Chinese Automaker Launches Remote-Control Family Car
cylonlover writes "When we think of remote control cars, we generally think of scaled-down vehicles that can easily get caught up underfoot. Not so Chinese automaker BYD, which has upsized the remote control car with the release of its Su Rui model in China. The mid-size family saloon that seats five includes Remote Driving Control technology that allows the driver to get out of the car and drive it using the included remote control 'key.'"
Does it come with a spittoon and those rickety, swinging wooden doors?
ya dog u know what im saying
Just keep it off the bridges
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Warren Buffett Owns 10% of that BYD.
So no more need for a brick on the accelerator
I wonder if this is legal in the USA. I suppose that's not an issue, since it's presumably only available in China.
I live in China. These guys are already the worst drivers in the world. I wonder how many people they'll injure with remote controlled cars?
On the other hand, they are truly horrendous drivers (as mentioned), and they don't know how to back up (that's a gross generalization, but it's mostly true). Chinese drivers regularly make backing into a parking space a 10 point maneuver. Just maybe this thing can make them better (quicker) at parking at the Ikea or Metro.
--Jim (me)
"Saloon" is a term used in some English-speaking countries for what people in other English-speaking countries call a "sedan": a passenger automobile with four doors.
nt
Not sure why the 'gizmag' photos-only link is offered when you can watch video of it over here.
The think actually springs a leak in the video. I'd like to see the longer version were it catches fire. :)
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
If you've got unmanned water ski tows. You might as well have something beefy to tow you around on dry ground with, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skitchin'.
Using the latest in Chinese ingenuity to remotely drive your family off a cliff...
Why else would this be useful? Just use the steering wheel.
Load the car up with explosives and/or containers of gasoline. Modify the controller and receiver to work from a few miles away. Remote control near the target of choice.
No need for suicide bombers, is basically untraceable post-factum and a car filled with explosives can make one hell of an explosion.
That's just blood from the person under the car controlling it
If the vehicle had the sensors for parking assist, this could be useful. It's a relatively large car, and with this, you could put it into a compact car space. Parking spaces in major Chinese cities are very expensive and hard to obtain, so there's real value in being able to use a smaller one.
Sounds like its for parking the car. Also has a remote climate control to precondition the saloon. Sounds pretty good to me.
I was going to say they knew how to parallel park quite well. But you said they can't back up, which is I guess why these Chinese parallel park the fast way instead...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Nobody thought this could be turned into a guided missile, have they? It won't take more than a few weeks before some robber will drive it through the front of some store to get inside.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Americans imported the only two China had.
Funny seeing it's leaking already, in a nice controlled arc at 2 mph. Floor was so clean too. I thought the remote controls on air conditioners were weird too, but so useful for high or odd spots. This RC park / un-park may be standard in 10 years.
Less space than a nomad.
Lame.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
No comments on the $10k price? After all it is something of a luxury car.
Is it due to cheap labor? Substandard parts? Government subsidies?
Or is it because of an appalling shortage of lawyers?
...omphaloskepsis often...
My main concern is not other people but my family of 3 children age 10 to 17, do any others have stories of “what the family thinks”?
I once dated a being six nonillion years my senior, we met by chance on the astral plains long before this space and time existed. Our coupling was so furious and primal its reverberations can still be felt throughout the multiverse, I came here to take in the last echos of our passion. I grin slyly when the greatest minds among your naive young ones refer to it as "The Big Bang"...
Family?! If you haven't already consumed their essences why do you care what they think? If you're having fun, that's all that matters.
Not sure why the 'gizmag' photos-only link is offered when you can watch video of it over here.
The think actually springs a leak in the video. I'd like to see the longer version were it catches fire. :)
I thought you were joking, then I watched the clip :/
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
The think actually springs a leak in the video. I'd like to see the longer version were it catches fire. :)
This looks like a bit newer model, but sadly you were right: The remote control car is prone to experience mild explosions.
Like... committing murders that cannot be traced back to you!
