Wheels by Arthur Hailey Page A

our present instruments. For example, the gas gauge as we know it is on the way out; in its place will be an indicator showing how many miles of driving your fuel is good for at present speed. On a TV-type screen in front of the driver, route information and highway warning signs will appear, triggered by magn etic sensors in the road. Having to look out for highway signs is already old-fashioned and dangerous; often a driver misses them; when they're inside the car, he won't. Then if you travel a route which is new, you'll slip in a cassette, the way you do a tape cartridge for entertainment now. According to where you are, and keyed in a similar way to the road signs, you'll receive spoken directions and visual signals on the screen. And almost at once the ordinary car radio will have a transmitter, as well as a receiver, operating on citizens' band. It's to be a nationwide system, so that a driver can call for aid-of any kind-whenever he needs it .”
    AP was on his feet, turning to the p.r. vice - president. "If I can use a phone . . . ;' Jake Earlham slid ped from his window seat and went around to the door. He motioned with his pipe for AP to follow him. "I'll find you somewhere private .”
    The others were getting up. Bob Irvin of the News waited until the wire service reporter had left, then asked, "About that on-board computer. Are you putting it in the Orion .”
    God damn that Irvin! Adam knew that he was boxed. The answer was "yes," but it was secret. On the other hand, if he replied "no," eventually the journalists would discover he had lied. Adam protested, "You know I can't talk about the Orion, Bob .”
    The columnist grinned. The absence of an outright denial had told him all he needed. "Well," the Newsweek brunette said; now that she was standing, she appeared taller and more lissome than when seated. "You trickily steered the whole thing away from what we came here to talk about .”
    "Not me .”
    Adam met her eyes directly; they were ice blue, he noted, and derisively appraising. He found himself wishing they bad met in a different way and less as adversaries. He smiled. "I'm just a simple auto worker who tries to see both sides .”
    "Really .”
    The eyes remained fixed, still mirroring derision. "Then bow about an honest answer to this: Is the outlook inside the auto industry really changing .”
    Newsweek glanced at her notebook. "Are the big auto makers truly responding to the times-accepting new ideas about community responsibility, developing a social conscience, being realistic about changing values, including values about cars? Do you genuinely believe that consumerism is here to stay? Is there really a new era, the way you claim? Or is it all a front-office dress-up, staged by public relations flacks, while what you really hope is that the attention you're getting now will go away, and everything will slip back the way it was before, when you did pretty much what you liked? Are you people really tuned in to what's happening about environment, safety, and all those other things, or are you kidding yourselves a nd us? Quo Vadis?-do y ou remember your Latin, Mr. Trenton 'Ifes," Adam said, "I remember .”
    Quo Vadis? Whither goest thou? . . . The age-old question of mankind, echoing down through history, asked of civilizations, nations, individuals, groups and, now, an industry. Elroy Braithwaite inquired, "Say, Monica, is that a question or a speech .”
    "It's a m6lange question .”
    The Newsweek girl gave the Silver Fox an un - warmed smile. "If it's too complicated for you, I could break it into simple segments, using shorter words .”
    The public relations chief had just returned after escorting AR "Jake," the Product Development vice-president told his colleague, "somehow these press meetings aren't what they used to be .”
    "If you mean we're more aggressive, not deferential anymore ," The Wall Street Journal said, "it's because reporters are being trained that way, and our editors tell