Dave, It's time to wash me. (With apologies to Stanley Kubrick)
It seems like every time I talk with my friend Rick it sparks an article. The latest topic that he brought up was that autonomous cars will let you know when they need to be washed. I kid you not. Rick said he read it in Automotive News. A quick search on Google brought up this from Jalopnik: “ On Christmas Eve, the United States Patent and Trademark Office released a patent filed by Toyota that will allow your car to sense that it’s dirty and then head off to the car wash without any human input at all.” What the heck is next? Maybe H.A.L. will tell Dave to call his mom? There are some things that I don’t or wouldn’t mind a car telling me. If I remember correctly years ago BMWs told you when to change the engine oil not based on mileage but on a number of parameters like miles travelled, type of driving, etc. Now that seems useful. Computing when your vehicle’s fluids need to be changed and alerting you of the need sounds like a good idea. If your car goes off and gets itself
