Bring on the robot cars!

It's trite to compare the experience of driving a car versus a motorcycle to that of watching a television to actually experiencing life. When Robert Pirsig wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, it was apropos. Pirsig experienced an unfaired journey, on a bike needing carburetor tuning, repair, kickstarting, etc. There was a simplicity to his bike that seemed more... what? Honest, maybe? True to the experience of life on the road. It still holds true that our highways embody a metaphor for the passage of life, the literal transportation of life, goods, food.

When I look at our motorcycle, it isn't simple. We have electronic fuel injection, cruise control, ABS brakes, heated grips, heated seats, plugs for heated gear, an AM/FM radio, weather radio, GPS, XM, Bluetooth. Melissa and I converse with each other through our helmets wirelessly, again through Bluetooth. There is no drama with the motorcycle; it just starts, it just runs.

What is true, however, is that riding a motorcycle is still dangerous and when you ride, you live in the moment, constantly aware of the situation around you, front, side and back. There is no downtime. Also, as we ride, unlike cars, we experience heat, cold, wind shifts, road and tire noise, we smell the spicy citrus of the orange groves down 95 South, the burning brake fluid and drums/disks (?) from OTR trucks, the smell of gasoline from a rolled-over motorhome that took a corner too fast and caught the Florida ocean wind just so. If you feel closely enough, you sense the anger from the people inconvenienced in the other lane.

This is something car drivers don't experience.  Technology has done its part and has become mostly invisible in cars to the degree that drivers no longer engage at all. This hit home to me today as we rode from Jacksonville to Ft. Lauderdale and I saw a whole lot of people driving while texting. It is egregious and I've mostly become inured to the behavior, dangerous though it might be. Texting is not a good technology; it isn't invisible. It is engaging unlike listening to music or driving. However, today I saw a woman texting in her Jeep, traveling 90 MPH. She was using both of her hands to text while using her knees to steer her death machine.

Robots are already better drivers than you or I. It's time to let them take over the driving of cars, commercial vehicles. The world would be a safer, better place. Just leave the motorcycles alone. We don't need no stinking robots.

We arrived at Ft. Lauderdale safely today around 4:45. Melissa and I are at the W Hotel's amazing bar, looking at the Atlantic ocean, drinking a couple of cabernets before heading to our room.