waymo

We had a Waymo car visit our cul-de-sac the other day. They have been all over Miami, but this one came to our own neighborhood.

So many of us happened to be out on the street at that time too. It was early morning and I was out talking to our condo maintenance man. An elderly neighbor was waiting for an Uber, I helped her get to the sidewalk to wait.

A bunch of workers were on the street – they have been here for many months putting new drainage pipes in and raising sidewalks and the streets themselves. They were putting blacktop down, finally after all this time – the final stages to the long job.

A police officer wea present, they always are when work crews are present.

We also had a bunch of guys putting new pavers down on our property, so they were present, and so were some of our neighbors from next door.

We were all there, about 20 people, all doing our own thing. But when the Waymo came up the street, we all stopped and watched quietly in unison.

The street was blocked at the corner because the steamroller and other equipment were putting down the blacktop, so you could not drive by. There were barricades and a big sign saying “Street Closed” And there was the Waymo. Just staring at us all, wanting to cross the “Street Closed” sign and all the big orange barricades. We all stared back.

The Waymo stared us down for a long time and then slowly turned around. It took a bunch of maneuvers to get it turned around, but it started heading back up the road, from where it came.

One of the workers joked with my older neighbor saying that she should not get into the driverless car for her doctor’s appointment. But luckily, that was not her Uber. Her Uber was trying to get to her on the one-way street where the Waymo had turned around and was heading.

It was almost like a cowboy gunfight standoff. Both the Waymo my neighbor’s Uber just sat there staring at each other. There was nowhere to go.

The Waymo was not going to budge and finally the other car, the Uber, turned into a driveway and allowed the Waymo to pass by.

The Waymo won that fight.

We all laughed and turned back to whatever it was we were all doing. It was a funny way to start a Friday morning.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

I finally saw one of those self-driving Waymo cars, although I suspect that I have been seeing these “smart cars” all the while. I think I have seen them, but have been thinking they were a Google Maps cars with the camera thing on the roof.

But recently there was a news report about the Waymo cars and I realized that’s what I’ve been seeing. Then the other day, one drove by and a friend said to me, “Isn’t that one of those self-driving cars?” And I realized it was.

I’m thinking now of all the times I’ve seen the car, but I never really looked at it, or looked inside it. I’m always in my own world and I’m not really nosey, so I guess I never looked over at the car to see who was in it – to see that nobody is in it! But I will look over now and probably freak out at the empty car.

To think, they’ve been in front of me, behind me and around me and have been interacting with me and I didn’t even know it!

I read, I think on Reddit, that Kyle from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (RHOBH) is using the term “Hey Siri!” often, because she uses Siri a lot to do things for her like call her sister Kathy Hilton, remind her of an address, things like that. And the issue with viewers, according to Reddit, is that her voice is carrying through the tv to their own devices and it’s calling Kathy Hilton, who they don’t know or it’s doing things they don’t want done like looking things up on the phone, etc.

Has that ever happened to you?

I don’t watch RHOBH, but it’s happened with other people via the tv and even if I say something out loud to myself while driving or something, Siri sort of does it. She opens up the phone and starts looking for answers to questions I didn’t even ask.

Social media sites seem to be more sensitive or maybe it’s the iPhone that’s more sensitive. I seem to send or almost send things to people that I don’t want to send.

Three times I’ve sent a direct message to one of my cousins by accident, and the odd thing is that all three things had to do with Broadway or acting or something related to that – and he’s an actor! But it wasn’t intentional, I didn’t even think of my cousin and I wasn’t interested in the meme or article.

I wasn’t following these sites who posted these Broadway messages and memes. For instance, one was about a Broadway show closing soon, and I was just deleting it or swiping through that post, but it swiped right into my cousin’s Direct Message and was sent to him. This happened three times – messages sent by me, going to my cousin regarding something about acting to my cousin who is an actor.

Very strange – and he never responded – I presumed he just thought I was hacked and it was a random message from the hacker. I don’t think he ever opened them. I asked him about it when I saw him and he said he never saw them. I don’t think he uses Facebook Messenger, so he probably never did see them.

One time I sent someone, I think it was my electrician or a/c guy, a picture of something when I was swiping trying to delete a picture! I don’t remember what it was, but luckily it wasn’t something personal or important.

Yesterday, I was home alone, and I heard a guy talking. I got startled. It was in my pocket, some video started playing and that was the voice I heard.

Smart phones? Too smart.

Till next time . . .

Read my blog: Tomversation.com
Subscribe via email to my cartoons here – they will arrive each Friday plus 2 short blog posts during the week.