I'm too techy for my car

Last year, we bought a Prius.  We were both taken by the idea of saving gas on our long commutes, and since because of where I live both public transportation and pedal power are unfeasible, the alternative is working from home (which I do occasionally) or lowering the gas intake. So a Prius it is.

The Prius is quite the space-age car, with a central touch-screen console full of neat features, automatic air conditioning, and a newfangled type key which just has to be on your person in order to unlock or start the car.  I grew up with manual transmission and for a time refused to drive a car with power windows, so this leap was huge for me.  I figured though, that being the technical guru at both my home and my work I could figure out a piddling car.

When I got in it though, I could not, for the life of me, get it to turn on and get into gear.  With a pang of fear I thought perhaps I was getting old, perhaps technology was finally passing me by, but I did manage to finally figure it out and since then, except from occasionally forgetting how to turn off our "traditional" car, things have been fine.

The Network Administrator is down in Maryland for the week, so my time promises to be in high demand.  I was pretty sure I had everything under control though, so I was surprised to receive a phone call at 6:30 in the morning.  

"Hi, it's Jim!" the Network Administrator said, "I've got a problem."

"What?" I said, groggily staring at my coffee pot and wondering what I had missed.  A backup tape?  An installation?

"Well, I rented a Prius, and I can't figure out how to put it into Drive."

So you see, it's not just me.

After some false starts, during which at one point he told me he'd managed to put it into Reverse but in reality had merely put it into Neutral and then coasted backward down the hill, we managed to get the car to agree that Drive was a useful thing and he went on his merry way.  The trick, my would-be Prius fans, is that without the small, almost invisible READY light, you're not going anywhere.  To get the small READY light, you merely have to step on the brake, but you have to do it in the right sequence before you turn the car on.  

It's all in the manual, of course.  Which neither of us read.  We're too technical for that.  

tags: new job