Sacramento To Be Self Driving Car Test Site

The Sacramento Bee reports the new mayorof Sacramento's first official action was to set up Sacramento to be an official test site for new driverless cars. Good for them. Better there than here. Which doesn't mean we won't see driverless cars in Humboldt. Just maybe not as soon, or as many.

I like to think I'm open minded about driverless cars. There's much to be said for the idea, but I'm still leery and imagine myself being chased down the sidewalk by one. Maybe it's my experience with the robots at UCSF medical centers? They have these robots on wheels that buzz around delivering blood and other samples from one place to another. They're about the size of a dishwasher, albeit thinner. As they go down the hallways you'll hear them say, "Crossing the hall", or some such, to warn people of their movement.

I had a more personal experience with one once while trying to escape the floor I was on. I was headed to the elevator and saw a robot ready to enter one. I hurried to try to get on board the elevator with it, but the doors closed on the robot and wouldn't reopen. I stood there trying to push the robot through until a nurse saw me, came over and indicated I needed to go back to my room. Pissed me off but I have no idea what it would have been like in the elevator with the robot. Would it have attacked me?

That sort of thing, with an unthinking robot, makes me leery, although the cars are supposed to be much better. I still say it's better to test them in Sacramento than here.