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That's my boy!

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waltesefalcon

waltesefalcon

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My youngest son and I were watching TV this morning and a commercial for the new Infiniti came on touting the cars "driving aids" that detect whats going around the car and will apply brakes if you are about to rear end something, or or alert you if you are about to drift into another car, etc. The guy driving is thinking about everything under the sun other than actually driving and the car saves him from several near collisions, and then it ends with the line; "It's instinct to protect leaves you free to drive." When it was over my son turns to me and says; "That guy wasn't driving, the car was doing everything for him." I'm happy to know that his BS detector works just fine. For once, one of these terribly annoying nanny car commercials doesn't annoy me because I know it annoyed him.
 
I saw the same commercial and reacted the same way!
 
We're coming to "The Rise of the Machines"!

...I want a hand-held EMP device! :devilgrin:
 
What bothers me more than ever,is that people consider this as normal.
On the last few rental cars that we've had,I had to get the owner's manual out,
so I could figure out how to operate the heater/A/C/radio controls.
If I ever buy one of these newer cars down the road,I'd take one without
the screen in the dash.
WHY do we need all of this CRAP?

- Doug
 
Doug, it sounds like you could live with my rule of thumb; don't buy anything built during or after the oil embargo, unless it is for your wife.
 
I was talking to a trade school teacher the other day. He taught auto repair. It used to be work on the older cars so that you would learn the basics of the various parts of the motor worked without electronic aids. The school did away with that and wants students to start with the electronic stuff, OBDII and so forth. So, instead of wrench-turners, the school is now turning out button-pushers. It frustrated him to the point where he threw in the towel.

Technology does make certain aspects of our lives considerably easier, but there is something to be said about doing something the old-fashioned way. I think that you need to know how to do things without the electronic aids, and when you do use the aids, it makes you that much more competent.
 
David, I think that is where the whole phasing out of the term mechanic in favor of technician in dealerships comes in. The technicians these places have now days are not to be confused with mechanics. Instead of understanding the mechanics of a car and being able to diagnose a problem with their minds, they are taught to plug in a computer and then replace the part it says is faulty.
 
All part of the "dumbing down" process. Some of it by design, some by circumstance. Jobs at making things have been usurped by 'service industry' positions. We're becoming a nation of waiters and chambermaids. The exceptions will be the new wealth generators (I hope).
 
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