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Yes, there is a large, untapped market for performance, good looking electric cars in the EU. And VW, Mercedes and BMW are going to have it. The ugly ducklings that Tesla sells for the same price as a Mercedes SUV with all bells and whistles - not a chance.

I mean, for the same 60k euros a pop sometime in 2019, are you going to buy a horse carriage with a subpar Android tablet or this:

https://www.mercedes-benz.com/...

Its like buying a really nice Italian sports car with a 1.5 liter turbo in it. Yeah it looks nice, but that's about it.

I dunno, there's some pretty potent beasts out there with an engine like what you're talking about.

But yes, Surface devices for our org are purely for people that get hand held IT support anyway, the rest of us plebs make do with something a lot more capable but less shiny...

Isn't every car manufacturer, and every would be "entrepreneur" out there building their own electric car?

Yes. Jaguar and Mercedes are both bringing out electric cars, for instance. The Jaguar I-PACE looks to be a better car than the equivalent Tesla.

Oh really? If others didn't call it Assist you might have a point. Pretty much EVERYONE else calls it Driver Assist; only Tesla is brash (and stupid) enough to call it "Autopilot".

1. Suddenly the Citroen DS-19 seems drop-dead gorgeous.

Hm. On reflection, the older I get, the prettier the DS gets. I may even wind up getting one.. one day.

Or go one step up.

(Another interesting late-60's-to-early-70's model, although, alas, that one didn't make it into production. Non-Mazda rotary engine, though, so caveat emptor - not that you'll ever be able to buy one of the remaining ones from Daimler-Benz.

And as long as we're talking about Citroens and Wankels....)

According to the pictures, the chairs in the Nissan are quite solid and stationary (and without any sort of cushioning, apparently). The picture at the bottom of the article that shows the inward-facing seats is the Mercedes F015.

...the driver engages the autonomous drive like they currently engage cruise-control, except that they now don't have to steer or brake. That kind of technology would probably work on limited-access freeways where pedestrians and other non-automotive vehicles are prohibited,

Mercedes already offers this technology in their cars.

http://techcenter.mercedes-ben...

Vehicles equipped with Distronic Plus and Steering Assist will auto-steer for up to ten seconds with your hands off the wheel. If you're stupid/daring you can even defeat the ten second timeout by taping a soda can to the wheel.

Here are several in various price ranges.

http://www5.mercedes-benz.com/...

This is true only because we're stuck in the Stone Age of trucks in the U.S., thanks to undemanding consumers and truck makers who'd, logically, rather make fat profits than innovate.

Everywhere else in the world, there are high-cube vans powered by small, extremely torquey turbodiesels that carry considerably more stuff than our vans and pickups.

With their short gearing, those vans are plenty quick at lower speeds. And they get more than twice the mileage of our trucks. The only two things they are missing that our trucks have are the ability to tow very heavy trailers and the 100mph top speeds.

Dodge is selling such a Mercedes van in the U.S. as the Sprinter, but it's only one product -- not a full line -- and it needs European-style gas prices to be fully cost-competitive for most markets.

What about large families that need large vehicles? ... How about someone who owns a boat and needs to tow it to a lake, so he needs a big V-8 or V-10? Should these people "feel the pain" when despite owning gas guzzlers, are driving vehicles they need?

Yes. Those are lifestyle choices. People should pay the costs of their lifestyle choices, not force the rest of us to pay them through artificially low gas prices that don't reflect the costs of maintaining a road network or fixing the environmental damage created by large, fuel-hogging vehicles.

Incidentally, you don't need a big V8 or V10 truck to tow most boats that most people own. Something like a V6 Toyota Tacoma will do just fine with all but the huge-ass, over-the-top showoff-craft.

Of course, a minivan is bigger and if you have a family, it's probably the better choice (at least compared to a SUV)

Smart cars were designed (By Swatch and Mercedes) specifically for the kind of driving most Americans do. That is, short-hop, city-driving. It would seem custom made for the market.

The real hurdle seems to be the country's preoccupation for BIG cars. Perhaps Fab! could bundle it with a massive cod-piece, to compensate. :)

Smart it's just another thing!

