Social Engineering In Your Car

In the minds of engineers at Ford Motors, media is media is media. I read recently that they are eliminating CD players from their cars, starting with the Fusion. Now, it would be one thing if they were eliminating the CD player as a way to save money on production—kind of like the little surprise you get when you get a flat tire and look for the spare in your trunk for the first time.

But they are not eliminating the CD player for costs. They are doing their own version of social “media” engineering.

First there was no place to buy a CD as record stores closed. Soon there will be no place to play them as your dashboard closes. Well, not exactly closes, but rearranges. I have read that Ford is toying with either eliminating the tuner or moving it down the list of available media options. Yeah, your smartphone can do everything short of steering your car (for now, at least) but there are what, 80 million smartphones in the US? Even in a tough market weren’t there 250 million CDs sold last year? Arbitron says that 280 million Americans use the radio every week.

The problem is that as non-media folks attempt to predict the future they are wreaking havoc with the present. I mean, do we really need a car that parks itself? If I can’t laugh at drivers who cannot parallel park and then you take the CD out of my car, I got nothing during a commercial break on my favorite station.

All kidding aside, the CD was at least a guarantee that someone spent money on music. We know that a lot of the music that shows up on iPods and smartphones doesn’t always come through iTunes. We know that Country music listeners say that Country radio is the number one source for finding out about new music and new artists.

Ask my friend Charlie Anderson at Anderson Merchandising how he feels about the CD player disappearing from the automobile. Ask him if he thinks the FoMoCo engineers are seers, or prophets of doom.

Instead of eliminating the CD and the radio, how about disabling the smartphone’s texting function as soon as the engine starts? Or how about designing a car that keeps drunk drivers from starting it? Or making a darn navigation system that doesn’t talk down to me like I’m an idiot just because I get lost once in a while.

As a way of expanding your media options in the auto, what they are doing is erasing your choices. Choices that Americans are still making every day. Write your congressman, call your local radio station or just buy a Japanese car. Okay, don’t do any of those things. Well, maybe call your local radio station, and request a song.