Traits Two

This past weekend while at a birthday party for three relatives the issue of automobiles arose.  My sister and her husband had just purchased a small sized Sport Utility Vehicle to replace a Chevy Envoy that was on its last legs.  The new vehicle has pretty much all the bells and whistles one could want on a vehicle.  My sister, the primary driver, should not want for a vehicle feature.  The boatload of features brings us to the purpose of this post.  It is almost like a Wife App II, or a sequel to my original post that introduced my idea of the Wife App last June.  The post was titled Traits. 

Pioneer

My sister was regaling our millennial nephew with all of the safety features of her new pet.  It had of course standard items, such as ABS, airbags, and some of the newer technology with cameras which provide a host of options.  These options include where the vehicle will parallel park on its own, notification when you deviate from a lane without having used your signal, and of course the back-up camera to let you know what awaits behind the cars backside.  Mirrors and head looking back may miss what is directly in back of the vehicle.  However, there is one feature that most intrigued my nephew and that was the steering wheel giving you a slight tug if you deviate out of your lane without having used a turn signal.  He wondered if it was hard to override, does it feel unsafe, and a host of other questions.  Apparently, the tone sound of such a deviation is not enough, and the car provides this other little reminder—like do you really want to do that.  In that way it is very much like my wife.  My sister’s car may have the tug in the steering wheel, but I have my wife with her varied voice commands.  Believe me, I do not need a self-correcting car when my wife is in the passenger seat.  Showing the limited readership of this blog, my nephew had not read the Traits blog that dealt with the wife app. 

Old man in a tree

But, if I thought my wife was full of commentary, I had to count my blessings on the actions of my sister-in-law, the mother of my nephew. During the discussion of the new SUV, I noted how the car has many of the features my wife provides.  Nephew seemed surprised at how his beloved red-haired aunt would be so engaged on a road trip.  I, however, noted to him that last year (2015) in June on a way to Conover that his mother was much more involved as a backseat driver than I have ever known my wife wife.  At some points you have to count your blessings, and that was a time to count mine.  Now, the father of my nephew car has some of the fancy features associated with cameras, such as the tone sound when deviating without a signal.  I don't beleive it has parallel park assist nor the tug of the steering wheel.  Yet, my brother’s wife was still there in the back seat commenting on lane deviation, speed and other aspects to keep us four safe on the four hour road trip.  His reaction, of disbeleif that his mother was a backseat driver made me wonder if my sister-in-law was doing it for a show while we were on that roadtrip that early Saturday morning.  I find it difficult to believe that she does not do as much commentary when her prized possessions are in the car with her and my brother.  On the other hand, perhaps he is thinking about other things while on a road trip with his parents, or perhaps he was sleeping.

Headwaters of the WIsconsin River

I suppose at some point technology and robots will make the wife app less likely to be involved in commentary, but as with my sister-in-law it still may not make much of a difference.  After all, she still is involved even though the car has a number of the safety features associated with cameras.  When it comes time for our next vehicle, the use of cameras may be as ubiquitous as the use of airbags, so I may get that built in measure of safety, but I will not count on it silencing my spouse, as she is so observant, she would beat the cameras to the punch and let me know before a tone would sound.  Humans still have some advantages over technology.  And, my wife app works when there is no defined (i.e. painted) center line or road edge line.  Technology still has to advance before it beats my wife app.

What is a human doing here?

Photos by author, June 2015 on road trip to Vilas County