Sadly, in this job there still aren't many chances to show off my theatre arts studies at the University of Guelph. I mean, after "Alas, poor Yugo, I knew it well..." there just isn't anywhere else to go.
My work in English Literature is more relevant, since it sometimes allows me to correct the public relations arm of some car company trying to "put some lipstick on a pig" (a popular PR term) by using -- or misusing -- a famous literary reference.
By far the most commonly abused line is "And therefore never send to see for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..." but that's not germane today. I'm just exercising the pedantic streak in my soul.
So it is that I can tell you that Volvo could not be more wrong when it says "there is nothing remotely 'Big Brother' about its approach" with regard to what it calls the "Third Age of Safety." The essence of this part of George Orwell's famous novel about repression -- 1984 -- was that Big Brother watched you all the time and stopped you from doing something it didn't want you to do.
A system that watches your driving all the time and then intervenes to
stop you from doing something it considers wrong is exactly what Volvo is working on. The key quote (which we'll get to later) from Volvo is "taking over control of the vehicle." (At this point, lovers of irony might appreciate that Volvo's fervent denial is a good modern example of "Newspeak," another Orwellian creation for 1984.)
What is in question regarding Volvo's work is whether the value of its Big Brother technology is great enough to convince consumers they should buy a car that uses it. This is not so academic a question as you might think, since it's Volvo's intent to put some new aspects of Big Brother technology in the upcoming S80 and V70 models.
It must be noted that there's already a bunch of Big Brother technology to be found in cars, usually related to the braking systems and related gear. The first item here was delivered by Mercedes-Benz about a decade ago, when it debuted electronic stability control. The key to that system -- which is now widely available -- was the ability of the car to apply an individual brake (which is something the driver still can't do) to correct a loss of control.
From there we went to brake assist, which recognizes that an emergency might be in the offing and applies much greater brake pressure than the driver is likely to do, active cruise control (slowing a car down if it gets to close to the vehicle at front), and several others.
As useful and as welcome as these things are, they are absolutely Big Brother-like in their ability to watch human behavior and step-in to stop things it doesn't want to happen.
What the Swedish division of the Ford Motor Company wants to do in the "Third Age of Automotive Safety" takes us a lot farther up the Big Brother road.
According to Volvo, the company "plans to equip its vehicles with highly
sophisticated systems that not only enhance the driver's physical perception of the road, but can even take over direct control of the car in critical situations where a driver is not responding sufficiently fast enough to avoid an emerging collision."
You can argue that it's Big Brother stopping you from doing something in your own best interests, but of course that's what Big Brother's been saying from since the book was written in 1948.
Volvo's rationalization for this move is put forward by Jan Ivarsson, the safety, strategy and requirements manager at Volvo Cars in Goteborg, Sweden.
My work in English Literature is more relevant, since it sometimes allows me to correct the public relations arm of some car company trying to "put some lipstick on a pig" (a popular PR term) by using -- or misusing -- a famous literary reference.
By far the most commonly abused line is "And therefore never send to see for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..." but that's not germane today. I'm just exercising the pedantic streak in my soul.
So it is that I can tell you that Volvo could not be more wrong when it says "there is nothing remotely 'Big Brother' about its approach" with regard to what it calls the "Third Age of Safety." The essence of this part of George Orwell's famous novel about repression -- 1984 -- was that Big Brother watched you all the time and stopped you from doing something it didn't want you to do.
A system that watches your driving all the time and then intervenes to
 |
| (Photo: Volvo Cars) |
What is in question regarding Volvo's work is whether the value of its Big Brother technology is great enough to convince consumers they should buy a car that uses it. This is not so academic a question as you might think, since it's Volvo's intent to put some new aspects of Big Brother technology in the upcoming S80 and V70 models.
It must be noted that there's already a bunch of Big Brother technology to be found in cars, usually related to the braking systems and related gear. The first item here was delivered by Mercedes-Benz about a decade ago, when it debuted electronic stability control. The key to that system -- which is now widely available -- was the ability of the car to apply an individual brake (which is something the driver still can't do) to correct a loss of control.
From there we went to brake assist, which recognizes that an emergency might be in the offing and applies much greater brake pressure than the driver is likely to do, active cruise control (slowing a car down if it gets to close to the vehicle at front), and several others.
As useful and as welcome as these things are, they are absolutely Big Brother-like in their ability to watch human behavior and step-in to stop things it doesn't want to happen.
What the Swedish division of the Ford Motor Company wants to do in the "Third Age of Automotive Safety" takes us a lot farther up the Big Brother road.
According to Volvo, the company "plans to equip its vehicles with highly
 |
| (Photo: Volvo Cars) |
You can argue that it's Big Brother stopping you from doing something in your own best interests, but of course that's what Big Brother's been saying from since the book was written in 1948.
Volvo's rationalization for this move is put forward by Jan Ivarsson, the safety, strategy and requirements manager at Volvo Cars in Goteborg, Sweden.