As modern technology has worked its magic on the vehicles we drive, it’s easy to overlook the fact that – even with all of that cushy technology, the modern car is still a machine.  As comfortable and secure as it may seem, a brief interlude with an immovable object will quickly remind us that it is a very dangerous machine!

It needs to be driven as a machine.  It needs to be respected as a machine.  If we don’t think of it first and foremost as a machine, it will surely fine ways to remind us, often at the most unsuspecting moment.

Earlier vehicles had no problem reminding us that we were operating machines.  Model T’s had to be cranked with a handle in the front of the engine to even get it started.  If you didn’t adjust the plug timing and the choke just right, it could fire backwards, causing what was commonly referred to as a “Ford Fracture”.  Yup, you could break your arm cranking it, before you ever got the sucker moving. 

Along came the forty’s and things like electric starters had been developed, but you probably still had to manually operate the choke to get the puppy sputtering.  Even in the fifty’s and sixties, you could feel most every bump in the road.  Automatic transmissions were coming out so you didn’t have to do the clutch thing, but Independent Rear Suspensions were still practically unheard of except in Europe.  You had a lot of “unsprung weight” to deal with.  If one of your rear wheels bounced, the other one reacted.  Those old leaf springs and shocks didn’t exactly cushion the blows, either.

You may have (or if you’re younger, you may not have) noticed that things have changed a teensy little bit. 

Today, we hop in the car, turn the ignition key, (if the car doesn’t automatically start for us), slap it in to gear, and off we go.  Neat!  Yeah, we still have steering wheels and pedals on the floor that do something or other, but its basically pretty smooth sailing.

Once on the road, we barely feel the bumps and grinds of modern day potholes.  Today’s suspensions, even if they're not Independent Rear, are finely tuned and offer a ride that can mimic a magic carpet.  Electronic Traction Control will keep us (up to a point) from skidding off the road, even if we haven’t quite mastered the technique ourselves yet. 

Cup holders abound.  Mouse type things allow hopping from IPod to Satellite to GPS when we should be watching the road.  Kiddies are watching DVD in the back seat.  Cruise control may actually be driving the car for us and we now even have computer recognition that will warn us if someone’s in our blind spot or we’re sliding out of our lane — even though we should have maybe noticed it ourselves.

One manufacturer even brags about a feature that will automatically parallel park the car for us!  What ever happened to Joe Kool being proud of his driving skills?  Now he’s more proud of his two day shadow!  Do they allow that car on Driving Tests?

The more money you pay, the more technology you get.  And the less your chosen ride acts like the machine it really is. 

So what’s the point?

If you’re driving a machine, you recognize it.  You understand that you need to rely on your skills to operate it properly.  Most importantly, you realize that it has limitations – limitations you just might not want to exceed!  You consciously recognize that, like any machine, it can be extremely dangerous.  You know you’ve got to treat it nice.

If you drive like you’re just riding along in an automated living room, bad stuff can happen.  You don’t care about driving skill any more.  The puppy basically drives by itself.  You never have to worry about anything, unless you exceed the limitations of all that technology.  But when you do, watch out!

Perhaps, some day in the future, we truly will have cars and trucks that drive themselves.

They’re already experimenting with it.  Computer recognition will do it all for us.  We’ll hop in the car, set the destination and proceed with great caution, to take a nap.  It could be cool.  You could have an extra beer or two at the wedding because the auto driver wouldn’t be subject to DWI.  The auto driver would also direct us around traffic jams and potentially smooth out traffic flow.

It would be a little sad, though, for the purists among us.  We’ll probably have to go to special “You Drive It” tracks to exercise that antique notion called “driving skill.” 

Until that magic time comes though, it still might still be worthwhile to consider the basics.  No matter how safe and secure our particular ride might seem, it’s still a machine.  Whether we drive fast or slow, we need to develop, hone, and Driverthink about, the skills required to operate it safely.

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