Oil Light

Can you imagine installing a fire detector that only turns on after your house has burned down?  Or a home alarm that alerts you to the intrusion once a burglar leaves your house?  You know what would be really handy?  A reading light that would only turn on during the day.  Better yet, a traffic light that did not let you know what colour it was until after you passed through the intersection.  They really need to come out with something that informs you after the fact that the engine in your car has been wrecked.  Oh wait, that one already exists!  It's called the low oil light.  


Somehow, my car expects me to have my seat belt on immediatly after opening the door.  It will give me a stern talking to if I leave the lights on after taking the key out of the ignition.  Countless hours have been spent by some dummy, inventing those irritating locks that automatically unlock themselves if you don't hold the handle up while you close the door.  But who thought up the oil gauge?  It works by letting you know that your oil pressure is to low to safely drive your car without damaging the engine.   To warn you of the impending end of the car's usefulness as a method of transportation, a picture of a boat that has some water dripping off the front appears followed by a pleasant intermittent ding. 


By the time the oil pressure gauge light comes on, it's already too late.  Why not give the driver a bit of warning so that you can pull over, and save your engine, before losing total oil pressure?  Then, install a real warning system once it hits the danger zone.  The car should disable the stereo controls and start blasting "MMMBop" by Hanson, thereby forcing you to pull over and turn the car off simply to make it stop.  Unless of course, you're a burglar and the idea of an alarm that only turns on after you've left the house is very appealing.