As I mentioned in a post this weekend, I was out visiting one of my sons in the beautiful city of San Francisco. Amazing place I spent part of my life near and he is now starting his life of independence there.

I won’t go in too much about this but I can’t write this and not say how amazing my son has become and I am really so enormously proud of him. He is on the path to greatness I have no doubt and seeing him and having him show me around the city I used to know as mine and which is now his was amazing and very emotional.

Enough gloating, my kid is better than yours. I’ll just leave it at that.

Anyway while I was there seeing all the things which have not changed in the 30 years since I left and all the many things which have, I kept seeing these little cars with what appears to be a lot of radar equipment on top. I didn’t think much about them at first, perhaps writing them off as the latest car craze kids are into, but then my son asked me if I had seen the robot cars yet.

Robot cars, what robot cars?

As if on cue one drove by. Sure enough the little car with the crazy contraptions all over it has nobody inside of it at all.

Not just no one driving but no one at all inside. This little robot car was just joy riding all over The City like it belonged there. I suppose because it did.

As if that wasn’t bad enough now that I new what I was looking for these things were everywhere and not just in San Francisco. They were everywhere we went all weekend. I would sometimes see four or five at a time and apparently they go all night.

Cause why not right? I mean robots don’t need to sleep and I’m even with all the techie crap on them I bet those little cars get pretty good gas mileage.

On my last day there (yesterday morning) after being passed by three of these things in a row, my son asked me what I thought about them. My answer was I felt many things but mostly I think they are creepy.

I asked my son what he thought having been dealing with them longer and his answer amazed me than and still does. He said,

I just think with all the things we have going on in the world right now and all the suffering maybe working on a car that can drive itself isn’t the the thing we should be focusing on.

I told you he was going places…..