Isn't a part of our romance with the car due to the fact that it CAN'T talk back to us? Don't we crave that mute responsiveness? That may soon be ruined:
- IBM is working on developing a system that allows a driver hold a conversation with a car.
The system would have the ability to answer back, establishing a two-way communication between driver and vehicle.
The computer-generated voice might grate after a while, but at least the planned in-car assistant is entertaining, intelligent, and well connected.
By logging onto the internet, it could access everything from traffic updates to e-mails.
But there would be safeguards in place to ensure the system does not ramble on when you least want it to.
...."If, for example, you are driving too fast certain features may be disabled. E-mail dictation may be disabled if you're driving, say, faster than 30 miles an hour.
"If you have to brake quickly, perhaps to avoid an accident, the system should be able to stop talking and resume when the situation returns to normal."
....But it will be five to 10 years before such systems become a reality.
Many features are still being refined in labs. When they are ready, they hold out the promise of transforming those long, lonely journeys. [BBC]
Article comments
1 - Mark Edward Manning
I'd rather a talking car than one of the electric ones the Greenies keep trying to push.
2 - Eric Olsen
In the medium to long range we DO have to find alternatives to oil - I'm all for it as long as its not particularly inconvenient or expensive.
How's that for wishy washy?
3 - Mark Saleski
i actually got rid of my truck because i felt that, for the little bit of time i actually used it for 'trucklike' things (picking up wood, etc), i was wasting a huge amount of fuel.
i sorta wonder how high gas prices would have to get before people start looking at smaller vehicles. SUV sales are still rising.
4 - Joe
Check out the 2005 Highlander Hybrid, all the SUV goodness without the squandered natural resource guilt.
You know, I have noticed my wife's station wagon looking at me funny lately.
5 - Eric Olsen
But at least it isn't talking to you funny.
6 - Joe
It it talks to me funny, I'll bust it one in the grille.
7 - Mark Edward Manning
"In the medium to long range we DO have to find alternatives to oil."
I entirely agree, Eric. This is why I would agree to drill for oil in Alaska because that provides a great opportunity to threaten OPEC ... I am a pragmatist. If we didn't have to dig up oil in Alaska, that would be wonderful indeed. But, I fear we may have to do it in the meantime. We need all the domestic sources of oil we can round up in the meantime ... then there's the point that nothing the environmentalists have presented us with can compete with the internal-combustion engine. Your average electric car, as it currently stands, can drive no faster than 60 mph and requires frequent stops to recharge its batteries - which also takes a toll on the environment. Our air is fine, so, in the meantime, I'm happy to stick with the contemporary engine. But if a more environmentally friendly and practical alternative avails itself to mass consumption, I'll endorse it.
8 - Eric Olsen
I thought the hybrids were doing much better than that. Since the move away from oil is inevitable, I don't support sniffing out every drop we can find, especially in protected areas.
9 - Joe
You're correct about the hybrids, Eric. They get similar performance to gas burners. In fact, they basically are gas burners which also generate their own electricity. The electrical power kicks in to maintain and or supplement the gas power or provide power in slow driving to save gas.
10 - Eric Olsen
cool, thanks!
11 - Mark Saleski
then there's the point that nothing the environmentalists have presented us with can compete with the internal-combustion engine
this debate does not have to be binary.
there are more things we can do to reduce our use of oil. the problem is that they're difficult and noone wants to talk about them.
bring up the word 'conservation' and you're immediately labeled as a 'treehugger'.
12 - JR
Eric: "In the medium to long range we DO have to find alternatives to oil."
MEM: I entirely agree, Eric. This is why I would agree to drill for oil in Alaska because that provides a great opportunity to threaten OPEC ... I am a pragmatist.
No, it provides an opportunity to procrastinate some more. "Threatening OPEC" does nothing to make us less dependent on petroleum. Only research and development will do that.
In any case, trying to threaten OPEC with domestic oil won't work - the Saudis will always be able to produce petroleum cheaper than Alaska ever can. If domestic production drives down demand for OPEC oil, they will just lower their prices to the point where we can't compete, and in the process encourage Americans to drive even bigger cars.
13 - Tom Johnson
My brother-in-law has a Honda Civic hybrid and regularly gets 50+ miles per gallon. It's really weird, because the engine will idle as you take off, powered instead by the electric motors, and then the gas engine begins to take over as you hit higher speeds.
Like Mark, I recently sold my truck, a beloved Nissan Frontier, because it just didn't make sense anymore. I've always been a "truck guy" but paying for its 15-17mpg was really beginning to suck, so I bought a cool little Toyota Matrix, and regularly get about twice the gas mileage I used to - plus I still have all that storage space (I just can't carry a sheet of plywood anymore, which I do miss.) In the meantime, practically everyone I know has gone out and bought the biggest, most ridiculous SUV they could afford, and now all I hear are complaints about how much gas costs. Duh.
14 - Mark Saleski
...practically everyone I know has gone out and bought the biggest, most ridiculous SUV they could afford, and now all I hear are complaints about how much gas costs. Duh.
yea, that would be called "The American Way".
15 - Eric Olsen
But then there's the safety factor - ask Tony Soprano.
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