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Tricked-Out Cars Trickling Down
Good sends us to an IBTimes article on the expanding trend for more options for electronic gadgetry — telematics — in cars. Manufacturers are including more high-tech options in more models, including low-end models, as component prices drop and as the car makers attempt to sell to a demographic that has grown up surrounded by personal electronics. According to a telematics analyst, Bluetooth hands-free modules for cell phones will be available on more than a third of car models sold in the US in 2007, and auxiliary jacks for iPods in nearly half. From the article: "One of the industry's more advanced systems will be Ford's Sync, which connects digital music players to the car's voice-control communications system and reads aloud cell-phone text messages and has 20 preset text-message responses... The flash memory-based system, controlled through voice commands and buttons on the steering wheel, is based on a Microsoft Corp. operating system for cars."
Wind Screen of Death perhaps?
From the article:
Sheeesh, I remember the good old days when the joke began with: "If Microsoft made cars..."
car's voice-control communications system and reads aloud cell-phone text messages and has 20 preset text-message responses... The flash memory-based system, controlled through voice commands and buttons on the steering wheel, is based on a Microsoft Corp. operating system for cars."
Read text messages? I cant wait till cars have accident prediction. DANGER! IMPACT! 3:00! Of course the ultimate would be a car that can drive you home after youve had too much to drink.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
Why is the water warm and yellow?
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
Do they literally mean iPod specific, or do they simply mean that factory radios with aux line-inputs will be more commonplace?
Christ I hate how people think that iPod's are the only thing someone would hook up to car's sound system via aux-in.
Living With a Nerd
They can't even get a stable OS for a personal computer. Now they want to move onto automobiles.
What if it crashes? Will they be liable for damages then?
"Wow" indeed.
Where's the built in dynamic Mesh wifi or MeshMax for every vehicle? Imagine if every car was an open AP. Not much need for ISPs anymore when broadband access is so ubiquitous and low cost. Screw bluetooth.
Does it come with CTRL+ALT+Delete keys on the steering wheels to reset the car when i crash it?
More gadgets distracting people as they drive.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
period.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
How long will it take to get Linux on this thing!?
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
Christ I hate how people think that iPod's are the only thing someone would hook up to car's sound system via aux-in.
What do you mean? Apple *invented* the 3.5mm minijack.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I mean I use Windows and while I don't drive an American car I am all for getting our auto industry out of the shitter, but c'mon... Ford + Microsoft = works well? I just don't see that happening...
Matt
You have 1 Moderator Point! Use it or lose it! Is that a threat? -vapid
you wouldn't want your teenage daughter's text messages to be read aloud would you?
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Though it's nice to have all these gadgets and options, I worry about upgrades. For example, I specifically didn't get a navigation system because I don't want to be locked in to something that costs more to upgrade in the future (if it's possible at all).
An audio jack though, should be available in every new car. I don't see the minijack going away anytime soon.
Best Windows Freeware
Blasted Slippage of Doom.
Boom, Suck, Open, Dump. Words often associated with the Goatse.cx guy.
"Blue Screen of Death
In a surprise announcement today, Microsoft President Steve Ballmer revealed that the Redmond-based company will allow computer resellers and end-users to customize the appearance of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), the screen that displays when the Windows operating system crashes.
The move comes as the result of numerous focus groups and customer surveys done by Microsoft. Thousands of Microsoft customers were asked, "What do you spend the most time doing on your computer?"
A surprising number of respondents said, "Staring at a Blue Screen of Death." At 54 percent, it was the top answer, beating the second place answer "Downloading XXXScans" by an easy 12 points.
"We immediately recognized this as a great opportunity for ourselves, our channel partners, and especially our customers," explained the excited Ballmer to a room full of reporters.
Immense video displays were used to show images of the new customizable BSOD screen side-by-side with the older static version. Users can select from a collection of "BSOD Themes," allowing them to instead have a Mauve Screen of Death or even a Paisley Screen of Death. Graphics and multimedia content can now be incorporated into the screen, making the BSOD the perfect conduit for delivering product information and entertainment to Windows users.
The BSOD is by far the most recognized feature of the Windows operating system, and as a result, Microsoft has historically insisted on total control over its look and feel. This recent departure from that policy reflects Microsoft's recognition of the Windows desktop itself as the "ultimate information portal." By default, the new BSOD will be configured to show a random selection of Microsoft product information whenever the system crashes. Microsoft channel partners can negotiate with Microsoft for the right to customize the BSOD on systems they ship.
Major computer resellers such as Compaq, Gateway, and Dell are already lining up for premier placement on the new and improved BSOD. Ballmer concluded by getting a dig in against the Open Source community. "This just goes to show that Microsoft continues to innovate at a much faster pace than open source. I have yet to see any evidence that Linux even has a BSOD, let alone a customizable one.""
With all of the peripheral electronics involved I only hope that they are smart enough to separate this from the safety functions of the car. If the MS OS crashes and the airbags fail or the car becomes unresponsive this could be a real tragedy. Ford + MS is hardly the kind of combo I would be willing to trust.
You: "Allow."
Car: "The brakes are about to be applied. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Allow!"
Car: "The car is about to slow down. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Allow, dammit!"
Car: "The car is about to hit that truck. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Shit!"
Crunch
They could focus more on mileage, pollution, quality, etc. of cars then the bells and whistles?
Tricked-Out Cars Trickling Down
Did anyone else initially interpret that as Tricked-Out cars becoming less popular? Oh well..
"What kind of music do pirates listen to?" -Paul Maud'dib
"Yeeeaaarrrrr n' Bee!!" -Stilgar, Leader of Sietch Tabr
People associate products usually by the most popular brand. "Band-Aid" is pretty commonly used because adhesive bandages is too cumbersome. In the south if you want a soda pop you ask for a "coke." It's nothing new, but it can be rather annoying
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
No power anything, no heated seats, no GPS, nothing. Just the frame, the tub, the engine, power trane (tranny, transfer case, axles, suspension, drive shafts...), wheels, two front seats, pedals, steering, and the instrument cluster. I even had the stereo taken out to keep honest people honest when the top is off.
And you know what? It's not only fine, but it is comfortable and it is the most fun vehicle to drive...
This is going to change car ads as we know them....
...Like, twelve... Hey, what's that backing-up-and-turning maneuver you're doing? ...Wish I could do that...
Young hipster: Hello, I'm a Scion XB.
Middle-age guy in a suit: And I'm a Ford Expedition.
YH: We both have four doors.
MAH: Four wheels.
YH: And an engine.
MAH: But that's where the similarities end. You see, I have room for seven.
YH: So? I have room for five.
MAH: And I can tow 6000 pounds.
YH: And yet, we both spend most of our time in traffic, with just one person inside. What's your MPG again?
MAH:
YH: It's called parallel parking.
MAH:
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
FairTax baby!
as for the "nerd factor," i remember back when i was the only person anyone knew with an 1/8" stereo input on the face of my cd/mp3-cd capable deck. now every joe and his grandma will have them, even though most won't use them. what a waste, focus on things that make the cars easier to drive (or make them drive themselves) first
As for voice commanded anything, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkeC7HpsHxo . I've worked with vehicle electronics for quite a while, any wonder that I drive a 1980s car with manual everything?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
when your car crashes to a wall it can display "fatal error" when your car displays "fatal error" it your car into a wall working as intended
"One of the industry's more advanced systems will be Ford's Sync, which connects digital music players to the car's voice-control communications system and reads aloud cell-phone text messages and has 20 preset text-message responses... The flash memory-based system, controlled through voice commands and buttons on the steering wheel, is based on a Microsoft Corp. operating system for cars."
Microsoft's voice recognition did so well in a quiet room, they decided to give it a real test and see how it performs in a noisy car.
I can see it now :
driver : Check voice mail
computer : turning on radio, volume set to 10
driver : AAAAAAGH! (ears bleed, car hits telephone pole)
computer : delete select all
I can't wait for someone i know to get one so i can call him and leave a voice mail that issues commands to his car when he listens to it.
Darth --
Nil Mortifi, Sine Lucre
This can mean one of two things.
