At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week GM showcased its self-driving Chevrolet Tahoe (the ‘Boss’). It was developed by the Carnegie Mellon University Tarton RacingTeam and was initially unveiled during the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge in November 2007.

GM reckons that self-driving cars will become a reality, but we think not. Perhaps for military applications where it doesn’t look good when soldiers get limbs blown off or die, but on the road, as we’ve mentioned before, the lawsuits that could arise (particularly in America) would be astounding if one of these vehicles actually did have an accident.

We’ve seen cars that can drive around cones quicker than humans, we have a Volkswagen that can parallel park itself, and we know that features like adaptive cruise control and sat-nav that warns us of impending congestion can save fuel. But, if you don’t want to drive, perhaps you could take the bus or train and leave the rest of us that want to drive to enjoy the gases of our own digestion in relative comfort and anonymity.

Back in the late ’70s an early ’80s, if you had ’5-speed’ as a badge on the back of your car, you were driving a primo car. Then as 5 gears became common, we started seeing all manner of different badges crowing about the technological prowess of your car….but only on fairly low-rent cars. The 1996 Mazda Capella proudly announces it has 12 valves. Wow – a lot of cars had 16 and even 20 at that time! Other cars advertised ABS, or ‘airbag’ (yes, just one).

Now it is fashionable to have ‘hybrid’ written on your car’; it’s better to have a V12 than a V10, a V10 than a V8, a V8 than a V6, and no one tells you they have just four cylinders, even if they have Turbo written on the boot to back it up; it’s a badge of honour to have a large kW figure there (like HSV does); and it’s sort of trendy to have AWD there in certain circles, like Subaru does. Then there are manufacturer-specific badges that add to the snobbery like BMW’s M, Mercedes’ AMG, Audi’s quattro and S Line, and Subaru’s STI.

But these don’t describe what actually goes into the car, just that a tuning house or department has got hold of it.

The latest common devices in cars of all prices are (in no particular order):

• Ticket holders (for parking receipts/tickets)
• Dual climate control
• Cup holders (some cars have 10!)

But I can’t see any cars wanting to advertise that on the back.

Every year auto manufacturers try to put on the glitziest show for the press to get coverage for their cars. No longer is it good enough to have scantily clad women draped over the car (or even totally naked women, as has been done before), or even to roll out your big guns of management. This year Corvette had Kid Rock singing while Jeff Gordon (NASCAR legend) drove in the new ZR1, Hummer had people abseil in for the HX concept, but Dodge stole the ‘beefiest’ entrance with 115 head of Texas Longhorn cattle trucked in from Oklahoma to launch its Ram. Of course, we won’t make a big deal out of how they perhaps should have been goats (‘Ram’, geddit?), or that putting all those cattle through a long journey for no real reason is tantamount to animal cruelty.

We’ll have to wait and see what the rest of the show has in store

This week is traditionally the week when the car manufacturers that have increased market share, increased sales, etc, and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve had emails from Citroen, Suzuki, Land Rover, Toyota, Fiat, and BMW. And, if a manufacturer didn’t do well in NZ (e.g. Renault), then a different spin is provided, like worldwide results that include cars we don’t even get in New Zealand. New car sales grew by less than 2% in NZ, so when a manufacturer increases by 40%, that’s significant. Of course, it’s always at the expense of another manufacturer, but I don’t hear from them, so ‘out of sight, out of mind.’

There’s actually so much interesting automotive news around that I don’t think it’s worth reporting on how many Suzuki Swift Sports have been sold (over 500 last year, apparently, which isn’t surprising). I’m sure you want to hear about radical concepts, cars that are coming to New Zealand, quirky news, and new developments in automotive technology. Let me know if I’m wrong.

On another note, the Mazda2 was voted Car of the Year by my peers in the Motoring Writers Guild (though not by me because I think the Subaru WRX and Skoda Roomster are better). We all had to cast our votes by 31 Dec 2007. The rest of the shortlist included the Audi R8, BMW M3, Ford Mondeo, Volvo C30, Mercedes C-Class, Honda CR-V, Fiat Bravo and Mitsubishi Lancer. I hadn’t had a chance to drive a few of them so couldn’t always register a vote. We vote in 10 categories that include things like performance, value for money, economy, etc

It wasn’t really a holiday – a 3-day festival followed by a 3-day drumming workshop – but it took my mind off cars for a while. Although, I did have to drive to Rotorua to get there and couldn’t believe the number of signs on the road put there by the government. No, I’m not talking about 30kph signs advertising roadworks when there are none around (though, those are still there); I’m talking about the power-nap signs and the ones telling you the 31% of crashes are caused by inappropriate speed.

Of course, the vast majority of crashes are caused by inattention to the road, but you can’t have a sign that says that because it distracts you from the road.

Holiday drivers were in evidence with their cars packed to the gills with beach balls, tents and chilly bins, usually right to the top. Which means in the event of a sudden stop all that paraphernalia would come flying forward to make a nice dent in the back of the passengers’ heads.

I also had yet another experience of calling the police to report a drunk driver (this time heading into Rotorua), following the driver for at least 10km while on the phone to the police, yet the police being totally unable to supply a car. Probably because they’re on the side of the road with radars attempting to find people doing 111kph. This is about the 11th time (no kidding) that this has happened. In fact, not once have the police managed to get a car to me, despite one time driving right past a police station (Ellerslie-Panmure Highway), and another time having followed the driver to their gate then discovering a police car parked on the side of the road 100m around the corner.

It’s ridiculous. Rant over – I have to deal with the 270 emails that came in during the last 6 days!

I just received an email imploring me not to purchase petrol on 22nd Feb. ‘Enough is enough’ it said. If the citizens of Australia and NZ don’t purchase petrol on that day it’ll cause a huge disruption. What a complete load of rubbish. We’ll still be using petrol on that day, which means we’ll need to either fill up the day before or the day after, which will cause more delays at the pumps, which means drivers will spend more time with their engines idling waiting for a pump to come free. Therefore fuel use will increase.

The only way it’s going to make a difference is if people don’t drive on that day, therefore no petrol is used. But that’s not going to happen – the public transport system will grind to a halt, deliveries won’t get made, people will be late. Plus, it’s not like personal transport is the only thing that uses petrol and diesel – trains, planes, taxis, buses, trucks, ferries – these will all need fuel.

I’ll be filling up on the 22nd because there’ll be less of a queue.