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How do it know?
I left Sherman Oaks at 3:15. Got to Ojai at 4:37. Right to the minute. There was unforeseen traffic getting on to the 101. But once I hit Woodland Hills I was going 80. How did the machine calculate for that?
Not that the app is always right. I had to go to the doctor this morning and it said 23 minutes and I left with plenty of time but they were cleaning the HOV lane and I was almost late. So, depend upon the app or not?
Most people use the built-in Apple Maps. It’s the default. You can’t make Google the default, even though I find it more fully-featured and accurate. But I cannot exit this paragraph without writing about Waze, otherwise I’ll be inundated with e-mail. My problem with Waze is… I CAN’T HEAR IT!
There you have it.
I’ve got a top-notch stereo in my car. There’s nothing I like more than blasting it. But if I have to listen for directions I can’t play the Sirius, which is all I do. I guess if I had a more modern machine with Carplay or some other integration the music would know to go down. But driving a 2005… My goal is to never buy another car, to go straight to autonomous vehicles called up on demand. Not sure I’ll make it, but I’m so over the expensive iron paradigm. The truth is, you can barely move in Los Angeles. You can buy a Porsche, but you’ll never employ its characteristics. Except late at night, that’s when I push my machine to the limit.
But every once in a while, when there’s tons of traffic, when I need to get somewhere on time, I utilize the navigation app. And Waze… It takes me to places I’ve never been before. Funny how you can discover new streets in your own backyard. The only problem is too often it has me making lefts against traffic. And everybody’s app has a switch to minimize this, but despite utilizing the latest iteration mine doesn’t.
But it’s like being in a pinball machine. I agreed to meet my friend at the train station in Culver City, for a ride to Pasadena, a supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again. If only public transportation were faster in L.A., if only you could get a seat, never mind a parking place nearby, that’s why I went to Culver City, there’s a giant lot, whereas nearby my house… I’ve either got to take my life in my hands walking through Santa Monica’s seediest neighborhood or jump on Uber for a very short ride. I’ll walk during the day. At night, I don’t think so.
So, I’m making turns off Olympic, driving through Cheviot Hills, getting on the freeway for one exit. It’s fun.
But totally different from the way it used to be, when it came down to reading a map. I’m good at that, maybe it’s my Boy Scout training, maybe it’s my native sense of direction, but those are irrelevant attributes today, now you just pull up the app.
I remember driving cross-country back in ’74. Calling my parents from a pay phone inside Old Faithful Lodge, by the Jellystone geyser. They hadn’t heard from me in weeks. Nobody’s disconnected from their parents that long anymore, and my present Verizon plan has unlimited talk and text for twenty bucks, can you believe that? I remember withdrawing $14 from my savings account to pay my dad back for a long distance call to my friend in Kansas City, two days before I was supposed to fly and visit him. My dad was pissed, couldn’t I wait?
But no one waits anymore.
And no one’s lost anymore, unless they lose service.
And here’s where I tell you you need to be on Verizon and here’s where you e-mail me and tell me I’m wrong. And I can cite surveys, but they won’t sway you. We live in a fact free society wherein our cellphone company is a badge of honor. But still, Verizon has the best coverage, not only voice, but data, and today data is everything, I have LTE all over Vail whereas I text people on AT&T and T-Mobile and they don’t get it for hours.
So, I drove up the 101 pushing the buttons. Howard was talking about Ronnie and on No Shoes Radio Sammy Hagar was playing an acoustic take of “Eagles Fly,” my favorite track by him.
And on Fox they were talking about Hillary’s e-mails and on MSNBC they were talking about Trump’s peccadilloes.
And I’m cruising along in the Indian summer weather looking for Highway 33.
And I’m worried about missing the turn, but I pick up the phone and see the blue dot is aligned with the designated route on Google Maps and everything is copacetic.
It’s a brave new world we live in. One where we count on so much that didn’t even exist mere years ago.
But one thing’s for sure, putting the pedal to the metal, twisting and turning on the California highways, it makes me feel alive and free.
And that’s what we all want to be.
P.S. What the hell, here’s the definitive report on wireless service, read it and make your own decision:
