If Cars Were PC's...

Bill Gates of Microsoft testified before a congressional committee years ago that if automobiles had enjoyed the same gains in productivity that computers have achieved in the last 10 years, that we'd all be driving $25 cars that get 1,000 miles to the gallon. True, perhaps, Gates left out a few crucial points in the analogy.

If, in fact, cars were PC's:

• Your car would crash two or three times a day, sometimes just sitting in park

• Every time the transportation department built a new road, we'd have to buy new cars to travel on it

• Then, if we bought a new car, the brake, accelerator and steering wheel would all be in different places

• Every time you put your foot on the brake, a message window would pop up on the dashboard and say: "Are you sure? Yes/No"

• Once or twice a week your car would stall in the middle of the freeway. Then you would have to call a mechanic in another city who would tell you over the phone how to remove and reinstall the engine

• Apple would make a solar-powered, highly reliable car that would be twice as easy to drive, but it would run on only 10% of the roads.