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Toyota Patents Winking, Laughing, Crying Car
theodp writes "If the patent system ain't broke, don't fix it: The NY Times/IHT reports that four inventors working for Toyota in Japan have won a patent for a car that they say can help drivers communicate better by glaring angrily at another car cutting through traffic, as well as appear to cry, laugh, wink or just look around." The article goes on to describe "...a car with an antenna that wags, an adjustable body height, headlights that vary in intensity and hood slits and ornamentation designed to look like eyebrows, eyelids and tears."
If you spend a few extra split seconds looking in the mirror at another car's "expression" then you are spending less time looking ahead of you.
Just what we need. All these hotrodders and riceboys that soup up their cars to bounce or sound like they go faster than they're going, and now we have the manufacturers participating in a slightly backhanded way.
This sig no verb.
Instead the money is spent on making a car appear to have emotion. Why not just make a large magnifying glass or some other magnification device that allows other drivers to see the facial/ hand expressions of the drivers?
Then again...
Forget anger and letting people merge in front of you... Here's what I want my car to be able to express:
1) Oops!
2) New to area.
3) I'm completely lost.
4) Medical emergency.
5) Learner
How many times are we angry with people who just happen to be dealing with one of the above and who we would easily forgive if we knew as much?
Live free or die
Shouldn't the idea be to decrease road rage? It's a great novelty idea, but nothing more. As someone already mentioned, it distracts drivers from watching the road. That's partly the reason why there are many restrictions (at least, in the US) about blinking lights, moving parts, etc., on vehicles. Personally, I think the little spinny-things on the rims are annoying enough, and I'm not looking forward to the car giving me the same head-tilted-back, lower-lip-stuck-out, looking-out-from-under-a-goofy-looking-hat, I-wanna-be-like-the-rappers-on-TV expression as the driver.
I pity the foo that isn't metasyntactic
If you can't think of a word better than 'gay', then I think you should go back to remedial English for a while before posting anywhere, much less /.
This certainly sounds like it could be useful, as generally more communication is a good thing. But from my own observations, I'm not entirely sure that the other driver knowing what I'm thinking/feeling is a good thing. I've had plenty of thoughts about the asinine driving of other people that probably would have resulted in fights rather than better understanding! I, of course, drive perfectly!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
how about increasing fuel efficiency? (yes, even more.
or making them safer (fundementally instead of bigger and heavier)
or better communication integration for the ever-pressed-to-the-ear cell phones
or better collision avoidance systems
or making headlights that can be "ub3r" that don't blind everyone on the road
Yeah, making sure the car has emotions and becomes more distracting is a stellar idea. Yesh.
For a while now I've been meaning to build an LED display for the back of my car so I can flash messages like GET OUT FROM UP MY ASS and plain old FUCK YOU! to whoever's tailgating me.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I posed a question when I submitted this story yesterday: they claim that the horn only sends one message, and doesn't allow you to thank someone who lets you cut in. How does a smile on the front of your car tell someone behind you thanks? I always found that a simple wave accomplished this quite well, myself.
Seriously, what an awful idea. Yes, let's pay attention to the emotions of the cars around us. Because even after the advent of cellphones, food from drive-throughs, stereos, GPS devices, and in-car LCD screens - we're still paying WAY too much attention to our driving situation.
- David Stein
Computer over. Virus = very yes.
The drawback is that you'll get the internet/chat room phenomenon. Anonymous communication leads to insults ('u r g4y'), flame wars, etc. Some people would hopefully use it well, but (as with CB radio), it risks turning into a pissing contest.
That said, when you commute you're traveling as part of a community of drivers. I think that having the ability to convey a limited set of phrases ('go ahead', 'thank you', 'sorry/my bad') would be beneficial. Pre-programmed voice macros would solve the problem: give people the ability to transmit, but enfore curteous phrasing. As soon as you open it up to allow people to say anything, it's likely to lead to more road rage.
It's not just the anonymity that does it, it's the physical contact. If you go up to some guy in the super market and say "OH EMM GEE YOU ARE THE FUCKING GAYEST GUY ON EARTH DUBYA TEE EFF IS YOUR PROBLEM", you aren't insulated by tons of steel or miles of wire.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I disagree. At least it'll mean you're paying attention to the vehicles on the road.
