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Return of the Bubble Car? (reuters.com)
mikeebbbd writes: Back in the 1950s, many European carmakers (some of which are still in operation such as BMW) made tiny cars for one or 2 people that ran on tiny amount of gas. The remaining examples of bubble cars have become sort of a fetish. Now two Swiss brothers, according to Reuters, are trying to resurrect one of the more iconic designs -- the BMW Isetta. One wonders how it could meet any kind of safety standards, but a prototype is shown in the article. Perhaps it might be registered as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, which gets it by a few standards? Oliver and Merlin Ouboter have more than 7,200 orders for their Microlino, a modern version of the Isetta which swaps the old single-cylinder petrol engine for a 20 horsepower electric motor but keeps the famous front-opening door. The brothers, whose father Wim made millions from modernized kick-scooters, plan to launch the car in December. "The average modern car is way too big for normal use," said Oliver, the project's 24-year-old operations chief.
The original opened the whole chassis forwards and had no reverse gear. Presumably all the original drivers starved to death after driving into their garage.
Charge everybody a hefty fee for driving large personal gas guzzlers downtown in major cities. Provide exemptions for cars like this, electrics and delivery vehicles. They do a limited version of the tax in London already, but it's more of a money grab than a real control on traffic. Even so, it's had an effect.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Who gets to define what "normal use" is?
Anyone with eyeballs. Just watch cars go by. 70-80% have a single occupant. That is "normal use".
What does an electric car really need? A little OLED screen to show speedometer, battery charge, and warning messages/turn signals/light status.
A lot of other stuff can be dispensed with. Windows are sliding, so no power needed. Electric chairs in a two-seater are pretty silly. What else? Maybe a USB music player, two dials for fan and air temperature, a reverse/off/forward switch.
I believe it -- old 1950s VW bugs were that way. So are many motorcycles. When you run out of gas, the motor starts to sputter, and you flip a lever that picks fuel up at a lower point in the tank.
On a standard motorcycle saddle tank, you can't drain the entire tank out of one hole because it hangs over each side of the bar in the middle. So there was a gas line coming from each side which fed into a valve that could be changed to allow gas to flow from either side. One position was "standard" and the other "reserve", but the reality is that "reserve" was whatever it was set on when the other side of the tank emptied. If your reserve switch broke, the fix was to stop and lean the bike over enough that gas would flow over the top into the other side, and you could then get to the gas station.
Do you have ESP?