Climb aboard Horse 7.0: You can’t escape the smart car of the future

Recently, I purchased a big-screen plasma TV for our bedroom (no comments please). It is designed to be unprogrammable. The manual is 60 pages of flow charts. We wanted to throw the TV out the window and get another brand, but each of the brands use the same software – we were doomed. But finally, after an hour or so, we were able to enjoy the shows.

My Mac computer is similar to that TV. The latest download is 10.5.1. Must we have updates each month? Can I really write this column better or faster with the new, more complex typing aids? And what will the future hold? Gotta do the updates, no matter what. It’s like the story about the scorpion and fox. The story bears re-telling.

A fox and a scorpion are on the west side of a small river. Both wish to go to the east side. The fox can swim, but it is a long swim. The scorpion can’t cross without drowning. So the scorpion says, "May I ride on your back across this stream?"

The fox replies, "Are you nuts? You will sting me and kill me."

"That makes no sense," sneers the scorpion. "If I sting you, we both die."

"True," replies Mr. Fox. So the scorpion mounts the fox and starts the journey. Midway, the scorpion stings the fox. The fox asks with his dying breath, "Why did you sting me knowing we both will die?"

Quoth the scorpion: "Because I am a scorpion."

We all do things because we cannot control our own destiny. This applies to life mates, computers and cars. (I won’t even go into the problems with air travel.) Let’s just talk about horses and cars. Horses use fuel at a constant rate per day. Cars use fuel only when ridden. Horses can carry one passenger at a few kilometres per hour, while cars can travel with several passengers at 100 kilometres per hour. Cars are the latest update of the horse. The horse is version 1.0 and the car is version "Horse 6.0."

Several years ago, I wrote a column for Wired magazine titled "Beast on Wheels." The subject was Horse 7.0 – the car of the near future. Most of the predictions I made then are now becoming available or, at least, are offered by the manufacturers. I thought it was worth a look at some of those features I outlined to see how close we are to the smart car of the future.

Brakes
The simple ABS brakes have evolved into stability control. We can expect that the car of the future will attempt to avoid collision as well.