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We’ve been having a tech-fest at home: I’m now Bluetooth-compliant, MP3-compatible, hands-free and wireless. I have even read the Korean-Babelfish handbook for my ‘Recoboy’ digital voice recorder, cover to cover. As for automotive technologies, I revel in every electronically-enhanced function, every automatically-activated acronym they can dream up. Lay it on with a trowel: I’m ready.
But… one small part of me mourns the passing of an age when we were more involved with our cars. I don’t just mean the driving experience; I mean the intimate knowledge of things whirring and turning and doing good. Getting us places. Those long hours spent tinkering with the valve timing or, more ambitiously, those ill-advised weeks spent dismantling the head and gas-flowing with hand-held tools to see if it would get me places faster. (Answer: no.) I miss all that. True, we can still have fun with classic cars… but it’s coming to an end, isn’t it? I, like everyone else, have been seduced by the lure of see-you-home headlights and dual-zone climate control. I used to look under the bonnet of every new car I tested… but seen one black, plastic box, seen ’em all.
This really struck a chord with me, having just acquired a new car with dual climate, stereo and cruise control on steering wheel, auto mirror, auto wipers, auto lights, etc etc. I was sceptical at first but I’m sold on them now. They do allow you to concentrate on the important business of driving rather than fiddling with minor controls.
Oh yes, there’s a black box under the bonnet, which I mustn’t touch or I’ll void the warranty, no doubt. Seems hard to believe I thought nothing of changing a gasket on my old Mini parked on the pavement…One downside is that I do not feel I have bonded mechanically with the new car and I am much less motivated to do the routine checks for oil, coolant, tyres etc…you are lulled into a false(?) sense of security that everything will look after itself.
Inconveniently True | 03 May 07 - 21:57Glad to hear someone feels the same. But what, I wonder, is your take on the acronyms which actually start to do the driving for us? Are you as happy with lane-change assist (so you can doze off at the wheel) as you are with automatic wipers? I bet, like me, that you’re quite happy for the car to light itself, heat and cool itself, check the oil and clean itself, even send out for a pizza if it’s feeling peckish… but not, please, to drive itself.
Charis Whitcombe | 08 May 07 - 11:59As an old-school engine builder/modifier I am also very much against black box technology as it tends to dilute the car/driver interface, and I prefer all functions to be manually activated.
However there are well reputed engine tuners, for example Auto Delta in the case of Alfa Romeo, who will re-write your ECU and re-tune and/or re-build your engine for optimum performance.
AlfaMartini | 08 May 07 - 18:23