Someday our three children, one of whom lives with us in Pasadena, Calif., and regularly witnesses our driving, will sit us down and have the conversation nearly everyone our age fears. One child is a journalist. Another is a lawyer. There will be questions. How do you feel about your driving? Are you sure your long trips up the coast are a good idea? How did that bumper get so bent?
Eventually, after listening to our feeble answers, they are going to drop the bomb, the end of life as we know it for California freeway kids like Linda and me. They will want us to stop driving. I have long worried about this. But it recently occurred to me there is a new answer to their sharp questions. We can say Herbie will take us around.
Herbie is the name I am going to give our self-driving car. This stems from my fond memories of the film “The Love Bug.” Linda and I saw the movie in Honolulu during the wonderful week of my 1969 Army rest-and-relaxation leave from Vietnam. Herbie was a Volkswagen Beetle, my father’s favorite car. Herbie had a driver, but he could drive himself.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member