Journey to the future with automatic transmission
It's been ten years since I last bought a new car. And this should be seen as a compliment to my vehicle: it has never given me a headache in all these years. My previous cars lasted five years and failed. My Honda, however, was a brave warrior. It has put up with my blunders and lack of care and, in recent years, my lack of interest.
In the last three years that I've lived in Rio, I've seriously considered not owning a car, as mine has hardly left the garage since the pandemic. In fact, I've noticed that more and more people are giving up on having a car. Among my former work colleagues, some already preferred to take public transport or Uber during the week, and rent a car for short weekend trips.
Coming to Porto Alegre, however, changed some of my paradigms. This city is not as well served by public transport as Rio. Here, if I want to get around by taxi, I might spend a long time standing in the sun while I wait for a free taxi to pass by. The other drivers pass me by and look out of the window in curiosity, wondering what this woman is doing standing there. This business of taking taxis on the street is over...
Here, even the tele cab doesn't work properly on holidays and rainy days; on these days it's impossible to get a car. Despite this, there are loyal users, like my mother, who don't intend to stop using this service any time soon. "The tele cab attendant recognizes me by my voice!" my mother says proudly. "Even after not leaving the house for so long during the pandemic..." she finishes. I spent a long time, stuck in a malaise, working up the courage to kill her illusions, until one day I said, "Mom, it's not that the attendant recognizes your voice. It's just that when you call a tele-taxi, the attendant sees your phone number, name and address on the screen." "The attendant may not recognize me, but the drivers already know me". And that was that.
When I moved to the south, I started using my little car more. My old Honda had a manual gearbox and hardly any frills, so I was quite outdated when it came to the comforts of a modern car. I began to notice that, on hills, no driver would let his car move backwards when started to move. Only me. I investigated and discovered that cars with automatic gearboxes have Hill Holder, a hill start assistant that doesn't let the car slip. It's wonderful!
So I decided to rent a car with automatic transmission before buying the next one, to get used to the idea and tame my left foot. This weekend, I discovered that I was lost somewhere in the past! To begin with, the car didn't start when I started it and accelerated. I spent a few minutes trying to figure out what I was doing wrong until I realized that I hadn't put my seatbelt on. "Is that so?". Yes, because all I had to do was buckle up and the car started moving. What's more, I now have to turn on the arrow every time I change lanes, otherwise the car insists on pulling me back into the lane I was driving in.
I got on the road and noticed that no one was complaining about anything inside the car, which is rare. Even though my mother was clutching the passenger support handle, she was calm and confident. "How's the air conditioning?" I asked, "Very good, and the car, how soft! It feels like it has cushions on the wheels. Even the view is good from up here". I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that my dog was lying relaxed on the seat, instead of fighting seasickness as she always does. What peace!
As I got closer to home, I had to stop in the lane because the car in front of me was maneuvering to park. Suddenly I became aware of the Toc-Toc-Toc-Toc inside the car. It was the warning light, which had been turned on automatically! "Wow, you can't even ignore traffic rules these days. The car follows them without you knowing!", I commented to my mother, astonished and grumpy. I don't even want to think about what it will be like to drive a car in the future. I imagine that someone who needs a car to go to work to solve an urgent problem at the weekend will have problems. After starting the car and entering your destination into the on-board computer, it will briefly check your employment contract, your bank situation and your health indicators and may refuse to drive: "Your latest health check indicates a high degree of stress. Since your employment contract doesn't provide for overtime at the weekend and your bank account is out of the red, you'll have to dedicate this Sunday to leisure activities. I'm canceling the planned destination and changing the route to a trip along the coast. Let's go to Xangrilá! Buckle up and enjoy the ride."
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
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