Getting Stuck in Traffic

Traffic Jam on Snoqualmie Pass

And once again, the 52-week blogging challenge. This week's prompt is "Getting stuck in traffic."

I hate getting stuck in traffic. I may complain about the small town I live in, but at least there aren't traffic jams. But when I go to the Seattle area, all bets are off. Seattle didn't invent the perpetual traffic jam, they just perfected it.

Sometimes going over Snoqualmie Pass you get into traffic, especially in the winter. But sometimes for no apparent reason.

And of course, coming back from seeing the August 21st eclipse, I ran into lots of traffic.

Now, as you should know if you read this blog, I like to drive. And I'm not looking forward to autonomous cars. But during traffic jams, I'd gladly hand over driving duties to a computer.

Audi has developed something called "Traffic Jam Pilot." They are going to offer it in their A8 top-of-the-line model. Unfortunately, it's not coming to the U.S. due to the regulatory and litigious environment (we like to sue)*. But I would love to have that on my car for traffic jams. So that is one good thing about autonomous cars: no more driving in traffic jams. In fact, it is thought autonomous cars may eliminate traffic jams. Which would be nice. But I'd still miss driving.

How do you feel about being stuck in traffic? Let me know in the comments below.

*"Traffic Jam Pilot" is beyond anything in the U.S. market right now. It is a nearly autonomous system that doesn't require the driver to pay attention like Tesla and Cadillac do. It would have been the first SAE Level 3 autonomous system sold in the U.S. Until the regulations dealing with nearly or completely autonomous cars are sorted out, it probably won't come to America.