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Wheels.29 |
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The future |
{Wheels.29.1}: Glen Marks {wotan} Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:52:36 CST (1 line)
http://www.leftlanenews.com/global-car-sales-could-peak-by-2024.html
{Wheels.29.2}: Glen Marks {wotan} Thu, 05 Jun 2014 19:06:25 CDT (4 lines)
Ready for driverless cars?: "http://spectrum.ieee.org/transportation/advanced-cars/driverless-cars- optional-by-2024-mandatory-by-2044"
{Wheels.29.3}: Joseph Kang {jsk} Mon, 14 Jul 2014 12:20:33 CDT (4 lines)
Interesting! Toyota has created a "free piston" engine that operates without a crankshaft and outputs electrical power. "http://interestingengineering.com/toyota-create-free-piston-engine-with-no-crankshaft-and-electrical-output/"
{Wheels.29.4}: Jil {rabbit} Fri, 18 Jul 2014 06:38:08 CDT (1 line)
Interesting indeed.
{Wheels.29.5}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 20 Jul 2014 16:24:42 CDT (4 lines)
Could this recent tv commercial w/o any humans be giving us a glimpse of the future?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxtK1BF3vO4
{Wheels.29.6}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:01:34 CDT (7 lines)
According to the following recent article: - Solutions and efficiency in technology, such as the electric car, have been deliberately destroyed by the very companies they threaten. A good documentary on this subject is Who Killed the Electric Car? http://www.thehistoriansquarterly.com/archives/category/all#/
{Wheels.29.7}: Jil {rabbit} Tue, 05 Aug 2014 08:27:06 CDT (5 lines)
Garbage. If GM could have sold a million EV1s, it would have made a million EV1s. The technology wasn't ready at the time, and neither were drivers. They still aren't. Hybrids and EVs are readily available, and have been for more than a decade, and they still haven't progressed beyond single-digit market share.
{Wheels.29.8}: Joe Gordon {darmund} Thu, 07 Aug 2014 14:29:31 CDT (2 lines)
But, but, but Martin Sheen was the narrator!!! President Bartlett doesn't lie!!!!!
{Wheels.29.9}: Ted Hurst {thurst} Thu, 07 Aug 2014 14:52:12 CDT (HTML)
{Wheels.29.10}: Jil {rabbit} Thu, 07 Aug 2014 15:49:08 CDT (22 lines)
No, there were other reasons for destroying them all, and while it might make me sound like I'm on the company's side, I've seen enough of the industry to say that they had legitimate reasons for not leaving them in the marketplace. The technology was new, and the cars were extremely small-volume and hand-built, which means that eventually, something was going to go wrong. When it does, then with extremely rare examples (the Tesla's fires being one of them), you can't overcome that bad publicity. Somewhere down the line, an EV-1 was going to stop in its tracks, and any goodwill would have been lost. Plus, the company would have had to keep parts in stock for years (if memory serves, it's a minimum of 10 years) and kept technicians trained for the few that would have been left. The EV-1, and the other electrics that Nissan, Toyota, Ford, et al put on the road, were introduced strictly to meet the laws that California set in place at the time. The cars were essentially cobbled together, and in a hurry. Once the laws were removed, there was no need for these extremely expensive programs, and GM (and others) didn't want to clean up what was left over from them.
{Wheels.29.11}: Ted Hurst {thurst} Thu, 07 Aug 2014 16:13:58 CDT (HTML)
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1"
In 2006, former GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner stated that his worst decision during his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn't affect profitability, but it did affect image."[47] Wagoner repeated this assertion during an NPR interview after the December 2008 Senate hearings on the U.S. auto industry bailout request.[48] In the March 13, 2007 issue of Newsweek, "GM R&D chief Larry Burns . . . now wishes GM hadn't killed the plug-in hybrid EV1 prototype his engineers had on the road a decade ago: 'If we could turn back the hands of time,' says Burns, 'we could have had the Chevy Volt 10 years earlier,'"[49] referring to the forthcoming plug-in hybrid car which was hailed as the spiritual and technological successor to the EV1.
I wish there were some around for you to test drive and write an
article about. If a Power Wagon, why not an EV1?
{Wheels.29.12}: Jil {rabbit} Thu, 07 Aug 2014 16:27:00 CDT (10 lines)
They should have kept the program going, at least in terms of the research; they made a serious mistake in not working on the momentum they'd built up with the EV-1. But I still maintain that there was nothing nefarious in destroying the ones that came off leases. If not the right thing to do, it was at least the most logical. There probably is a running EV-1 around somewhere, but the few I've seen have no powertrains.
{Wheels.29.13}: Ted Hurst {thurst} Thu, 07 Aug 2014 16:29:26 CDT (HTML)
{Wheels.29.14}: Jil {rabbit} Thu, 07 Aug 2014 20:29:20 CDT (1 line)
Yes, I've seen it there.
{Wheels.29.15}: Doug White {dwhite} Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:50:55 CDT (2 lines)
It would be amusing to get one of the units w/o a powertrain and convert it to IC, haha. Take that, GM.
