I agree about the technology. Some of it is just bells and whistles....and irritation, but there are SO many good things that they do with it that I'll take it and deal with the parts I don't like.
Like you guys, I've seen some bad things happen. In the back seat of a new Cadillac DeVille about '65. My friend was driving, after dark and entering a town we had never been to. It had a traffic circle right as you came in on the highway. Don't guess he saw the sign, if there was one, but drove straight into the side of about a '64 Ford Fairlane 500 filled with folks. The results were bad all around but the mention of the steering shaft earlier brought this one back. His head was stuck through the windshield...sort of. I guess there is a sheet of plastic or something sandwiched in the windshield that keeps it from shattering. He was just sort of "molded" into it with the glass still stuck to the plastic but shattered in a zillion tiny pieces. There were no seat belts as I recall and I remember that big steering wheel being folded over and down but that steering column didn't go anywhere. The vehicle was huge, heavy and built like a tank.....but it would have been nice for that steering column to "give". Yep, I'll take the advancements....even if I have to learn to talk to a "thing" that can't understand me..
