Give Your Car The Finger
Cars that recognize the driver via a pocket-dwelling key fob will soon be old hat. Gizmag brings news from the Tokyo Motor Show of Hitachi's biometric steering wheel. The helm's sensors reads the veins in the driver's fingers. The system can then be configured for security, so that only an authorized user can start the car. (Have fun at valet parking.) But wait, there's more! The biometric boffinology can also be set-up so that each finger triggers a different response from the on-board computer. Your index finger could activate the sat nav system. Your pinkie could control presets for the seat, mirrors and sound system. Future applications could even include authorizing automatic payments for drive-thrus or music downloads. Talk about high touch…
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What happens when you are wearing gloves?
This *is* a case where the consumer is broken. We get more and more useless, weight-gaining, energy-sucking, complexity-inducing fluff because buyers decline to refuse it. Or worse, consumers elevate technology-because-we-can features to pointless differentiating reasons to choose one car over another "because it's cool." The consumer can put a stop to it. Or slow it down. Or drive common sense into the vehicle designers to plant the message that innovations must earn their place. No one else will. But of course when validation is exclusively delegated to "the market," the notion of personal responsibility or initiative fades to black. Phil
Valet to Car Owner: Sir, you need to leave your index finger with me.
car jackings are about to get a lot more nasty!