Toyota began using its drive-by-wire system in 2002, starting with the ES 300. According to the Times, unintended acceleration complaints on Lexus ES 300s jumped from an average of 26 per year in 2001 to 132 per year in 2002
That's quite a difference. Page 5:
A Toyota Avalon crashes into a lake in Texas after accelerating out of control. All four occupants die. Floor mats are ruled out as a cause because they are found in the trunk of the car.
Yeah, the Prius is pretty complicated, actually. You have 2 engines and 3 power sources (battery, fuel, and regenerative braking). I'm not sure how you would engineer that to be "manual." More like, it just needs a manual override.
>It does nothing to address the fuel efficiency of big rigs, garbage trucks, utility trucks, buses, construction equipment and other heavy vehicles.
I'm sure these industries already do whatever they can for mileage, since it's their dollar on the line. Where they need to be regulated is pollution, since polluting is a cheap out for them.
>To be counted as a "truck", a vehicle must either be able to take more than 10 passengers
You have this exactly backwards. The problem is that SUV's should be considered trucks, since they are built that way. And then SUVs would be subject to stricter regulation.
You need about 50g's of acceleration to be deadly, maybe 30g's for serious injury. I'm having a hard time imagining how you would accomplish that when both vehicles are on wheels. I guess head-on might do it. But even 100mph into a tree should be survivable if the car doesn't get smashed (which it unfortunately does).
Now talk about side-impacts and it's clear that frame rigidity would make cars substantially safer.
Acceleration - and deceleration by itself are fairly survivable. There was a guy who used to ride rocket sleds. He bled from his eyeballs but otherwise he kept his day job (which apparently was riding rocket sleds).
Carbon credits are technically communist. That's because the government gives bankers the ability to make money by trading credits. The government makes no money and neither do we.
If the government simply taxed carbon, that would be socialist.
Basically the difference between socialism and communism is whether the government takes itself seriously, or is just a pawn to be used by no-talent hacks.
It takes decades to learn how to navigate the world of advertising. Instead of protecting your kids innocence, they may be just as well-served by learning how to decipher it.
Example, a few years back I was obsessed with late-night ads. Every one I had to figure out what the scam was. Turns out there's a pattern. They all cost $5 to make and sell for $27.
Are your kids going to be more or less susceptible to these ads when they get old enough to have their own TV?
I find advertising fascinating because it's like mental combat. I wouldn't mind teaching a class on it someday. As pop science, people would eat it up. Did you know 100% Juice means 100% water and absolutely no juice? You can't make this stuff up.
The current record-holder is Domino's Pizza. They gave me a cheap price so I bought some pizza. As I got home, I read on the box that their old recipe sucked and they "changed everything." I got a rush of excitement. Finally, someone understands my Dominos-hating ways! Dominos itself understands!!
As I was chewing on their shitty, over-manufactured slice, my mood started to turn sour. Well, the cheese is still gritty. The sauce is still too red. The three choices of crust are EXACTLY the same crusts they had five years ago...
Is it possible that Domino's didn't change anything? Is that legal?
Yes, my friends. That's how advertising works. It is all in the mind.
But they successfully trolled Rolling Stone. That month, in their "With Us or Against Us" chart, Domino's was "with us" for changing their shitty slice. All because they said so.
First, ask yourself if you could ever see yourself in one of these cars. Stretch the limits of your imagination. Imagine that P. Puff Diddy Daddy Combs, aka "Sean", personally invited you to a coke party and offered you a ride. Even then it's 50/50 on stepping into an Escalade, right? I mean, your balls could literally fall off.
Now realize that a Cadillac Escalade is precisely what the average American uses to buy groceries.
America is Disneyland, my Irish friend. It is literally Disneyland. And that's not good if you're over 10 years old.
I'm actually amazed it gets 40mpg and why I haven't heard about this.
Now we need trucks that get better mileage. If you notice how many Dodge Sprinters are out there, it's because they get 29mpg. Nothing else is even close.
You'll eventually get tired of burning oil and failing sensors. Brake lines rot, hub bearings get worn out.
It's still cheaper to maintain an old car than buy a new one, but you need a lot of tools, time, and patience. You'll be a full-fledged mechanic by the time the car is 20 years old. You'll have a garage almost totally given over to automotive work, a lift, and a crane for pulling out the engine.
My car is 13 years old and I see where it's going.
60mpg makes the Toyota Prius look stupid. Not that diesel engines are all that clean, but these 60mpg diesels are a lot bigger than a Prius. And they probably won't drive themselves into a wall either.
I understand your Darwinian point, and there's certainly an element of truth to it. The question is, how much do you value human life? You could, for example, send all your kids off to war, and indeed you will have "survival of the fittest." But you will also lose a lot of perfectly good future husbands and office workers, not to mention a lot of senseless, random deaths.
Kids do need to learn how to stick up for themselves, but in this case you had a 15-year-old who didn't know how. That's a failure of education. Nobody took her aside to explain that there was a legitimate (i.e. non-suicidal) way out.
There is also an element of gang assault here that is criminal. And it's completely inappropriate that 17-18 year olds were involved in this kind of immaturity.
>I trust mechanical systems more than I do some software.
There's a reason it's called "soft." People keep thinking it's reliable but it's not. And people keep dying in car crashes, getting identity thieved, having their cell phones tapped, etc.
