The iCar

Automobiles in the fifties aimed for a space-age design — sharp angles, tailfins, a built-for-speed aesthetic, anticipating a future of jetpacks, conveyor belt skyways, transparent domes, moon patrols, and personal android servants. Today our autos are functional but shapeless and drab. What happened to the Jetsonian future we were promised?


Not all of our technology is a disappointment though. iPads are reasonably futuristic. You can whip one of those out for some quick calculations traced on a fluid screen, a sleek little device Buck Rodgers himself might have endorsed. But Apple probably should stay out of the automobile industry. You would look very fashionable driving your iCar to, say, Miami, but as soon as you pointed it toward mountainous terrain your request would be flatly denied.

"We don't do uphill."

"But I want to go to Denver."

"Sorry, uphill was deemed too dangerous by our designer."

"Don't you think as owner I should be the one to weigh the risks and make the decision?"

"No, and furthermore due to your insolent manner your driving privileges are revoked until further notice."

On second thought that does rather sound like the future I've come to expect.