Tomorrow's World was a great programme wasn't it?

All that impossible-to-grasp technology that everyone (except the enthusiastic designer) knew was never going to catch on – and what about all those gadgets and the pointless inventions that made us collectively wonder "how did that make it on to the TV?"

I had a similar feeling when I opened a newspaper last Wednesday. On page 22 the headline read: "Forget all that fumbling with your keys, here's the car boot you simply kick open."

Underneath this long-winded bafflement was a picture of a Ford Kuga with its boot open and a woman, laden with mutlicoloured shopping bags, pretending to kick it. It was entitled: "The foot-operated hatchback." The words "what on earth" sprung to mind.

But no, it was true, like a bad TV advert for static dusters or lint removers, the article went into all the scenarios in which you too could require the handy vehicle modification of a foot-operated, keyless car boot.

It went on: do you carry too many bags, over spend in the shops and then find yourself unable to open your own car? Have you also thought that putting down that thing you're holding is an unnecessary inconvenience? When it rains do you sometimes get a bit wet when you try to open your car while holding an umbrella? Well, say goodbye to soggy shoes and complex carrying-things dilemmas with the new keyless, foot-operated Ford Kuga.

All you need to do is keep your electronic key card in your pocket or bag, then, when you want to open the boot, simply swing your leg underneath the back bumper as though you were about to kick the car, sensors will detect it, and – voila – the boot will open.

Granted, this new technology (an off-shoot of the keyless door opening system that so many car manufacturers are keen to advertise at the moment) has its uses. Removing bulky flatpack furniture from the boot of your car, for instance, would be a tad more easy if you could close the boot without having to put said furniture down on the ground. So much easier if you could keep holding the heavy, awkward object and simply kick your foot underneath the bumper in order to secure your vehicle.

The most obvious use I can think of though is comedy. Imagine the scene: rows and rows of futuristic kick-operated cars flanked by their owners, who are laden down with bags after a frenzied shopping session at the local Aldi. Discounted tins of tomatoes and packets of cut-price kitchen roll in hand they all start pretending to kick their rear bumpers in order to open their boots. Some of them, suffering a momentary lapse in coordination may even make contact, stub their toes and drop their bags in the shock of pain, thereby nullifying the whole point of this technology.

No, you're right, there's nothing funny about that at all.

.... Kicking the car