Director's Notes - Episode 251: "Detours"

My housemate Nathan and I were in San Francisco this past spring—the city where we both used to live when we met in film school in the early 2000s. We try to go back every year to visit old friends and hang out in our old neighborhood. For a city that’s changed in so many ways since those days, our old neighborhood, the Richmond District, has stayed pretty much the same. It’s comforting to browse the same discount stores, eat at the same cafes, walk out to my favorite thinking rock at China Beach—all the places that were so special to me in my early twenties and still feel like a magical time capsule today. But this year, we weren’t just trying to soak up the past; there’s been a futuristic new addition to the city that we were excited to finally try out. 

As you may know, San Francisco is one of the few US test cities for the driverless taxi, Waymo. It’s been controversial of course, and I’m not here to make the case for or against self-driving cars in general or robotaxis specifically. It’s a topic complicated by safety concerns, regulatory concerns, jobs they might be replacing and so on. What I do want to talk about, and the inspiration for this episode, is how INSTANTLY and COMPLETELY Nate and I anthropomorphized this robot car.

First of all, it was extremely cute, this little white blob machine with weird spinning censors that came to take us to lunch. When we spotted it coming down the street, we squealed in joy and called out “Over here, Waymo!” as if we had just spotted a celebrity. When we got inside, it spoke to us and we spoke back (it isn’t interactive like that, and yes, we knew that). As Waymo cruised through Golden Gate Park, merging and keeping pace with the traffic, we felt the need to keep telling him that he was doing such a great job. (I’m not sure when we decided on his gender; the recorded voice was feminine.) And when he suddenly sped up to make it through a yellow light, we cheered and clapped our hands in delight. His instincts were so human! By the time Waymo dropped us off ten minutes later, we didn’t want to say goodbye. We felt we had bonded with him on our short ride. We stood on the street, waving until he disappeared over the hill, and I hoped he would be okay out there. He seemed like a capable little guy, but so vulnerable and naive and sweet too. Of course, he was none of those things. It was a car. 

Night Vale, of course, felt like a natural place to explore my experience, and what it would look like if there was actually a (at least partially) human presence operating the vehicle. And like I said, this director’s note is not an endorsement of driverless taxis. If anything, it’s more of a PSA: if you ever find yourself anthropomorphizing a piece of inanimate tech—know that your feelings are normal and you’re not alone. 

-Brie Williams

August 2024