Script of The New Tech Times Program Number 113 Copyright 1983, Friends of WHA-TV, Inc. All rights reserved. Narrator: The New Tech Times. A video magazine for the electronic age. In this edition, digital dashboards and satellite navigation: products for the car of the future. Also, Viewtron - a videotex service covering fashion to football, and you don't have to wait for the newspaper. Later a commentary by computer expert Franklyn Peterson and a look at radar detectors. Are they the ticket to no tickets? All this and more in this edition of The New Tech Times. The New Tech Times is brought to you through a grant from Wausau Insurance Companies. Times change. Wausau works. And by the collective voice of the consumer electronics industry: CEG - the Consumer Electronics Group - Electronic Industries Association. Nicholas Johnson: Hi, I'm Nicholas Johnson. This week's show begins a new season for us and for you. If we'd had television 65 years ago, there might have been a program called The New Tech Times, but the new tech would have been automobiles, not computers. Today's computer enthusiasts often remind us that if the auto industry had made the same progress as the computer industry, you could buy a Rolls Royce today for $2.85, get a million miles to the gallon and be able to power the Queen Mary. As it is, there are few American cars today that can match the mileage I got on a 20 year old Volvo that cost me $300, used no oil and travelled 200,000 miles. Detroit's still trying to improve its cars -- it hopes that adding computers will help. Here's Gary Probst's report. Feature: High Tech Cars. Narrator: Back in the early years of the automobile, technology was an assembly line of people putting cars together by hand. The autos were quite basic but exciting for those who had never bought a car before. Today's consumers are more demanding of technology and the auto makers are building cars to handle the demand. Car Commercial: Liquid crystal displays -- 14 separate instrument readouts -- English or metric all updated 16 times every operating second. Narrator: Chevrolet's Corvette is an example of how car companies are trying to entice buyers with high technology. It has a transmission which changes gears through electronics. The Corvette has computer brains which operate the engine, and those flashy displays in the dashboard are to give the driver information and to catch the consumer's eye. Ken Milne: I really and truly thought at the time when we were designing this -- I wondered whether we were really doing this only for that -- to catch the consumer's eye. I took particular care in this thing to try and make it a versatile tool. And as I drive it, and I've driven a lot of them now almost constantly for the last 6 or 8 months, I still find that it is a versatile tool for you. It does give you information and it doesn't give you over-information. You don't just sit there and watch the lights flicker on and off. It's not just a pinball machine. Narrator: The cars of today are brought to life on the electronic drawing board. Computer graphics allow designers to look at parts in 3-D to see if the parts will work before they're put into production. Computer operated robots help to assemble the new cars. Small on-board computers regulate the engine in many new models, complete with a back up system, so you can limp home when the main computer malfunctions. Computers also help to plan a trip, calculating miles per gallon and the amount of fuel needed to reach a destination. Turbo-charging helps the new electronic four-cylinder engine to move like an eight-cylinder hot rod. And all of that is just the beginning. Voice from car: The following systems require attention: windshield washer fluid. The following systems are normal: brake fluid pressure, oil pressure. Narrator: The voice comes from the Lincoln Continental Concept 100 -- a futuristic prototype car built by Ford, that includes a laser door opening device with a horn sounding remote control. That helps you to find your car in a crowded parking lot. The car features push-button control of temperature and the radio. The car also has sonar to warn drivers that something or somebody is in the way. But the most advanced piece of technology is the satellite navigation system. Instead of unfolding a road map, you plug a program map into the display. The car beams your position to a U.S. Navy satellite. The satellite tells the car your latitude and longitude and shows how far you are from your destination and how to get there. Another display screen keeps people entertained in the back seat. Mass production of the Concept 100 is several years away. If the car were in the showroom today it would have a price tag of over $30,000. New technology is first being developed for luxury cars because their buyers are the people who can afford it. Jerry Rivard: That is a car, of course, that represents the state of the art in technology. And if you look at it in its current form it is expensive. But if you take every one of those sub-systems in there, things like the cathode-ray tube, analogous to your television -- that is expensive today. But we have other devices coming that use new concepts in electronics for display that will cut the cost significantly, probably an order of a factor of 10. And as these evolve, and they're in our laboratory today, then they become practical to put into mass production. Narrator: There's a question as to whether the new car technology is necessary. At the Detroit Free Press, Paul Lienert reports on the auto industry and its trends. Paul Lienert: There obviously are some instances of gimmickry. For instance the new wave of talking cars that tell you things from your door is ajar to your headlights are on. I have a friend who refers to the talking cars as perhaps the new automotive hula-hoop of the 80's. Narrator: Lienert believes the emphasis is still on making cars more fuel efficient and safe. Paul Lienert: In terms of the braking systems and the suspension systems -- things like radar brakes, which is coming in the future, those things will have a net affect of making cars safer to drive. So I don't think it's a question so much of what kind of gadgets can we put in a car to lure the consumer into the showroom as where can we make the vehicle safer and more efficient. I think at least as much attention is being paid to that area, so I think there will be some real consumer benefits. Narrator: Auto makers are engaged in world wide competition to implement their technology. Lienert believes that Detroit is no longer falling behind foreign competition. Paul Lienert: I think there's no question that Europe, Japan and the U.S. are probably all on the same technological footing right now. That is, the knowledge exists probably on an equal basis in all three areas. Narrator: The real challenge for Detroit in the 1980's will be to keep the gadgets within bounds, so a new car can fit within the family budget. Jerry Rivard: With the new technology we have, in systems being able to put together several components, several sub-systems in a car, and make those systems play harmoniously, you're going to end up with a car that's going to be optimized. A driver is going to get a car that is fun to drive, number one, secondarily it's going to give him fuel economy, and it's going to give him value for money. It's going to give him performance that he has never seen before. It's going to play in harmony, if you will, and I think that's what's going to make the car of the next decade a whole vastly changed entity. Nicholas Johnson: Our cars have changed electronically, and with more than just computers on the dash and under the hood. There's stereo AM-FM and tape units, CB and amateur radio transmitters, mobile phones, even radar detectors -- which are sometimes illegal. Most of us appreciate the police controlling drunks and other crime and helping stranded motorists, but there are some who think the interstate highways are a battle zone and the highway patrol's the enemy. Speeders call the police "the fuzz," and if the fuzz have radar, the speeders want an electronic "fuzz buster" like this one. Now whether or not you'd use one of these to battle a highway patrol, you may be interested in Barry Stoner's report. Report: Fuzz Busters. Narrator: You're driving around town or on a long vacation. You're trying to make up a little time or just are preoccupied with the scenery. Your foot is a little heavy on the accelerator. Before you know it, you're over the speed limit, and just then you notice that car up ahead on the side of the road. Could it be? Yes it could, you guessed it, you have just been caught in a radar speed trap. Police: Good afternoon. Your speed has been checked by radar at 65 m.p.h. May I see your ariver's license please? Narrator: To avoid this uncomfortable situation some heavy footed drivers are investing in one of those high tech black boxes that sit on your dash or sun visor. It's a radar detector, affectionately named fuzz buster by one of its early manufacturers. If you decide to buy a radar detector, a key factor in finding a good one is sensitivity. Can you spot him before he spots you? Donald Sherman: Just to give you a very rough idea, and it does depend very much on the buildings, the terrain, the trees and the guardrails; a typical detector might be set off at a mile and a half or a mile, and the police unit would need you within a third of a mile before you would present your speed on their screen. Narrator: The other important factor is selectivity. There are all kinds of signals that can set off a radar detector, like a bank alarm system or a microwave transmitter. The key is to buy a detector that can selectively screen out the false alarms. These days, the most effective detectors use super heterodyne circuitry. It's a high tech name for an electronic advance that makes these detectors more sensitive, selective and costly. These models are in the $100 to $300 range -- depending on optional features and price discounts. The only trouble is that even with the best radar detector you can still get caught, thanks to another piece of high tech hardware that doesn't use radar at all. It's called Vascar. Donald Sherman: Vascar uses basically a computation system where an officer would sight you, or actually see your automobile, and basically time you between marked points on the highway. And his equipment would make an instantaneous calculation of the elapsed time and the elapsed distance. Narrator: So there you have it. Just when you thought it was safe to zoom out