Bill Gates and the auto industry
- From: John Madden <weez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: technocracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 14:13:43 -0500
This was sent to one of my lists:
Bill Gates reportedly said that if General Motors had kept up with
technology like the computer industry, we would have $25 cars that go 1,000
miles to the gallon. This apocryphal GM response explains what would happen if
the car had developed like the computer industry.
1 For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2 Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your
car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to
reinstall the engine.
3 Occasionally your car would die. You would have to pull over, close all of
the windows, shut down the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you
could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4 Macintosh would make a solar-powered car that was five times as fast and
twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on 5 per cent of the roads.
5 The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would all be
replaced by a single "general protection fault" warning light.
6 Occasionally your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until
you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed the
aerial.
7 The airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8 GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand
McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary) as well, even though they neither need
nor want them.
9 Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to
drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same
manner as the old car.
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