Don’t give up on tried-and-true directions just because a new voice is chiming in

<p>Lately I’ve been hearing voices. Or, rather, I have been hearing The Voice. That is what I have been calling the human-sounding speech coming from our new car.</p>
<p>Becky suggested calling her Tillie as in “Tillie the Talker.” I don’t know. The name and the pronoun seem so humanizing. It’s like we have a new friend. I think I will continue calling it “The Voice” until I get to know it better.</p>
<p>Being the digital immigrants we are, initiating and getting comfortable with new technology doesn’t come naturally for us. We were intimidated by how much had changed in the 10 years since we had bought a new car. Although the guy at the Subaru car dealership walked us through the many opportunities we now have to interact with our new BFF “infotainment system,” enough time had passed before our trip so that we couldn’t quite remember how to use the map function to give us directions to our destination in Quebec, Canada.</p>
<p>Eventually we puzzled out that some features are disabled during driving for safety reasons, so we pulled the vehicle over, tried again and, voila, the map directions worked.</p>
<p>For the rest of our trip, The Voice gave us a heads up when we had to turn, take an exit or change our direction. It warned us of upcoming traffic jams. The screen visuals that accompany The Voice told us the speed limit and when we were exceeding it, how close the nearest gas stations were, and where to eat, sleep and visit. It also gave us directions to the nearest Subaru dealer.</p>
<p>Once we crossed the border into Ontario, we felt as if we were in a different country, which, of course, was the case. We tried to fit in. We listened to a favourite radio programme. We noticed the colours of the beautiful flowers in the centre median. When we stopped for a few litres of gas or for coffee at one of the ubiquitous Tim Horton’s in the On Route service areas ( We drink a tonne of coffee when we travel), we laboured to be on our best behaviour. After all, in these contentious political times, it’s a good thing to represent the United State with honour, eh?</p>
<p>It was a very long drive, and we were weary on the last leg of our trip as we headed into the mountains. The Voice took us on road after narrow, twisting road, confusing us as we headed into the forest primeval. Eventually the three of us (The Voice, Becky and I) stumbled onto our lake-side destination. We unpacked. As we sat on our porch recuperating from the drive, we struck up a conversation with the couple next door. We mentioned our trials getting The Voice to cooperate with us. They were in our age cohort, so they understood. The woman shared a similar story of car-computer frustration.</p>
<p>It seems her husband was driving her and her two sisters to an event in an unfamiliar location. The group was uncertain how to proceed, so all three ladies began tapping on their phones searching for directions. Meanwhile, the car’s infotainment system voice (whom they had named “Mabel”) also had been activated. Suddenly and simultaneously the voices on the phones and the car started speaking in calm, gentle voices which road to take, where to turn, and so on. “Oh, Great,” The husband said. “Now I’m getting backseat driving advice from four different women.”</p>
<p>Later that evening we dragged ourselves out to to get food and supplies. We turned toward a nearby village in the opposite direction from where we had come. Pulling into town, we saw a sign for a main thoroughfare we had passed earlier in the day — a route that would have been much straighter and quicker than the one The Voice lead us on.</p>
<p>“You know, I probably shouldn’t give up my dog-eared road atlas just yet,” I said to myself. “And I am still not quite ready to make friends with The Voice.”</p>