And while you won't find the Jetson's Food-A-Rac-A-Cycle in stores, the television dinner meant that by 1962, a future where machines produced a variety of tasty food at the push of a button seemed just around the corner.

FORBES: Live Like The Jetsons

Clarke's initials -- "rac" -- are typed at the end of the e-mail.

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That year's RAC cross-country motor rally was cancelled, and social life in infected areas ground to a halt.

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Elsewhere in the business its RAC Trackstar division - which allows stolen vehicles to be traced - got a boost from a 35% increase in sales of Trackstar plus.

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The RAC has also warned that some over-the-counter and prescription drugs can impair driving ability.

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The RAC also wants to see the introduction of a three-tier warning system for over-the-counter drugs so drivers know at a glance which drugs pose a driving hazard.

BBC: Tests for drug drivers

Meanwhile, a survey by motoring group RAC shows almost half of drivers are seriously distracted by in-car technology - rising to 55% for 17-to-24-year-olds.

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Stephen Glaister of the RAC Foundation, a motoring lobby group, points out that road-building could look even more attractive if the government were to allow private firms to upgrade and run the things, charging European-style tolls to motorists and potentially freeing government cash to be spent elsewhere.

ECONOMIST: Infrastructure

"This report will give only limited comfort to the UK's 35 million drivers who continue to pay near record prices at the pumps, but the OFT does identify the true cause of drivers' misery - the chancellor and crude oil prices, " said Prof Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation.

BBC: OFT says UK petrol market is working well