This
is going to sound a tad neurotic but here goes: My car doesn’t understand me.
I
always thought my Aunt Grace — a top flight emergency room nurse who for
decades worked the graveyard shuffle at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco —
was a tad eccentric for always referring to her 1960 Chevy Bel Air as Betsy.
She’d
actually talk to “Betsy” asking her to do this or that. She did the same thing
when her right leg she dubbed “Peggy” that she injured working in the shipyards
during World War II was giving her problems. That said, I don’t think I ever
heard her ask “Betsy” to call someone or to tune the radio to a certain
channel.
It’s
been a little over two years since I bought my 2017 Ford Focus. Technology had
changed a bit since I bought my previous vehicle, a 2008 Ford Escape hybrid. I
really wasn’t looking for a Bluetooth enabled vehicle that apparently can
completely synch with my Apple i-Phone 8. It happened to be on the Focus I
wanted that was at the right interest rate which was zero.
The
salesman Eric James Jalli who was 18 years of age and on his first week or so
on the job was trying to tell me about the virtues of the Focus that I ended up
opting for after test driving a Fusion that wasn’t loaded with gadgets that
Grace likely couldn’t phantom. I’m sure she would have been in heaven if her
1960 tank just had power steering.
The
kid — I was old enough to be his grandfather — was explaining how the Focus
came with satellite radio in the form of SiriusXM. I remember dismissing that
selling point as he turned the channel telling him my preference when driving
was listening to one of my Frank Sinatra CDs.
In
an instance, he had SiriusXM on Channel 71 — the Sinatra Channel.
I’ll
admit he knew the right answers but I was already sold on the Focus over the
Fusion because in the words I told him it didn’t drive “like an old man’s
car.” That’s pretty rich coming from
someone whose favorite singer is Frank Sinatra.
Needless
to say I have learned to appreciate having Bluetooth capability to change the
radio or to make a call — to a degree.
The
problem is the Bluetooth struggles to hear me unless I turn the volume all the
way up and enunciate each word at a nice leisurely pace of six words a minute.
How the perky voice responds to a command is interesting to say the least. I
ask for Bluetooth to call “Kay cell” and it comes back “calling “kayceecee”.
Despite
an apparent language barrier I do use the Bluetooth when I’m driving to change
channels. I use the Bluetooth phone function sparingly. Some people don’t get
that as they say it is no different than having someone on the car with you are
talking to as you drive. But if it is a call related to work — specifically
someone that may want something printed in the Bulletin — that means I will
need to take notes. That is something I’m no got to do while driving. I will
take such calls by pulling over. As for placing calls using Bluetooth while
driving it has to be ones that require minimum distraction.
After
Tuesday, however, I may rethink even doing that.
The
National Transportation Safety Board indicated that when a Tesla SUV in
Autopilot mode crashed on March 23, 2018 into a concrete barrier on Highway 101
in Mountain View the driver — software engineer Walter Huang who was killed —
was playing a video game on his smartphone at the time.
Tesla
has repeatedly emphasized its Autopilot system is basically a glorified cruise
control assisted by radar that helps keep a car in its lane, maintain a safe
distance, and change lanes if asked to do so by the driver. It is designed to
make driving safer by aiding the driver. If the driver disengages, all bets are
off.
The
NTSB nine years ago recommended that auto manufacturers deploying “autopilot”
systems come up with ways to disable distractions on smartphones such as
playing video games, web surfing, and making calls while the user is driving.
If Amazon can come up with a Trojan horse snitch like Alexa that can listen in on
words a user is saying to glean marketing data then Tesla et al can come up
with technology to disable a driver’s smartphone.
Back
when Grace was driving “Betsy” there weren’t a lot of health clubs around.
That’s because you could get a full body workout driving cars before power
steering and before automatic transmissions. It required your undivided
attention to maneuver many cars that literally were as nimble as tanks.
Technology
in car design has made vehicles easier to drive and more likely for drivers and
passengers to survive crashes with nary a scratch that years ago would have
resulted in serious injury or even death. Auto manufacturers have done an
impressive job dampening sound and creating driver seats that are often more
comfort and relaxing than chairs people have in their homes. And to top it off
they tossed in sound systems that even in the economy models run circles around
the static laced AM radio receptions of vehicles just 60 years ago.
Because
of that the injury and death rate per 100,000 miles driven had been steadily
dropping until in recent years when there was a slight upward bump.
The
likely culprit is the device that almost all of us act as if we disengage from
it for even a few minutes that we will stop breathing.
Smartphones
are only as smart as the user. Rest assured that a software engineer in a Tesla
with the latest driving aid designed to make them even safer drivers as long as
they use it right isn’t the only person in the whole USA that plays video games
while driving or surfs the web. The fact they are in a Tesla equipped with
Autopilot makes them marginally safer doesn’t end all risk.
Take
a walk on the wild side — a sidewalk along any major arterial in Manteca will
do — and keep count of the number of people you see either looking down or
holding a smartphone in plain sight as they drive. You will be stunned by what
you see. The amazing thing is that there are not even more accidents than are
happening.
Because
other drivers are still attentive and the smartphone offender may be “on their
game” enough to multi-task much of the time without incident, there are endless
close calls without metal caressing metal or two ton killing and maiming
machines meeting 180 pounds of muscle and blood. Avoiding accidents day in and
day out while using smartphones while driving whether it is to text, play video
games or whatever gets people to believing they are bulletproof.
What
they forget is the game they are playing is Russian roulette on wheels. Keep
pushing your luck and eventually you or someone else is going to pay the price.
