San Francisco, AI version

When I landed in San Francisco last week, for the first time I went through immigration with NO QUEUE at all. Maybe it was timing; sometimes I land concurrently with other large planes from London, China, Japan and India, and I have at least a 45-minute wait. But this day, I walked through the roped off-lanes with no one in front of me, and thanks to the speed of facial recognition software, I stepped up to the machine, was approved and waved on through to collect my bags. No pause, no lengthy standing around, just a hello from the single agent, and waved on. Well! That was new and different.

I used my ride-share app to get picked up from the airport and later dropped off at my son’s apartment. I was able to pay and tip the driver through the app on my phone, all while the app was offering many other adjacent services they can provide. Most of you are familiar with these services. They don’t have these apps (and the related services) on the Isle of Wight, and we usually take public transportation, so this still seems a bit magical.

The next day after a yummy breakfast my son prepared, he used his phone to summon a new generation self-driving car that is currently in the testing phase. As a beta user, he provides feedback on each ride and for now the service is free for him to use. In return he provides copious notes to the company about how the car performs during each ride. This is not our first time in self-driving cars; last year we had a very fun time when my son arranged for us to ride in the newly licensed cars. (See more about that trip here)

A spin around town

·

March 27, 2025

This week I am on the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, one of my favourite places on the globe. We are spending several days hiking and driving in and around Death Valley National Park. We also visited Manzanar National Historic Site, the “War Relocation …

On this day our first ride was flawless, and delivered us to the Pacific Ocean side of the City, near the infamous and now-closed Sutro Baths to begin our walk. Although we could have navigated by using the frequent posted maps provided by the Parks Service, all of us had phones with maps on them to help us navigate: more AI, obviously. From our starting point we walked all along the coast, through the foggy forest with cliff-top views towards the Pacific Ocean, nosing through the posh neighbourhood mansions of Seacliff, and then on through more lovely coastal forests to the Golden Gate Bridge.

At the Bridge we turned into the Presidio, the former Army Base which is now a National Recreation Area that fronts the Bay coastline of San Francisco. We ended up at the newish Tunnel Tops Park, eating yummy food from the food trucks, watching the kids in summer camps running and playing in the many nooks and crannies of the park.

Our next self-driving car was summoned to take us back home, as we were quite tired from the many miles we had covered already. Walking for hours outside is perfect for the day after arriving with eight hours of jet lag; however it IS a bit tiring.

The car headed over the hill and as we came to a stop sign at the end of a block, the indicator that we have come to a stop sign/light came up on the screen. And it stayed red. Still stayed red. The other cars at the intersection came, paused, and eventually went on their way. But our car showed no signs of moving. Cars and pedestrians learned to go around us. Once or twice we moved slightly like we were going to start up, but then stopped. The red light indicator persisted.

Eventually my son pushed the ‘call-if-you-have-problems’ button and a human on the other end answered immediately. This person could see what was going on right away, and knew who was in the car. After a few moments, they were able to reactivate the car to get it across the intersection, and on it’s way again. We relaxed. Then, as we got a block from my son’s apartment, the car suddenly turned left when it should have gone straight, and made another surprising left turn at the next intersection, and the time to destination indicator changed from one minute to four.

We looked at each other, and felt a bit out of control for the first time ever. My son called for assistance again and this time a different person answered. This person seemed to have a bit less urgency as we explained what was going on. The person didn’t think it was a problem, and offered an explanation about some debris in the road that caused the car to deviate. This didn’t quite track with our experience. We tried explaining that we weren’t sure where the car was headed, but whilst we were talking we were delivered to the right address and the car stopped.

We eagerly hopped out of the car. After a moment, we also agreed it was the first time in one of the self-driving cars we ever had felt just slightly out of control and not sure where the car was taking us. But of course it did get us to where we we wanted to go taking only a few minutes extra. We were never in a rush to get to the next place so it was all fine. My son also was given extra ride credits in their regular cars as compensation for each of the two episodes the car had mis-functioned that day.

The rest of our short visit in San Francisco was less AI-driven (couldn’t help the pun, sorry!) and much more traditional: enjoying numerous delicious meals of various nationalities that we don’t get on the Isle of Wight and discovering a variety of new sculptures whilst walking in a nearby park. Mostly I enjoyed revelling in the company of my son and daughter-in law, including her mother who arrived while we were there and who I haven’t seen since their wedding in India last autumn. We also enjoyed running into some longtime friends randomly on the street! Very non-AI.

We watched a couple of the World Cup matches as there are so many nationalities living and visiting San Francisco. It is filled with fans wearing jerseys from around the world. Quite joyful actually! The atmosphere is a good antidote to all the tech that drives so much of the energy in the City right now. We can sit and watch a game together with a bunch of people we don’t know, celebrating the lows and highs, the wins and losses of a bunch of athletes from the same country playing a game against another country. And as has been going on for years and years and years, we are all there enjoying the moment together, no matter where we are from or where we are going the next day. ⚽ 🌍 🌎 🌏

I have since moved location to spend time with my daughter, son-in-law and new granddaughter. As a result I am not spending much time on the laptop or even bothering with the news. I am soaking up the giggles and snuggles and all the baby time I can.

I’ll be back again in a couple of weeks! Hope you are not suffering from the heat that is smothering a lot of Europe and the UK right now. Our kind neighbour has been watering our garden every day, and hopefully helping himself to the strawberries and lettuces.

Until next time,

xoxo Sabrina

Clicking the little ❤️ button helps other people find this, and triggers a little happy dance! 💃

If you know anyone who might like to read these posts, feel free to send this one their way. Just click this button here:

Share

And if you aren’t subscribing already, here’s the button for doing that (it’s free!):

Note: All photos are always author’s own, unless specified otherwise.