New Zealand has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Sure, there’s that whole Hobbit thing and how it’s bringing in millions of dollars in revenue every year for the country, but a little Good vs. Evil battle is nothing compared to: DOGS IN AUCKLAND ARE LEARNING HOW TO DRIVE CARS. Smoothly, may I add.
According to KARE 11 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota (and courtesy of a tip from reader Brent):
After weeks of indoor training on simulators learning how to shift, brake and steer, three shelter dogs actually slipped behind the wheel of a Cooper Mini and hit the road.
Their trainers from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) used a series of instinctive behaviors to teach Monty, Ginny and Porter to operate the vehicle.
The dogs will receive two months of training with help from handlers, and then try their skills solo on a closed test track. (Via)
This can only end well. News footage of cruising canines or it didn’t happen? Here you go:
I’m booking my flight to New Zealand NOW, and when I land, I expect to be picked up a dog chauffeur wearing a hat. I will make the “that was a RUFF flight…the stewardesses didn’t even paws to give me a drink” joke at least 10 times. As with everything in life, I believe The Simpsons said it best:
Just replace “playing poker” with “driving cars,” and yeah, pretty much.
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/679/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/here-is-a-russian-cell-phone-commercial-that-features-a-stop-motion-scuba-diving-dog-uproxx-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/two-legged-dog-walks-upright-gets-new-fancy-arms-150x150.gif)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/here-is-a-dog-dancing-to-mambo-5-uproxx1-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing-29-150x150.jpg)
You doing OK, New Zealand? We’re all worried about you.
DDD…Designated Driver Dog
The only reason that I can think of that Danger didn’t cover this story is that he’s currently enroute to New Zealand to meet the dogs personally.
I swear, officer, that bitch came out of nowhere.
Hee.
It will be interesting to see what dogs do when presented with a yellow light. Do they power through it or slow down a little bit? Inquiring primates want to know.
I am going to assume that the music in that video wasn’t added by the news channel but was actually bumping from the speakers of the car as the dog drove.
I think my heart just grew 3 times its size today.
That dog is played by andy serkis in a mo-cap suit.
Is this a sign of the apocalypse?
Yeah, if I recall it was driving dogs and THEN the locusts
Man, you guys need to take a look back into newspaper archives.
They do this kind of thing from time to time, try to give dogs the ability to do something like humans, for scientific purposes, and it always go awry at some point.
In this case, I’ll shoot the prediction that like previous times, something will go wrong, and it will be because the dogs realize they have new found power that allows them to hit a human head on.
The dogs get angry, and “mess up” and hit someone. Of course they’re not really messing up, their lashing out, it’s their one chance to do such a thing in such a situation.
Wouldn’t you if you were forced to be in a simulator and deal with all this bullshit. No living thing likes being treated like a guinea pig, not us, and not them.