1. Damn, Lusty Linda's car is leaking "lubricant" again.
2. MTV plans new show: "Pimp My Ride for $50".
Actually, I interpreted it as something that probably won't happen until at least 2010, and even then might not happen until 2017 or so- these bells and whistles that are included on new cars now being available to the 78% of the population who will *never* be able to afford to buy a new car, merely because the previous owner had it.
My wife now has a CD player built into a radio that gives her the song titles of songs on radio stations for that reason- in her new-to-her 2002 Chevy Venture.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Yeah, I'd like a lemonade coke please.
http://popvssoda.com/
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
There's no way I'm going to let a telemat in my car!!! Oh... Wait... that's cybermats I don't want in my car.
Never mind.
I will never live for sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
That's all rice boy stuff. Where are the Holleys, the Edelbrocks, the Hooker headers, the Koni shocks, the glass packs, the high compression engines??? That's what makes a tricked out car, not decals and cell phones, and home theater(in the car??? Sheez). Just give me one that will do the driving for me.
What?
Crap, now my electronics addiction is going to force me to buy a new car every year. I'm going to be so broke.
I'm still trying to wash off what was trickled down in the eighties.
What?
LAST time we had a 'revolution' in personal music electronics, ie CD players, car radios started having aux inputs commonly available so you didn't have to buy a CD player radio. Then when everyone finally had CD players, they stopped providing aux inputs.
THE TIME BEFORE THAT when we had a 'revolution' in personal music electronics, ie portable cassette players, car radios started having aux inputs commonly available so you didn't have to buy a cassette player radio. Then when everyone finally had cassette players, they stopped providing aux inputs.
I don't know if anyone ever had portable 8-track players commonly available enough to make an aux input useful. I *do* know that Motorola was started as a company making record players for cars, hence the name: Motor Victrola. I don't think those record players were particularly portable, however.
The point being, aux inputs come into vogue every time the price differential between portable electronics and car stereos exhibiting the same functionality rise above the price that it takes to reengineer them to put an input jack in the case somewhere.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
User: Turn off the engine
Car: Do you want to Shut Down or Stand By, Hibernate, Logout or Switch user?
User: uggh?
I don't want to be charged extra to be able to plug in an iPod I don't have.
It wouldn't be so bad if it really was just a standard aux socket, but some car manufacturers are actually providing ipod-specific docking sockets which are useless if you happen to have any other player.
Gadgets and other gimmicks are fine, but how about something real, like what Renault did a while back... have four little wheels which when the car was stopped could move the car sideways. This beats the computer based parallel parking hands down. All you did was just stop, park, flip a switch to have the small wheels take the vehicle's weight and move it left or right and slide in the parking place.
Or, how about money on R&D so hybrid technology isn't just in small, sluggish vehicles which become mobile tombs if a standard size SUV hits them?
Or, perhaps substantial research on engine design. Ceramic engines which can run at hotter temperatures for better efficiency?
There is a lot more that can be done with cars than just adding a little bit of slant to the headlights, add 5-10 horsepower to the engine rating.
I'd never heard of "Band-Aid" before I went to the US - apart from in association with the good works of Sir Bob et al, of course.
We use the term "plaster". Seems simple enough.
Max.
People always want easier cars; cars that drive for them. How about we tell people that you can't have a smart car until your a smart person? Sounds like a plan to me.... driving not a right, it's a privilege and a lot of people do not deserve it. The more the car does, the less the person pays attention.
I want auto manufactures to include a device to actually read the information stored in the Engine Management computer and allow you to download it an analyze it on your home computer. I mean it really sucks that all cars contain an OBD-II connector but don't come with a way to use it. Why should I have to spend almost $200 for a device like this when it could just be included with the car and almost no cost to the manufacturer?
Cars already have too many electronic systems that fail easily, now they want to pile in more shit?
No thanks.
What car makers are making things sane? I.E. DIN car stereo mounts instead of this integrated crap that GM, Ford, and Toyota are pulling?
I have a Pontiac car right now that if you press the power window up on the drivers side and the passenger side at the same time it resets the WHOLE car's computer system except for the engine management. Headlights go off, dashboard resets, etc... that is incredibly silly that the power windows are in any way attached to the system that turns the headlights on.
