By Victor Limjoco
11 March 2004

(U-WIRE) EVANSTON, Ill. -We love our cars. We talk to them. We dress them up with bumper stickers. We even give them names on vanity plates.

These are just a few symptoms of the American obsession with the automobile. But now the American obsession with cars can go one step further.

Toyota’s latest model, a "mood car," can tell you if it’s angry or even lonely. It’s called Pod, and it’s a car with attitude.

Pod, which stands for personalization on demand, made headlines at the Chicago Auto Show for its ability to detect and respond to the emotions of the driver.

The horseshoe-shaped lights in front of the car, which resemble a human face, glow orange when the car is happy, for example, when the driver’s key is approaching. If the driver swerves on the road, the interior lights glow red, as if the car were angry. When the car is in a really good mood, it’ll even wag its antenna.

It’s basically Toyota’s complement to Sony’s AIBO, a robotic dog. In fact, Toyota worked with Sony to develop the technology.

POD Car Features Onboard Computer Technology

In addition to sharing its emotions, Pod "learns" drivers’ tastes and preferences and tries to accommodate them. The onboard computer uses voice-recognition software to automatically search for music when you mention a particular artist to fellow passengers. The car will even take pictures when the conversation becomes energetic.

But some people find the concept of a "mood car,"well, idiotic. "People are what make emotions, not objects," Weinberg junior Joanne Gialelis said. "You really can’t get emotions out of a car, no matter how much technology evolves."

I think people, at first, would think it was really cute. But then they’d get tired of it. Even though the car may seem like a good idea, I wonder if we really need a human-like car. Do all the aggressive drivers of the world, careening down highway, really need a car telling them that they’re stressed?

Maybe soon we’ll be trying to fill the emotional void in our lives with a smart car that’s wittier than most of my dates. But for now, we will all have to wait a while; it’s still only a concept car.

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