Last week I saw the future. I did not know what to do. So I spoke to it softly. 

I was outside a restaurant in San Francisco called Nopa at the corner of Hayes Street and Divisadero. I was going to call an Uber to get back to my hotel on Sutter Street and Franklin when my friend, who lives in the city, said that he had a better plan. He would call a taxi that would take me to my hotel and then drop him back to his place.

Soon, the taxi came. My friend sat in the back and I got into the passenger seat. I remarked to the driver, who was Polish, that it was a quiet evening. And then, as he glided through the streets, we got to talking about the problem of fentanyl in San Francisco.

I asked him if it was an issue in Poland too. He replied: ‘No, no, not like here. In Poland, we have some problems, but not like this. Heroin was a problem many years ago, but nothing like fentanyl. It's so cheap here, and it kills people quickly. I see them on the streets, young people, just lost. It’s very sad. And dangerous for everyone, not just the addicts.’

I nodded in agreement. My friend in the back seat said nothing. Soon, I was home. I thanked the driver and went into my hotel. 

*

The problem with the above account of being in San Francisco last week is that some of it is untrue or not quite accurate.

Here is what really happened: Yes, I was outside that very restaurant in that very street last week in San Francisco. Yes, my friend called a taxi. Yes, it came. Yes, I sat in the front passenger seat and he sat in the back. Yes, it took me to my hotel and thereafter my friend to his house.

But there the truth stops.

There was no driver. It was a driverless taxi. It came. I got into the front passenger seat. My friend got into the back seat. We closed the doors. It set off.

It drove in a rational way, cautious but not hesitant. It did not swerve or brake too abruptly at any point. On the dashboard there was a wide map of the street ahead. Everything the car did was calm and made sense. It was like a driving lesson from an expert. The car changed lane, having indicated, without any fuss. It waited for the lights to change. It did not go too fast or too slow. It did not annoy any other cars.

The novelty of the driverless car wore off very quickly. It was all easy and ordinary.

Since there was a seat for a putative driver and there was a steering wheel, I did look at the space where a driver might be, or might have been. And I did speak. I did ask him – I presumed it was a bloke – how things were going. I did remark it was a quiet night.

(Needless, to say, since there was, in fact, no him, he did not reply.)

Thus, we never actually spoke about fentanyl, which is, in reality, causing havoc in San Francisco.

But I did not invent the long quote from him about the matter, or not exactly.

Instead, I keyed this into ChatGPT: conversation about fentanyl with Polish taxi driver in San Francisco

And the quote from the driver is from the conversation as offered by AI.

If the driver can be virtual, so too can the conversation.

But the street was real, and so too I was real, or so it felt. And sleep that night was not sounder and deeper than ever before. It was the same as usual.

There was nothing to worry about. I had seen the future. And my friend had paid the fare. Soon, these driverless cars will be everywhere.

Colm Tóibín (October 2024)