The Loved Up Girl Next Door: Machines (and Heartbreak, too) 💔🚗

Hi! I’m Kayla Perez— your local Autonomous Vehicle Safety Engineer during the day and kind of a romantic at night. 🌟 You might picture my life as all algorithms and crash test dummies (ok, it mostly is), but beyond the safety manuals, protocols and endless iterations of code, there is a heart that beats in rhythm (and has suffered its fair share of trials). I would like to share a journey with you—one where I have loved, lost, and dedicated my career (literally) to improving the streets. Buckle up. 🚗💨

The One that Got Away (and Took My Heart, Too)

Let’s set the stage: It is 2023. I have graduated squarely in this new-found world and thought to make an impact one self driving car at a time. And then he showed up in the lab—tall, handsome, and with a smile that could completely derail a Tesla. I will call him Alex (because honestly, even his name fit).

Together, we short-circuited the late nights debugging and shared Uber rides. Notably, he whispered remarkable words of wisdom such as “Your neural network architecture is amazing,” and I just about lost my mind. 💘

So here is the kicker. Alex had a girlfriend. Back home. The kind of girlfriend who wasn’t spending her days testing LiDAR sensors to failure. I was just the other woman—except I had no idea until it was way too late. The betrayal? More than a failure mode on a freeway. 💔

The Rebound (and the Collision that Followed)

Enter Jake—charming and reckless “I don’t believe in seatbelts.” 🚩 I know. The irony was not lost on me either. He was all punch, and no brakes, and for a hot minute, I thought I could fix the guy. Spoiler: You cannot debug a human who refuses to lock. We burned bright and heated—until he ghosted me harder than a lost GPS. 📡

Why Love is like Autonomous Driving

1. Trust is everything - whether it is a car or relationship, even with safety standards, if the foundation isn’t solid, it is going to crash.
2. Sometimes you need to recalibrate - heartbreak was an opportunity to refocus on my job, my passions, and not dating boys named after tech bros.
3. The road is unpredictable - but that is what makes it fun?

So here I am—still designing, still growing, still putting faith in love (albeit, it is only reserved for my rescue dog Byte 🐾). Follow along for:
- Tech stories from Autonomous Vehicle safety
- Dating disasters (because someone has to laugh at my pain)
- Life lessons from a girl who is still figuring things out

Let's walk through this wild ride—together. 💻💖 #savetyfirst #heartbreakandhardware