Driving is already multitasking

Ahh, the wonders of technology. It seems that every day there is news of some wonderful advance, some new piece of technology that will revolutionize our lives.

Other days, there are products announced or advertised that make you wonder if we are using technology to improve our lives or if we are becoming too lazy for our own good.

There has been a lot of talk lately about technology and driving. The federal government is considering banning the use of some cellular telephones by drivers, namely text messaging. We reported on this in Monday's Sentinel. This newspaper has run several editorials on the topic, urging common sense and for drivers to focus on driving. Distractions can be fatal.

Technology usually moves at a faster pace than society. We often can do many things before we truly realize the societal implications of the use of technology. From stem cell research to cloning to text messaging while driving, we don't always think it through before diving in head first.

This is, of course, human nature.

Ever since the automobile was invented, engineers have worked to make the vehicles safer, comfortable and easy to drive. In the early days, there were people that postulated that people could not survive travelling at speeds of over 30 miles per hour (mph). Of course this was when the new vehicles were open and referred to as horseless carriages....

Safety and convenience improvements have continued over the years. Safety glass, which crumbles on impact, safety belts, automatic transmissions, cruise control and airbags have all added to safety and made vehicles much easier to drive. Ironically, many automakers were slow to add safety belts because the conventional wisdom of the time was that if a car had safety belts, it wasn't safe.

I saw a commercial for the latest from a luxury car maker. The vehicle can sense when the driver is drowsy or distracted, and will alert the driver as well as make corrections to the steering and slow the vehicle. Pretty impressive technology. It reminded me of a safety experiment that Packard, America's premier luxury car maker of the first half of the 20th century performed: the radar brake.

The concept was a good one, as they all are at first: a radar device would be placed in the car, and when it sensed an object was too close, it would apply the brakes. Great way to avoid accidents. There was just one problem: they couldn't refine the beam, so a driver going down a street with parked cars was constantly stopping and starting, with the radar brake sensing every object as a threat. It never made it past the prototype.

I recall when my late uncle came to town to visit when I was young. He lived in Texas and had a Cadillac Eldorado. It had cruise control and all the bells and whistles. He let my older brother and I take it for a spin. Knowing nothing about cruise control, we wondered if it would set at a very low speed. We set it at 15 mph, and to our amazement it worked. It didn't especially like it, but it did work.

Items that once were exotic and expensive toys on high end cars are now standard equipment on many. With a functioning Global Positioning System (GPS) to guide you, cruise control to regulate your speed and an emergency response service like OnStar, you might think that driving had become so easy that you could literally do it in your sleep.

You would be wrong.

So, we've made driving a bit too easy, so easy that some feel they can send text messages, focusing on the small screen and keypad, taking their eyes off of the road. Look, if we can't get this straight, how will we ever get flying cars?

We've been promised flying cars since the end of World War II. I want one. So, could I get a little help here, so maybe I could ride in one before I die?

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.