No thanks, I want a car that has electronics with either complete seperation or 5 nines of reliability. WE know that the car makers cant make reliability, so hopefully someone wil continue to make cars without all the crap.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Just more stuff that will break the week after the warranty runs out. This is why I just bought a pickup (02 Tacoma)- thank god Toyota still makes vehicles with the bare necessities- no power windows, no power locks, two knobs on the radio, 3 knobs on the heater, manual tranny, simple shifter to get in/out of 4wd. Granted, not all are car luddites like me, but at least there's still a choice.
Sig cannot be found.
Yeah, but we also say tissue and photocopier.
In fact, it seems like for quite a few things we're good at separating brand and product, but we don't seem to be doing too well on iPod/MP3 player.
The Autosar project, which is made up of automotive manufacturers such as BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Ford as well as all sorts of electronics manufacturers.
Their goal is : "The primary goal of the AUTOSAR partnership is the standardization of basic system functions and functional interfaces, the ability to integrate and transfer functions and to substantially improve software updates and upgrades over the vehicle lifetime."
Microsoft doesn't appear to be a member - anyone know why Ford is subjecting their drivers to an MS operating system? Anyone know
While looking for a car for my parents recently, we wanted the Bluetooth.
"Fully loaded" Nissan Versa was a very strong contender — it can memorize four different cellphones, announce calls coming on any of them, and wire the call through the car's audio — at the touch of a button on the steering wheel. We ended up with Honda Fit, because it was a whole foot shorter (parking space is very limited), but it was a hard choice, because Honda still does not offer the Bluetooth integration.
We are looking for an after-market solution now, but those are not as nice as the factory/dealer-installed one would've been.
(Versa also comes with CVT, so Honda would've lost for sure, if it weren't for their length.)
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Sorry that's absolutely ridiculous. Text messaging by voice etc - NO! Just drive the rear wheels and add airbags. Done.
Wake me up when I can plug a USB flash drive into the dashboard of my off-the-showroom-floor Chevy and play my mp3s through my car's sound system.
Or how about using some of that high-tech gadgetry to improve fuel economy? I'm sorry but a half-assed hybrid that gets nominally better mileage while costing 20% more doesn't quite cut it as "giving the consumer what they want".
Better safety would be a nice touch, too, as long as they're going the "high-tech" route. Until these things happen, let's not play like we're getting anything we want or need.
As long as we keep getting the new car every few years and keep making those payments, all's well. As long as we don't make anything like a demand.
Remember "supply and demand"? It was all bullshit. As I've said before, industry considers US the consumables these days.
You are welcome on my lawn.
We've got a couple gear-heads here in the office that are into this stuff. One of them is building their own car computer. So far he's got an in-dash LCD touchscreen with an AM/FM/TV tuner that's motorized and retracts into the dash. This is hooked up to a small computer in the trunk running some Linux distribution and a GPS unit so he can track his movements (I don't recall the software program he's running). The company we work for writes and hosts telephony applications so we have access to speech recognition and translation software tools.
This sort of thing can be built fairly easily these days from off-the-shelf components. I'd hate to see what an auto manufacturer would charge for an equivalent system.
I must admit that I don't quite understand all the excitement over things like in-car navigation systems, automatic parallel parking systems, etc. In fact, I would think they would do more harm than good. How hard is it to consult a map or plan your route before taking a trip? I shudder to think of people having to resort to a navigation system for their daily commute. How hard is it to parallel park your car? Yeah, it takes a little bit of practice, but it's not difficult.
The only on-board electronics I want to see in a vehicle are the kind that apply a violent electric shock to the driver if he or she starts singing along to the radio, starts to operate a cellphone or other personal electronics device, or flips down the makeup mirror in the visor.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
I worry about upgrades.
Upgrades are just one practical and obvious problem with non free software in cars. Your worries are justified in an industry that practically invented "planned obsolescence" and still practices every form imaginable. Just look at the myriad of mechanical and electrical fasteners that already exist in automobiles when standardization would be cheaper. Of course they chose M$, when they could have better control and lower costs of their own gnu/linux based systems.
