Nor sure if it was an Ernie, or Herbie moment. Second encounter with a driverless car in my Vancouver lifespan. Today’s managed to escape from a car park, drive itself out and cross the road over two lanes of traffic mount the kerb and then reverse before refusing to dismount the kerb. It sat. People approached. It had managed such an extraordinary circuit I thought maybe there was someone in it we couldn’t see who’d had a heart attack.

The people tried the doors locked. Looked inside no one. And pointed to where it had emerged from in disbelief.

The last car that did this was an old yellow beetle which sailed past my knees as I was stood at the bus stop. Today’s was a fairly dull black volkswagon hatchback car.

The curious thing was it emerged from right beside the alley where you drop off your unfortunates in a brown bag if you’ve had food poisoning to the health board for testing. Not to be getting all George Bataille … but…emerging with force is a bit of theme in that locale.