Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/08/18/97-year-old-man-takes-his-firs.html
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I’m way more impressed with the old fella than the car, honestly ^^’. I can only hope I’m so clearheaded, curious, and willing to try out new things at the same age. He also gets around pretty well, for 97 o.O’ .
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What a great old guy! And those are some very impressive ears as well.
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Old geezers? I love’em!
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ME, CIRCA 2069: What, you mean this car is actually billions of tiny robots that automatically change shape to adapt to the environment?
GRANDCHILD, WITH GOOD-NATURED PATIENCE: Yes, grandpa. It’s called “bio-mimetic adaptive nanoswarming.”
ME: But where does it get its energy?
GRANDCHILD: Quantum tunneling, grandpa.
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But in reality the grandchild wouldn’t know or care. Kinds these days (yeah I know, get off my lawn) seem to lack curiosity.
Lovely old fella.
Now time to bash Tesla a little bit: touchscreen for controls? Engineers spent decades perfecting ergonomics and tactile features so you can operate switches without looking at them. Anyone who knows their remote control positions and can change channels and volumes in the dark knows how important it is. That little “braille” indentation on key 5 is not accidental.
Turn on air conditioning on a Tesla? Yeah, let me look at this screen while I drive.
Well, maybe it is why they developed autopilot in first place.
(Tesla bashing off) Tesla is awesome.
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I don’t entirely agree with you on this. Tesla hide secondary controls, giving more emphasis to steering, braking and accelerator. Aircon, lights and wipers are presumably automatic, with manual overrides which you can find through the touch screen.
Many cars have buttons for the sake of having them. I like the clean layout of the controls in these cars.
“What if one of them enters my rectum by mistake? I mean, they are very small, aren’t they? Just sitting here, what if they smoosh up into there? It could cause itching!”
“That’s why everyone wear nano-block rectal plugs now, grandpa.”
“Oh THAT"S what they are for? And all this time I thought it was to control green house gases.”
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(Eyeroll) “Grandpa, we’ve all been working hard to INCREASE greenhouse gases ever since Nuclear Winter set in, remember?”
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“Is that why you keep feeding me beans? I thought your mom just couldn’t cook…”
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Well, you have the sweet grandpa type, but then you have the other kind, like what I’m squarely aiming at.
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“That’s why everyone wear [sic] nano-block rectal plugs now, grandpa.”*
Footnote* All nano-block rectal plugs manufactured since 2058 feature micro auto-reverse conduits, engineered to release bio greenhouse gases crucial to post nuclear winter environmental recovery.
Advance Nostalgia. Back To The Future Again Before Last Time (s).
Remember when electric cars only had auto pilot and couldn’t even fly?
No digital UI EVER ages all that well; a lever or dial remains a lever or dial. Nor do I particularly wish to voice-control my car, given the choice. I’ll also note that no one is hacking old, analog cars =p .
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Skip to 5:50 for the acceleration test. 
What’s a “channel”?
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Of course they do. It’s called “stealing”.
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I knew a 98 year old who still attended, and contributed to, weekly oncology sessions with the non-retired doctors at the hospital he basically built. He also still roto-tilled his own garden (granted it was a rich loamy soil he’d been tilling for 40 years, not a rock in sight). I don’t think he was average though, bit of an outlier that guy. Drove until he was 97 and voluntarily turned in his drivers license having never been in an accident (other than that ambulance in France in WWII)
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And that’s what it’s called: “Stealing”. No, no one is making a 1983 VW Beetle turn, brake, or other similar lovely stunts without being there with you in the car, or having set it up as a giant R/C car 1st.