Honda, has a proven track record of quality automobiles. Zap, in Europe? I don't know. Colour me ignorant.

Otherwise known as Daimler Benz; been making quality automobiles since 1886. So, not much track record there.

Exactly. As an analogy, a low-end Mac vs. a low-end PC is like a Mercedes hatchback vs. a Chevrolet* hatchback. At first glance it looks like the Chevrolet is a MUCH better deal, until you realize how much more quality and polish (not to mention reliability!) the Mercedes has compared to the Chevy.

*The expected comparison here would be a Hyundai, not a Chevy, but Hyundais are actually better cars than Chevys (I know from personal experience!). Plus the Aveo is actually a rebranded Daewoo anyway.

Some Mercedes Benz cars have this feature, they call it DISTRONIC.

Their official page has an explanation of how it works, but they use Flash so I can't link directly. Here's the text:

"The DISTRONIC intelligent cruise control system maintains the desired distance to the vehicle ahead. If the gap begins to close, it intervenes, using the brakes if necessary. With no vehicle in front, DISTRONIC maintains the speed set by the driver.
DISTRONIC offers additional comfort and convenience, especially on motorways and similar roads. At speeds between about 30 and 180 km/h, a microcomputer processes the signals from a radar sensor in the radiator grille. The radar signals reflected from the vehicle in front are used to calculate the distance to it and to monitor its speed.

If a Mercedes-Benz with DISTRONIC approaches another vehicle too closely, DISTRONIC automatically eases back on the throttle or applies the brakes moderately to maintain the set distance. If greater deceleration is required, audible and visible signals alert the driver to the need to apply the brakes. Once the distance from the vehicle in front has increased again or if the road ahead become clear, DISTRONIC accelerates the car to the previously set speed.

DISTRONIC is a development of the standard cruise control with SPEEDTRONIC variable speed limiter."

Click A-Z; D; Distronic for some Flash demos I'm sure they have a model with 30 or so mpg, price might be a problem though ;)

Not exactly. It was GM that was doing the buying, and it wasn't the bus they had in mind as a replacement.

The result is a system that may be adaptable, but certainly isn't more efficient than a mixed bus/metro/trolley/whatever system would have been.

From what I've seen on TV, US buses (with their unbelievably loud engines and generally rubbish design, especially when compared to what we have in Europe) aren't exactly an attractive option for traveling.

I took my first ride on a fuel cell bus in Stockholm on Thursday. They have started a trial here in the city, it's free to take a ride, and they take a route from outside my office, and through the city center.

The bus is feels great to ride on, all the heavy stuff (cells, tanks etc) is up in the roof, so there is plenty of space inside. The design is modern, and it's a quiet ride.

There are a few other citys in Europe taking part, more info here.

Maybe one day even the good ole USA will start to catch up on ideas like this. (Low emission flames please ;-)).

As an example - if someone made a car that looked very much like a Jaguar, but cost a third as much and had more commodity parts under the hood, and started selling it as the Panther. That's very obviously wrong, and even those theme-makers will probably agree.

You mean something like this and this? Guess it's not always wrong as long as you aren't misrepresenting yourself.

I think that more often than not there is nothing wrong with imitation at all. It seems to drive down prices for end consumers and foster more rapid innovation. Linux brings together the best of UNIX, MacOS and MS Windows at the lowest price point possible for example. If patents, copyrights and trademarks were abused to the extreme to protect every little idea, how much innovation would market leaders have to meaningfully improve their product?

For those that want to see:
http://www.mclarencars.com/content/sections/mainfr /cars.htm

McLaren are now working with Mercedes to produce the SLR class. Its a mean looking car:
http://www.mercedes-benz.com/com/d/home/products/p assengercars/slrclass/index.html

Not everyone is particulary careful with their F1 though:
http://www.wreckedexotics.com/mclaren/

It's also got some nice Bugatti pics as well :)

Steve.