Cars are already designed to try to clue you in to what the driver is thinking - for example, brake lights, turn signals, horns, etc. Communication of intent between drivers is critical while on the road. Now, some of this is more what the driver "feels" than what they are planning, but I doubt it would *hurt*. The more attention you pay to what's on the road ahead of you, the better.
SILENCE BLATHERING TOADIES! We are your new masters.
Seriously, the danger from tailgating is that they might rear-end you (duh). If you slowly reduce your speed this greatly reduces the risk of a high-speed read end collision while simultaneously giving them a great incentive to stop tailgating. They're doing it because they think it'll get them to their destination faster. I simply make it clear to them that they'll NEVER get there if they insist on tailgating me.
In my experience, most people get the hint and back off.
But are you? Instead of paying attention to all of the cars, you're paying more attention to one particular car. And it's not guaranteed to be a car that's important to your driving situation - it could very well be a car on the opposite side of the road.
One of the other posters wrote it best: as you look in your rear-view mirror at the guy behind you, whose car is making a frowny-face, you're likely to rear-end the guy ahead of you.
Or, look at it this way: You're spending less time thinking about driving, and more time thinking about our ephemeral human interaction with the other driver.
- David Stein
Computer over. Virus = very yes.
Communication on my car is best done with a bumper sticker.
"Bite my shiny metal ass"
I'm one of those road warriors who holds an extreme grudge against Honda teens, Lexus dinks, and every other idiot who fails to realize that:
a. you're just a sack of meat, $$$ or not
b. other people are sacks of meat too
c. cars are tougher than sacks of meat
When someone consciously pulls a stupid stunt near me, I take it as a threat to my health and well-being, and react accordingly. Getting the finger is getting off easy, in the street or a bar it would have been a severe beating.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
What we really need is IM-enabled cars. "Hey you, yellow car, wake up, the lights green."
----
How to Make Programming Fun
I mean really.... because there's never been a movie/tv show ever that tried to portray a car as having emotions....
Let's get this clear: Yes, car's have been portrayed as having emotions lots of times.
That is not original.
What is original is proposing this as a real technical solution to an actual problem, as opposed to simple anthropomorphy.
Since human faces have been drawn forever, I suppose the idea of Chernoff Faces would be obvious too. It is not.
Do you spend your entire time as you're walking smiling, frowning, crying, etc?
Odds are, the answer is 'No'.
People don't spend their time expressing emotions to strangers unless they have a reason for it, and when they do, there's generally a good reason for it, and it's generally either appreciated or causes a desired interaction. That's the nature of communication in crowds.
This would, more than anything, encourage *good* driving. There have been many times where, when I've been in a big pack of cars and desparately needed to get over, another car went out of their way to let me over. Such behavior, in direct human interaction, generally receives a "thank you" or a smile, but there is no way to do this in your conventional car (cars can pretty much only say "Hey!" - the implied meaning of the horn). For all the person knows, their action went unappreciated.
The "thank you" or smile aren't functionless.
SILENCE BLATHERING TOADIES! We are your new masters.
You are quite right - the meaning of the word gay has taken on a new additional meaning in society of something stupid or contemptful.
But if this word's new meaning stems originally from usage by homophobic males who used their negative connotations with gay people to give power to a new insult, than it is clear that using this word is an insult to gay people (regardless if it is intended to be by any particular speaker). Every time the word is used in a negative way, it reinforces the idea that there is something bad or contemptible about "gayness".
But for you to just say "blame society" is an ignorant avoidance of the fact that each of us can and should be responsible for our own vocabularies - and be mindful of the affects of various word choices on those around us.
People often use the word "girl" in a negative way - "don't be a girl". This is another example of word usage that creates and reinforces both a negative stereotype and negative connotations of being a certain type of person. What subtle (or not so subtle) affects does this have on girls images of themselves, and on women as they grow up?
Our word choices can often show our deep prejudices, as well as foster these prejudices in those around us and those growing up under us.
"Cars are already designed to try to clue you in to what the driver is thinking..." Yes, well, drivers have to actually be thinking for it to be of any use.
Hades, PoD: Official Advocate
Thats hardly fair. How about personal planes vs personal auto? They have come pretty close to same increase. Werent many zippy 200-300 mph private planes 40 years ago. Compare commercial cars/trucks with commercial planes perhaps. Neither of which is particularly impressive performance. (yes, both made some economy gains though)