Suggestion Panels

I pull the door handle and the door doesn't open. I use my right turn signal and immediately try to use my left turn signal but the left turn signal doesn't come on. I try to adjust my radio but I get a warning message about distracted driving that I have to dismiss before I can continue. I turn the temperature control to blue and the A/C comes on even though I didn't touch the A/C button. I hit the defrost button and the fan turns on high and the A/C comes on, even though I changed neither of those controls.

In short, I think I know what I want, but my truck knows what I really want. Things were already getting this way with my old car, and have continued further with my truck. This is the path on which we will continue as we approach fully autonomous vehicles. The panel in a car should no longer be called a control panel. It should be called a suggestion panel. I suggest what I want, and the car's computer judges whether or not it's a good idea. It is programmed to read my mind, to decide what I really want in a given situation, which sometimes is different from what I suggest that I want. Because I'm a dumb, distracted schmoe.