Editing 1559: Driving

{{comic
| number    = 1559
| date      = August 3, 2015
| title     = Driving
| image     = driving.png
| titletext = Sadly, it probably won't even have enough gas to make it to the first border crossing.}}



== Explanation ==
A {{w|self-driving car}} is a car that requires no human interaction to navigate streets to a destination. Thus, when [[Black Hat]] places the rock that weighs "as much as a small adult" into the car's seat, he begins the process of fooling the car into thinking it has an occupant when it does not. His purpose in doing so appears to be to send the car to {{w|Anchorage}}, {{w|Alaska}}, which is presumably far from where Black Hat and [[Cueball]] are standing, thus taking the car far away from its owner with relatively little effort on the part of Black Hat. This is the kind of evil prank Black Hat is infamous for.

The title text references the fact that driving to Alaska from the continental or continuous 48 states requires two border crossings, once into Canada from the mainland, and once from Canada into Alaska. The car apparently begins some distance from the Canadian border, since it will likely run out of gas before reaching Canada. Black Hat expresses regret about this probable failure; presumably he was looking forward to the encounter between the border guards and the vehicle's "occupant". However even if the car does not go to Anchorage he will have created a serious problem for its owner. A typical car can travel 300 to 800 miles (500 to 1300 kilometers) on a tank of gas, and with no way to know the car was going to Alaska, the owner will have to search an area with that radius, and will probably fail to find the car before it is towed.

Nevada was the first state to allow the testing of self-driving cars on public roads. But there are now several states in the US (as well as several countries in Europe) that allows this type of test. It is thus not possible to place Black Hat and Cueball based on this, except that they are in mainland USA (the only region precisely two international border crossings away from Alaska by land). At the time of the release of this comic there were no places where these cars could be used privately. So unless a tester left his car running (unlikely), then this comic must be set in the (near?) future.

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat, carrying a large rock, is walking toward Cueball. Small fragments (earth?) falls of the rock leaving a trail after Black Hat.]
:Black Hat: Would you guess this weighs as much as a small adult?  
:Cueball: What? 
:Cueball: Uh, probably. 

:[Black Hat walks past Cueball who turns to look after him.]
:Black Hat: Great! 

:[Black Hat has walked out of the frame. Cueball is looking in the direction he left. Several noises and voices are coming from off-panel.]
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>Thump*
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Please fasten your seatbelt.''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>click*
:Black Hat (off-panel): Take me to Anchorage, Alaska. 
:Car voice (off-panel): ''Navigating''
:Off-panel: <nowiki>*</nowiki>slam*

:[Black Hat walks back in the panel towards Cueball. The R's in Vrrr... continues to get smaller. The last two is not really readable.]
:Car driving off:''Vrrrrrrrrrrrr<small>rrrr<small>rrrrr</small></small>''
:Black Hat: I love self-driving cars. 
:Cueball: ...Whose car was that? 
:Black Hat: Dunno, but they shouldn't have left it running. 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]