The Wife App

My spouse and I bought a new vehicle in July 2018.  Before that purchase our most recent vehicle purchases were in 2005 and 2006. I still own and drive the 2006 vehicle.  Needless to say the advances in available electronics in the twelve year time span is unbelievable.  Yet, as I wrote about in a prior blog post, which you can find here, are those advances necessary when one has a wife that is often in a vehicle and will make her comments on your driving well known? Since we tend to keep our vehicles for a long time, my thought, when buying in 2018, was to get one with many of the new advancements in safety technology. I guess you could say I was trying to replace the wife app. My true thinking was that neither of us are getting any younger, so I figured the technology may be useful, that is if you use it.  I am sure the following stories will provide the good and the bad of the technology, or rather me. I doubt the last story would have occurred if the wife app was in the vehicle.  It also makes me wonder if I have become too dependent on technology.

U Connect Control Panel, at main Navigation Screen

But first, a little bit on the technology in our 2018 vehicle.  Some, actually most, of the following you can turn off if you desire.  It of course has the rear view back up camera which is now standard equipment, although this takes some getting used to.  Besides having parallel and back-in park assist, the car will warn you by auto-braking, and noise if you start to get too close to another vehicle for front and rear.  This worked for us while crossing the Hudson River, and a car suddenly slammed on its brakes as I was looking at the river, the cars actions made me instinctively hit the brakes. The vehicle has alarms that sounds when something gets much too close, such as the wall which the garage door matches up against. While it does not have side mirror cameras, it sounds an alarm and provides a notice to you in the side mirror of a car in the adjoining lane when a turn signal is on.  That way you know you are too close to move to that lane. In this case, the turn signal has to be used. It also has variable speed cruise control. It has lane assist, and lets you know if you start crossing into another lane. The windshield wipers sense rain and will turn the front windshield wipers on and determine wiper speed depending on rainfall intensity.  One nice feature the car has is the Voice Recognition (VR) button on the steering wheel.  Press the button and I can ask to "show weather", "find address", set a radio station, hands-free telecommunication (if I had a smartphone), and various other commands. I mainly use it for guidance, and the weather.  It will even provide storm warnings and alerts.  All of this is optional or standard on many vehicles over the past few years.

Lane Assist upper right of dashboard, Green means I am properly aligned in the lane

Even with this technology, the wife app is still working, as it will let you know if you are driving too fast, let you know about approaching vehicles ("Do you see that truck?"), people or cars making an odd movement ahead.  A few times there has been a difference between the wife app and the car's lane assist, when she thinks I am going over a line, but the lane assist in only in amber, or even green.  The wife app will not turn on the windshield wipers, but it would sure let the driver know when to turn them.   With the wiper system, I don't have to concern myself with when the wipers go on, or their speed, the system does it quite well provided the sensor on the windshield is not gunked-up with road salt residue.  I really like the wiper feature when you hit a sudden summer downpour.

Lane Assist, amber means I am starting to get close to another lane or the road edge.
My wife app would not comment on me being 3 mph over the limit,
but my twin brother's wife app probably would.

It was in early summer, about four or five days after having bought the vehicle, that my wife and I left on a trip to go to a family wedding north of New York City.  On our way out and back we stopped at varied attractions. While traveling through Indiana, I heard a tone sound, and I did not really think anything of it, but found it curious.  Well this tone sounded a couple times on that trip and has done so after that trip.  It was not until this past year that we think we figured out what the tone is that the driver, usually me, lacks sufficient hand pressure or grip on the steering wheel. It was figured out when my wife noticed a message on the main dashboard that tells you to get your hands on the wheel. The wife app would not know how much pressure I had on the steering wheel, but it would know if I had my hands on the wheel. I also think it may sound an alarm for something else, perhaps when we cross time zone, as I think the first beep sounded as we moved to the Eastern zone.  The navigation system will even tell me when I approach, or are in, a school crossing zone. With all these features, the car gives beeps and a message on the navigation screen.  The wife app is usually much more verbal. My favorite part of the wife app is when she thinks I am getting too close to a vehicle or too sharp a turn and she grabs the arm rest or the door rest or handle and sucks in her breath and pulls her self tight to the seat.  She thinks I am about to put the wife app out of commission.

Voice Recognition Button on Steering Wheel
bottom center

After hearing that beep, in Indiana, I was conscious of sounds the vehicle would make.  The vehicle, not the wife app.  I think we were beginning our third leg of the trip, after spending the night in Youngstown, OH, and we desired to make it to Harrisburg, PA to see the Civil War Museum.  Well, my wife was driving the first part of the trip, and low and behold, we had just crossed into PA and I hear three soft tones in a row: beep, beep, beep.  Three tones being one directly after the other.  I of course said, rather nicely, but with concern, to my wife who was driving: "What did you do?", to which she responded "nothing., what makes you think it was me?" or something to that effect.  I am sure there was certainly more in her thoughts.  Talking about thoughts, I know I will get an earful about me having commented rather nicely to her about the three beeps, as she would say it was otherwise. An odd noise, but we continued on our way.  The sound continued so I began to be concerned, okay, so I was concerned after the first three beeps. I even started timing, and found that it occurred every three minutes.  After awhile I am beside my self and wonder what is happening.  Although the wife would say I was beside myself at the first few sets of beeps. For one year we had assistance from the manufacturer where we press a button in the car and get a representative, so I decided to use that assistance. Like On-Star.  The person took the information and then noted no reports of that type of sound having been issued, but suggested that when we stop the U-Connect system resets itself when the door is opened and closed, as we thought it was coming from the infotainment (U-Connect) system on the vehicle.  At the next rest stop we pull over turn off the car, get out to use the restroom and stretch our legs, but we found out it continued to beep at three minute intervals.  I called them again and they let the Harrisburg dealer know we would be coming.  Having the navigation system built in the car is not only neat, but can come in very handy.  It is like I should use it most of the time on longer trips.

