MG signs Benedict Cumberbatch as their brand ambassador

I laughed a lot when Siri not just said my name but told me it was beautiful... then I disabled it!

I just found really weird to have conversations with computers!

Two years ago, I bought a new car that can be controlled remotely from my phone. I have never set it up!

All these innovations are totally wasted on me. It was only a few months ago that I figured out how to open my garage door from inside my car! And I’m embarrassed to admit that I learned only a few weeks ago that “navigation” is just a fancy word for “map”! I was always grumbling that the navigation system is kind of useless if you don’t have an address to type in, so I never used it. Then one day I touched it by accident and a map appeared showing the street I was on. And as I drove, a little arrow (my car!) moved along. The names of surrounding streets popped up, too, so you can figure out where you need to go without having to drive around looking at street names. I’m sure it does much more, too, but I’m pleased with myself for finally discovering this!

I had my previous vehicle for years before I knew that there was a light in the back cargo area. My cousin was loading something into my car one night and asked if he could turn on the light. I said to him “Sorry, there’s no light back there. What a pain!” - and then he reached in and switched the light on. Ha! For years, I’d been fumbling around back there when looking for stuff in the dark, when it turned out that the light had been switched off the whole time.

My car comes with alerts to warn me that I’m about to hit something.

The first time I drove it to my parents’ house, I was backing out of their driveway when I started hearing beeps. There were cars parked on the street on the right and the left of the driveway, as well as across the street, directly opposite the driveway. None of that is unusual in any way. It’s a very quiet street with very little traffic, and I’ve backed out of that driveway hundreds of times with no problem at all. But this time, the beeping began and I panicked and slammed on the brakes. I had no idea what my car was warning me about! Once I saw that there was no danger, I continued to turn onto the street. I learned that the beeps differed, depending on the “danger” surrounding me. So my car kept thinking I was about to hit three different parked cars and was beeping like crazy.

It was taking me so long to get onto the street that a girl walking her dog had to stop and wait for me to go (another beep!), and a car had started to drive down the street, approaching where I was blocking the road (more beeps!).

I know that those alerts are meant to be helpful, but they have -so far- never alerted me to something I didn’t already know. I was thinking of disabling them, but that would be stupid. So now I just talk/argue with those beeps (“Yes! OK! I know that car is coming! Calm down!”). It was particularly bad last winter when my car went through a phase when it beeped every time I drove it, even if I was on a deserted road. I discovered that the sensors were covered with snow/ice, so they thought I was so close to another object that I was permanently in danger.