Self-driving vehicles were once depicted as parts of some cool or dystopian future in which everything was automated. Now, you can find a whole fleet of them in Silicon Valley. The world is gradually moving towards this future. Advancements are being made everyday in the hopes of automating many aspects of our lives.

It’s interesting; so many things that we use today just don’t require much maintenance. When we purchase something like a television or a toaster oven, we don’t ever expect to have to take them to a repair shop. They may require a bit of cleaning now and then, but that’s just about all the maintenance we expect to do.

One fall weekend, my wife and I were driving north on Interstate 270, going from Urbana to Frederick, Maryland, when we spotted a sign saying “Scenic Overlook.” We had some time to kill so we took the exit.

Recently, I stood in as the courtesy van driver. It’s always a fun job; I hear so many stories and my first trip out was not an exception. One of the customers described the problem he was having with his car.

I would have never thought I would be doing repair diagnostics at our local JCPenney at the Columbia Mall, but I find myself answering auto repair questions in some of the oddest places. The other day I was standing in the check-out line at JCPenney and ran into one of our British American Auto Care customers.

Some mornings, we have high demand for our free courtesy shuttle van. When this happens, and the van is at capacity or out on a run, we also use the MINI Cooper to get customers where they need to be in a timely manner.

There are a lot of distractions for drivers these days — from GPS systems to mobile phones to all kinds of computer display panels. Get distracted long enough and you just may end up hitting a road obstacle — it could be a median strip, a pot hole or some debris in the roadway.

SRS stands for supplemental restraint system, but the more common lingo for the SRS warning light is the Air Bag System Warning Light. This light typically comes on for a few seconds when you start your car, but if it stays on, it signals that there is a problem.