Ford Demos a Car that Learns

... more junk of dubious value to go wrong.
Del _{(grumpy old cynical kitty, whose car sometimes decides it won't let him lock it becaus it 'thinks' he hasn't turned the ignition off)}

Simpler to build a car that learns than build a company that learns.

And what happens when the system lags or crashes (not the car, just control module) like Google search engine does on me all the time since they added this stupid program?

They would be better off with voice command gps with favorites. person gets in, starts car, car asks "where are we going?" Person answers "home, work, or etc." GPS will already know the persons driving habits and optimize the car to that persons driving habits for that route.

I don't blame them for trying to improve the vehicle in this way, I just think they are going about it in the wrong way because they want to use the Google name.

You wrote, "...person gets in, starts car, car asks "where are we going?" Person answers "home, work, or etc.""

That's pretty bad when you get to the point where you need GPS to get you to work and home again!

If we really need GPS that badly just to get to our favorite places then one would expect that 30 years ago the highways would have been littered with lost dead drivers like the dried bones of antelope on the plains.

Granted, I installed GPS in my car, but I use it to get to places that I do not know where they are. That amounts to less than 2% of my travels.

Which brings me to my point, for the other 98+% of my driving I don't need a "Bitching Betty" telling me what I already know to be.

So, while that may be what is called an intelligent learning car, maybe we would rather have a brilliant car that knows to shut up.

"That's pretty bad when you get to the point where you need GPS to get you to work and home again!"

I agree! I still have my Indiana Gazetteer for getting around. Although, I wouldn't want to go without my GPS. It is very helpful when I am out doing inspections and trying to locate all of these businesses with air pollution permits.

My point wasn't that the gps is telling the person anything. The sole purpose of the system in this case is to optimism the car's performance to the person's driving habits.