George Michael Impersonator

Two different BBC car stories caught my eye today.

Ford have launched a car that can be driven hands-free on British motorways.

WHY!?

OK, so I suppose you  have to start somewhere - but not with this.

Apparently, you have to keep your eyes on the road ahead and "the driver is not permitted to use their mobile, fall asleep or conduct any activity that takes attention away from the road."

So what is the point?

Plus, this is a Ford Mustang Mach e that has a maximum speed of 80mph.

DON'T CALL SOMETHING THAT CAN ONLY DO 80MPH A MUSTANG!

I hate the way Ford are reusing classic car names on horrible SUVs - I'm looking at you, Ford Puma.

I don't normally like the comments under BBC stories - the ones I usually read tend to be full of angry Gammons still trying to defend Brexit.  But this one is lots of angry Gammons and angry non-gammons coming up with more and more reasons why this won't work in Britain.  Smart Motorways being a good one - this car is supposed to safely grind to a halt if the driver loses interest in the road ahead - you will have cars stopping all over the place on warm, Summer afternoons.

And will Police have to check whether or not it is the right age of Mustang when they see a driver doing jazz-hands while travelling at 70mph down the M6? And that his hands-free subscription is up to date?

Yes, you need to subscribe to this hands-free driving lark as well!

So why have I called this post, "George Michael Impersonator?"

Ah, well that's because of my second BBC story which combines my love of cars with my love of Swansea City Football Club.  Danny Graham made 54 appearances for us. This includes when we were in the Premier League, so I don't know why we are only a sub-note in the story of him crashing an expensive Jaguar-Land-Rover vehicle into a Co-op in County Durham:

Whilst over the limit.

I wonder if his hands were on the wheel at the time?

Florida Man

There's this thing on The Internet whereby you put "Florida Man" and your birthday into Google and you get stories about idiots.

Florida Man makes Norfolk Man look normal.

If it is your birthday today you will find this Fox headline

Florida man's 'very unusual parking' job leads to DUI arrest

Here's the picture:

And here's the story.

I decided to put "Florida Man Car" into Google:

• Florida Man Drives Bizarre Chopped Car For An Unbelievable Reason
• Florida Man Steals Two Police Cars During Chase
• Florida man threw his two-month-old baby at police after high-speed car chase
• Florida man 'crashed car through airport gate before running into cockpit of Coast Guard plane'
• Florida man dressed as Fred Flintstone pulled over for driving 'footmobile'

Why?

Two completely different and completely unrelated stories caught my eye this morning.

The first is from Autoguide.  It revolves around a Texan couple who own 79 Dodge Vipers:

 

Although this picture looks like a load of Matchbox cars - they are real.  Whats the point?  Some of them even look identical - there are at least four white ones with blue Shelby Stripes.  The couple are asked the question in the video that accompanies the story but it was filmed in the Dodge factory so you can't actually hear the responses.

The second story is from Australian site caradvice.com.au and centres around a decision that police in the State of Victoria (ie Victorian Police) should no longer get involved in car chases unless there are special circumstances.  You may ask why - I know I did, especially when I read the first half of the article, a viewpoint by their correspondent Paul Maric interestingly titled, "Drunk and drug affected drivers given green light thanks to Victoria Police."  The second part of the article does give the opposing view though and I can now see where they are coming from.  The comments section at the end is very good too - I dread to think what sort of comments would have been appearing if the Mail ran the story.

Now a picture of Victorian Police: