"My Mother the Car"

Years ago there was a TV show titled "My Mother the Car." It concerned a young man whose dead mother had been reincarnated into a car. The car of course spoke to him and gave him advice constantly. The whole premise of a talking car was supposed to be so preposterous as to be hilarious.

A few years later "Knight Rider" came along. It starred David Hasslehoff and concerned a man with a car possessed of superior intelligence. It talked too. Again this was supposed to be something that was way out of the ordinary, and the stuff of futuristic stories.

Well it didn't take long for the future to arrive. Today we have cars that talk to us. My new car is equipped with one of those systems where you can ask directions, where to eat, and a million other things. The first time I punched a button and a voice came on and said "Hello Mr. Cooper, how can I help you?" I couldn't help smiling from ear to ear. It was really weird.

After I got the car my wife and I drove down to Florida. The car dealership had put in a tank of gas for us and this car gets good mileage. We were in St Petersburg, Florida before we had to gas up again. When I hopped out to fill it up I looked at the gas cap flap and it was flat against the car. I searched for a place to insert my fingers and open it up. Nothing.

I hollered for my wife to look up in the manual as to how the tank could be opened. She couldn't find a thing. I searched again for some way to open the gas cap flap on the side of the car. I had no luck. Finally in desperation I decided to call "the voice." 

When I heard "How can I help you, Mr. Cooper?" I told her I had a stupid question. "There are no stupid questions," she trilled. Then she proceeded to help me. All I had to do was mash the middle of the flap and it would pop open. Who knew?

There are other fun things on my car. There is an info button you can mash and see how hot it is outside. Or you can find out how many more miles you can go on the tank of gas. Plus you can see what kind of gas mileage you are getting or check as to how much oil has been burned. It's amazing. And I haven't even gotten to the Sirius radio yet.

The radio has nine hundred and forty six channels. Okay I am kidding but it has a whole lot of them. They include sports stations, country stations, talk stations, jazz stations, Spanish stations and kiddie stations. I found myself flipping between them all until my wife slapped my hand.

Cars don't actually drive themselves these days but they are getting pretty close. It won't be long before we can just state where we want to go and the car will drive us there. How do I know? My car told me.
 

 

 

 

 

©2007 Jackie K. Cooper

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