"So can I take it for a test drive?"

"You promise to bring it back?"

"Of course, and if it is a ghost car it will come back on its own," she said with a slight grin.

"Oh. Okay. Okay, as long as you promise."

Cheryl closed the door and put the key into the ignition. When she turned the key the woman jumped when she heard: Welcome to Lexus Motors, this is a voice automated system. For auto control please say "AUTO." For manual control say "MANUAL." Current time is One Fifteen PM. Current Temperature is Seventy-three degrees with Fifty-five percent humidity and winds coming from the south at five miles per hour. Please enjoy your ride.

Cheryl laughed out loud after she heard the audio instructions from the car. "Roll down driver's window," she said to the car's automated system.

Immediately a slight humming sound came from her left and the window slid down on its own. The salesman (who was standing a good distance away from the vehicle) looked down to meet the woman glance. "Did the car tell you the time and the temperature?" Cheryl asked him.

The boy's eyes grew big. "You...you heard it too?"

Cheryl laughed out loud once more and sped away from the parking lot to begin her test drive.

Cheryl returned and bought the car for a great deal less than the sticker price (after agreeing with the young salesman that it was indeed haunted). She loved her new car, but still needed to learn how to properly use all of its automatic features. One Saturday afternoon she sat in her driveway with the owner's manual in hand trying to figure out how to work the radio.

Step one was to program the car's internal system to recognize her voice. That step alone was the longest in the programming process. Next was to manually program the stations into the radio so if she said rock, it would automatically go to her favorite rock station. The last step was to approve the commands that worked the volume and bass so everything would be hands free.

When Cheryl finished that time-consuming process, she decided to take her new car for a little drive. She would show it off to all her friends and test out all of the programmed voice controls.

As Cheryl cruised down the street, she went down the list of things she needed to test. The first item on the list was the GPS system, so she simply said, "Activate GPS." A few beeps went off and the animated voice responded: Do you want to activate GPS?

"Yes," Cheryl replied.

Desired location?

"The local mall."

The Local Mall, is that right?