on the highways again, the new tech times gives troopers another weapon in the ongoing battle of the fuzz busters. If you mave story ideas or comments, send them to The New Tech Times, 821 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Nicholas Johnson: For every electronics weapon, it seem there either is a counter measure or soon will be. Speaking of alternatives in television, you may recall a few shows ago we told you about teletext. Now this is an example of the device you use to retrieve pages of information from your local television station. Here's a report on the weather. It's not clear how successful this service will be, since it nas very few pages, and little opportunity for your control. A service called videotex by contrast, permits you to manipulate many times more pages and with two-way interaction. Here's a look at a report on a videotex service called Viewtron. Featuree: Viewtron Narrator: The Gary Wohrle family of Fort Lauderdale is settling down for the evening news. There are no anchor people, no videotape reports on the screen, but they do watch television and receive information through an electronic data service called Viewtron. Gary Wohrle: Norma, let's see the top stories of the day. Norma Wohrle: OK. Do you want to hear or read about any particular story? Gary Wohrle: No, not right now. I just want to see some of the various things. Norma Wohrle: Are you interested in any particular story in the news? Wohrle son: Yes, football. Who won last night? Narrator: Wohrle has just returned home from his job as a stockbroker. It's a Wednesday evening in Southern Florida, but the family has access to the kind of in-depth information normally reserved for the Sunday Newspaper. Gary Wohrle: I can put on the closing quotation on the stock market and get closing quotes on all of the stocks that are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. I can get information on American Stock Exchange stocks, over the counter stocks, up-to-date business news and financial news. I just find it very helpful for keeping me informed so I can keep my clients informed. Narrator: But Viewtron is more than just news. It provides entertainment through games, education through a complete volume of the encyclopedia and language lessons. Viewtron provides information on hundreds of topics from fishing to fashion. The service is a joint venture of the Knight-Ridder Newspaper group and AT&T. It includes a small keyboard which links people to central computers, but it does not require a home computer or any software. The programming is taken care of by Viewtron. Al Gillen: We have positioned along with AT&T this terminal and our system not to be computer oriented. The reason for that is that we want people to realize this is a friendly system to use, it's very easy to use, and when we put a keypad in the hands of a subscriber or a prospect who has never seen this before, inside of 30 seconds they know how to use it. And we have purposely done that so that people don't get the apprehension that some people have about computers. Narrator: Viewtron is a new breed of technology called videotex. It can provide home banking and a home shopping service. People can order goods from over 150 stores in the Miami area without mailing an order from a catalogue. They send the request directly to the store through their terminal. Galt Toys is one of the advertisers providing home shopping. The news service has been generating suburban customers who prefer not to drive to shop in Miami's downtown. Donna Sanders: It would be extremely difficult and it would be very expensive to advertise in other forms, in order to get those people to drive down here and to come in the store. This way they can see the merchandise and buy it right from their homes without travelling down here, so I definitely think it's a better way of getting more people to shop here. Narrator: People can advertise a product on Viewtron for one dollar per week. But a problem with ordering through videotex is that customers can't feel or look at the merchandise. It requires some faith in the retailer. Donna Sanders: Interestingly enough, some of my orders have been without the graphics, so people are buying from reading about the merchandise without seeing it, without being able to touch it, and they are buying from it. So I would certainly think that the trend can be developed and people will buy from it. Narrator: Another problem with Viewtron is that a customer has to end one form of communication to participate in the other. Gary Wohrle: "Oh, we're just doing something now, Faye. We'll call you back, all right?" Since we're using the telephone line to communicate over, and you're hooking your TV set up to the telephone, and the information from data banks is being transmitted over that telephone, the inconvenience that you have is if someone tries to call you while you're using the unit. If you don't have what is called "call waiting" they get a busy signal. If you do have call waiting, while you're in the middle of looking at the data, you'll see a flashing light and it will say "call waiting" and that means if you want to answer your telephone you have to disconnect the unit. And when we do that, it's usually a call for my daughter! Narrator: Viewtron has the potential