No, this isn’t a golf moment, as most of you have seen me trying to use a driver on the golf course.
With half the spring football season behind me, and as I was heading to the Fox Studios on Thursday, I looked to the right and there beside me was a car …
With no driver!
It is certainly not the first time I’ve seen one of these driverless cars up close, but it brought me back to the reality that our technology is taking us closer to that point where we might just be at the curbside waiting for a cab, or an Uber, or some other means, and a car with no driver pulls up and tells you to get in.
I don’t know if I have the courage to get in one of those vehicles or not.
Companies like Uber and GPS and Garmin and others have driverless vehicles on roads and streets in every major city. At least, I haven’t seen one in Crawfordsville yet, but I sure could have missed a few.
They use these cars as map-makers. They drive for hours on end, recording every intersection, every turn, every everything to make the GPS and other systems as great as they are. I mean, when your mapping system on your phone can tell you “in 150 feet, take the second left,” you have some smart technology.
And that is the upcoming question, as I know many of you have read about.
When will the transportation companies, and especially the insurance companies, say that things are safe enough that they will risk putting you and I into a riderless car for a ride across town?
Or will we as those riders maybe never warm to the idea of sitting all by yourself in the back of a car and have it drive hither and yon?
Now, I have ridden with plenty of cabbies over the years that have scared the sanity right out of me. It might have been safer to go without a driver.
But, to do it willingly is another question.
These are those big questions that come to mind on my sixth straight weekend trip to Los Angeles. After this one, it’s four more, plus playoffs, as spring football rolls on.
The driverless car just came to mind after a people-moment last weekend at LAX.
It was a normal trip home — my gate was switched four times in the course of a morning’s wait. There were plenty of steps from one side of that giant place to the other, and back again.
The third switch had me at Gate 48C, which is like an airport cul-de-sac. A bunch of gates in a circle.
I even found a place to sit close to 48C, which was a surprise.
We were already 90 minutes late because the plane we were supposed to use had mechanical issues in Vegas, and we all got a text from American that we had another gate change, and they even said it was because of the issue with the plane. We ended up getting a different one.
The text said we were switching to 48A, which was exactly a quarter turn to my left. I was happy — I didn’t have to move.
But then, about 75 people in my general vicinity all got up and moved about 100 feet to stand closer to 48A.
That one had me scratching my head. There was no reason for anyone to move an inch, because when they were ready to take us to Indy, the door was right in front of us.
So most of those 75 folks stood for almost an hour waiting, because as I said, seating is at a premium in the cul-de-sac. A guy had literally sat down next to me, with a water and two sandwiches, 10 minutes earlier, and he packed everything up and moved that 100 feet. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he could have stayed put and still made his flight.
But hey, that’s what makes for a fun Sunday afternoon at a major airport.
A couple other items before I head back to more football here in LA.
First, I want to send my personal condolences and those of our local softball family to the family of Jack Gelzleichter on his passing.
Jack was a long-time softball player and coach, and he was a valued member of the governing board for the softball association. Jack was always concerned about where money was spent, and he always asked great questions. Our thoughts go out to his family.
Last item, and also about softball. We are looking for some more adult teams to push our numbers back up a little. If you and some friends, male or female, have any little itch to get a team together and come play in the dirt with us at Elston, we’d love to have you. Info can be obtained at Park and Rec, but most everyone in town has my phone number already, so reach out.
The first tournament is next weekend!
I hope everyone had a wonderful May Day.
Safe travels.
Jeff Nelson is a frequent contributor to the Journal Review and works professionally for Fox Sports working with the Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Colts and many more professional teams.
