Snooze and not lose

If you are driving through Nevada and happen to see a truck driver who is eating a barbecue sandwich with both hands, and then you see him disappear altogether and return with a beer in his hands, and finally you are sure he is nodding off to sleep, don't be alarmed. He is probably just the lucky benefactor of the latest development in self-driving vehicles. Or perhaps he isn't, in which case you still shouldn't be alarmed. You should panic.

But a few self-driving trucks are now operating on long stretches of Nevada highways. This, as explained by a news article, is to "allow the driver to focus on other tasks." The first such task that comes to mind is the all-important cell phone call—using both hands, of course—to somebody the driver knows so that he can say, "Guess what I'm doing right now!"

After this urgent task, depending on the extent of the driver's social network, there might be several such calls to make. Maybe even enough to last the entire trip across Nebraska, at which point the driver, assuming he is entering another state that frowns upon autonomous vehicles, would reluctantly return to a less important task: driving the truck himself.

What early-20th century drudgery.

Of course, to make his job "more easy and efficient," as the news article notes, the driver would likely take a few naps, being sure to lean against the driver's window with his face all smooshed into it so that passing motorists become quite alarmed and/or panicked. Self-driving is not likely to make their lives easier and more efficient.

But there is hope, hope that they too might someday leave the driving to the car and concentrate on other tasks. I personally could use some extra naptime. With my face all smooshed against the window.