to be expensive. The terminal sells at a price of $600. There is a $12 a month basic charge and the phone company wants one dollar for each hour of use. But the price doesn't seem to be an issue according to the people at Viewtron. They expect more than 5,000 families to hook on to the system within the first year of operation. It's because those who can afford it will pay for convenience. John Wooley: You don't have to wait until the six o'clock news or until the paper comes to the doorstep the next morning. You don't have to be around when the radio sportscaster announces the scores on the ball games. You find it out when you want to find it out by pressing buttons on a very simple-to-use keypad. You get things when you want them. And they don't change. They don't disappear until you ask them to go disappear. Narrator: Viewtron is the first functional videotex system in the nation. Knight-Ridder is involved because there is a fear that new technology could some day replace their newspapers. But people in the big communications company are hoping to have the best of both worlds. Al Gillen: A lot of speculation has been made by a lot of pundits about the future of the newspaper business when videotex is developed. And I am reminded of the same pundits years ago when I first started in television. When that was invented, people said that's the end of radio. And when FM came along people said that's the end of AM radio. Well, those things didn't happen. And there were other people that said people won't read anymore once they have television. And I think the pundits forgot one thing, and that is that the human mind has an immense capacity for information and an immense appetite, and I don't think that videotex is going to replace the newspaper. I think it's going to do some things differently than the newspaper. But for 25 cents a newspaper gives you a wealth of information that you can get no place else, and I think the newspaper business and the television business and the broadcasting business are going to be very successful for many years. And I think videotex will take its place along the line of all these other forms of communication that we have. Nicholas Johnson: Whether videotex is going to take its place in your home is something only you are going to decide. One of the services it can provide is home banking, and those who concern themselves with predicting Viewtron's future are students of human behavior not electronics. One such person is a banker named John Fraser. He's a Ph.D. from Illinois, a former professor, and a student of political behavior. He's with us in the studio now. John, why is a bank like First Wisconsin interested in something like Viewtron? Review/Interview: John Fraser John Fraser: Well, Nick, Viewtron is one of a number of systems springing up across the country right now. Some of the largest, most significant business organizations in the world are developing these systems. First Wisconsin and a number of other banks want to understand what the consumer really wants and so the work for the next couple of years is going to be to try to understand what the consumer is really interested in, so we can develop the systems which maximize the value to him. Nicholas Johnson: We know there are a lot of things that we can do electronically with a lot of products out there and a lot of services. The big issue, it seems to me, is how can you predict, as a business person, whether or not our viewers of this program are going to want all this service? John Fraser: Well, we can't predict right now, Nick, and for that reason we've joined together a group of about 20 banks across this continent who are studying precisely that question. Beginning in June, for one year, we will have terminals in about 2,000 homes across the country and in Canada to study exactly what the consumer wants and what he's willing to pay for in the entire videotex arena. Obviously our interest is in home banking. Nicholas Johnson: How is this going to work? I mean, how do you bank at home? What.is this about? John Fraser: Well, I will be able to just take a small hand-held device and automatically dial up the bank. I will be able then, at that point, to pay any bill I want to pay in just a few seconds. I will be able to control when I want to pay it, exactly under my terms, and I'll be able to transfer money between accounts, and to use a whole variety of thousands and thousands of pages of Videotext material. Nicholas Johnson: All right, but I can do all this now, with something called a check, which my father used, and I used. Why do I want to do this electronically? What possible advantage is there to me of doing this? John Fraser: I think, first of all, it's going to be worth money to you, because you're going to be able to control certain conditions. If you want to hold your bill until the last possible minute you'll be able to do that. You'll be able to pay it from any account that you want to pay. So it's in terms of flexibility and your control over your accounts which is going to make the difference. Nicholas Johnson: But isn't that what this fight is really all about? There's billions of dollars floating around out there. In between the time the bill comes, the check clears, or whatever. Somebody's going to make billions of