The good oil: Obedient Gloria

Meet 'Gloria', the face of Mercedes-Benz's new voice-activated operating system. Photo / Supplied

Obedient Gloria
Meet "Gloria", the face of Mercedes-Benz's new voice-activated operating system. The carmaker reckons drivers have been slow to pick up on voice command technology because they don't like talking to thin air. It reasons that people are more inclined to speak naturally to a human figure than talking out loud to no one. So "Gloria" will appear on the car's display screen as a genie of sorts: "Your wish is my command." She will do exactly as she is told: "Phone my secretary, Gloria. Phone the yacht club, Gloria. Find the quickest way through traffic, Gloria." That is until Mercedes-Benz comes up with software for "conversational commands", roughly five years away. "Gloria" might then be able to reply: "Phone your secretary yourself, you dummy."

Shelby Mustang surfaces
Auctioneer Bill Fair was going though items for an estate sale in Kansas when he came across a 1966 Shelby Mustang sitting in the middle of a huge pile of junk in a garage. It had been there for 26 years and was in near-perfect condition. Fair went on line and found out it was one of only 1100 made and once belonged to Carroll Shelby himself. Similar cars have sold for US$2 million. Fair's company has already been offered US$60,000 for the car, but it is holding out for US$200,000.

Each to their own
Men go for bold looks, bold sheetmetal and horsepower, while women go for interior space, practicality, cost and safety features. That's the unsurprising result of a global survey of who buys what car. The brands with the highest percentage of male buyers were Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche, Lotus, Lamborghini, Maybach and Rolls-Royce. Those with the highest percentage of female buyers included Mini, Kia, Honda, Nissan and Subaru. Women overwhelmingly prefer small, affordable cars, the survey showed.

Novel approach
Sex continues to sell. A used-car dealer in Ontario, Canada, is running a racy newspaper ad that compares used cars with women with a, err, past. "You know you're not the first. But do you really care?" the ad says. The dealer is offering a "special low interest" rate of 4.9 per cent.

Bus lane madness
It's almost criminal how city council wallopers have used the courts to intimidate motorists over the use of bus, or special vehicle, lanes. Motorists are, at times, allowed to drive in bus lanes. But the council and its public relations people have bullied them into avoiding the green lanes for fear of a fine. You see it every day, one poor sucker after another. The result is more traffic congestion, more exhaust fumes, more fuel use, more money. It's downright dangerous, too, where some bus and traffic lanes merge.

We are the world
•Timothy James Chapek broke into a house in Oregon he thought was unoccupied. He nicked a few things for himself, bundled them up, then decided to take a shower. But the owner of the house was indeed at home. The man phoned police, tapped on the bathroom door with a shotgun - and told the two dogs at his feet to create merry hell. Wringing wet Chapek, 24, called police, too, begging them on his cellphone to arrest him before the owner let the dogs loose. Chapek was charged, released on bail - and re-arrested two days later for driving a stolen car loaded with stolen goods.