Old and new cars and the parallel to radio
03/21/2015
New cars are a bit like new (car) radios, especially if they still offer DAB. You are never sure whether what you are hearing is what is being broadcast. It may be that the person in the car next to you is already listening to something that will only be heard 10 meters away two seconds later. And you never know whether it's live sound or canned music anyway.
It's similar with modern cars. When you change gear in a DSG gearbox, the electronics take a moment to consider whether the next gear is also indicated and then engages it via servomotors. The same happens when we press the accelerator pedal and the computer ensures that the amount of air and fuel supplied to the engine is optimally adjusted to the circumstances, but not to our behavior as the driver. Soon even the steering will patronize us ...
Maybe that's why more and more people love old cars, because you're still moving real mechanics. When you lower the accelerator pedal, a wire opens the throttle valve. If the engine chokes, it's the driver's fault. It's the same with shifting gears: disengage the clutch, out of gear, accelerate, into gear, engage the clutch - the gearbox only responds with a clean gear change if it's done correctly, but it always follows the command directly. And it was the same with the old radio, which always played the exact signal that reached the antenna, no matter how interference-free it was.
