I Sing The Body Electric

In the hybrid gas-electric LS 600h L, Lexus pulls out all the stops to create the technologically most advanced luxury car in the world.

I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC

Déjà vu

In a famous 1962 Twilight Zone episode written by Ray Bradbury, the father of a trio of motherless children takes the children to an automotive factory to pick out a new car. When the car arrives, young Tom and Karen are quickly smitten by the car's hybrid electric technology. But older daughter Anne is suspicious of the new car. She says it lacks passion and will let her down. After time, however, Anne grows to love the car when she realizes all that it's capable of and proves to be even more reliable than their old internal combustion-engine car.

Narrator Rod Serling then cuts in, "A fable? Most assuredly. But who's to say at some distant moment there might not be an assembly line producing a gentle product in the form of a hybrid whose stock in trade is love? Fable, sure - but who's to say?"

Okay, that's not exactly how it went down. The part of the hybrid electric car was played by an electric robot grandmother, who replaced - not an internal combustion-engine car - but the children's original grandmother. Nonetheless, the sentiment is strikingly similar, with today's doubting Thomases sounding like Anne in the Twilight Zone episode.

Ray Bradbury's "I Sing The Body Electric" was inspired by an 1855 Walt Whitman poem of the same name. Both works challenged the public to broaden its pre-conceived notions. Whitman believed that the parts making up the human body all contribute to the soul, and that the souls of all humans deserve to be celebrated. With Bradbury, the passion and soul of the robot grandmother came from all the people that designed her, planned her, built her, and set her running.

Passion and Prejudice

With the hybrid gas-electric LS 600h L sedan, Lexus challenges us to rethink the luxury car. Like Anne and the electric grandmother, hybrid vehicles have their detractors. Some have even charged hybrids as lacking in passion. I wonder, however, if the detractors have driven the LS600h L.

I did, for several days - and I can report that the LS 600h L is a passionate vehicle. Like the electric grandmother, one can really feel the care and attention that the designers of the LS 600h L built into the vehicle. The perfection of the stitching over the leather surfaces over the dashboard, doors, and interior nook and crannies is simply amazing. The sound system - the Mark Levinson Reference Surround System - is the best factory system I've ever heard (and this audiophile has heard virtually all of the top factory systems).

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In the hybrid gas-electric LS 600h L, Lexus pulls out all the stops to create the technologically most advanced luxury car in the world.

I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC

Déjà vu

In a famous 1962 Twilight Zone episode written by Ray Bradbury, the father of a trio of motherless children takes the children to an automotive factory to pick out a new car. When the car arrives, young Tom and Karen are quickly smitten by the car's hybrid electric technology. But older daughter Anne is suspicious of the new car. She says it lacks passion and will let her down. After time, however, Anne grows to love the car when she realizes all that it's capable of and proves to be even more reliable than their old internal combustion-engine car.

Narrator Rod Serling then cuts in, "A fable? Most assuredly. But who's to say at some distant moment there might not be an assembly line producing a gentle product in the form of a hybrid whose stock in trade is love? Fable, sure - but who's to say?"

Okay, that's not exactly how it went down. The part of the hybrid electric car was played by an electric robot grandmother, who replaced - not an internal combustion-engine car - but the children's original grandmother. Nonetheless, the sentiment is strikingly similar, with today's doubting Thomases sounding like Anne in the Twilight Zone episode.

Ray Bradbury's "I Sing The Body Electric" was inspired by an 1855 Walt Whitman poem of the same name. Both works challenged the public to broaden its pre-conceived notions. Whitman believed that the parts making up the human body all contribute to the soul, and that the souls of all humans deserve to be celebrated. With Bradbury, the passion and soul of the robot grandmother came from all the people that designed her, planned her, built her, and set her running.

Passion and Prejudice

With the hybrid gas-electric LS 600h L sedan, Lexus challenges us to rethink the luxury car. Like Anne and the electric grandmother, hybrid vehicles have their detractors. Some have even charged hybrids as lacking in passion. I wonder, however, if the detractors have driven the LS600h L.

I did, for several days - and I can report that the LS 600h L is a passionate vehicle. Like the electric grandmother, one can really feel the care and attention that the designers of the LS 600h L built into the vehicle. The perfection of the stitching over the leather surfaces over the dashboard, doors, and interior nook and crannies is simply amazing. The sound system - the Mark Levinson Reference Surround System - is the best factory system I've ever heard (and this audiophile has heard virtually all of the top factory systems).

Full article