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Sony/Toyota Developing Car With Emotions
ackthpt writes: "From Yahoo News, a concept car to be unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show, next week, will attempt to read the driver's emotions, stress level and respond. Named "Pod", the car will frown and even cry (does this mean it leaks radiator fluid?) With emphasis on attracting younger drivers and "cute", the car will also take pictures when it determines the atmosphere inside is a happy one, memorize musical taste and TV preferences and offer shopping information. (Just what we need, the Highway Shopping Channel...) Probably better not to take this one out into the street. Maybe with some hacking it could really be a fun car." There's a picture. This is wild.
Toyota has their Prius pulling about 50mpg. Honda has their Insight pulling about 65mpg.
The Europeans have the VW Lupo, which in specially modified form can pull ~70mpg
Toyota has announced that they will have the Prius doing 125mpg within a few years. The current Prius costs about $20,000, which isn't a lot on the car market of today. And I'd trust Toyota to make a car that Consumer Reports would smile upon.
My Subaru service guy recommends changing the oil on the Subaru every 7500 miles. You *should* be rotating the tires more frequently than that.
My BMW tells me when it needs the oil changed, and I've heard stories of it going as long as 12,000 miles between changes (which is good, b/c BMW charges a ridiculous amount, and the tool to reset the oil light costs a pretty penny).
So, really, take a look around. The TDI Golf gets 48mpg, and the TDI Jetta gets a little less. And if I had to choose an engine to last me forever, I'd go for a German Diesel over anything else. Some of the Honda Civics get 41mpg (and cost about $13K), and the ~20-year-old beater Honda is a pretty common sight around here, so they must hold up fairly well. Not everything out there is an 8mpg Excursion or a $60,000 luxury Barge.
Concept cars are much more than "plastic shells filled with gadgets." Besides the notable ones that have made it straight to the market with little or no change (eg., the original Dodge Viper, the New Beetle, the Honda S2000, the BMW Z3 and Z8, the Plymouth/Chrystler Prowler, the P.T. Cruiser, and likely the upcoming VW Microbus, just to name a few), concept cars are meant to be a test bed for manufacturers various technologies.
Fuel injection, aluminum engine blocks, ABS, power steering, mobile versions of FM radio, computerized engine controls, etc etc etc - all of these and so many more things that are common place in every new car we would ever drive today had their debuts in show cars - many which never saw the light of day as presented at the shows.
Of course, there doesn't seem to be any of these great advances in this little Japanese concoction. So, I'll throw another viewpoint at it - it is a JAPANESE concoction. Toyota - a Japanese car company. Sony - a Japanese electronics company. They do things differently there. Do you have any idea how many models of cars Toyota produces that are sold in Japan but they wouldn't even dream of bringing to the U.S.? Many of them are this small and, *ahem*, "quircky" looking. Also, remember that the "emotion" technology of this car is based on the Sony robotic dog which, albeit available in the U.S., actually sells quite well in Japan. ANOTHER thing to remember is that if any youths of the world are more into gadgets than Americans, it'd be Japanese. I wouldn't be surprised if an iteration of this car actually made it to their market within 3 or 4 years.
Of course we'll never see this box here... but with Sony's blessing and after testmarketing in Japan, Toyota could just as easily slap this stuff on the next generation American Corolla (muched more youth oriented) or the Echo for us Americans.
As for these features not being of practical value, that's a moot point - anything that's marketable will go to market, practical or not.
Once again, the Slashdot mentality of American-centric views rears it's non-attractive head.
"This is Zombo Com, and welcome to you who have come to Zombo Com" - www.zombo.com
Wow...
:-)
Actually, I'm quite out of the loop on European cars (unless we're talking about the stuff that makes it to the States).
Of course, the US Department of Transportation may measure fuel economy in a completely different manner than it is measured in Europe, so either side's numbers may sound greatly inflated.
Honda goes about achieving their economy numbers through their VTEC system, which is a bit misleading. They quote a particular horsepower number (say, 160hp in the older Civic Si), but that horsepower doesn't translate through the RPM range... until the "hot" cam kicks in, the car behaves and performs like a seriously underpowered economy car...
For this reason, they are able to easily skirt the fuel economy numbers. Because freeway/city tests don't involve a whole lot of winding the engine out, they're actually testing an engine which is probably pushing more like 110hp, and thus, is pulling far better economy. In the case of the low-end civics, the engine is probably being tested with about 70hp, which can easily explain the 41mpg (highway) claim. Of course, Honda still gets to advertise the higher horsepower number which comes once the engine is near redline and has the hotter cam swapped in.
I've seen a few other ideas proposed... GM is tinkering with the idea of only running 4 of the 8 cylinders in some of their SUV engines (during low load/stops) in order to increase economy. I don't really understand how they plan to pull it off, since a V8 is balanced much differently from an L4. The only engine this would be feasible with would be a V12, since an L6 is naturally balanced, and requires no counterweight.
I've also seen some companies experimenting with using a hydraulic system to physcially adjust the angle of certain components in a constant manner. They haven't had very good luck with it, though.
Diesel is pretty much overlooked in the states. Outside of the TDI, the only other Diesel I know of are large trucks. Probably the best selling diesel in the US is the 7.3 L "Power-Stoke" V8 diesel found in Ford's heavy duty pickups and the Excursion. How's that for efficency?
I don't know why no one has thought of this yet, or if they have why no one has implemented it yet.
What we need is a smart car that can determine if the driver's alcohol blood level is above the legal limit and affectively shut itself off preventing the drunken driver from taking to the road, it could even be smart enough to call a predetermined number (a close relative etc...) or even call a local cab.
If somehow the driver was able to bypass the systems shutdown security it would then call 911 and alert the police of the possible DUI on the road endangering other local motorists...
Cars with emotions... come on people, lets take care of the basic problems first.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
Heyyy...
;)
;)
I wonder if the name "Pod" is in any way based on the old BBC computer game. The game (Pod) was about emotions and general human behaviour. It was aimed at little kids. You got the prompt "Pod can..." and you typed what pod could to... either cry, sing, laugh, whistle etc.
A lot of people who grew up in Australia or the UK around the BBC micro computer will remember Pod.
Damn, it was early 80's 8 bit programming at it's very finest!
Aaah.... I think I'm about to have a second childhood!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
You can keep your "crying" car ... give me one of them "big boys don't cry" muscle cars of the early 70's. I remember my first car was a second-hand 1972 Grand Torino. The 300 some-odd mile trip to and from college was both a pleasure and a snap.
And nothing gave me more warm fuzzies than to step on the gas pedal and know that I had all the pickup I needed to get in and out of traffic.
And happy ? Happieness is being able to open the hood, with nothing more than a wrench and a timing light to FIX and TUNE THE DARN thing myself. Especially because mine was equipped with that beautiful boss 351 Cleveland Engine under a hood large enough to house a 400 CID 2V V8 ! Talk about elbow room !
That and the back seat was large enough to house and/or make a small family !
healyourchurchwebsite.com - WWJB?
You know that once upon a time, one of the Detroit car companies interviewed a bunch of people on "What do you want in a car" -People said, Good fuel efficency, large cargo capacity, good visiblility, 4 passenger, etc, etc. They built it, and it FLOPPED! It was called the AMC Pacer.
The rule that car designers learned from that one was to ask the question "What kind of car would your next door neighbor want?" People are more free (read truthful) about giving non-pc answers
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso