Talking with your car is now almost as normal as filling up. It is not even necessary to get behind the wheel of a higher-end model and just a “hei”, or some other short reminder, to establish contact. The very possibility of involving smartphones universally extends a relationship between man and machine that has long since crossed the boundaries of science fiction. Remember HAL 9000 the talking computer from Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey?
The car actually began to make itself heard from the very beginning, with the noise above all but also with horns and horns. And often in the most bizarre ways: the German Emperor Wilhelm II, for example, had chosen the air of the god of thunder from The gold of the Rhine by Wagner. However, we will have to wait until the most recent Eighties, and the progress of digital equipment, for the first messages from the dashboard with the exit from the purely experimental phase of voice synthesizers. In short, when Siri and Alexa had yet to be invented the car was already talking.
The debut on popular cars
It is surprising that the debut of such an advanced technology for the time was not linked to sophisticated flagships, but rather to two lower-middle range cars, certainly not protagonists in the sector market and practically forgotten today: the Renault 11 and the Austin Maestro. Both were born in 1983, to enter the most competitive field in Europe, dominated by the Volkswagen Golf and full of an infinite number of competitors.
The French company, which focuses on the original features of the bodywork signed by Robert Opron to stand out, also wants to be at the forefront in offering non-standard equipment for the category. Thus, in addition to accessories that were not taken for granted at the time such as central locking or electric windows, it tries to amaze by claiming the extraordinary nature of the Electronic version, with its eye-catching liquid crystal instrumentation and the gift of speech. A metallic voice, with feminine tones, informs the driver about lights left on or doors open, about the fuel reserve or the excessive temperature of the coolant, in addition to signaling other anomalies in the functioning of the engine accompanying a well-fed array of warning lights. If we want nothing actually useful, but the effect is certainly not lacking.
For the rest, the 11 is a normal car, in line from the point of view of contents with the contemporaneity of its segment: the displacements range from 1,100 to 1,600 and the range includes diesel variants and a turbo petrol sports car. The vocal experiment, however, will be a positive test for Renault, which will continue on the path of developing new technologies starting with the largest sedan 25, in the field since 1984.
A prevailing fashion
The protagonist of the last season of a historic brand of British industry, the Maestro instead experiences the transition of what remains of the old Leyland group to BMW. The effort to give personality to the model involves David Bache, a stylist linked to creative tests of the caliber of the Range Rover, which in this case does not differ from more conventional forms. Nothing revolutionary even in the mechanics and in the engines from 1,300 to two liters, but in 1988 an acute lead Austin to share the primacy of direct injection diesel with the Fiat Croma. Digital instrumentation and voice synthesizer offer the same prerogatives of the French rival and are part of the accessories package of the top versions, which here associate the Maestro name with the prestigious brands, also at sunset, MG and Vanden Plas.
A piece of history
The career of the Renault 11 ended in 1989, after a moment of notoriety thanks to the film 007-Moving target, protagonist, with Roger Moore at the wheel, of a crazy chase on the streets of Paris, where it manages to march incredibly broken in half. The English, despite the loss of identity and oblivion in Europe, will have productive aftermath even in China. Today, at the beginning of the era of autonomous driving and in the consolidated realm of absolute connectivity, the futuristic hint of those two cars has the value of an archaeological find and at least deserves a memory.
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