Nov - Dec 2000: Fender Bender

Fender Bender

Park this
Another product designed to stop people needing crash repair shops, the SMART PARK Parking Distance Control system is now available for any make or type of car. According to the company, SMART PARK can be fitted to any vehicle, old or new, in just two hours. The front and rear system costs $999 and works through a set of sensors that alert the driver to an object forward or aft of the vehicle by emitting a progressively loud bleep.

A serious application of the system is in preventing the tragic accidents involving toddlers and parents reversing down driveways, however Fender Bender believes the system may also be useful for alerting drivers to approaching windscreen cleaners at traffic lights. Anyone who was able to link their mobile phone to the device would also be able to detect the lumbering approach of a traffic warden and rush back in time to avoid a ticket. Perhaps it could be tailored to detect the approach of the driver's over-talkative aunt, or the local Jehovah's Witness. SMART PARK indeed.

Whole lotta shakin'
Johnson Controls, a US auto systems manufacturer, has come up with a system designed to shake awake dozing drivers. The Vibrotactile Massage seat detects if a driver is nodding off through two sensors mounted in the roof of the car. At the limits of a driver's normal driving position, and we're not making this up, the sensors will activate the massage seat, which will vibrate and supposedly wake the driver.

Electric motors are situated in key stress-relieving positions within the seat, which can be controlled manually, via a door-mounted control. Whether the seat is actually effective in waking dozing drivers is not mentioned by the company, however Fender Bender thinks the system may make for interesting dreams, albeit, with abrupt endings.

Fit for a queen
International bus and coach dealer Stan Biega was in Queensland on business while his wife Josie was tending to administrative matters at their Sydney office when they received a telephone call from a SOCOG official asking if Stan could supply them with a bus for the Sydney OlymStan eventually found a 20-year-old work horse with a Denning chassis and GBW body whose previous life was that of an express shuttle between Sydney, Port Macquarie and Brisbane.

Stan and his team of supporters had to completely restore the bus including adding a gleaming high gloss silver paint job. For this Stan turned to the auto refinishes experts at Sikkens for technical and product support. The result -- fit for a queen!