Slashdot Mirror
The Future of Cars According to Toyota
Paulrothrock writes "HowStuffWorks has an interesting story about Toyota's concept, um, car, the PM. In addition to seating only one person and having its hubless wheels driven by electric motors, it incorporates wireless networking so that drivers could surrender control to another human-driven PM and relax as someone else drives them to work. And it reclines!"
The fundamental problem with the car-centric society of my homeland is: Nearly pessimum resource utilization at every step of the way.
First, I assume for the moment that we are not going to undo fifty years of urban planning overnight, and that private cars (or car-like transporters) are going to be a sine qua non for the time being.
Every day, a commuter needs to get himself and his briefcase from domicile to place-of-employ. Once a week, the entire family unit wants to travel together to Funfunparkland. Once a month you need to carry a SUV-full of groceries home from the Megalomart.
Having one least-common-denominator vehicle for all of these purposes (e.g. the Suburban Assault Vehicle), is a poor use of resources - to use some tortured computer analogy, it is as if you burn a DVD-R with three words on it, every time you want to use a post-it.
I think something like the Toyota PM would be more readily accepted by commuters if there were in place a more economically feasible way to acquire a larger vehicle for ad-hoc short-term missions. Something like, but not exactly like, the current rental market.
When I lived in Mountain View, CA - there was "Rent A Heap, Cheap" that had - well - cheap heaps of car ... They would rent you a mid-80s
station wagon for something like 25 bucks a day, unlimited mileage (or
nearly unlimited) including tax and insurance. Commuting via
motorcycle, I was easily able to save enough in operating-cost,
fixed cost, and depreciation to rent the wagon for those
once-in-a-while times when having something bigger than a motorcycle
was needed.
The saddest part with Toyota's gadget: It appears too much a toy, and they will have terrible image problems. The /. collective-consciousnless will call it 'gay'. (Not to mention the
risks involved with someone 0wn3ring your car and driving you off a
cliff!)
How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
That said, the autopilot mode I like. Though it would be better if it could drive autonomously, rather than surrendering control to someone else (who's as likely to fall asleep at the wheel as I am). Course, the networking would have to be designed so that it was proof against some random attack. Giving up control of my car to someone else is one thing, having him TAKE control against my will is "right out".
And it changes colours to indicate what is going on inside! I wonder what colour it turns if you're making out?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
The Lohner-Porsche Electric Car, unveiled in 1900 at the Paris Expo, was an electric car with a motors-in-the-hubs design. 1900!
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
- Leave you exposed to the elements
- Limited carrying capacity
- In town, anything I can do on a motorcycle, I can do on a bicycle, cheaper, and usually just as fast.
Motorcycles.
All the clothing is completely waterproof these days, thank you Gore.
Backpacks, tank bags, tail packs, panniers, top boxes. You might be surprised just how much crap you can lug around on a motorbike.
They occasionally run a "Commuter Race", a man vs car vs tube vs bicycle vs motorcyle race between 2 points in London. The motorcycle wins every time and it's not just marginally quicker, it's 50% -> 100+% faster than all of the rest.
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