Last night I had a 10pm game in Lacey (some 60 miles away) so after I put the kids to bed, and as the sky turned blue for the first time after a whole day of rain, I drove south. After ten minutes it started raining cats and dogs again.
I only discovered this weekend when watching a YouTube video that our car has autonomous driving capabilities. It can’t drive everywhere, but on a freeway it can steer, managing bends in the road, modifying its speed and even changing lane as requested. Even in heavy rain it was capable of doing this. I’m not totally comfortable with trusting a car all the time, but having it handle the drive down the freeway was incredibly relaxing. It wasn’t as if I could be sitting in the back having a sandwich, but the mental load was far less than in any car I’ve had before.
I got to Lacey, to find the person I was playing had double booked himself and was playing two games simultaneously, so we didn’t finish our match until 1am, and then after a chat I didn’t get going until 1:30. If I’d had to drive on my own without assistance I’d have been quite worried, but the car, unflappable, got me home without fuss, and then, unstressed from the drive, I went straight to sleep.
I felt ghastly today on 4 hours’ sleep, but battled through. Work was light (a few meetings) but tomorrow it kicks back into full gear again. The car sits on the driveway, chilling out after its big effort. Thanks car!