The Irony of Microsoft and Cars

Microsoft is once again sticking their fingers into other industries. Now they are working make cars that can't crash. That is their eventual goal of their move into the auto industry. I would like to see Microsoft make an OS that doesn't crash first. I run Windows XP, and I still have more crashes on my PC then I do in my car, I and drive quite a few miles during my commute (often while eating, talking on the phone, etc.)

Is it just me, or is this the ultimate irony? Microsoft thinking they can make a car that doesn't crash when they cannot make an OS that doesn't. I'll buy a car that runs on Microsoft when my computer quits crashing. Although I expect that will happen when I switch to Linux.

I must admit, this reminds me of the battle between Microsoft and GM. I think this took place around 1996, but I am not sure. This has become some what of an urban legend now, and the story has changed some, but fundamentally it is the same idea, and still very funny.

At COMDEX Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.

In response to Mr. Gates' comments, General Motors issued the following press release (by Mr. Welch himself, the GM CEO).

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, restart and drive on.
3. Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too.
4. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. Apple would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
6. Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
7. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
9. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.
10. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
11. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
12. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
13. Every time GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
14. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.

I am sure the list has grown and been modified over the years, and I am sure you could think of a lot of new things to add to the list.