Brooooooom, brooooom, honk, honk.

I'm fascinated with the new automobiles.  I've seen commercials and news clips showing all the magnificent things they can do.

Some can sense children and objects behind them, so they magically stop.

Some can parallel park themselves.

Some can, with radar, sense an accident the driver can't see, and apply the brakes.

I even saw a news piece once on a car that will park and retrieve itself from a parking garage.

I mean, seriously, is that an absolute wonder, or what?

We've given inanimate objects computer generated brains. Cars that think for 'drivers'.  Does that mean they (the cars) are smarter than them (the drivers).  Wow a-dowie, dooo.  I'm blown away by all of this, aren't you?

I've really been pondering this.  Of course we all know drivers are still technically, in charge of their automobiles, and hopefully paying 100% attention to how they are driving 100 % of the time.  However, I want to take you 'down the road', let's say, 5 maybe 20 years.  You have purchased a car, that can automatically stop on a dime, park itself, and heaven only knows what else. 

There you are, sitting in the drivers seat.  You tell your car "Start engine.", push some 'comfort control' buttons, set some kind of cruise control, tell 'Hal' your destination, the time you want to arrive, where you want your car to park itself, and what time you want it to pick you up...and put your car in 'automatic drive'.

You text your companions you are on your way, take a sip of your coffee, pick up your book to read while your car drives, and off you go.

You are humming along the freeway.  Uh-oh.  Somebody in an 'older model' car, without all your wonderful gadgetry, has broken down, and an 18 wheeler, has plowed into it.

Crash, Bam, Alakazam...traffic backs up, backs up, backs up.

Your car is not happy, not happy at all.  It has been told it has a job to do, and by golly, it is going to do it.  Ooops.  The computer has not been programmed for 'incidents'.  It does not know what to do.  Yes, it has been programmed to allow a safe space in front of it in order to not be involved in the 'unseen' accident ahead.  But, it's blocked in.  There's no backing up, no turning right or left to get into another lane. 

Oh my, I'm starting to giggle.  I wish this were a cartoon so you could see the pictures in my head.

Poor car...it's computer is in a jumble, trying to right this, trying to reprogram.  It knows it has to be Cher Cher's at 11:30.  The engine roars...."Get outta my way, suckers. I've got somewhere to be." 

Not so much.  Time goes by, there's a helicopter overhead.  Behind, emergency vehicles and tow trucks are trying to inch their way to the scene of the accident.

Your computerized vehicle has become quite agitated, it's making strange, strangling, hyperventilating noises.  You reach into your 'storage receptical' to the right on your 'gauge panel', looking for the vehicles Owners Manual, realizing you've somehow got to change this thing back into a 'manually operated' vehicle. 

What?  There's no hard copy of the manual...it's in the computer, and it's blowing up.  Where's George Jetson when you really need him?

Bzzzzzerrrrzzzzt.  Zzzzzzpppppttttt, pppptttttt, pptt, tt.  Hmmmmmmmm. Pt!

I know, I know, at the moment this can't possibly happen.  But, could it some day in the future?  I'm thinking maybe it could.  We've got to stop being lazy and letting mechanical things do the jobs for us.  What's that saying so popular now "Use it or lose it."  I'm thinking WE still need to use it.