My husband can’t wait until self-driving cars are available and affordable for normal people. He envisions us shuffling into a car that chauffeurs us hither and yon in our golden years.
Me? Not so much. I’m having a hard time cozying up to the idea of allowing a computer to drive my car while I sit in the backseat and sip Ensure.
Google’s experimental “robot” vehicles are already a fixture on the streets around Silicon Valley, where one of my sons and his family live. I don’t like to think about the people I love sharing the road with robo-cars, even though the Google cars actually have an excellent safety record so far.
After logging thousands of miles, the self-driving cars have caused only one minor fender-bender. Human drivers have been at fault in all the other accidents involving Google vehicles.
So yes, it certainly seems computers are better drivers than humans, which should not be surprising. Let’s face it, some folks are just seriously impaired—by alcohol, drugs, electronic devices or a substantial lack of common sense—and have no business operating a car.
Read through the newspaper, note some of the bizarre human behavior chronicled there, and ask yourself, “Do I feel safe sharing the road with people like this?”
For example, I recently read an article about a man who was caught trying to smuggle 38 turtles in his pants across the Canadian border. Yes, I did too say “turtles in his pants.” The critters were strapped to the man’s legs. So many questions occur to me.
And then I read about a man in Florida who was arrested after throwing a 3.5-foot alligator through the drive-thru window at a Wendy’s restaurant. No reason was given for this random act of idiocy … not that there could possibly be a good one.
So, would I rather share the road with vehicles controlled by the collective genius of Google brainiacs or people like this turtle-smuggler and gator-tosser?
When I put it that way, I believe I’d hypothetically choose the Google cars. But I may not feel that way if my husband gets his wish and we end up owning a self-driving car someday. If that happens, trusting that car won’t then be hypothetical or easy for me.
Yielding control to these sophisticated cars shouldn’t freak me out so much, given the fact that for 40 years, I’ve been learning how to give up control of my life to something—Someone, actually—I can’t see or figure out: God.
“I Surrender All” is more than a nice old hymn—it’s supposed to be a reality for Christ-followers.
As I’ve travelled down the path of my life with God at the proverbial wheel, I’ve left some mighty deep fingernail marks in the passenger-side armrest. I’ve stomped the imaginary brake pedal on my side more than a few times, and even occasionally tried to grab the wheel.
But here’s what I’ve seen and what I know: God has taken me to good places, better than I’d ever have found on my own.
Some of those good places were at the end of bumpy, scary roads I would never have chosen to travel down myself.
“Control robs us of curiosity and puts a ceiling on our allowance of God’s possibility in our lives,” author Logan Wolfram writes in “Curious Faith: Rediscovering Hope in the God of Possibility.”
When I consider God’s record, I wonder why I ever question or fear His possibilities, abilities or motivation. Comparing His resume to my own, it’s pretty clear who’s better qualified to “drive” my life.
And those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. – Psalm 9:10