In Africa, a dazzle (herd) of zebras race across the open Serengeti. The drops of rain fall away, off their striped coats, as the buzz (cloud) of horseflies veer away without making a landing. Beside the dazzle, a frazzle (fleet) of electric cars bounce happily along, not one interfering with the fun frolic of another.

How is it that a frazzle of zebras, a buzz of horseflies and a dazzle of electric cars can coexist compatibly on the wide plains of the Serengeti?

The answer may reside in the stripes on those horses and in the eyes of those horseflies.

To understand this better, consider the age-old question, “Why do zebras have stripes?”

Some say the stripes provide camouflage in the high grasses of the Serengeti hiding the zebras from the hungry lions. No. Others say the stripes on the coats of the running animals dazzle and distract the predators leaping in hungry chase. No. It has been suggested that because each zebra has lines unique to that animal, the markings are their names and how they are recognized among themselves. Nice try, but No, again. Then, the engineers speculate the alternating black-and-white lines differentially moderate the flow of air across the animal’s skin producing a cooling effect in the warm climes of the African continent. Creative, but, sorry, No. No, No, No and No.

Okay, what is the answer?

Horseflies have insect eyes. Those eyes are compound eyes composed of many small eyes. Think of a bulging checkerboard in a round and rounded space. All those mini-eyes are great for seeing all over and pinpointing just the right approach to land on an unsuspecting critter’s back. Now, think of an airplane making a precise landing on a wonderfully wide and clear landing field. That’s what the fly’s eyes should see. Next, paint that landing strip with bright, white-and-black, zig-zagging lines of no obvious pattern, and don’t tell our fly-plane or its control-tower-eyes what’s been done. You can hear the tower shouting, “Avert! Avert! Don’t land here. Veer off! Try somewhere else.” The scientific studies have demonstrated that horsefly eyes do not like landings on zebra-striped coats. There are just too many options for even the many-sensored eyes of the flies to process effectively. The result is that the painted horses gallop and the bulging-eyed flies buzz safely together without annoying interaction across the open plain of the Serengeti.

Wow, but what about the cars?

Remember, the cars are driverless. And, how do you drive a driverless car? With many, many eyes. Carmakers call those eyes sensors. Newer cars have them all over. In this, those man-made car sensors resemble the compound insect eyes of our horseflies — which, as we saw above, work great, unless you introduce a confusion factor. A zig-zag pattern with no clear mathematical or algorhithmical organization would be a wonderfully challenging confusion factor. So, I’m proposing our emerging electrical car manufacturers take advantage of the new knowledge of how zebras and horseflies avoid unwanted collisions by testing a frazzle (fleet) of swift driverless cars on the Serengeti next to a racing dazzle (herd) of zebras beneath a surrounding buzz (cloud) of horseflies.

Whew. All you have to do is add the rain. You now have our opening scene: Zebras, flies and cars zipping, soaring and quietly roaring under the bright African sun.

Let’s add a poem and a song for even more fun.

NO GREATER JOY A ZEBRA HAS

THAN AN ELECTRIC CAR TO AVOID

THAT LIKE FLIES HAVE GNAT’S EYES

WHICH OPEN WIDE IN SURPRISE

WHEN STRIPES THEY TOO ENCOUNTER

TO FLAIL, FLOUNDER AND RECOUNTER

BOUNCING HAPPILY AWAY AT THEIR SIDES

SAFELY CONFUSED BY SUCH A WONDROUS SIGHT

Now the song. it’s an old favorite. Notice the eyes. Could those be electric horsemen?

https://youtu.be/7Qq8m-1wYME

Thanks for stopping by.

See you soon.

Again.

Grandpa Jim