{Wheels.29.16}: Ted Hurst {thurst} Tue, 10 Mar 2015 01:26:29 CDT (HTML)
Mercedes Driverless Car Spotted Cruising Around San Francisco
The Huffington Post | By Harry Bradford
Posted: 03/09/2015 5:14 pm EDT Updated: 03/09/2015 5:59 pm EDT
"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/mercedes-driverless-car-san-francisco_n_6833248.html"
{Wheels.29.17}: Jil {rabbit} Tue, 10 Mar 2015 07:35:42 CDT (1 line)
Do you? I think it's a horrible idea.
{Wheels.29.18}: Doug White {dwhite} Tue, 10 Mar 2015 10:03:50 CDT (4 lines)
Is that a front or rear view of the Mercedes? From that photo it would appear SFO has finally been gentrified back into the stone age.
{Wheels.29.19}: Ted Hurst {thurst} Wed, 11 Mar 2015 02:03:03 CDT (HTML)
And we get older it will be a boon for the elderly. It really set my
dad back with my sister sabotaging him. He was really interested in
attending meetings and being active in the community.
{Wheels.29.20}: Jil {rabbit} Thu, 19 Mar 2015 08:39:24 CDT (6 lines)
Better training and licensing, not self-driving cars. We're putting a Band-Aid on a wound. People used to think drinking and driving was okay. People still do it, but we're making a lot of headway. We need to treat cell phones the same way, not make a car that lets them do it.
{Wheels.29.21}: Doug White {dwhite} Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:05:05 CDT (4 lines)
Get a grip, Jil. Cell phone use in public is already far more accepted (I'd say some view it as a human right by now) than drinking in public ever was. If the choice is truly "self-driving cars" vs. "no cell phones," the winner will be clear.
{Wheels.29.22}: Jil {rabbit} Fri, 20 Mar 2015 13:25:10 CDT (5 lines)
Sorry, I can't agree with that. Even if cell phone use is more accepted than drunk driving was, that doesn't mean we can't change that. Or worse, that we should just accept that we can't, and so come up with billion-dollar solutions so assholes who aren't smart enough to put down the phone won't be inconvenienced.
{Wheels.29.23}: Doug White {dwhite} Sat, 21 Mar 2015 00:29:01 CDT (16 lines)
No, no, no, I agree that it SHOULD be stopped. But it is unstoppable. There is zero political will, and the opposition is legion and well- funded. You want to compare cell phone use to the drunk driving problem, but it is actually akin to the "motorless carriage" problem in the age of horse-drawn transportation and steam power. There is no going back. An entire generation can't even imagine life without this technology. Geezers are steadily being assimilated. The ship has sailed. Drunk driving has zero upside (or, at worst, no upside that is morally defensible). I hate cell phones as much as anybody (maybe more than, since I still don't have one!), but even I must concede they have a lot of utility. So, since we will keep cell phones, then at least allow us driverless cars to get some (and then more, and then most) distracted people out of the driving business altogether!
{Wheels.29.24}: Ted Hurst {thurst} Sat, 21 Mar 2015 03:57:13 CDT (HTML)
But this is not needed by passengers in a vehicle driven by another person or an integral robot who will be programmed with every conceivable driving strategy for the design vehicle (which vastly exceeds what most drivers will ever imagine).
I think the highways will support a mix of traffic, which in the case of self driving vehicles can be at optimally higher density. Those that pilot their own vehicles will encounter fewer surprises, and most of those from the remaining independent, sporty folks, who enjoy expressing themselves "outside the box".
The many articles would indicate that like it or not, robotic transportation on our highways is coming.
Here are a few...
Google Self-Driving Car Designer: 'I'm Building It For My Son'
Google's self-driving car was featured during a recent TED Talk, where the designer made a case for how it could improve the roads.
By Christopher Hutton | Mar 18, 2015 11:46 AM EDT
Elon Musk Says Human-Driven Cars Could Become Illegal
The Huffington Post | By Ed Mazza
Posted: 03/18/2015 5:22 am EDT Updated: 03/18/2015 8:59 am EDT
"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/18/elon-musk-self-driving-cars_n_6891368.html"
Another source of the same...
Elon Musk believes non-self-driving cars may one day be outlawed
Is it safer for a "two-ton death machine" to be driven by a computer or a human?
by Sebastian Anthony - Mar 18, 2015 11:00am MDT
No, Tesla Is Not Releasing a 'Self-Driving' Car This Summer
By Damon Poeter
March 20, 2015 07:12pm EST
Tesla is adding some cool driver-assist functions to its vehicles, but they're not robot cars just yet.
"http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2478556,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121"
Self-driving cars are almost here but only for 1 percenters
Yahoo Finance
By Rick Newman - March 20, 2015
And there are many more... Past, present and future!
{Wheels.29.25}: Ted Hurst {thurst} Sat, 21 Mar 2015 04:13:15 CDT (HTML)
I'm 68 yo. I will keep watching the developments, and I feel encouraged that even if I should go blind between 10 years from now and my 90th birthday, I will likely be able to summon a personal vehicle to safely take me wherever I wish to go.
My 2009 Hyundai Elantra more than adequately meets my present needs.
Whimsey may move me to indulge in some intermediate vehicle before I
settle into a RoboCar.
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