We live in an age where technology is accelerating faster than ever before. This acceleration is affecting the automotive industry, too. The cars we grew up loving (or being ferried around in by our parents) are technologically aeons apart from a bog-standard Hyundai i10.
Here are 10 things we don't need any more...
Twist-to-open key
Only base model cars use traditional keys now. Most use a central locking receiver. More use keyless go, so you can just walk up to the car, get in and go without having to take your house keys from your pocket. While all the keyless stuff is clever it's really difficult to check your car is actually locked when you walk away from it...
Car phones
Legally a car phone is off the cards. You're not allowed to touch/hold a phone while you drive. Those that do are fools and deserve the points heading to them. Very few manufacturers will add them to the options list. In-car Bluetooth (or headsets) and turning your phone off are the only way forward.
Cassette players
The compact disc left the tape pretty much in its wake over a decade ago, yet manufacturers still choose to install tape decks. Now you've got to be pretty hard-pressed to find a tape deck in a new car. With the advent of MP3 and USB, it won't be long till you have to work quite hard to find a CD player.
Cigarette lighter
In a world where even breathing will give you cancer, car manufacturers aren't really going to encourage smokers to spark up on the move. The lighter sockets are being replaced with mere power sockets, meaning no more cigs on the road, but a fully charged iPod instead.
Ashtray
No cigarette lighter, no ashtray. As simple as that. But, for millions of Indians who smoke in their cars, the road is the ashtray. We aren't going to preach about how smoking kills you. You already know it. If you still smoke, well...
Electric aerials
Sadly the days where you could press a button and the aerial would rise from the boot (or somewhere like that) are gone. Now radio antennae are either laced into the rear window of the car or set in a smaller, less aesthetically challenging rubber tube.
Manual gearbox
To the lament of purists (including the author) the manual gearbox is on the way out. Newer auto 'boxes are quicker to shift, better on fuel and can get your car to 100kmph quicker than their manual equivalent. Even Ferrari has gone fully auto.
The map
The initials G, P and S have made the map pretty much obsolete. Most people have a portable sat-nav and if not they probably have access to some form of map service on their phones. If, God forbid, they don't have access to any of these a quick trip to online map services like Bing maps can get you step-by-step directions to where you need to be.
The choke
If you still use the choke to start up your car, you live in the automobile stone age. Most cars, if not all cars, today have use fuel injection. No need to choke the engine with fuel when a computer can measure the required quantities for you, isn't it?
Wind-up windows
When was the last time you got in a car on a hot day and had to manually wind down the window? Or, for that matter, wound them down at all? The almost universal use of air conditioning has rendered them useless. Unless, of course, you have a dog who likes to stick his head out. But, then again, you have electric windows for that.
