Driver's Education, Thursday, Period 1

[10secondcar]

"I think it's high time we got off this block, don't you?" Brian asked his students at the beginning of class, and then, without waiting for their answer, went on. "So, today you'll be racing through the streets of LA. They're conveniently empty for you, of course, and you'll be getting your course from the GPS mounted on your car's dash. For those of you who haven't seen one of these before, it will show you the next section of the course and alert you to upcoming turns. Now, if you miss a turn, it'll just reroute you and get you back on course, but, as always, if you crash, you go back to the starting line. Are there any question?" After a pause, he clapped his hands together and said, "Then let's get started."

Comments

Take Another Turn

[10secondcar]

You can even independently explore virtual Los Angeles, as long as you don't mind the GPS telling you it's rerouting over and over.

Re: Take Another Turn

[spin_kick_snap]

"I wonder how accurate this is," Kathy mused aloud, looking at the familiar tangle of roads. "My neighborhood's not far that way." She pointed towards where Koreatown was located. "I wonder if my building's in the sim. It's pretty old."

Did she want to drive over there and see? Or would the creepiness of the otherwise empty city make a quick jaunt to her neighborhood unsettling as all heck?

Re: Take Another Turn

[not_every_mage]

"Want to drive over and look?" Anders offered. "I'd even tag along so you don't get lonely on your journey."

Re: Take Another Turn

[spin_kick_snap]

"You want a guided tour of the city?" Kathy offered, giving him a smile to try to offset the weirdness she was feeling. "You'll never get a better opportunity, since this is the only time the city won't be seven cars deep in traffic."

Re: Take Another Turn

[not_every_mage]

"One of the benefits of it being imaginary," Anders ventured, smiling back. "I'm up for it if you are. Do you think it's really the whole city? That would be massive."

Re: Take Another Turn

[spin_kick_snap]

"Probably not," Kathy said, because it would be huge. She slid behind the wheel of her car. Her city, she drove. Just made sense. "But, here's hoping Koreatown exists properly. If the sim takes it from something like GoogleEarth or whatever, my building will be here. It was built in, like, the 70s or something. It'll probably just be a facade, but you can at least see some of the places I go and visit when I'm home."

Re: Take Another Turn

[not_every_mage]

"A tour of Kathy's world," Anders said, and slid into the passenger side without complaining. "I'm not sure whether I should feel honored or scared."

Re: Take Another Turn

[10secondcar]

"It's mostly the stock simulation for LA," Brian responded, "so it goes pretty far. I modified it a little, but mostly just the areas we're using. So I guess it depends on how close the sim or my LA is to your LA." The areas he'd altered were very accurate to his LA, though. Brian knew his streets.

Re: Take Another Turn

[spin_kick_snap]

"Please tell me your LA has a K-town," Kathy said, turning wide eyes up to Brian. "Because otherwise you are don't know what you're missing out on and you'll have simultaneously made this sim LA even weirder than it already is, all empty and echoing."

Re: Take Another Turn

[10secondcar]

"Of course," Brian said. "And there's no traffic because I didn't want to give some of you more things to crash into."

Re: Take Another Turn

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh, yeah, I figured that much, but still. An empty LA is just kinda...creepy." It made her think of half-remembered talks from that weekend of the future. "No tourists? No street artists? No one panhandling or cussing us out? It's just weird."