I have never liked driving. Oh, yes, the task seems simple enough at first blush. Turn switch. Press lever. Simple. Until that fatal moment one attempts to predict the behavior of the other vehicles on the road, particularly in regards to such key variables as speed, trajectory, and intent. Yes, there are rules of the road, and these help limit the likely permutations. Unfortunately, not everyone follows the rules. I present - for your consideration - the cab drivers in this City. These miscreants see sidewalks as honorary pieces of road. They eye stop signs like children examining a substitute teacher. They change lanes with an admirable optimism and a deplorable absence of turn signals, hand gestures, or any other hints as to what, exactly, they might be planning to do with the two tons of steel-plated sedan bucking and roaring beneath their floorboards.
Should I mention the One-Handed SUV Driver? The Cell-Phone Junky? The Clueless Senior? The Drunk College Jock? Of course, of course, these people - even taken en masse - represent only a small percentage of the drivers out on the road at any given time. But that percentage multiplied against sufficient time spent inside an automobile comes out to be... to be...
Reason enough for me to sit quietly in the passenger seat. Better yet, behind bulletproof glass and a sliding partition. Oh, how I dream! Tonight, I must content myself with slouching in the back of this banal Korean four-door. I should keep an eye on the connection I've made between the car's navigation system and my own internal unit. I'm using a bit of software I whipped up for fun a few weeks back, a driving simulation with a rather sharp AI. I think that patch of code is going to make quite the reliable auto-pilot.
I am very much looking forward to a quiet, relaxing ride to the airport.
Look, I have never liked driving. Oh, yes, the task seems simple enough at first blush. Turn switch. Press lever. Simple. Until that fatal moment one attempts to predict the behavior of the other vehicles on the road, particularly in regards to such key variables as speed, trajectory, and intent. Yes, there are rules of the road, and these help limit the likely permutations. Unfortunately, not everyone follows the rules. I present - for your consideration - the cab drivers in this City. These miscreants see sidewalks as honorary pieces of road. They eye stop signs like children examining a substitute teacher. They change lanes with an admirable optimism and a deplorable absence of turn signals, hand gestures, or any other hints as to what, exactly, they might be planning to do with the two tons of steel-plated sedan bucking and roaring beneath their floorboards.
Should I mention the One-Handed SUV Driver? The Cell-Phone Junky? The Clueless Senior? The Drunk College Jock? Of course, of course, these people - even taken en masse - represent only a small percentage of the drivers out on the road at any given time. But that percentage multiplied against sufficient time spent inside an automobile comes out to be... to be...
Reason enough for me to sit quietly in the passenger seat. Better yet, behind bulletproof glass and a sliding partition. Oh, how I dream! Tonight, I must content myself with slouching in the back of this banal Korean four-door. I should keep an eye on the connection I've made between the car's navigation system and my own internal unit. I'm using a bit of software I whipped up for fun a few weeks back, a driving simulation with a rather sharp AI. I think that patch of code is going to make quite the reliable auto-pilot.
I am very much looking forward to a quiet, relaxing ride to the airport.