Silver colored cars have a longer and more interesting history than being inspired by DeLoreans. If their popularity is due to one thing in particular, it's likely because of the early racing history of Mercedes-Benz. See: The Legend of the Silver Arrows. This, incidentally, is why the new cars Mercedes displays are silver.

"...in the long term they will be failing." Long term here being what, 5 years? How many portable audio players, CD, Tape, MP3, etc, have a product life cycle of 5 years? Zero. Sure, the Walkman has been around forever but it certainly hasn't remaind the same product for the past 25 years, or even the last 5 years. Portable CD players 5 years ago didn't know what MP3's were. Now, even the inexpensive ones play MP3 encoded discs.

USD30 mp3 players? Maybe eventually and at that point, Apple and all the other device manufacturers will have a new product with new features that people will gladly pay a premium price for. 10 cent downloads? Riiiight, that will happen....maybe with indie music, but never with mainstream, RIAA endorsed/encoded, DRM'd music. If you've ever read any type of financial article about iTMS, you'd know that it is a loss leader to sell iPods, cited here. Those songs will not be less than $0.99 for a long time, maybe $0.69 on sale, or something to that effect. Yeah, yeah, $0.79 at some of the other sites, that's got them where in market share and profitability? $0.10/song gets you what? In legal trouble with the music industry, and a real quick sucking sound of your VC funds because for ever song you sell, you lose $1.00 or so.

Apparently Mercedes-Benz, Giorgio Armani, and Rolex have never learned your lesson about "Nobody cares about quality." I know I do, which is why I bought an Apple Powerbook G4 instead of some POS HP/Compaq. Does this make me biased toward Apple? No. I bought the better product for my needs and the comparable Dells, which I do not believe have better quality or service, were several hundred dollars more and did less than my PB. I also don't shop at Walmart because of the low quality of much of the items they stock. Obviously, Walmart is doing something right to become the number one retailer in the world, but I still refuse to shop there and a completely separate discussion. I don't buy Kia's because I believe that they are lousy automobiles. My point here is that many people, including myself, care about quality.

I'm not quite sure what universal law of economics you are talking about, unless you have some odd perception of the supply and demand curves. If there was an economic law that stated that the cheapest product wins the most market share, we'd all be driving Kia's (or taking public transportation), doing all of our shopping at the dollar stores, buying clothes at the salvation army, and buying old computers off eBay as "upgrades."

Hey sorry, but in "Old Europe" Mercedes Benz and all other brands like BMW, Porsche, Audi builds its cars custom made!

Try the Mercedes Benz Car-Configurator. Every configurable car can you buy at your local Mercedes Benz dealer.

That's the way cars are built in Europe!

NSG

The difference was the ability of the passenger area to channel energy around the passenger while maintaining integrity. Design is more important than both weight and size.

Given that the majority of the inertia in this vehicle is below the floor of the passenger compartment, a design where this shears away may even be possible.

The Mercedes A class is the perfect example for this. The car is small but they tried to design it in a way that it is just as safe as a S class Mercedes.

So one of the things they did design the engine block in a way that during a frontal collision the engine would move downwards towards the floor and not push into the passenger compartment.

Also pedals are desgned in a way that they are pulled towards the car floor and won't be impaling your shins. Furthermore the steering column has pre-determined breaking points that prevents the steering wheel from pushing into the passenger compartment as well.

By northamerican standards the A class is small but Mercedes did some nifty engineering both on the A class and the smart car, of course both of them cost more than a Golf does, but are smaller, just as safe (if not safer).

The difference was the ability of the passenger area to channel energy around the passenger while maintaining integrity. Design is more important than both weight and size.

Given that the majority of the inertia in this vehicle is below the floor of the passenger compartment, a design where this shears away may even be possible.

The Mercedes A class is the perfect example for this. The car is small but they tried to design it in a way that it is just as safe as a S class Mercedes.

So one of the things they did design the engine block in a way that during a frontal collision the engine would move downwards towards the floor and not push into the passenger compartment.

Also pedals are desgned in a way that they are pulled towards the car floor and won't be impaling your shins. Furthermore the steering column has pre-determined breaking points that prevents the steering wheel from pushing into the passenger compartment as well.