There are more sinister problems with the lack of control non free software enforces. Some that spring to mind are
Other people can think of more sinister things, because I'm basically honest and don't think like the above.
The civil liberty implications are the most disturbing, even though they directly effect a small minority of activists who may be harassed and silenced. The indirect effect of a corporate/government police surveillance state apply to all and are much greater than the sum of their parts and is miserable for everyone. The only thing more expensive than liberty is slavery.
I'm going to avoid the whole mess, if I can. I have devices that work and don't need built in toys.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I wonder how it feels to take out that cellphone while the driver is weaving around her lane yapping.y Id=4599106
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
At first I thought this story was about "tricked" out "ricer" cars finally becoming less of a fad, and I got excited. Too bad, I should read more carefully from now on!
Starmen.net
No going to some auto store or dealer to read the car computer to figure out what broke. The good old days. Maybe the imminent China models will be like this again.
How about a large explosive charge for small cars? That way, if the car is impacted with enough force to kill the occupants, it detonates, killing the people in the SUV that hit them. Think MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) for vehicles.
Back in the early 1970s my first car had large knobs and levers designed to be easily operated by someone wearing thick winter gloves without taking their eyes off the road. By comparison, many of the electronic gadgets in modern cars seem to require taking my eyes off of the road, at least briefly, while thinking about some complicated task. All the unnecessary complexity can also be a problem when I occasionally fly somewhere and have to rent a car. There is now too much of a learning curve for all the fancy electronic gadgets to make renting a car an enjoyable experience. At home I happily drive an old early 1990's full sized pickup which does not have power locks, power windows or automatic anything. I don't even mind using keys and almost always easily get the key in the keyhole in the first fraction of a second. For me, an old fashioned key is just as fast as a remote controlled door lock.
I am not totally anti-electronics, I have built several of my own computers and installed both Windows and Linux on them. I also have a general class ham radio license. When backpacking or hiking, I occasionally even navigate to remote places with a GPS unit and a topo map. I just do not want to have all the unnecessary complexity in my truck or car. For me simpler is better.
I also get a strange satisfaction in the fact that overly gadget dependant GPS using people who visit me soon discover that their GPS units are wrong about where I live. They punch in my address and are either told that there is no such place or they are sent to a spot in the middle of an intersection about 1,000 feet or so south of where I actually live. By now you have probably guessed that I am a 50+ years old person who is not part of the generation who likes that kind of stuff.
Car: "You are about to apply the brakes. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Allow."
Car: "The brakes are about to be applied. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Allow!"
Car: "The car is about to slow down. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Allow, dammit!"
Car: "The car is about to hit that truck. Cancel or allow?"
You: "ALLOW"
You: "Wait, no! Cancel!"
Crunch
Like trained monkeys.
Sam
I'd be more interested to find out when teledildonics is available for my car. You'd better keep a wet rag handy when that technology trickles down...
now cars can REALLY CRASH!
Cars are for driving. How about leaving off the electronic widgets, which, while cool, don't affect driving performance, and using the resulting savings for things like: better suspensions, better brakes, improved engine efficiency, etc. I mean, for the bloody Toyota Matrix has all sorts of nifty gadgets, but it's still using drum brakes in the rear. Drum brakes! By way of comparison, I recently did some brake work on my car. Replaced the 4 wheel disc brake rotors with cross-drilled rotors, used better pads, and added stainless steel brake lines. My total parts cost - ~$200 over stock parts. Hitting the brakes is now like having the Hand of God pulling you into your seatbelt.
As an owner of a 2006 Mustang (still a great car), let me just say that I don't need a bunch of computerized crap in my car that will render it useless at the whim of EMPs and sunspots or other degradations. I don't care about ipod this and mp3 that and strobe lights and modified kits. You know what I care about? Higher quality materials. Stop replacing leather with cloth. Stop replacing aluminum and steal with fiberglass. Stop replacing metal and chrome with plastic.