dollars out of this electronic service because suddenly everything's going to be paid at 186,000 miles a second. Now, who is going to make that billions of dollars? I can't believe the bank -- John Fraser: No, our interest, believe it or not, is because we think this system will be so terrific from the customer's point of view that we're going to have to provide that service or we're not going to have the customer. Honestly, I don't think any corporation, any bank is going to make significant money out of this type of system for at least the next 10 years. Nicholas Johnson: But you want to get in early and see what's going to happen. John Fraser: I want to be there to provide those systems to my customers so that the big New York banks, as an example, are not in my home town taking my customers. Nicholas Johnson: All right, now we've got it. John Fraser, thank you very much for stopping by The New Tech Times. Well, whatever you may think of home banking, to participate you'll need something like a home computer. Millions of us are buying them for this and other reasons. But once you get a home computer home, where do you put it? Well, how about the closet? Here with this week's commentary is Franklyn Peterson. Franklyn Peterson: Home computer in every closet, that's where we're headed. People are spending $500, $600, a thousand buying home computers for themselves, for their kids, not asking, "what do I do with the darn thing once I get it home?" Are you going to sit there and file recipes on it? It would be more fun to cook without the computer. Are you going to keep all your names and addresses and telephone numbers and Christmas card recipients on it? Wait 'till you try that. You're ending up with a home computer in your closet. That's why we're spending most of our time looking at and talking about business computers. There's a real need for computers in the offices and the factories of America. The expense of $5,000, $10,000, even $20,000 or $50,000 is well worth it for a business man, business woman, large company, small company. But in your home? Before you plunk that $500 -- which will very quickly grow into a thousand -- stop and think, is this trip necessary, is this trip going to be fun next year, or am I buying a home computer for my closet? Nicholas Johnson: There's no doubt that some models, of some computers, in some homes, will end up in the closet, with the Cabbage Patch dolls, the pet rocks, the Rubick's cubes, and hula-hoops. Well, think about why you're buying before you bring it home. Our needs and interests differ. Frankly, I'm not interested in a car that talks to me. Mine don't even have radar detectors or automatic transmissions or power steering. They scarcely even have power engines. On the other hand, I couldn't do without a word processor. You have good reasons for your choices in these new tech times, too. Join me here next week, won't you, as we look at some more choices like these: Narrator: In the next edition of The New Tech Times, electronic surveillance with the help of satellite and microwave technology. Big Brother may be listening in. Also, a look at "The Farm" in Summertown, Tennessee, where a '60's generation commune is making peace with the new technology. This and more on the next edition of The New Tech Times. Nicholas Johnson: For The New Tech Times staff, I'm Nicholas Johnson. SENIOR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Carol Cotter EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Jeff Clarke SENIOR PRODUCER - Barry Stoner CONTRIBUTING EDITOR/HOST - Nicholas Johnson DIRECTOR - Carl Battaglia SEGMENT PRODUCER - Gary Probst ASSISTANT PRODUCER - Alan Worman PRODUCTION ASSISTANT - Rebecca S. Lewison UNIT MANAGER - Suzanne Duroux DIRECTOR OF NEW TECHNOLOGY - Steven Vedro SENIOR RESEARCHER - Tim Haight RESEARCHERS - Stewart Goldstein Wendy Lou Goldstein Robert Rubinyi VIDEOGRAPHERS/EDITORS - Chuck France Jim Erskine Robert Reed SOUND - Tom Naunas Brad Wray Jon Dumont LIGHTING DESIGN - Kenneth Ferencek SET DESIGN - Shirwill THEME MUSIC - Michelle Musser OPEN ANIMATION DESIGN - Jerry Musser VIDEO - Don Bednarek AUDIO - Richard Taugher Dave Schilz VIDEOTAPE - Ed Furstenberg Paul Henurictson FLOOR MANAGER - Janice Kettler SWITCHER - Lisa F. Curran ELECTRONIC GRAPHICS - Renee Gusman Paul Grinrod CAMERAS -Peter M. Kleppin Dave McCoy Richara E. Tanaka PROMPTER - John Steele THE NEW TECH TIMES TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY COMMITTEE - David Brown, M.S. Patrick Dickson, Ph.D. L.H. Landweber, Ph.D. Richard Lawdon, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison Equipment for The New Tech Times supplied by: Apple Computer Co. Mr. Johnson's wardrobe courtesy of Land's End Yacht Stores, Inc. of Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Copyright (c) 1983 Friends of WHA-TV, Inc. All Rights Reserved The New Tech Times has been brought to you through a grant from Wausau Insurance Companies. Times change. Wausau works. And by the collective voice of the consumer electronics industry. CEG - the Consumer Electronics Group - Electronic Industries Association. For a transcript and bibliography of this program, send three dollars to: Program number 113, The New Tech Times, 821 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706. END OF FILE