Out of Tune(s)

What? No cassette player?



It doesn't seem that long ago that my hurry-up Dodge Demon was all the rage, what with the stick shift, the 8-track player and the Starsky and Hutch striping. Of course, even discussing an 8-track player makes me almost an anachronism, but not so much as the new generation of automotive music producers will.
I recently bid a fond adieu to a 1996 Toyota RAV 4 featuring an Oregon Ducks tire cover (depicting Donald Duck) and a cassette player. Even though 250,000 miles hadn't entirely ended its usefulness, my collection of cassette tapes was rapidly dwindling, meaning that sooner rather than later, I would have to depend on (eek!) the radio for in-motion entertainment. No CD player, no MP3 player...just old-fashioned technology that never failed.
The newer edition of the RAV can play CD's, MP3's and even has an auxiliary input so I can hook up my iPod and play 10,000 tracks without repeating (except for "live" and acoustic versions). Of course, it also features satellite radio that reminds me a great deal of FM radio when it made its debut: no commercials, just music. However, I'm too cheap to retain the dealer's subscription so when that runs out, I'll revert to my iPod or CD's. And even then, I'll be something of an old fogey!
CD's are on the way out as audio entertainment. As soon as this model year, there will be more than 330,000 cars sold with no CD player! It's last century's technology. John Canali a research analyst predicts that by 2018 more than 12 million vehicles will be sold that have the potential to interface with a driver's smartphone, enabling the Pandora (and others) application through the car's stereo system. Why is this happening?
The optical drives currently installed for CD players' use are expensive, and Canali opines that it's mostly "older motorists" who still use CD's anyway. Wow! That's harsh...but then, I don't have a smart phone, but all of our children do as well as most people under 40, I would presume. I just don't want to be THAT connected. I need my space; however, I AM getting up there. Maybe Canali figures I'll be dead by 2018.
But then, who'll want all my old CD's and iPods?
Perhaps the Museum of Natural History. They can be exhibited right next to the cave men.