680News - Lisa Brandt

General Motors says we’re just about a decade away from the first tests of driverless cars. If projections are correct, you will eventually be able to be a passenger in your own vehicle! They’re using technology to create a vehicle that is supposed to keep itself away from other cars, maintain speed, park itself, etc. In fact, it seems as if human intervention would only hamper this marvel of mankind.

GM claims a driverless vehicle would reduce accidents and save lives because human error accounts for 95 per cent of crashes.

The natural question is one of liability. And, GM admits that human worries may be a stumbling block toward getting the cars on the road. They seem quite confident of the technology, but I don’t know that I would be so ready give up the wheel.

What are we supposed to do when our cars are driving themselves to our destinations? Watch the on-board DVD player? File our nails? Gesture mockingly to people who are driving their own cars themselves? It’s all very George Jetson and rather weird, if you ask me. I like to drive! Lately, I’ve been lucky enough to pilot a hot little sports car and believe me, I would wrestle any computer chip that tried to take that privilege away from me!

We don’t get a lot of complaints here at 680 News — not about things we can do anything about anyway.

Lots of people complain about the traffic on the highways and offer their opinions on various news stories and how they are reported. I’m not on the front lines of complaint taking, so I can only share what I’ve been told. But, I do know that many listeners feel any and all news out of Hollywood should be banned from the airwaves. And that’s not only unfortunate, but it’s never going to happen!

Some of the smaller, end-of-the-hour items are quite frivolous, I agree. But, they also tend to be given as much time and seriousness as they deserve, which is very little. I doubt you’ll ever hear an in-depth team coverage report on Britney Spears’ custody battle over her kids with Kevin Federline. And if you do, please let me know and I will happily pummel whoever wasted that much precious airtime!

There is one so-called Hollywood story that seemed to many people to be a big, “so what” at first, and that’s the writer’s strike that began two months ago. Now, its impact is truly being felt over the airwaves.

The late-night talk shows came back this week and only David Letterman had a deal with the union that allowed him to use real writers. It showed. Conan O’Brien actually spun a coin on a tabletop for entertainment! And he’s a writer with Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons among his credits.

The result is also being felt with the proliferation of reality shows. They’ve always been cheap to produce and there is no shortage of wannabe TV stars, who are more than willing to abandon every last shred of dignity in exchange for fame, but their topics are getting more and more absurd. Just wait until you see Parking Wars! Sadly, it’s just like it sounds. Cameras follow the Philadelphia Parking Authority on the job. On Farmer Wants A Wife, a farmer looks for a wife. Riveting. Might I suggest Watching Paint Dry?Contestants guess whether Behr or Sherwin-Williams will dry the quickest and then…we wait. We may as well. It looks like it will be some time before the writers come back!

Back from a blissful week off and ready to share some things that made me go, hmmmm…

On Christmas Day, my Blackberry sounded an alert to an email. It was from a well-known home decor retailer proudly announcing, “Just 366 Days Until Christmas!” That is just plain bad marketing, not to mention annoying.

Pamela Anderson released a statement over the holidays, outlining her goals for this new year. Yes, that’s what we all wait for — the year-end announcements from the Queen, the Prime Minister, the Governor-General…and Pam Anderson! Anyway, sarcasm aside, Pam says she’s wishing for less insanity in 2008. This, from a woman who married and divorced Kid Rock in 2007, and then married and filed for divorce from Rick Solaman, only to retract that petition. Where to look first for less insanity? Perhaps….the mirror?

And the weather. Kudos to our own meteorologist, Brian Hill, who correctly predicted a white Christmas all along, even though Environment Canada was initially certain the day would be green. Now we’re in a deep freeze to be followed this weekend by double-digit highs. So you can see, it’s not so easy to predict what’s going to happen.

Happy New Year!