In light of increasing connectivity and gadgets for smart cars, manufacturers need innovative new ways to make cars for people who don’t care about them, yay or nay!
Why, why I ask is the need for humans to constantly stay connected to the web. The actual hard hitting sinister plot being to be able to directly feed relevant Ads through your car’s dashboard to your senses. And in the process reversing us into screen swiping AI. Why is there a constant need to make Artificial Intelligence smarter and Human Intelligence dumber? The most important component in a car is the nut behind the steering wheel, the driver, yes you. You don’t need a million sensors to tell you to stay between the white lines. Is there a need to install a park assist system to operate your Electronic Steering Wheel directing you between two parked cars negotiating basic physics? Your smart cars are making you dumber.
Yes why not. Plonk the idea of a full width screen on the already increasing screen sizes on today’s cars. It’ll have more information, more media options, more targeted advertisements but evidently more distractions. Honda E full-length digital dashboard does make a lot of sense in an ideal world. It has a Honda connectivity features displayed through a battery (pun intended) of 5 screens spread across the entire width of the dashboard. It has an AI based ‘Honda Personal Assistant’ that helps you use voice enabled commands without taking your hands off the steering wheel. Install an application in your phone and it connects to your car for specific features. Hell you’ll be able to drive your connected smart cars through this remote feature as in Asphalt or Need for Speed.
You need an application to allow you to turn on the engine and activate the air-conditioning from your bathroom. All in the pursuit to pre-cool the cabin before you step in. Because Lord God Almighty might suffer an acute attack of a few drops of sweat. All these trinkets means two things. Firstly these are just electronics which add to complexity increasing initial costs while buying an LTE/5G car. And secondly engineers have to pay more effort to get the software correct without paying due attention to the engine and gearbox.
I heard this from an experienced journalist a long time ago, ‘if you don’t like something, you’ll never be good at it’. So if you bought your car because of the infinite gadgets and on-air services it offers, you might forget the fact that driving is the other major part of the experience which you might neglect. Driving teaches you and calms you at the same time. It is an extensive physics-made-easy lesson.
It is not difficult to drive a motor car. If a Tibetan Mastiff had opposable thumbs, it would be able to do it. But what is difficult is to drive properly with due consideration to other road users. That is what separates us from animals, that whisker of smartness and understanding. We can drive supported by intelligence, that’s why we are humans. To learn an exercise which is done every day is a matter of basic understanding. To perfect it will make the roads safer, you safer and your car’s occupants safer.
It is common sense not to use a mobile phone while driving.
It is also general knowledge not to honk at pedestrians for no reason.
You must know when to use high and low beam of your car’s headlight.
Anybody can learn driving, but under the age of 18years is just wrong.
Traffic is caused by people, not cars.
Road rage is absolutely worthless. Any person driving a car on public road is in essence a ‘driver’. Stop pushing your rank on the less fortunate.
And you shouldn’t need a gigantic infotainment screen in the middle of the dashboard playing video content for entertainment.
While parking when you accidently scrape your car against another because of your clumsiness, it is not just worth a ‘sorry’. You might not care for your car, but other do.
There is no need to put every control under an automatic sensor. What, you can’t turn the headlamp on at night? Or you need an automatic sensor turn on the wiper when it rains? Do you actually need an electronic steering to parallel park your car? And you do not possess the strength to open a hydraulic struts supported tail gate and you need to do a masonic dance behind the car?
Stop looking for so many electronics. These make a car heavier which makes it less efficient under every parameter. Heavy means effecting fuel efficiency, braking, agility, steering effectiveness, and more. If you have less electronics, there is less to go wrong. And the initial invoice value is a smaller dent on your pocket.
The biggest advantage you’ll get is effective range from electric cars. Because less gadgets means less consumption of battery juice turning them into better mobility solutions. An electric will not be able to give you extensive features making it less attractive for regular buyers. Stop demanding for so many electronics thus making electric cars better suited for driving and kinder to urban environment. Let’s become able driver than asking smart cars to think on our behalf. Ponder, it’s worth a thought! Driving can be a rejuvenating exercise. Let us enjoy it before autonomous cars take over. We are born in an era where we still can, responsibly!
