For decades, the late, great Bob Uecker told audiences that he entered the world in a taxi under a Milwaukee bridge. It was a story he loved telling, and Milwaukee loved him for it.
Uke passed away earlier this year, but the echoes still hang in the air, waiting for anyone who grew up hearing his voice float through a radio on a hot and humid Wisconsin summer night.
His birth tale carried a deeper hint about how life ignores perfect plans. Families meet new arrivals where they stand, even if the setting feels a wee bit odd, such as a new mother in San Francisco who lived out a modern echo of that old story when she stepped into a Waymo headed for UCSF Medical Center and felt labor pick up speed.
What started as a routine ride to the hospital turned into a plot in a weak soap opera. Contractions grew stronger, while the baby—as they always do—kept to its schedule.
The Associated Press reported that the autonomous car detected unusual movement, contacted emergency services, and continued toward care.
The mother was on her way to the University of California, San Francisco medical center on Monday when she delivered inside the Waymo robotaxi, a Waymo spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. The company said its rider support team detected “unusual activity” inside the vehicle and called to check on the rider and to alert 911.
Waymo, which Google’s parent company, Alphabet, owns, declined to elaborate on how the vehicle knew something was amiss.
The company has said it has cameras and microphones inside and outside the cars.
The taxi and its passengers arrived safely at the hospital ahead of emergency services. Jess Berthold, a UCSF spokesperson, confirmed the mother and child were brought to the hospital. She said the mother was not available for interviews.
The stork arrived before the car reached the hospital, using the shape of a quiet electric cabin rolling through San Francisco, which became a cradle for a brand new life. There were no hands on a wheel, no raised voices, simply a mother focusing through each wave until a newborn's cry filled the space. Traffic didn't travel nearly as fast as joy did, as the only thing anyone cared about was a tiny heartbeat and a future that felt wide open.
The city known for wild headlines, among other brown, smelly things, took a rare and welcome break. A family held their newborn, a driverless car returned to service after a quick cleaning, and the parents walked into the holiday season ready to tell a story their child will share long after the city changes ...again.
A moment, shaped by timing and grace, found room inside a piece of futuristic tech that felt almost humble in its role.
Parents have welcomed newborns in every kind of place, rail cars, farmhouses, fishing boats, taxi cabs rolling under bridges in Wisconsin.
Now, a San Francisco mother joins that long, warm history. Machines evolve, roads change, cities shift, yet the arrival of a child keeps its ancient weight, and cry, a sound that the world stops for, regardless of where it begins.
There may be a time when a birth in an autonomous car feels as routine like a birth in a car driven by us meat-sacks. For now, though, the story carries gentle magic; a tiny life joined a family inside a driverless ride, and the moment fits right alongside the old tales, including the one Bob Uecker shared with a grin for most of his life.
A Milwaukee legend joked about his own wild arrival, while a newborn in San Francisco now starts with a story fit for a city built on reinvention.
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