The Review

Taking your answer machine for a ride

- Jim Smart Visit columnist Jim Smart’s website at jamessmart­sphiladelp­hia.com.

One of the more startling technologi­es to come along in this 21st century, at least to centurions of the previous century like me, is devices that answer your questions.

There are Alexa and Hey, Google, and probably some others. Ask the little box of mysterious electronic stuff a question, and it will answer it or apologize for not knowing.

They are strange enough sitting on the credenza in the parlor. But now, the makers of the so-called digital voice assistants are starting to stick them in automobile­s.

Some 2019 models of BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Lexus and Toyota offer them. The 2018 Ford EcoSport had one.

The so-equipped driver can ask the little electronic knowit-all where’s the next gas station or how soon will he get to his chosen destinatio­n or what roads should he take to get there or anything one might want to ask while driving. Or while not driving.

If a driver has Amazon’s Alexa at home and also in the car, he can ask the car before he leaves the house if he needs to buy gas and then tell it to start the engine, he’ll be right out.

Driving home in the evening, if his house is properly wired up with 21st century Alexa-controlled gadgetry, he can instruct the house to turn up the thermostat, turn on the lights and open the garage door.

I’ve read several articles about this wizardry, and all gush over it or come close. One thing none of them mentions, which is an important detail to me, is what it will cost to install equipment all over the house that will listen to instructio­ns from your electronic pet on the dashboard and take care of all the instructio­ns it receives.

Whenever one of these new marvelous convenienc­es comes along, their purveyors tell us all that we must have one. We absolutely need one. Everybody’s getting one.

Can’t afford it? Hey, sonny, you wanna be left behind all your friends?

Folks 200 years ago were getting along fine with candles. Then whale oil lamps came along. They were expensive, but if you wanted to be a 19th century person of any consequenc­e, you’d pay the price.

Then kerosene came along. Then gas lights, with pipes installed all over the house. Cost a lot? Sure, but it’s modern. OK, forget the gas pipes. Electricit­y is the latest thing. And so on, and so on. When new technology comes along, we have to have it. That philosophy is especially believed by those who sell it.

I’m not knocking progress or developmen­ts that make life easier, healthier, perhaps happier. But one thing doesn’t seem to change. There are always people who can’t afford to own the latest thing.

As new things come along, there are many people left behind. When I was a boy, we had neighbors who couldn’t afford an automobile or a telephone. Today, better off people worry about families with no computer or cellphone.

So today, we have a gadget named Alexa who can control our appliances and equipment. And next, she, or it, will be installed in our automobile­s.

Three questions: Will the current demand for a greater minimum wage mean anything when there is a constant increase in the necessity for more devices and services?

Won’t there always be people who can’t afford the latest technology? And will people be installing Alexa in self-driving automobile­s? (Gotta have one.)

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