I must have my stupid shoes on because I cannot understand new trends in cars arising from and leading to what can only be described as ‘moronity’ by a select group of people.
There seems to be a whole generation of kids who grew up on the back seats of their parents cars refusing to be a part of a passing cascade of interesting things on the ‘Sunday drive’ whilst preferring to be attached to any electronic device and ignoring the real world.
These introverted kids have grown up with electronic doohickies ruling their life. They don’t want to be out of their small comfort zone and don’t want others to see them because that’s what introverts do. This is FOMO smart phone access leading to car phones / screens gone berserk. Indeed we nearly killed a circa 12 year old kid on St Kilda road who jumped off a tram stop with his eyes buried on his phone and just didn’t realise he had walked into traffic. My instant loud horn saved his life because I could not have stopped. Scary.
Car makers know this trend and tailor cars to suit so they can sell more cars. Particularly with huge ‘information’ screens, external cameras and tinted windows. Now, people can escape within their own FOMO cocoon and ignore the passing world in anonymity. Sad. Some cars travelling at night are so bright inside from various ‘screens’ that they should not be on the road.
Now, add on to this conundrum an endemic tendency to have all windows so ‘tinted’ it restrict s any proper visibility. Some cars are so illegally tinted in the windscreen that you can’t even tell if there is a driver. Introverts all. They have gone back to being kids in the back seat playing on their ‘device’ ignoring the world. Now these same strange people need multiple external cameras so they can actually see or do anything including parking. Cameras help the ‘tinted’ morons who can’t drive.
Further, those same morons reverse park in situations which confirm stupidity beyond belief. Take South Melbourne market where the morons go shopping to bring back bunches of stuff to their reversed parked car only to realize that can’t access the tailgate / boot because they have reversed parked. This is so stupid it’s beyond belief. Driving forward into a 90 degree car park is simple and doesn’t hold up the traffic whilst allowing easy access to the boot. Reversing out also does not hold up traffic because you wait for a gap. But reversing in does hold up traffic and you still cannot access the boot. Did I say stupid? We have seen the really stupid even reverse park into 60 degree bays designed for front in parking ‘only’ and they end up facing oncoming traffic.
This trend is driven by no actual visibility through tinted screens necessitating external cameras allowing electronic visibility from one of the many internal screens.
I drive a 20 year old money pit which has parking sensors but no cameras and a low dash mounted screen which allows sat nav, radio, CD and once-was analogue TV. There is no tinting except for the top 10% of the windscreen hence we enjoy looking out seeing the passing world. We don’t mind people looking in, it doesn’t threaten us as we are not introverts. How can people go for a ‘Sunday Drive’ locked into a cocoon? This is not life but typifies the back seat kids on their devices growing up only to transfer that ‘screen desire & FOMO’ to their cars.
Sad.
It’s sad because these dysfunctional trends are endemic and curtail life.
Is there a solution? Yes!!
Firstly, if it was up to me I would make all ‘tinted’ drivers hire an old pre any electronic gizmo convertible for a day with the roof dropped just to make them realise there is a great world out there to enjoy – every second. My wife drives a 1988 Mazda MX5 and in which it’s berserkly fun to drive and enjoy life.
Secondly, enforce the law on tinted windows even changing same to stop inappropriate side and rear tints. In this way people get to look out and enjoy ‘stuff’.
Thirdly ban all reverse parking excepting curb side parallel parking.
Fourthly, force car manufacturers to limit screen brightness.
Simple but still needs an attitude adjustment.
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