By northamerican standards the A class is small but Mercedes did some nifty engineering both on the A class and the smart car, of course both of them cost more than a Golf does, but are smaller, just as safe (if not safer).

A better version of this, called Distronic, was invented by Mercedes before.
It keeps a fixed distance to the cars ahead when cruise control is on.
When it's not, it still warns you about cars that are too near in front of you.
Now combine this with Pre-Safe and you have a better version of the Honda system.

Just imagine driving on a mountain road and out of a right curb comes a car driving the other way. The radar sees it right in front of you, coming your way. How does it react ?

It works fine. Check out the radar-based cruise-control from Mercedes, now available on a few models. You can set your cruise to follow a vehicle ahead automatically. You just steer, and the two (or more) of you can pass cars and go through tunnels just fine without the cruise control panicking.

Folks, I think this story is not mainly about building yet another scooter. Look at what the hydrogen engineers in the automobile industry have come up with so far. Take Mercedes Benz and BMW, they have built comparively large cars and just a few years ago the smallest vehicle they could equip with a hydrogen engine were transporter size. Now this inventor shows (not just proposes!) he actually shows us what can be done. Sure, there are some problems which remain to be solved, but that scooter is no claim for perfection. You cannot ride that thing at 100mph on a motorway and you might not be able to ride for days without a refill, but that is not what is is about. Look at it, there is no spacey fuel tank which fills the entire trunk of your car and there is no refuelling which takes hours at specialised gas stations. That scooter is about technical possibilities and about making things happen instead of talking about what should be done in a better world.

Would you rather we comare it to nice lovable Volkswagen bugs or massive and scary unimogs?

Actually, AMG doesn't build faster processors, they build faster Mercedes Benzes. AMD builds faster processors.

t_t_b

...about the Unimog. This vehicle, dubbed to be one of the best All-terrain vehicles in the world (with exception to the recent Humvees maybe), was one of the first Mercedes-Benz products after WWII was over. As Germanys industry was was under control of the allieds everything they built needed prior permission. As it seems the allieds took the vehicle for what it was advertised a powerful tractor/transporter for agricultural and civilian construction uses (it was perfect for building roads as the vehicles had cruise control from day one, allowing them to go with very constant 2mph).

Ironically, after the Germans were allowed to establish a military force again they ordered Unimogs and rated them as "military vehicle class A" which means that it is "able to follow a heavy combat tank through heavy terrain with medium speed under all conditions". Created for civilian use it received its well-deserved military honors. Even the US army uses some of them. (Among many many others).

You can check out the vehicle history at the link below, along with some pictures. You can also take a look at the new U400 which looks way ugly in comparison to the older models. Maybe I just like them better because I have driven one of 'em for so many miles.

Unimog History

Ironically for Mercedes-Benz, the sales are going very bad in the last years, that was part of the reason for the facelifted U400 but it is not the competition that's digging MB. Everyon who could possibly use one (military, agricultural, construction, ...) already have bought one. And it runs. It is not uncommon to see 1960s models in the streets doing their work. So why buy a new one ?

I have a friend who has an older UNi-Mog. I gotta tell ya, that thing is damn fun to go for rides in. I haven't done any off roading with him, but my first ride in the thing was in a mild hurricane. That was weird...

Needless to say I've done a fair amount of looking into these things, and have found a few things out there that may be of intrest to someone who may want to know more about these things. Sweet machines, they are.

That's like saying that the butt-ugly cars of the 70s with all the sharp angles and points look better than the smooth rounded cars of today (just take a look at the new Mercedes C class!).

Some time ago, cant remember was it year or two ago, there was this tiny article in finnish science magazine Tieteenkuvalehti that Mercedez Benz is making a prototype on car using as a source of energy. Allthou i cant verify this from the web.
--

I think anyone who's ever driven one of these, these, or these, would say Germany's pretty industrialised.

Are you sure about the two wheels at the back, one at the front? Otherwise it sounds like it might be a Mercedes F300 Life-Jet ( more photos)

Herbert von Kammerstein