I am writing this week's OnMouseClick sitting in the middle seat of a Southwest airplane bound for Orlando on the last leg of our trip back from Hawaii. I decided to begin writing after watching about an hour of mindless television on my iPad. Southwest planes does not offer individual viewing screens. Instead, they require passengers to use their personal devices — smartphones, tablets or laptops — to connect to a WiFi network offering realtime TV, music, movies and Internet access. Movies and Internet access require payment, while TV and music are complimentary.
Over the past decade, travel by air has become extremely uncomfortable. Seats have been made smaller, legroom has shrunk, the number of bathrooms have decreased and the remaining ones are much smaller, and extra fees are charged for just about everything. What has improved is the entertainment options, thanks to advances in electronics and technology.
While air travel has become a less than pleasurable experience, technology has made traveling by automobile more pleasurable. Cars today are as much computers as they are engines, and the computers work tirelessly to make us safer and more comfortable. We recently purchased a new Honda Odyssey, and were amazed by some of the computerized features of the vehicle, a few of which I have mentioned in previous articles.
If you have recently purchased a new car, you may have found the vehicle owners manual a bit overwhelming. Our Odyssey includes a 561 page owners manual, as well as a separate 324 page manual about the navigation system. Some of the vehicle features are controlled with nothing more than an on and off switch, while others are more complex and cannot be adequately used without extensive review of the manuals. The heated seats are operated with an high-low button, but working the touch controlled audio, information and navigation systems require a thorough reading of the manuals.
Our Odyssey features a large, high definition monitor located in the middle of the dashboard. When the transmission is set to reverse, the monitor shows a view from a backup camera, a feature which has become standard on many new automobiles. In addition, there is a passenger-side camera which provides a blindspot view of the right side of the vehicle when the right blinker is switched on. During our initial test drive we thought this might prove distracting, but since owning the car we have found the camera view is superior to using the right side-view mirror. The same monitor is also used for the built-in GPS navigation system.
We no longer need a key to start the car, we need only to touch a button. To lock and unlock the door we touch the door handle, and in order for either of these features to work, we need to have a remote control fob on our person. I don’t know how many times I have closed the car door with the feeling that I missing my key, only to realize that the car does not need a key.
Safety features, in addition to the backup and blind-side cameras, include lane-deviation and front collision warning signals. While these features are welcome additions to the driving experience, some manufactures have gone a step further and added automatic front collision avoidance breaking to their vehicles. Google is working on a self-driving car, and after driving our Odyssey for the past few months, I think it is highly probable that we will see such cars on our highways in the very near future.
Now all we need at TR are self-driving golf carts.
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