Gadgetory

never have cars advanced as rapidly as they do today which is a nice way of saying you should probably put some duct tape over that cassette deck I'm Brian Cooley with the top five things that are next in line to make your car look like one eisenhower drove you don't know who he is do you number five the test drive not exactly a technology but a time-honored technique for deciding if you want a particular car but a recent survey by IBM found 21 percent of recent new car buyers or lessees never actually drove the car they bought before they bought it I think with the time they did all that internet research they were probably sick of the thing number four gauges you know those things that look like that watch you don't wear anymore from top dollar Land Rovers and Jags to a humble Chevy spark Eevee LCD screens are taking over giving car makers real flexibility in information display I applaud the trend but not necessarily my prospects when that whole module dies at once number three rear seat entertainment you know those back seat DVD systems they were never technically elegant and they were always too much money plus your kids were always bored with that handful of scratched up DVDs or wedged in the seat back pocket now they just have their iPad and you just saved a couple grand which you'll spend on data fees for their iPad number two iPod connectors cars used to have an iPod connector for the cool kids and an aux jack for the losers things have changed now it's all USB ports that work with all kinds of portables and car makers don't have to care what connector Apple just changed to the number one thing that is going obsolete in cars and fast is the CD player never mind that it's the best sounding source ever put into a car we don't seem to care like a cougar bar around midnight it's all about choice not fidelity so now it's streaming apps mp3s on portables satellite radio that's what rules the dash Ford's already done away with all their multi CD changers and the 2013 chevy sonic was I think the first car not even offer a CD at all no matter how you configure it to be on top of all the new technologies that are coming and going from cars these days follow our show at CNET on cars.com and all of our reviews at cars dot cnet.com i'm brian coolie thanks for watching