Mike Morin

Just when you thought you could jump into your car and be alone without Siri or any other artificially-intelligent Big Brother snitch, you would be wrong. With a $49 device, you can now have the convenience, or if you prefer, intrusion of Amazon’s Alexa as your new back seat driver.

But today’s lecture is far more subtle and sinister than your talking devices. If you drive a fairly recent car, the onboard computer system is keeping score of every lane change and every jack rabbit start of whomever is operating the vehicle.

Artificial intelligence has come to your car and I don’t mean in the form of a black box in case you have an accident. Your car records your driving habits and uses the stream of ongoing data to help your vehicle run more efficiently.

“Cars are really smart. They anticipate the way you drive. Depending on your acceleration habits, it adapts the car’s shift patterns and fuel delivery,” according to Ron Poirier, owner of Bob and Sons Automotive in Manchester. He and auto expert Dick Horan are weekly guests on a radio show I moderate, Talking Cars, on WFEA.

That should really creep out the privacy fanatics reading this. I asked Ron if most people knew their cars were operating based on driving habits with artificial intelligence.

“I think most people don’t know,” Ron confessed. I had to dumb it down for myself to grasp the concept and will offer another example. Your car has numbered memory buttons so you can adjust your seat position without manually doing so if somebody changed it while borrowing your ride. Your sophisticated and nosey computer, under the guise of being helpful, tracks your braking, speeding and parking repetitions and adjusts the operation while you drive.

In a way, this isn’t new. For years, some insurance companies have been offering “safe driver” discounts by giving you a device that tracks how you drive. If you speed or brake excessively, expect your rates to possibly increase. Add the GPS component and big brother insurers like Flo from Progressive or Jake from State Farm will have proof you sped through a school zone or tend to roll through stop signs. Participation is optional and you can opt out when you want.

Ron assured me that when you change drivers, the car’s A.I. senses it, especially when two people share a family car.

“If you got in your wife’s car and used it for a week and then gave it back to her she might say, ‘What did you do to my car because it doesn’t run the same as when I gave it to you?'” Then you’d reply, “I just drove your car the way I drive.” But you don’t drive your car the way your wife drives her car and the computer knows that and apparently compensates accordingly.

I sure hope my Sleep Number Bed isn’t as nosey as my Toyota. If it is, I’d better slow down, if you catch my drift.