Varied Prompts when you use VR button

We enter the dealer address into our system, and hear the three beeps every three minutes.  As we pull into the garage to drop it off, the lead tech hears the beeps, and says they will fit it in soon, but they arrange a rental car for us to use.  While waiting a few minutes for the rental car, and I am in the restroom, my wife swore she heard the same beeps.  We then get in to the rental car.  We have just gotten on the highway to head to the museum using the rental car, and what do we hear--the same three beeps.  Okay, I realized, the noise was not the car we were driving.  It was my cell phone telling me it was low on battery. The phone was not on me in the car, but in a storage compartment.  I grabbed it when we changed vehicles. I had never heard it tone this way because, well it is seldom used and I charged it every week, and the battery never got so low for me to know it needed to be recharged.  I figured out that traveling with the trac-phone more battery is used in its search for towers.  Well, I said we should go back, but my wife says we were not going back. She angrily exclaimed that "They would think we were nuts!!" I recall her using the term "we", not "you".  We go to the museum, and while completing our visit we get a message that they could not find anything wrong with the car. They suggested if it occurs again, the infotainment center would need to be pulled, and evaluated but that is a full day job.  They did note, several times, that there is no safety issue with the vehicle.  When picking it up I said if I hear it again I will take it to our local service location. It was not a safety issue. As you can realize we never heard the three beeps again in the car.  My wife still does not let me live that down. She would probably like to put it in my obituary, unless of course, I give her another head-shaker that is even better.  She really likes to shake her head. 

Upper part, center of windshield is the panel that senses rain,
and perhaps other sensors as well

I think my wife likes to think that when I am driving she needs to be in the car with me.  After all, regardless of the newer technology in our 2018 vehicle, I still have my wife app, and at times she will more quickly point out something than does the technology, since she can anticipate whereas the technology has a certain range of influence and only relates to that within its range.  I have to say, the next story is rather humbling, and if I question my wife app anymore, I am sure she will bring up this story.

Navigation Screen

The Saturday before St Patrick's Day I picked up my youngest son in Sun Prairie, and together we were heading to LaCrosse, to pick up a piece of woodworking equipment for his work shop. As we left Sun Prairie and began the drive we got involved in varied conversations.  As we drive by Mauston, I make a mental note that the exit I need is about 15 to 20 minutes away.  There is a good deal of semi-traffic, and I also wonder if I should use my VR button and say "Find Address" for my sister's house in LaCrosse where we will meet up before going to get the sander, but I decide not to do so.  I have been to LaCrosse many times, why would I need the navigation system as a reminder? To make a long story short, we are talking and all of a sudden I see a sign for the distance to Eau Claire. I thought, Oh my Gosh! Eau Claire is not that close! I must have missed the exit, the turn onto I-90.  Not only that, but I also missed the next exit at Millston.  We have to travel several miles to the next exit at Black River Falls, and this is when I decide to use the VR button for travel guidance.  If the wife app was with me there is no way she would have let me miss the turn.  Well, we arrived at LaCrosse about 35 minutes late, and more miles traveled.  However, being a geographer I like to say I am never lost, I am just exploring new territory.  Hwy 27 and 71 to Sparta, was just that, new territory for me.

Far seat is where the Wife App sits

She would not let me post a picture with

her in the seat.

Of course, my son had let my wife know we missed the turn, and so all the way home I am thinking about how I am going to hear about this incident and how I make fun of my wife app.  Well, I think she was taking a Debra Barone approach since she did not bring it up right away, as I expected.  She let me stew about it for awhile. Maybe she wanted to see how long before I brought it up.  I don't quite recall if I eventually brought up the missed exit or if she did.  I am sure she knows.  She does not ever, I mean ever, forget such encounters.  She might forget where she placed the vitamin B, or wait that was me.  The jest of her final comment was how I really do need my wife app, and that she needs to be with me.  Well, if I had just used the guidance system that incident would not have occurred.  I still don't know how it was missed.

Part of me wonders, if on long trips I have become to accustomed to the guidance system, or having my wife app with me, particularly  in the 2018 vehicle.  Even before navigation systems I called her the navigator, so in a sense she combines the safety features in the 2018 vehicle and the guidance system.  Even knowing I did not have guidance set, I obviously got too comfortable.  I have been humbled and need to either pay attention, or make sure I have my wife app with me.