By Susan Govern
The first memory I have of any new car in my family was when my dad bought a 1963 four-door Pontiac Catalina. To me it seemed like riding in a limo. Back then there was no air conditioning in the cars (at least not many had it) so our “A.C.” was four windows down as we drove. I do remember it had a radio which would get all the A.M. stations – pretty exciting, right?!
Fast forward through the years to when I got my first car – a 1975 Chevy Camaro. Again, no A.C. but it had an A.M.-F.M. radio and a powerful V-8 engine; oh how I loved that car. I spent a lot of time in it – two years of high school and commuting to college for four years, even drove it all the way to California and back during that time. But all good things must come to an end, and I knew once I was working after college it was time to buy a new car and bought myself a two-door Pontiac.
Many cars and two mini-vans later I have seen technology in our vehicles grow and change. Change is coming again – just last night on the news there was a story about the technology of “self-driving cars” becoming a reality – I don’t think I’m quite ready for that.
Don’t get me wrong – there are some things in our cars that I have come to love. The technology that gives us more fuel efficiency is an A-plus in my book (and in my wallet). I love having power windows, A.C., and for our winters – “bun” warming seats, along with a heated steering wheel.
My husband’s car has the same new technology and includes the safety of a back-up camera, and he has G.P.S. capability built right in; which has proven helpful on a few occasions when we forgot the printed driving directions at home on the kitchen counter.
All very nice, but the thought of a computer eventually doing all the driving makes me as nervous as passing a semi on the highway while driving through an ice storm.
Bells and chimes for warnings have their place, but with my luck, a chime would go off and I’d be so busy looking to find out where it’s coming from and why it’s going off that I’d end up being a classic distracted driver – “Oopsy-daisy, off the road I go and into the ditch…well at least the chime has stopped.”
And those “bun-warmers” – nice in the winter, but where the buttons are located in some cars, they are easily turned on without the driver knowing. No one wants to be driving down the road on a 90 degree day and suddenly feel like your backside is getting hot only to discover you leaned on the “on” button by accident. Many ladies deal with hot-flashes enough without technology adding to our discomfort.
We’ve seen computers evolve from machines that take up an entire room to computers we can wear on our wrists. From those early humongous computers to smart-phones, the leap forward in technological advances was a mere “blip” in time. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to imagine that completely self-driving cars may be closer to a reality than many people think. I can only guess that by the time any of my future grandchildren are of age to drive – they won’t have to.
Some of you may remember the old cartoon The Jetsons and how George piloted the family vehicle – a flying “car”. I wouldn’t be surprised if once the leap forward is made to a completely self-driving car, flying cars will soon follow.
Technology can be wonderful, it can be thrilling and it can be scary.
Looking ahead to the (perhaps not too distant) future, changes in how we get from one place to another could either be relaxing and wonderful or as scary as the wildest theme park ride you could ever imagine.
There is an old riddle with the answer being a garbage truck – “What has four wheels and flies?”
I am guessing in the future that question will be answered more like this:
“What has four wheels and flies? – Answer – My great-grandchild’s new car.”
