Sometime reality beats fiction. On my way to the Antwerp leftbank city beach tonight (28°C/85°F) I had to avoid these 30 ton trucks, making a narrow escape as the Antwerp Kennedy river tunnel is a notorious death-trap. Anyway, I arrived safely and tried to check the onboard computer. When I clicked “disengage anti-carjacking door lock” I got a complete system reset and 10 seconds of utter disbelief, before one of the displays came up with this message: “I don’t want to”. Great, just what I needed 
A friend of mine claimed up to 30% of roadside assistance interventions are caused by freaky car electronics behavior. Do you still feel safe, in cars stuffed with more electronics than an average PC?
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.
Bwahahahhahaha. Your car whines! LOVE it. LOVE it.
Comment by Claudia — May 10, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
And in a way, that’s exactly what happened
Comment by Peter - blog author — May 10, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
haha, i think they used my son as the model for that computer
Comment by furiousball — May 11, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
Donald Wood wrote about “smart cars” in his fairly recent book, “Design of Future Things.” He says that the designers and engineers try to create systems that make every decision for you, rather than give you options, which is why the driver’s experience is so poor, and even dangerous.
Comment by Ray — May 12, 2008 @ 4:36 pm
I got the same impression furiousball
You know, I was actually stunned when that display came up after a 10 sec reset, kind of surreal.
Thanks for commenting Ray. I used to drive a car in the 90’s from an era where digital displays sure didn’t belong in cars. You have a valid point: I now take turns at relatively high speed, trusting the electronics will protect me from sliding away - it’s a dangerous assumption and it doesn’t improve safety.
Comment by Peter - blog author — May 12, 2008 @ 8:51 pm
Miss you. ♥
[Blog author comment: "You're too kind Claudia
At 30°C/90°F I'm spending as much time outside as possible - back to the low 60s with rain soon. Welcome to Belgium 
"]
Comment by Claudia — May 13, 2008 @ 3:52 pm
Well hurry back darling, or I’m going to start requesting you snail mail me some postcards when you decide to just slip away like this. You had me a little “ongerust gemaakt”.
[Blog author comment: "
- even your Dutch is perfect Claudia - as always your comment was much appreciated. But it's 'kind of warm' in these 'climate-change challenged' Belgian homes without AC. We only have heating, given our weather."]
Comment by Claudia — May 13, 2008 @ 7:47 pm