Who's Driving Now?

There are a lot of pointless bumper sticker out there, and some people clutter their back numpers with tiny unreadable stickers not even made for that purpose.  But here is one that caught our attention on the back of a Tesla.

"I'm Probably Not Driving"

We immediately started watching that car to see if it was using human logic.  It made a few odd maneuvers, like stopping in the middle of a triple-wide crosswalk.  But of course we have seen plenty of human drivers do that.  In the end, we couldn't tell, so we figured it was a human driver and the bumper sticker was just trolling everyone.  Or was it?

This brings up the question of whether the automated driving systems are advanced enough to handle vehicles in the real world.  It sounds like tests are going well.  There are so many variables, and surely some combination will confound the software.   Then again, human drivers drink and talk on phones, and have anger issues.  Maybe we should just turn it over to well-coded systems and let the drivers just live in their little bubbles without bothering anyone.

One other question ... as soon as I typed the title for this piece, I heard a certain Journey song in my head.  Do you hear it, too?

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