Caring About Cars

Cars hold a kind of nostalgia for Americans. In the 50s, these huge behemoth vehicles were considered the closest thing we'd come to flying, going to space. A machine that was an extension of ourselves, our freedom. Indeed, George Lucas, if anything, still marvels at his days of youth, when drag racing cars provided a rush, the kind he tried to duplicate in American Graffiti, and yes, even The Phantom Menace.

Since the 70s, when oil prices drove gas prices in the US to a dollar a gallon(!), manufacturers came up with ways to make cars more aerodynamic, lighter, smaller. Cars from a decade early might not even make 20 miles to the gallon, while their modern counterparts nearly double that.

But for all the innovations of cars, it's shocking how simple problems have no answers. People simply don't address them.

First one, and this one's a shocker: headlights. For years, I mean years, if you left the headlights on, and left your car, your battery was dead. It happened so often that people needed jumper cables to get a jump from a friend (and not the kind that involves the back seat) or a helpful stranger.

The biggest solution to this problem? Cars that beep at you when you fail to turn off the lights as the key is removed. Has no one, I mean no one, ever considered having lights that turn off when the key is out? Oh, I'm sure the answer is a bit of paranoia. If lights would automatically turn off automatically, who's to say it won't happen when you drive, accidentally? And that might cause an accident.

In essence, the automobile industry has traded off one problem for another, and doesn't seem to have any real solutions to this problem.

The second problem: heat. Every summer, people enter their cars, which roast like an oven. Every winter, it's freezing inside. I suppose there's not so much that can be done in the winter, but can nothing be done during the summer? Is there not some way to ventilate the car?

There are some problems that have better solutions. Once upon a time, it was awkward to move a car seat forward and backwards. That seems to be solved. Removing tires is still a pain, made just difficult enough that women generally feel helpless. There's a funny male/female divide. Clearly, if the task was too hard for men, then no one would (theoretically) be able to do it, but there are some tasks (removing tires) that require just enough strength, that many women are dissuaded. Surely, a sexist bias, I think.

There are other basic things like this that happens in other areas. Windows, for example, has an issue with deleting a file or directory if you are using that file or directory, but it's too stupid to tell you what application is using it. Sometimes you simply have to shut down everything to properly delete the file. Rather than solve useful problems like this (or the lack of true soft linking), Windows prefers to have snazzy interfaces. Thanks guys.