May 17, 2019
Dear Everyone:
My new car, Agamemnon, and I are still getting used to each other.
For me, one of the hardest things is remembering that I don’t need to
take the key, also known as a Smart Entry Remote Transmitter (SERT), out
of my pocket to unlock the car, much less to start it.
Actually, there is no real “key”, as in nothing to insert into a
lock to open or close it, just a plastic
thingamajig with some buttons
on it.
The key to my old car, Odysseus, also had buttons, to lock and unlock
the doors, open the trunk, and Panic, which I don’t believe I’ve ever
used. Those buttons all had
specific locations and shapes.
So I could place my hand in my pocket and know that the concave
button was the trunk (press and hold), while the convex button was the
door control (press once to unlock the driver’s side, press twice to
unlock all the other doors, press twice and hold to open all doors and
roll down the windows on hot days), and the
convex-with-concave-center-and-raised-spots-located-at-the-base would
lock everything at once. It
would even make the horn go off briefly if pressed twice.
The SERT on Agamemnon has all those buttons, in different places and
configurations, plus an additional button that allows me to start the
car from a distance, should I ever want to do so.
To be perfectly honest, I can’t imagine why I would want to do
that, and doubt that I would remember the unique combination of
button-presses in an actual emergency.
I can even set the car up to automatically lock itself when I walk away
from it. To be perfectly
honest, I’m not sure I trust Agamemnon to remember, so I just press the
“Lock” on the car door as I always have done in the past.
Most importantly, if I accidentally leave the SERT inside the car
for some reason, the doors won’t lock no matter how hard I try to get
them to do it.
Mother and Dad were forever locking their keys inside the car, then
having to call each other to come, with the extra key, to unlock it for
each other. And "Jeannie's"
trick is to put the key in her purse, then lock the purse in the trunk,
for safe keeping. These are
the people the designers had in mind when they set up this system.
In fact, I don’t even have to press any buttons to unlock the car doors.
As long as the SERT is with me, Agamemnon recognizes the signal
and I can open the door just by putting my hand on the door handle.
Ditto the trunk release.
It’s all done with automotive
telepathy.
Then there’s the Navigation System.
So far, I’ve only asked Agamemnon to show me how to get somewhere
that I already know how to find, like the Senior Community Center in
Martinez, or the route to “Home”, which is identified as my carport.
This way, I can get used to how the system operates before
trusting everything to it in some unknown location.
I do like the fact that it tells me how far up the freeway my intended
exit is. There’s a “Heads Up
Display” (HUD), that appears along the lower part of the windshield on
the driver’s side. It shows
how fast the car is going, what the local speed limit is, what compass
direction I’m going in, and what street I’m on.
This can be very helpful in some smaller towns, where the street signs
are artfully hidden, and will tell you the name of the cross-street
(after you’ve passed through the intersection, of course), but not the
name of the street you’re on.
It also shows you which way to go when there is an upcoming turn, with a
pretty blue arrow. And there
is a voice recording, of course:
“In a quarter-mile, turn right on Exit Number (whatever).
Then turn left on (name of street).”
I even figured out how to control the volume on the Navigation
Voice.
Of course, I’m not nearly done learning all the Bells and Whistles that
Agamemnon has. The dealer
even sent me links to about a dozen different videos online showing how
to accomplish various feats of daring.
And when all else fails, there’s always the Owner’s Manual.
I haven’t even tried filling the gas tank yet.
Since Agamemnon is a Hybrid, he mostly runs on electricity.
I figure I have a few more days before I have to try opening the
gas cap yet.
Tally ho!!!
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |