Lost your car????

[Wizzo]

Now here's an interesting statistic: an estimated 12 million shopping hours are expected to be spent looking for lost cars this month in the UK alone as forgetful motorists struggle to remember where they parked amidst the Christmas rush. Who are these people? Anyway, one solution offered by Chevrolet is to have your car shout at you so you know where to find it.

K.I.T.T.Y (Key Innovation That Talks to You) is a handy handbag-sized remote-controlled talking alert, which enables the car to shout a personalized message to its owner, thereby making it easier to locate their misplaced vehicle. The device has a range of 183 meters and will be trialed in a number of cars over the Christmas shopping period to help put an end to drivers’ wayward car park wanderings.

Research shows that 20% of UK car drivers admit they lose their car at least once a fortnight with 1 in 20 (6 per cent) saying they lose it once a week. This equates to the average driver losing their car 11 times a year – spending an around 26 minutes a month looking for it. Although 52 per cent of drivers find their car within 15 minutes, the K.I.T.T.Y would be a welcome device for many to save time. We can see some interesting scenarios arising if the use of K.I.T.T.Y becomes widespread though - a car park full of lost cars shouting over the top of each other might not deliver the desired result.

[Alianora La Canta]

I lose my dad's car every time I go to the supermarket, so that would be about three times a week. Luckily, my dad always remembers where he puts it.

[Steven Roy]

The only time I lost my car unfortunately was at the NEC for Autosport Internationsl a few years ago.  Of course it had to be the one time I left early to avoid the worst of the traffic and the car parks were absolutely full.  I don't know how many cars the NEC car parks holds but it must be a good few thousand.  Normally I write the car park letter on my ticket but not that time.  So I spent half an hour in a van with one of the parking people driving round half the car parks in the NEC until we found it. 

[cosworth151]

I have an easier way to find mine in the car park. The van is almost 7 ft tall, with another foot of ladder rack on top of that, with a 12' orange ladder on the rack! It's kindda hard to miss.

Trouble is, I'm so used to it, that when I drive the car somewhere, I never remember where it is. I just keep hitting the remote lock button and listen for the horn!