* * My automotive "Future Shock"

_{“Please say a command,” says an expressionless, accentless female voice, emanating from the dashboard of our new car, a Ford C-Max hybrid. I am in Future Shock.}

_{We bought this pre-owned car the other day from my friend and fellow Rotarian Dewey Rotenberry, sales manager at the Shelor Motor Mile. As he was introducing my wife and me to the manager of the particular dealership, I told them, “I’m every car salesman’s biggest nightmare.”}

_{He replied cheerily, “You don’t seem unpleasant to me.”}

_{“It’s not that I’m unpleasant,” I claimed hopefully, “It’s just that I don’t do this very often.” Indeed, I’m 61 years old and have been in possession of a driver’s license for 45 years, and during this time, I’ve owned three cars, with the Subaru Forester I was now getting as a hand-me-down from my wife being my fourth.}

_{The automotive world is changing at a breathtaking pace. Responding to my C-Max’s kind request, I say back, “Please fix me a nice cup of hot tea.”}

_{She says back, “I do not understand that command. Say for example, ‘climate,’ or ‘navigation.’”}

_{I retort with an attempt at comedy, “Climate! Please solve global warming.”}

_{“I do not understand that command,” she repeats, this time I’m sure with some repressed exasperation, but still the same monotonically pleasant voice.}

_{And so it goes. Meanwhile, I’m distracted enough to have crossed the centerline a couple of times and nearly sideswiped an oncoming car.}

_{Anyway, I bought my first car, a Volkswagen Rabbit, in 1976 after taking my first real job. I drove that little guy for twelve hard years, selling it in 1988. Following that was a four-wheel drive Colt Vista wagon that I kept for twenty years. I sold that for the 2007 Forester that my wife got, and I got her hand-me-down Honda Accord. I’m always getting her hand-me-downs, but that’s another story.}

_{So there you have it, 45 years and three cars, now four. Doing this so infrequently shows the enormous technological innovation overtaking our world. The Rabbit’s innovation was its transverse (across the car, left to right) engine powering the front wheels, as most cars those days were rear-wheel driven. The Colt was more impressive in that regard, as it sent power to all four wheels, as does the Subaru. But otherwise these cars were much the same. Ignitions had progressed from the primitive points and condenser systems to electronics, but most of the controls were analog. From the standpoint of the car/driver interface, not much changed between the 1988 Colt and the 2007 Subaru. Sure, a computerized system in the Subaru keeps the dome lights on for a few moments after you exit the car, but otherwise it was typical in having a dial speedometer, a dial tachometer (All these cars had manual transmissions.), and analog fuel, oil pressure, and other gauges. Simple.}

_{Not the C-Max! This magnificent marvel of modern engineering has an owners manual ¾” inch thick. There is an array of digital displays that would put a space shuttle to shame. The car starts not with a conventional turn of a key, but with the push of a button, activated by the proximity of a simple key fob. Once “started,” it remains eerily silent. When in reverse, it has a camera in the rear that shows a picture on the dashboard of the rear view. It instantaneously calculates fuel economy and mileage until empty and shows this information on the dash. There’s a clever display showing the transfer of energy from the batteries to the motor, or vice versa, and then to the front driving wheels. It has heated seats (which let me tell you are awesome this time of year!), heated outside rear-view windows, interior automatic temperature management, and a state-of-the-art, satellite based navigation system. Heretofore my navigation system consisted of a something called a map.}

_{That this extraordinary technological advancement would appear to the motoring public in a mere blink of a proverbial eye between 2007 and 2013 models makes one wonder what’s next. This very question came up in conversation during a Thanksgiving Eve dinner. My wife’s best friend provided the answer, or at least a seemingly newly plausible answer. This friend, whose name, Robin, I won’t mention publicly for the reason that she is the world’s most inattentive driver, posited, “The next generation of cars will drive themselves.”}

_{If she’s right, while I’ll miss the satisfaction I get from motoring myself around, I have to admit that for some people like Robin, having the car do the work will make us all safer. As my Golden Years come into focus, perhaps the same will be true for me as well.}

_{And maybe my next car will fix me a nice cup of hot tea.}