“… mass transit advocates block new roads and otherwise penalize drivers in an effort to force them out of their cars, thus making their lives infinitely more difficult.”
— Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner
A few interesting news items relating to automobiles have come across my desk recently so I thought I’d round them up together.
The first is welcome news about something I’ve wondered about for years now. According to the AP, Toyota will begin selling a louder version of their Prius hybrids. Nearly-silent hybrids might seem cool to some, but for humans walking and biking near them, they can be deadly. The AP story points out that hybrids are twice as likely to have run-ins with people compared to cars with conventional engines. In Japan, the “whirring sound” of an engine will come via a $148 speaker system. Toyota isn’t planning on bringing something similar to the U.S. quite yet.
In other car news, Ford continues their efforts to make their cars more competitive with smartphones and other gadgets in order to woo coveted young consumers into the driver’s seat. According to CrunchGear, “With the quick press of any corner the driver becomes fully engaged with the vehicle’s controls – both on the 8-inch main touch screen and the smaller dual 4.2-inch instrument cluster screens.” It’s like a driving inside a laptop computer — you can even personalize the home screen wallpaper. Makes me wonder… Will there be a point where the push for in-car technology runs right up against the push against distracted driving?
And finally, bringing it all together, is a rather amazing opinion piece in the Washington Examiner. Writer Mark Tapscott attempts to draw a line from our society’s love of mobile phones and cars to a reason to oppose net neutrality and mass transit (or, I assume anything that “blocks new roads” or “forces” people out of their cars). I’ll let Tapscott do the talking:
“See the connection? We love our mobile phones and our cars because they enable us to do so much more. That’s why we can’t get enough of them, making and improving them creates jobs for thousands of people and economic opportunities for millions, the world is made smaller through them, and our lives are richer and more rewarding because of them.
But some folks want to limit or even take away our mobility and convenience. Advocates of “net neutrality” and mass transit, for instance, share an obsession with using government power to force the rest of us to accept less mobility and convenience.
By preventing companies from charging progressive fees for Internet traffic, customers would have to settle for lowest-common-denominator service. Similarly, mass transit advocates block new roads and otherwise penalize drivers in an effort to force them out of their cars, thus making their lives infinitely more difficult.”
See the connection?!?
That’s all the car news that’s fit to print.