General Motors has countered claims by Microsoft boss Bill Gates that the motor manufacturers lag behind the computer industry.
At a recent computer conference, Gates compared computers with cars and said: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry we would all he driving $25 cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.
But General Motors countered by saying that if it had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
? For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
? Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
? Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
? Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
? Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought Car95" or CarNT. But then you would have to buy more seats.
? Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five dines as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would work on 5 per cent of the roads.
? The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single general car default warning light.
? New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
? The airbag System would say Are you sure? before going off.
? Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.
? GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 5t per cent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
? Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
You would press the start button to shut off the engine.
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If your car was like a computer, you might face the prospect of crashing twice a day
