Slashdot Mirror


Review Of GM's HyWire Hydrogen Concept Car

SanLouBlues writes "Autoweek has a detailed review of a test drive in GM's HyWire concept (second item). The gas and brakes are both on the steering wheel which may be placed on either the left or the right with little effort. Overall some very positive marks for such a radical car."

24 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot had a concept Methane PT Cruiser once by krog · · Score: 2, Funny

    but then CowboiNeal ran out of beans, so they ran out of fuel.

    1. Re:Slashdot had a concept Methane PT Cruiser once by PD · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wouldn't that vehicle be more efficient in a rocket configuration?

  2. Hand brakes? by delphin42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know about anyone else, but personally I don't consider adding to the number of tasks performed by my hands to be an engineering acheivement. Why don't they work on steering with your feet? Then I could have both hands free while driving.

    --
    -- Adam
    1. Re:Hand brakes? by override11 · · Score: 5, Funny

      So you can read AND eat while driving??? Watch the road!!!

      --
      No I didnt spell check this post...
    2. Re:Hand brakes? by Ananamas+Coughrad · · Score: 5, Funny

      Eventually, when auto technology becomes perfectly tuned to the environment, there will be holes in the floor and you will be both driving and steering with your feet. So rest assured, your idea is being worked on.

    3. Re:Hand brakes? by Afrosheen · · Score: 5, Funny

      "there will be holes in the floor and you will be both driving and steering with your feet"

      Ah yes, a page from the infamous Flintstones Big Book of Engineering.

      Too bad they couldn't prevent the cars from tipping over when you slap a rack of Brontosaurus ribs on the driver's side door.

    4. Re:Hand brakes? by dhartman · · Score: 2, Funny
      Umm, last I checked 'negative acceleration' as you call it was termed DE-celeration. So technically, in future transportation pods, we would want an acceleration event and a deceleration event. These events could be handled by your hands as described in this article, your feet as in conventional cars or by voice (or telepathy).

      Just thinking that you should be going faster would make the car speed up. Or if you're that woman driving the car pool with the satellite receiver and you yell, "you kids shut up or I'll stop this car", you might be lucky enough for the car to interpret "stop this car" as a command to stop immediately. At this point, all people end up flying through the windshield with Ms. Twinkie ass jammed behind the steering wheel because she wouldn't FIT through the window...

  3. Let me get this straight. by FreeLinux · · Score: 4, Funny

    You are advocating cars with the brakes and the accelerator on the steering wheel and a tank full of hydrogen underneath? Looks like it's time to move to one of those islands where they don't have cars.

    People still have trouble with the accelerator and brake pedals in their traditional spot. Now you want to put them on the steering wheel? I'd really rather not have one of these coming toward me.

  4. So much easier by IPFreely · · Score: 3, Funny
    I've already got an alternative driving method.

    Push the joy stick forward to accelerate, pull it back to brake, lean it left and right to steer. The trigger is the emergency brake, and the thumb button turns your car back upright when you roll it.

    What else do you need?

    --
    There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
  5. Presented by Big Oil Conglomerates by stratjakt · · Score: 1, Funny

    Hello, I'm an electric car. I can't go very fast, or very far, and if you drive me everyone will think you're gay!

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  6. They redisigned it from the ground up by geekoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    and it STILL doesn't fly. Losers.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  7. GTA Vice City by FreeLinux · · Score: 5, Funny

    Another brilliant bit of motivation. Not!

    I was already concerned about having the "pedals" on the steering wheel but, now you want me to face a roadway full of people that learned to drive by playing Vice City?????

    God help us all.

  8. Saw this on South Park by certsoft · · Score: 2, Funny
    The handgrips glide up and down for steering

    That sounds too much like the gyroscopic type vehicle from South Park. I wonder if GM will offer the driver stability probes front and rear?

  9. FedEx Express? by autopr0n · · Score: 3, Funny

    (second item on the blog)

    TOKYO (Dec. 2, 2002) - Federal Express Corporation ("FedEx Express") and General Motors Corp ("GM") announced a joint program to advance fuel cell technology by conducting the first commercial test of a fuel cell vehicle in Japan.

    Wouldn't that make their name expand to "Federal Express Express"? Is that like KFC chicken?

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:FedEx Express? by nochops · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or Windows2000, powered by NT tychnology

      --
      "A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
  10. Re:Sure the efficiency is great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If opinions were airplanes, slashdot would be the crappiest airport anyone could ever imagine.

  11. Re:Joking aside, this is big. by itsyourunclebill · · Score: 2, Funny

    EX-SQUEZE ME?! Yeah it's hydrogen but it's not as dangerous as the tank of gas in your car?? The article makes reference to a 10,000 PSI "tank" for this stuff. Wanna get your jollies - just knock the neck off any full compressed gas bottle and see what happens. Waddya mean the thing can't fly?

  12. Re:user interface by swordboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think that you aren't completely understanding where the gas and brakes are going to be located. They will be adding them to the Swiss Army Blinker(tm) that we've all come to know and love. Hmmm... Lessee... Gas... No, thats washer fluid...

    Actually, if they were to replace the steering wheel with a set of handlebars (ala motorcycle), then they might be able to pull this off. Of course, then you've just invented the four wheel version of the Tron Light Cycle.

    Hmmm...

    --

    Life is the leading cause of death in America.
  13. Re:*any* direction? by jez9999 · · Score: 3, Funny

    So can you just turn the wheels 90 degrees and drive sideways into the parking spot? Sweet! This will sell in San Francisco. /me suddenly has mental image of hundreds of new ways for pedestrians to have accidents...

  14. That rollover was faked... by orichter · · Score: 5, Funny

    That rollover was faked for Dateline NBC( By Stone Phillips I believe). The Flintstones car was really quite stable, and generally can handle any size Brontosaurus ribs you can find. Damn liberal stone age media.....

  15. Re:user interface by Afrosheen · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Of course, then you've just invented the four wheel version of the Tron Light Cycle."

    It'll bring a whole new dimension of fun and entertainment to cutting people off in traffic.

  16. Re:A Very cool mix. Diesel and Hydrogen. by ShavenYak · · Score: 4, Funny

    As hybrid vehicles go, the Gas/Electric hybrids like Toyota's Prius are cool. They also feel like you're driving a cardboard box.

    I've driven a Prius, and I've driven a cardboard box. I might have only been 8 when I drove a cardboard box, but I still think I'd remember it enough to have noticed if the Prius was in any way similar.

    --

    Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
  17. My Mother-in-Law's hand brake by extra88 · · Score: 3, Funny

    My mother-in-law doesn't drive but she has a hand brake on the dash of any car in which she rides. It's not very effective but effectiveness improves if she makes a screeching sound, not unlike the sound of squealing brakes.

  18. Re:user interface by xixax · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nice to see the same principles that gave us schizophrenic computer UIs being applied to large lumps of metal moving at high speed. Can't wait for:

    Microsoft LookOut! which will remember the last place I drove to and keep taking me there unless I re-install it.

    Lexmark Premium DiHydrogen Monoxide service pak, which will refuse to let me pull into service stations not owned by Lexmark.

    The RIAA approved theft prevention radio that accepts my credit card number as the PIN and decides a listening program based on my revenue profile.

    The GTA3 augmented reality patch that overlays cool stuff on my external visual screens.

    --
    "Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"