Frozen Waymos
The recent news of Frozen Waymos backed up San Francisco traffic during a widespread power outage got me thinking. It wasn't just a traffic snarl; it was a stark reminder of how deeply integrated, yet inherently fragile, our automated systems can be when faced with unexpected external disruptions. We rely on these smart systems to make our lives easier, but what happens when the very infrastructure they depend on crumbles? As someone who lives and breathes Google Apps Script (GAS), this incident resonated deeply with my own experiences in building and maintaining automated solutions. While my scripts aren't navigating city streets, they often perform critical background tasks, fetching data, updating spreadsheets, and sending notifications. The underlying principle is the same: automation is powerful, but its reliability is only as strong as its weakest link – be it a power grid, an internet connection, or an external API. In my 5 years of extensive work with GAS, I've seen …
