The Future Has Arrived! Are You Ready?

1/9/2026

The Future Has Arrived! Are You Ready?

[Ed. Note- We interrupt this week’s Top 5 For ‘25 LP countdown for a Special Report on the arrival of the Future! We go now to our correspondent in the field, rex, in Austin, Texas. Take it away rex.]

Good morning from the capital of The Lone Star State where I can report that after a wonderful Japanese meal at Uchiba with daughter Meghan last night, Kimberly and I took a short, 6 minute ride into the future on the way back to our hotel.

Our Waymo arrives flashing Kim’s initials.

Manoeuvring out of the area

During along Cesar Chavez

We loved the ride and will take an autonomous vehicle anytime.

Kimberly is giddy with the ride.

Off to the next assignment

There were 2 “quirky” occurrences.

Firstly the vehicle sped up slightly while making a left turn off Cesar Chavez as oncoming traffic was approaching from a distance. It was totally safe but surprised us a bit. It was much like I would do I’d driving saying “I can safely turn left here but I am going to speed up a bit to be certain as traffic is coming the other way. Given the vehicle drove conservatively, it surprised us a bit! You can see it here just as it starts to turn.

Just before the slightly quick left turn

Secondly, the vehicle did not drive us up to the front entrance of the Fairmont hotel. Rather it went to a small parking lot just beside the hotel. It then proceeded to move around the lot to a few spots telling us it was looking for an appropriate spot to stop before finally ending the ride at the closest point to the side of the hotel entrance.

Somewhat bizarre moves in a parking lot next to the hotel.

All in all it was brilliant, if not somewhat pleasantly disorienting. I look forward to the next one.

So, how do I select a song for today? There were plenty of candidates.

The first obvious choice was the classic new wave tune “Cars” by legend 🇬🇧 GARY NUMAN. While I have become tired of this track over the 40+ years of massive overexposure, there is no denying that with its title, lyrics and the robot sounding vocals of NUMAN it fits.

But I wanted a song with an AUSTIN connection and the ethos of what we are trying to do here at gwrex365.

Sorry GARY.

So today we drive you into the future you with local Austin shoegaze faves RINGO DEATHSTAR and their track “Never Drive” from their 2011 LP entitled “Colour Trip.”

Enjoy the motorik beat. Some of you might complain about the indecipherable lyrics, but don’t. The discombobulation matches sitting in a car watching a steering wheel move without a driver. It was a strange feeling.

In some respects it might have seemed more “normal” if there had been a humanoid robot in the seat. Our personal Jeeves if you will.

On that note, long do you think it will be before Disney has autonomous taxis with replica C3POs behind the wheel conversing wittily with the passengers in an around Orlando?

Not long.

May the bots be with you.

This is rex reporting live for gwilliamrexunderground366.com