More Thoughts On Technology - Monday, July 10, 2006

On Saturday I drove from my home, alongside one of Canada's busiest highways, to the north of Toronto, up one of Canada's busiest highways. You've seen what I saw - a vehicle in the fast lane passes a slower vehicle, then signals to change into the slower lane, and changes into the slower lane. Leaving the turn signal indicator blinking uselessly.

Less-than-uselessly, because those of us seeing the indicator assume that another lane-change is about to take place, and we base our decisions on a lie.

I wondered what would happen if, after 60 seconds of turn-signal activity, the car's computer switched off the radio, which I assume has drowned out the noise of the signal repeater. Or it could make a noise if the radio was not on. Either way, the driver would have an audio signal that something needed attention.

I regularly watch emergency vehicles tweet their sirens behind drivers who appear oblivious of the noise. Could it be that they too have their radio cranked up so loud that they can't hear the siren through the closed-window air-conditioned car?

Could the emergency vehicles send a signal to cars within 100 metres or so, so that radios would be temporarily subdued. Again, the sudden loss of signal ought to be enough to alert a driver that something, somewhere, needs extra attention.

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