Adding helpful technology just makes the driver think that something else is taking care of business.... and the driver thus abdicates responsibility to that technology and focuses on their GPS, cellphone and fiddling with the bass of their sound system. Hey driver... DRIVE! Strip out the driver's safety crap and fit an iron spike protruding from the centre of steering wheel. Driving is dangerous... FOCUS! Sure many accidents are not the fault of the driver, but the fault of others. Still, in most cases there is something that the driver could have done to be more careful. Going around a corner or somewhere where you can't see well? Slow down there might be a car broken down/rock in the road/ oil slick/etc. Approaching an intersection/driveway? Look out for people who might jump the lights.Almost all accidents are avoidable by the victim.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
...more crap to break and distract people from actually driving.
Great. Now we can drop the speed limits another 10mph so people can play around with this crap when they should be paying attention and driving their f#@$ing car
drive-by-wire. I think steering wheels are unnecessary as are gas/brake pedals. Why can't they make a car with a single joystick that has force feedback? Push forward to accelerate, back to break, centered (Y axis only) to coast perhaps with a switch that changes the behavior to pushing forward increments the desired speed, backward lowers it and centered leaves it alone (akin to cruise control).
Sure, these things need to be redundant, but it could be done, couldn't it?
Not only would I feel much more at home in this environment (fwiw, I am not a gamer), but it would be a boon to handicapped individuals that pay a fortune for these things to be hacked on to their cars where it would cost significantly less to do this from the start.
I'm of the opinion that cars need to be more technical- when you hop into the cockpit of an aircraft, you know what you're there to do, but when you hop into a car, it seems you're merely a passenger or perhaps even there to relax. Some cars do not even have a tachometer and merely have speed, fuel and perhaps temp. I think that much could be done to make cars more fun to drive while simultaneously making them safer and excluding people who feel the need to do unreasonable things at the same time or who don't have the intelligence to drive safely. Although the geek in me would love to have my car look like the inside of a F-18 Hornet or something, I just think if the environment was more driving oriented, drivers would drive better.
You "remember the good old days" and yet your post reads like a TXT! Its "STEEL" not "steal"! Don't worry, I'm sure your next car will come with a spell chequer! :)
---
Toyota has factories in America. Ford has factories in Mexico. All the parts come from China.
Hear recorded Slashdot headlines on your phone! New service beta testing. Just call (248) 434-5508
But the cost of moving from AUX jack to integrated iPod access is 10% of the retail price of the car. Yep 10%. If you doubt this prove me wrong!
-ac
It would be like a Gee Bee racer. Doolittle was one of the few who could tame this beast, and he quit while he was ahead.
How would you rate a car that might roll over when you cranked the engine? "Mad Max"?
Having driven a metro for about 8 years, I absolutely love that idea. One change though: the explosives need to be in detachable side panels/bumpers that adhere to whatever hits you as the rest of the car escapes.
My metro died about a year and a half ago in a wreck, and it was a lot more durable than I thought it would be. It basically bounced off the car that hit me and went into a ditch. It was light enough that I hadn't actually thought it had much more than cosmetic damage (a mirror and some back left bumper parts), but it turned out that it hit the ditch in such a way as to slightly bend its front axle, and it would have cost far too much to repair it. So I finally got rid of it, which was shame since I really liked that car (it could drive around fine with its entire dashboard electronics shorted out, which was nice). Ended up getting a sunfire to replace it since they were so heavily rebated at the time, and its an OK car, but it doesn't handle as well as the metro.
I dunno about newer small cars, but it certainly wasn't a mobile tomb, it was more of a small tank. The large pickup that hit me took considerably more damage when it flipped on its side away from the impact (some curious mixture of high center of gravity, overreaction, and speed) and skidded off into the (fortunately grassy) median.
That's it.
The few times a year I need lumber, furniture, appliances, etc. I'll have it delivered or rent a truck.
While you're at it, can I have a device that lets me talk to people wherever I am?
There's these things called "cell phones", but they seem to be made for playing music and taking pictures.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
There's so much technology and electronic doodaddery (I just made that word up) going into a standard 'car', but the basic premise of a 'car' hasn't evolved at all. A car still rides on four wheels, has an internal combustion engine dependent on some sort of fuel, a standard drivetrain to go along with the engine, and a steering wheel. Sure, racing technology applied to everyday street cars *improves* a car's capabilities, but does it really improve the car's utility?
