Brainless Entry

Many of you (ahem, all THREE of you, that is - ) who have been following my work for a while probably remember my rant on "brake-by-wire" technology called "Smart Brakes - A Dumb Idea?" and how I referred to this new trend as "automotive innovation for the thinking impaired." The bad news is that I've zeroed in on yet another branch of this type of technology that I shall call "fancy automotive baubles for the easily amused."

The inspiration for this latest rant came to me while I was driving home from work in my 1997 Honda Passport that was at the time of this writing, two payments away from being all mine. The Honda has served me faithfully, and has never once left me or my wife stranded by the roadside in the six and a half years we've owned it. However, several minor yet irritating things have gone wrong with it over the years. For instance, none of the power windows work any more, and it blows headlights at an alarming rate. I also didn't opt for the CD player or any other little comforts… it's an SUV that's all utility and no sport. But, as I said before, it's almost paid for, so we can live with these minuscule problems.