OMG, Like, Really?

So, for once, I'm speechless. I cannot think of the last time I felt this way. Or, maybe that isn't the truth. Back in the mid 90's, this is when I began driving legally. At this time there was very little available in the way of technology, especially compared to right now. My first car was a 1992 red Honda Prelude Si. There I was, sixteen, filled with excitement. With money I earned from my weekend job, I could afford a full tank of gas, and then still have enough for a few slices of pizza with some friends. I remember heading over to my friend's house to pick him up so we could cruise around for the night. While I was sitting at a red light, although there was not another person in sight, I needed to show off, and so I decided put-up some nice sounding tunes on my radio. Before the light turned green, I quickly grab for the volume knob to crank it up. But music never came out of my speakers that day. No, instead I heard this weak thump sort of sound, followed by this loud elongated disturbing static noise. To this day I am still haunted by that sound. As I sat there bewildered about my forever muted stock radio, I quickly fell into a slight depression. I remember the opening of that factory installed tape deck glaring at me, as it was laughing because it knew all I owned at this time were CD's. That exact moment is when I realized I needed a better sound system in my car. During this time, it was just 1996. Sixteen year old's like me really didn't know about LCD screens yet. It is possible that some people were able to buy a head unit that had capabilities to broadcast TV. I definitely wanted one of those, but I certainly didn't have enough money for it. What I could afford, however, a CD player that had the ability to play mp3 CD's. Nonetheless, the technology then totally and entirely sucked. If it wasn't too expensive, then it was boring, complicated and just useless.

Now, back to why I am speechless. This evening, after stuffing my face with egg foo young, and reading quite the philosophical fortune cookie, which I will forever remember, I then logged onto yahoo. At this moment, thrown in my face is an article touting this amazing new advancement in technology from Audi. From first glance, all I could see was excitement. I then jumped on google, I typed in Audi technology in the news request only to find all of these publications, blogs, and whatevers, all filled with similar excitement that I saw attached to the first article. So, I thought, wow, there must be some awesome exciting news, evidently about some kind of awesome great technology that will be inside the dash of a semi-afforable car. Quickly I clicked into one of the articles. Hooray! A sight for sore eyes, they are integrating 4G LTE technology into their dashboard. Woohoo. Alright, wait... What? They're doing what? Well, that's stupid, who really cares? Am I the only one on this planet who doesn't think this is even almost a good idea? I mean, do we really need another monthly payment? Aren't our pockets already being wrung dry by other monthly fees: school loans, insurances costs, overpriced fuel, rent, car payments, child support, internet, smart phone data plans, etc.  Smart phone data plans, wait, did I just say smart phone data plan? Wait, so that means I already have a 4G LTE connection. Every month I pay about one-hundred dollars to my service provider for their alchemist stone, oops, I mean my data plan, so that I can keep connected to the world outside my head.

Alright, I am gonna stop beating around the bush, now. This celebrated advancement by Audi: Audi 4G LTE it makes very little sense to me. This supposed technology is why I am speechless. It depresses and perplexes me similarly to when my speakers blew up as I sat at a red light. With all of the latest technological advancements that exist today; with all the abilities that exist inside our smart phones, or any smart devices, that can communicate with LCD screens, I cannot understand why these car companies are thinking that this 4G LTE integration as a service is a good idea for the dashboards of our vehicles. To me, this all sounds like an advanced OnStar system. They are essentially allowing us to pay extra money per month for a service that we already have and are paying for: gees, thanks a lot, Audi, great idea. What's scary to me is that most likely the rest of the manufactures are going to follow suit with this stupid idea. I guess I just give these people who run these car manufactures a little bit too much credit. I mean, why would they actually give us something that makes sense and communicates through our smart devices that we already are paying a service fee for.