At the last spring Comdex in Chicago, Bill Gates was reported to have
compared the computer industry with the auto industry and said, "If General
Motors had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would
all be driving $25 cars that get 1000 miles to the gallon."

If General Motors had issued a press release in response to his comments,
here's what it might have said.

If GM had developed technology as Microsoft did, we would all be driving
cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time the lines on the road were repainted, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you
would just accept this, restart, and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your
car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to
reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car 95"
or "Car NT." But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car powered by the sun, reliable, five times as
fast, and twice as easy to drive, but it would only run on 5 percent of the roads.
7. A single "general car default" warning light would replace the oil,
water temperature, and alternator warning lights.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would ask, "Are you sure?" before going off.
10. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and
refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle,
turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of road
maps from GM subsidiary Rand McNally. Attempting to delete this option
would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 percent or
more. The Justice Department would target GM for investigation.
12. Every time GM introduced a new car model, buyers would have to learn
how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in
the same manner as in the old car.
13. You'd press the Start button to shut off the engine.