glasseye
Well-known member
As usual, I overstated my case. Not all my arguments pertain to Mother Mercedes' engineering.
Imagine this: You're inbound to HKPierce's residence in Chevy Chase. You're facing Washington DC traffic and its notoriously difficult to navigate road system. It's late afternoon rush hour, you're driving solo, and the last time you'd been east of the Mississippi was the summer of '09 on the Shuttle Launch Road Trip.
How would a paper map have worked for me there? I could barely stay in my lane, let alone decide which lane I should be in. Rush hour parking rules meant that there was no place to pull off the road to even consult such a map, let alone make sense of it or implement its information.
The wonderful Google Lady lived right inside Frito's dashboard, confidently and clearly directing me straight to my destination without me ever taking my eyes off the road.
Now, I agree that this wasn't Frito's doing. His only involvement was providing the speakers through which the Google Lady spoke her calming advice. This was a Google/Android team sitting inconspicuously on the seat nearby.
But that team was a technical tour de force, Luddites. One that renders paper maps and "directions discussions" with the significant other to the dustbin of history.
And don't get me started on carburetor icing. (Are you listening, mid 70s Ford E150 ?)
Imagine this: You're inbound to HKPierce's residence in Chevy Chase. You're facing Washington DC traffic and its notoriously difficult to navigate road system. It's late afternoon rush hour, you're driving solo, and the last time you'd been east of the Mississippi was the summer of '09 on the Shuttle Launch Road Trip.
How would a paper map have worked for me there? I could barely stay in my lane, let alone decide which lane I should be in. Rush hour parking rules meant that there was no place to pull off the road to even consult such a map, let alone make sense of it or implement its information.
The wonderful Google Lady lived right inside Frito's dashboard, confidently and clearly directing me straight to my destination without me ever taking my eyes off the road.
Now, I agree that this wasn't Frito's doing. His only involvement was providing the speakers through which the Google Lady spoke her calming advice. This was a Google/Android team sitting inconspicuously on the seat nearby.
But that team was a technical tour de force, Luddites. One that renders paper maps and "directions discussions" with the significant other to the dustbin of history.
And don't get me started on carburetor icing. (Are you listening, mid 70s Ford E150 ?)