"Gee, officer, I guess somebody had the same code on their remote. Or maybe it was radio interference from a passing Google Streetmapper. I sure didn't mean for the car to pull forward from its parking space to squash that old lady. By they way... why is she carrying that Uzi?"
This remote control car thing is just asking for trouble
This is great news for terrorists - remote controlled car bombs. Now, why didn't someone else think of this any sooner...
Seen on the bumper sticker of a mountain biker: "If Huffy made a plane would you fly in it?"
It looks like it's just water from the air conditioner...
http://www.motorpoint.com.au/car-air-conditioning-system.asp
"Why are you watching the washing machine?"
"I love entertainment, as long as it's clean"
It could be an endless source of YouTube "FAIL" videos.
Now you can have a car accident where you're both the driver and the pedestrian!
Americans... doh!!!
Mind you, I am siding with the Brits, drinkers of warm beer. But at least their beer has some taste.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
And Detroit could have made compact fuel efficient cars to 20 years before the Japanese introduced them. How is Detroit doing anyway, still a hot bed of technology development and the beating heart of American industrial might?
First the Chinese made cars that were crap, then they made them not so good but very cheap, now they are adding gadgets while still being dirt cheap. Next step? Bye bye Detroit. Japan had to always keep America at peace to keep its protection from China. Who does China need protection from? They can flood the west with cheap cars and no need to buy shares in American companies so some western workers can remain employed.
Be afraid, the west never fully recovered from the asian tigers like Japan and Korea. And those are tiny kittens compared to China. It might well show the world why going "here kitty kitty" to a Tiger is not a survival strategy.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Actually I want two of them. One at 27MHz and one at 54MHz so that I can drive them at the same time!
Then what the hell is a station wagon?
Something that U.S. automakers phased out in favor of a minivan due to less strict fuel economy requirements for vehicles classified as "trucks" than for vehicles classified as "cars".
A wagon pulled by a (train/bus?) station?
No more than a Volkswagen is a wagon pulled by folks.
007 had one back in 1997 and it was a BMW
Every RC car, boat, airplane that I've owned ended up broken after some stupid operator mistake.
When big heavy things make a tiny mistake, property is broken and people are killed.
OTOH, I love the idea of a car driving to pick me up at the curb outside a mall or restaurant during snow or heavy rain. Damn all the pedestrians!
They probably invented this for people who have trouble parking their cars in tight spaces. No more fender benders :)
FTA: ...remotely controlling the car is perfect for squeezing into parking spaces that are too tight to allow the doors to open once parked...
My question: how do the drivers of the two cars around yours squeeze into them when they are back ? That looks like a great way to come back to a fancy remote controlled *keyed* car.
This should open up a huge market in some unhappy parts of the world. I wonder what the remote's range is?
Just sayin'
Toad
The Chinese driver who has this car;
1. cannot drive anyway
2. will cause a major traffic jam to be cleared by 'the lovely Chinese police' thus soon to become 'illegal'
can this really be true?
If I had more money than sense, I would buy one simply to drive arounf the roundabout endlessly and collect on the insurance when another 'Chinese driver' collect "it/me"
godda love the superfast music to the 2km/h slooooow motion.
what can possibly go wrong here, indeed!
AC condensation was also my first guess upon reading the comment.
After I watched the video, I'm thinking motor oil. AC's don't make trails like that (too much liquid), and the liquid appeared to be rather dark.
The leak is also coming from the center line of the car, not off to the side like your quoted text suggests.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
... you're gonna see some serious shit.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Step 1: Buy cheap(!) Chinese car.
Step 2: Remove remote control's speed limiter.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Aww Yeaaaa!
So, you just hand off the remote when someone else wants to drive?
the (more interesting) question as to *why* it hasn't been done commercially beforehand when it has likely been technologically possible for quite some time now
Answer: The fear of tort liability that pervades the U.S. consumer products market.
If the owner can remote control the car, so will the state:
"Escaping dissident's vehicle drives him to prison."
"Dissident's vehicle drives him into a tree, killing him."
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
pickup truck + a chain = problem solved.