Just seems like years, but the advanced persistent heat and drought puts the warp on my mind like the ill routed exhaust on my Jeep Commando put on my collection of select LPs back in 1989. (I’d still weep for the lost items from the Slash, Celluloid, and Shimmy Disc catalogs, knowing that my still suit would recover the fluids)

None the less, exploring the hostile environment the past couple of weeks has lead to some thematic car spotting.

The Zs: New and Latest

This very shiny black with shiny black wing was headed west at sunset. Exposed trumpets, not too stanced, big ol wing, and vanity plate would may an easy mark for targeted anti-fun enforcement squads. Not my thing, but it looked too nice to be abused.

Days later, the sort of non-event of the new Z.

I guess I was expecting more presence from the new Z. I barely noticed it until were were right behind it. The grey blue color hides its shape well. This was the first one I’d seen in the wild, but it would be nice to see more.

Our robot friends have established a presence on the roads.

A pair of these unmanned Chevy econoboxes were jamming (Econo?) up Lamar in close quarters like a pair of motorcycle cops. The thousands (tens of thousands?) of dollars of sensing equipment were camouflaged enough to me that I really didn’t notice their exposed surveillance entrails until I looked at the pictures. I saw one of these, with a human in the front seat prowling the neighborhood where I take my walk. The block I walk is near a rehabilitation center and a school for the visually impaired, and is commonly used as a test track to learning to use a cane to navigate streets and sidewalks. This block also has two bus stops (a local and an express). At the end of the block is a three way stop drivers (even the bus drivers) take as a suggestion rather than an order. I’m not sure the robot could get what was going on – does it recognize the significance of a white cane? Will it make the left hand turn and not slow down? I don’t know. I remain a heavy skeptic of self driving cars. The world is a crazier place than most algorithms recognize. And outsourcing our responsibilities for safety to a machine seems like a step in the wrong direction.

This Italian/German sporting coupe was parked at the comic book store next to my Zero. I still think I had the higher ratio of cool to wheel.

While waiting to get inspected, I spotted this very clean Cadillac, but think the SLAB execution would been better on a Buick. I’m not even sure if that isn’t a Buick with just Caddy badges on it.

Not pictures – a Lucid Air (which my wife spotted) and a really clean red 1982 Camry.