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The Quest for the Car of the Future
Lux writes "Where will the car of the future come from? It's unlikely to come from anywhere you'd expect it to. Wired's money is on the car of the future coming from NASA. 'New technology that promises to revolutionize the automobile as we know it is emerging from research institutions and startups — and these innovations won't set you back $100,000 like a Tesla will... One experiment involves small electric motors located in the wheels of the CityCar, a tiny, nimble and practically silent vehicle with wheels that turn 360 degrees, enabling it to slip neatly into tight urban parking spaces. Others are looking to revolutionize the automobile's engine, not replace it.'"
wheels that turn 360 degrees
Indeed, that is a revolution.
From Silicon Valley, that's where, and it's almost here.
... the TESLA Electric Roadster.
The real car of the future may in fact be no car at all. Might it be possible that there are methods of living that do not require us to live distantly from useful and necessary services? Looks like we can get services to our computer fairly well, right?
If you refer to the practice of living in your parents' basement, then yes, I can confirm that it does indeed obviate much of the need for transportation.
Their design requires you jettison your gas tanks once you get up to speed and occasionally the vehicle explodes on the way home (even worse than the Pinto).
Maybe he was thinking of the reaction
n H2O -> (n-1) H2O + 17 GeV
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
Damn commies! everybody knows the true American Patriotic Car of the Future is an eight wheel, 6 ton, armour plated X-SUV (Extreme Sports Utility Vehicle) with night vision, aircon to chill a Canadian winter, bull bars to win any collision with anything short of a tank, 12 seats, and a beer cooler, doing two miles to the gallon (US not the dirty supersized British one). It's my Right as an American citizen!
I am already driving the car of *my* future
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
There is nothing inherently uncrashworthy about a small car,
Except for conservation of momentum.
Not at all. I run one myself. It has a big funnel on the roof which feeds a reservoir. A simple waterwheel and high ratio reduction gear provides forward movement. Okay, not much forward movement, but as climate change increases the average rainfall, things can only get better.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
NASA is claiming that they've already won the mattress arms race with their space-age foam technology, and I must concur after testing it out for myself. I saw an infomercial about three months ago with a short guy in white socks jumping on their memory-cell mattress in a mall somewhere. As the experiment went, a glass of red wine sat on top of the bed and ultimately refused to spill over even though he jumped on it as hard as he could. Well, I finally saved up the cash to try out the miracle properties for myself. No sooner did I get a knee up on my side of the bed to start jumping when my bottle of Yellow Tail wine tipped over right in the middle of the fuckin' mattress. NASA never said in the commercial what would happen if the wine actually spilled, but those micro foam cells completely soaked up all the red wine and scent! I just flipped it over, put a fresh sheet on it, and the wife hasn't noticed the strawberry patch to this day. Toyota better watch their back.
Are you going to buy a separate car just for that?
You can buy a SUV together with some neighbors and use that car every Tuesday and every 4-6th weekend.