Not that I like people setting stuff on fire. But...

[Gone in 60]

I visit San Francisco to visit our cousin every now and then, and in the past few years, have noticed the proliferation of Waymo cars, white Jaguar SUVs festooned with cameras, sensors and spinny things, plying the streets. They have progressed to the stage of fully-autonomous, unmanned robocars, offering ride sharing service. I've only noticed them on long walks through the city, and while I've heard that locals consider them a nuisance, I've only seen them as a curiosity.

Any time that I've ridden straght through San Francisco without stopping to get somewhere, they haven't seemed to be on the route I take.

I don't stay glued to the news, so I only pick up things here and there, but recall hearing some chatter about Waymo bringing their cars to Los Angeles. But, I hadn't seen any to my recollection. There was an article about people either tricking them or doing something to make a whole fleet of them bunch up at the end of a dead-end street somewhere in the city.

I didn't allocate brain cells to them until my commute to the museum on Saturday. I spotted the spinny-sensor-encrusted Jaguars on the streets of L.A., and didn't pay much attention to the first one for the first few minutes in traffic. That is, until it changed lanes fairly close to me, making a rather assertive move that a non-aggressive human driver in L.A. would not knowingly make near a motorcycle.

Ok, it's a robot, it didn't try to kill me, no problem. On the way home, threading my way through traffic to the freeway, I came up on one of the Waymo cars again. Any normal human driver glancing at a motorcycle in the mirror would make a reflex move over to one side just a bit to let the bike go through. This thing stayed glued to it's lane position, with it's spinning barnacles protruding out of both sides. I had to plod along behind it for a while until there was an opening wide enough to scoot through.

"Ok, these things officially suck" I thought as I got on the freeway and made the rest of the trip home.

Clicked on the tube as I relaxed at home, and what pops up in my YouTube feed?
https://abc7.com/waymo-car-set-on-fire-s.../14415284/

A robot car R2D2's itself into the middle of a Lunar New Year celebration in a city that's put up with them a lot longer than we have in L.A.? Yeah, whaddya thing is going to happen.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Yeah, saw that flick.

Lord of the Flies.

[pdedse]

I visit San Francisco to visit our cousin every now and then, and in the past few years, have noticed the proliferation of Waymo cars, white Jaguar SUVs festooned with cameras, sensors and spinny things, plying the streets. They have progressed to the stage of fully-autonomous, unmanned robocars, offering ride sharing service. I've only noticed them on long walks through the city, and while I've heard that locals consider them a nuisance, I've only seen them as a curiosity.

Any time that I've ridden straght through San Francisco without stopping to get somewhere, they haven't seemed to be on the route I take.

I don't stay glued to the news, so I only pick up things here and there, but recall hearing some chatter about Waymo bringing their cars to Los Angeles. But, I hadn't seen any to my recollection. There was an article about people either tricking them or doing something to make a whole fleet of them bunch up at the end of a dead-end street somewhere in the city.

I didn't allocate brain cells to them until my commute to the museum on Saturday. I spotted the spinny-sensor-encrusted Jaguars on the streets of L.A., and didn't pay much attention to the first one for the first few minutes in traffic. That is, until it changed lanes fairly close to me, making a rather assertive move that a non-aggressive human driver in L.A. would not knowingly make near a motorcycle.

Ok, it's a robot, it didn't try to kill me, no problem. On the way home, threading my way through traffic to the freeway, I came up on one of the Waymo cars again. Any normal human driver glancing at a motorcycle in the mirror would make a reflex move over to one side just a bit to let the bike go through. This thing stayed glued to it's lane position, with it's spinning barnacles protruding out of both sides. I had to plod along behind it for a while until there was an opening wide enough to scoot through.

"Ok, these things officially suck" I thought as I got on the freeway and made the rest of the trip home.

Clicked on the tube as I relaxed at home, and what pops up in my YouTube feed?
https://abc7.com/waymo-car-set-on-fire-s.../14415284/

A robot car R2D2's itself into the middle of a Lunar New Year celebration in a city that's put up with them a lot longer than we have in L.A.? Yeah, whaddya thing is going to happen.

So, somebody beat you to it!? : )

[Gone in 60]

Not when there are enough other people doing it.
Reminds me of when Bird and Lime pay-to-use electric scooters flooded the city. People were leaving them all around, on lawns, sidewalks, etc.
There were tons of videos posted with people sawing them in half, burning them in piles, tossing them off of the pier...
It' s new, annoying, sorta scary, and can't fight back.

[pdedse]

Not when there are enough other people doing it.
Reminds me of when Bird and Lime pay-to-use electric scooters flooded the city. People were leaving them all around, on lawns, sidewalks, etc.
There were tons of videos posted with people sawing them in half, burning them in piles, tossing them off of the pier...
It' s new, annoying, sorta scary, and can't fight back.

My son used to live in downtown Portland, and he said the e-scoots were the bomb. But there's probably a couple hundred of them at the bottom of the Williamette River.

Wait...I checked, back in 2019 they pulled 57 scooters in two days!

https://www.thedrive.com/news/28754/over...gton-state

[Gone in 60]

I test rode a Bird scooter when they first hit L.A.

Mrs. G won’t let me ride them though. She says anywhere I can take a scooter, I can walk and get the exercise. And I know she’d see it on the Visa bill so I behave.

[Whoops]

I test rode a Bird scooter when they first hit L.A.

Mrs. G won’t let me ride them though. She says anywhere I can take a scooter, I can walk and get the exercise. And I know she’d see it on the Visa bill so I behave.

So it sounds like tapping the 401k is out after all?

[Gone in 60]

I test rode a Bird scooter when they first hit L.A.

Mrs. G won’t let me ride them though. She says anywhere I can take a scooter, I can walk and get the exercise. And I know she’d see it on the Visa bill so I behave.

So it sounds like tapping the 401k is out after all?

So it sounds like tapping the 401k is out after all?
Well… yeah… tax time is coming up, so she’s looking at everything really close right now. Not the time to try and pull anything too clever.

[GoldOxide_imp]

I test rode a Bird scooter when they first hit L.A.

Mrs. G won’t let me ride them though. She says anywhere I can take a scooter, I can walk and get the exercise. And I know she’d see it on the Visa bill so I behave.

Try bringing 'em all those liquid groceries home while walkin' and the summer sun tries to beat you down.

[Gone in 60]

Meh. I gotta work in heat, carrying liquid groceries in it ain’t any worse.