With the population of India and China growing to become energy consumers and having more access to mobility, the definition/idea of a 'car' will change. A 'car', per se, will become a utilitarian implement...and the very nature of a car will change to allow for common use in third-world economies.
- Four wheels? Who needs four wheels when you can get by with three?
- An internal combustion engine that runs on one type of fuel? Some countries don't have the infrastructure to support refueling with one type of fuel, so that's going to have to change...
- Having the ability to go >200 MPH? Seriously, most people just need to go from A to B...
- proprietary parts that can't be exchanged from one vehicle to another?
- electronics?
As much as I love cupholders (my Honda Odyssey has ELEVEN cupholders...but only SEVEN seats and a new Mazda Miata has FOUR cupholders...but half as many seats) and headlights that turn so I can see the bicyclist I'm about to run over, I'd really love the ability to NEVER have to go to the dealer again and be able to fix everything on my own without the use of a computer or a multimeter.
My prediction...is that in 20 years or so, most cars in "third-world" countries will resemble Citroen's 2CV, but with a composite body.
semper ubi sub ubi
[etymology nazi alert]
Who the hell came up with the putrid expression "telematics"? Remember the days when you could look at a word made out of Latin and Greek bits, and even if you'd never seen it before, you could understand its meaning because you knew what the individual parts of the word meant?
So let's see: "tele", meaning "at a distance", and "matics", meaning "action". So it must be some kind of spooky action at a distance! Quantum entanglement! Or at least remote control! Cool! Oh, wait, it's just a video screen in the back so the kids can watch cartoons.
I guess being able to analyze words is going to come to a halt now that the marketing "professionals" of the world have taken over absolutely every aspect of life, up to and including our language.
Yeah, I'm off topic. Sue me.
[/etymology nazi alert]Hahaha... I bet that pickup owner was rethinking any ideas he might have had about larger vehicles doing better in collisions.
If anything, newer small cars should do better than the Metro because the government safety standards have increased since then. Of course, this also means small cars weigh more now because of the additional structural steel needed to pass the crash tests. Interestingly, trucks and SUVs don't have to meet these same crash-safety standards, since they're "work vehicles".
Russian parts, American parts.... all made in Taiwan!
You have obviously never used a GPS. GPS users don't use them for commuting. They are people traveling into unknown areas. For example, last summer, I went to southern France. Never been there before. Purpose of the trip: visit 5 wine producers in 8 days. Bought the maps for my GPS, flew there and spent about 2 hours figuring the driving for the whole trip instead of spending in excess of an hour a day figuring possibly inexact or outdated printed maps that would increase driving by as much as 50%. On top of the 6 hours gained in figuring directions, since the device tells you, you don't miss a turn or exit. By experience comparing, I saved over 16 hours of bad driving due to those inacurate maps or driver's attention. 16 + 6, 22 hours. That's almost a day out of 8 or about 12% time gain. Time I could enjoy myself instead of peering at maps or driving around uselessly.
I also travel a lot for work, going into new or less known areas. Spotting a few key item's locations, like your customer site or your hotel and some restaurants, in advance, has made my traveling life a lot more enjoyable. I'd rather spend an hour with the GPS software before leaving than several hours in searching what you need with maps.
This is all without mentioning that GPS have a lot more informations than a map. Not all maps tell you a street is one way and which way. No maps shows you features like gas stations, convenience stores, hotels, restaurants, etc...
A GPS is great tool for a traveler. But you don't need it if you just go to the church every other day.
You're correct that I haven't use a GPS device while driving. I'm one of those people who simply drives around town, to and from work and occasionally takes longer trips over routes I'm familiar with. If I'm not familiar with the route I'll check one of the online services before I leave; I also carry a large book of maps with me.
I'm glad to hear that there are some people that actually have a need for a GPS device. It just seems to me that they're being marketed towards people who have no need for them. I suppose that really shouldn't surprise me.