A dose of smart love on Valentine’s Day

A dose of smart love on Valentine’s Day | Brief letters

AI romance | Giving thanks | Hotting up in bed | £2 coins | Pub queues

Confirmation that the world has gone mad: I got into my car, a Smart #1, on Saturday, and before it did anything else, the car said “Love is in the air” and wished me a happy Valentine’s Day. As a matter of principle, I refused to speak to it for the rest of the day.
Ray Woodhams
Cawthorne, South Yorkshire

• I tried to avoid saying thank you for a whole day and ended up feeling miserable and ungrateful (The hill I will die on: Britons love saying thank you – I think we should ban the phrase, 7 February). I feel much better now that I have gone back to saying it whenever I feel grateful for something someone has done.
Roger Mears
London

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The car made pedestrians second-class citizens. Don’t let driverless vehicles push us off the road altogether | Adam Tranter

If we want autonomous tech to succeed it must be designed to share space with us, rather than forcing us to adapt to it Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking commissioner under mayor Andy Street This week, the UK government announced its plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK. One of the key companies involved noted that London presents a significant challenge: “It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.” There’s more than one problem with that statement – and it encapsulates so much of what’s already going wrong in the adoption of driverless cars. For a start, “jaywalking” isn’t even a thing in the UK. We thankfully have no such concept or offence. Unlike in many US cities, pedestrians here are free to cross the road wherever they see fit. And thank goodness for that. Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking co...

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