MAD about other drivers’ poor behavior? Here are ten problem-types and ten MAD solutions for setting each of them straight. Recognize any of these scourges today? (I love how Tommy Tailgater’s speedo reads up to 150 mph!)
My personal favorite is number five, but I’d have to say that number eight is remarkably prescient, especially if you live near any hipsters. Any guesses on the make of MAD‘s model safetymobile? I’d say it has Rambler/AMC written all over it. Bench seats for all!
This brings back memories – I read this article as a kid!
Me too.
…”undreamed things such as safe tires!”
LOL
Pages 8-9, September ’67. The “drivers” featured are profiled on pp. 6-7. Some of these ideas, a ha-ha laff riot in ’67, are now realised. Back then they called it “RADAR SLOWDOWNER”; today we call it ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control). They called it “WAKER-UPPER”; we call it Drowsy Driver Alert. They called it “AUTOMATIC PICK-ME-UPPER”; we’ve adjusted the concept and we call them AVs (autonomous vehicles).
Hookah Inhaler is also rather close to e-cigs/vaping, don’t you think?
I have family members that could use number 1.
They like to sight see while they drive, it’s terrifying
and they don’t want to take my car.
Some drunk drivers have to have a device installed that won’t let the car start if the driver has alcohol their breath. Amazing how we have some of these devices now. And people are still idiot drivers.
I sent the attached April Fools Day image to a coworker over the weekend, to which he replied:
“No car marketed toward a demographic, who is most likely to be putting mascara on, while rushing to work in the morning, should EVER have anything with this much power. There MUST be a safety feature that either locks the lighted mirror while in motion, or when the lighted mirror is on, the engine is disabled. I don’t care which.”
So, what colour would you take? Hehehehehehe
Today the biggest impediment seems to be cell phones. Too often, when I see erratic driving, I pull alongside and see a cell phone. It’s even worse when there’s texting going on. And, of course, another problem we have today is road rage, triggered by any number of things the rager sees as oppositional.
Maybe an interlock which instantly and irretrievably bricks any phone in the vehicle if used, whether for voice calls or texting?
What, passengers aren’t supposed to use their phones?
I remember a driving-related article in Mad from the late ’50s or early ’60s. There was a picture of the inside of a car from the driver’s perspective, with an explanation of what the various things were. There was something to effect that you use the brakes as a last resort when the horn doesn’t do the trick!
Loved Al Jaffee’s stuff in Mad Magazine
Ummm… about that Irving Headturner guy… I did that once… did a slow bump into the car in front of me while checking out a a purdy pedestrian. No damage of ticket, thankfully.
I wonder what Mad’s solution would be for the drivers preoccupied with twiddling on their cellphone/smartphones?
Classic – I had this issue as a kid. Al Jaffee was one of my favorite MAD artists. Over the years I’ve known a few Tommy Tailgaters and Darryl Drunkenslobs. The Safety Isolator for Percy Distracted would have come in handy for us when we were driving my wife’s nieces and nephews home after a weekend at our place. Two of them were fighting in the back seat. I just kept on turning the stereo up, but something like that would have been even better. My wife finally quieted them down, but it’s likely the main reason we don’t have kids.
I remember asking the salesman whether we could get a back seat riot shield to separate our two ever-warring children. Not on the options list, apparently.
Halwick: MAD Magazine hates cell phones
Yes, another great MAD tie-in! I love MAD magazine so much.
MAD was must-read when I was a kid! I remember these car features well.
“Car ads we’d like to see…1968 will be another BANG-UP year for Mustang!”, with an illustration of a wrecked ‘Stang.
As a Chevy fanboy, I howled at that one.