Navigation

▼

Booting Up the Carpocalypse

Remember when cars didn't have starters, and you used to have to crank them to start?

Okay, neither do I. But I'll bet a lot of you remember a time before cars were mostly computers. On my first car, the starter was about the only thing electric, let alone electronic. On my current car, you quite literally can't operate it without the help of a little brain.  No, not that little brain.

If all the computer stuff in my car stopped working I'd not only be out my radio (excuse me, entertainment system), but I'd have no way of knowing my speed or how much fuel I had. I mean, I could get a dipstick, but don't we have enough dispsticks on the roads? My car's abilities are awesome, but also scary to a science fiction fan like me.

So it should have come as no surprise when I got into the car awhile back and saw this:

Yeah, my car was installing updates. I kept waiting for it to restart all by itself.

And how do I know what new program was loading? Cylon? Terminator? Didn't Stephen King write a whole story about this? Someday I may not be able to escape from my Escape. It's the carpocalypse.

I suppose the survivors will have to go back to the crank start.


6 comments:

  1. William KendallFebruary 16, 2019 at 2:31 PM

    Skynet is already here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark R HunterFebruary 17, 2019 at 5:22 PM

      Oh, of that I have no doubt. It's why I try not to insult computers out loud, unless I'm in the middle of a deep woods somewhere without my cell phone.

      Delete
  2. Mari CollierFebruary 17, 2019 at 7:25 PM

    ROFL Mark, I remember the crank. That's how you started the family car when I was a child. Not only the family car, but the cars that my two older brothers had. I'll take the new technology every time. If I ever buy a new car it will have that back up camera in it. Drive on!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark R HunterFebruary 18, 2019 at 7:45 AM

      Oh, that backup camera. I took it because it came with the car--swore I'd never use it. Now I wouldn't be without one!

      Delete
  3. Eugenia ParrishFebruary 19, 2019 at 12:54 PM

    I'm seventy and just bought my first car with a push-button start. The whole vehicle creeps me out, from the auto-headlights (which I admit I needed -- carried jumper cables just for that) to the backup camera (just weird). When I get one where I don't have to watch the road because it will stop without me, I'm going to get out and walk.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark R HunterFebruary 20, 2019 at 1:02 AM

      That's pretty much the way I feel! Except for the backup camera--once I got used to it, I loved that. I don't know how I'll react to the push-button start, but I'm not a fan of the idea. The irony is that my first experience with a push-button start was one of our fire trucks--which is a 1965 model. Everything old is new again.

      Delete