I'll be the first to say we've created a monster. Way back in 1968, Kubrick's movie depicted a computer-controlled vehicle that killed its occupants. Now we have the Toyota Prius. How lovely.
>they often have very little interest in finding you a permanent position.
There are plenty of perm agencies. They take 10% of your salary as a fee, so if you get hired for $60k, some guy in an office with a telephone gets a fat check for six grand. And you have to survive on the job for a few months, otherwise they lose it.
I would say going through an agency is pretty good, at least they get you interviews.
When I was a junior in college, they gave us an exam where we had to do some arithmetic in MB. Pretty much all of us, including the teachers, did it as a factor of 1,000,000.
When they handed the exam back, the teachers noted that a couple of students had done it as 1,048,576. The whole class was aghast that we had made such a simple mistake.
So, is 1000 "right" because that's what a whole bunch of C.S. students did? Or is it wrong because we all agreed that we were wrong afterwards?
>For example, I used to spend some time in datacenters, and amber and green LEDs look pretty much identical
As a non-colorblind person, I just looked at Wikipedia, and it seems red-green color blindness can be caused by either protanopia or deuteranopia, which is lacking the red or green cones.
Interestingly, the symptoms are similar. In either case, you don't have red OR green. You just have blue, orange, and yellow (and amber=yellow turning brown).
What's wrong with contacts? They're great for athletics, and you can swim and shower with them. Sometimes you can sleep with them. They rarely need manual cleaning, and they're cheap enough that you can throw them away.
Are there? If light is a continuous spectrum, why should any of them be "primary?"
You realize God has no understanding of the word "blue." Blue is a wavelength, or rather a set of wavelengths. Because humans have 3 visual cones, we perceive as "colors" the cones themselves and their respective overlaps. You would figure 5 named colors, but of course there's 7 or 8...or 32 million...whatever.
Point is, color perception is an artifact of the primate brain. Cue a Matrix quote about tasting chicken.
>Imagine a society in which the rich lived twice as long.
We already have this. Japan's life expectancy is 82 years. There's a bunch of African countries in the low 40's.
>some of these elites will make their offspring genetically incompatible with others.
This happened too, when the royal families of Europe started inbreeding. Technically, they were still "genetically compatible," but they chose not to be.
>There is no clear line between fixing and improving.
Indeed, all of our "improvements" have side-effects. Just look at what cars and power lines are doing to the atmosphere. I don't see a clear line between genetic improvements and technological ones. It's just another dangerous territory to be entering.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's page 4:
Toyota began using its drive-by-wire system in 2002, starting with the ES 300. According to the Times, unintended acceleration complaints on Lexus ES 300s jumped from an average of 26 per year in 2001 to 132 per year in 2002
That's quite a difference. Page 5:
A Toyota Avalon crashes into a lake in Texas after accelerating out of control. All four occupants die. Floor mats are ruled out as a cause because they are found in the trunk of the car.
Yeah, the Prius is pretty complicated, actually. You have 2 engines and 3 power sources (battery, fuel, and regenerative braking). I'm not sure how you would engineer that to be "manual." More like, it just needs a manual override.
>It does nothing to address the fuel efficiency of big rigs, garbage trucks, utility trucks, buses, construction equipment and other heavy vehicles.
I'm sure these industries already do whatever they can for mileage, since it's their dollar on the line. Where they need to be regulated is pollution, since polluting is a cheap out for them.
>To be counted as a "truck", a vehicle must either be able to take more than 10 passengers
You have this exactly backwards. The problem is that SUV's should be considered trucks, since they are built that way. And then SUVs would be subject to stricter regulation.
To drive 100k miles at 25mpg means 4000 gallons.
To drive 100k miles at 35mpg means 2857 gallons.
There's your answer. Clearly, keeping the car to 150 or 200k miles could result in substantial savings.
You need about 50g's of acceleration to be deadly, maybe 30g's for serious injury. I'm having a hard time imagining how you would accomplish that when both vehicles are on wheels. I guess head-on might do it. But even 100mph into a tree should be survivable if the car doesn't get smashed (which it unfortunately does).
Now talk about side-impacts and it's clear that frame rigidity would make cars substantially safer.
Acceleration - and deceleration by itself are fairly survivable. There was a guy who used to ride rocket sleds. He bled from his eyeballs but otherwise he kept his day job (which apparently was riding rocket sleds).
http://www.ejectionsite.com/stapp.htm
>Am I only allowed to use designated commercial vehicles for designated commercial purposes?
It turns out the answer is yes.
Carbon credits are technically communist. That's because the government gives bankers the ability to make money by trading credits. The government makes no money and neither do we.
If the government simply taxed carbon, that would be socialist.
Basically the difference between socialism and communism is whether the government takes itself seriously, or is just a pawn to be used by no-talent hacks.
It takes decades to learn how to navigate the world of advertising. Instead of protecting your kids innocence, they may be just as well-served by learning how to decipher it.
Example, a few years back I was obsessed with late-night ads. Every one I had to figure out what the scam was. Turns out there's a pattern. They all cost $5 to make and sell for $27.
Are your kids going to be more or less susceptible to these ads when they get old enough to have their own TV?
I find advertising fascinating because it's like mental combat. I wouldn't mind teaching a class on it someday. As pop science, people would eat it up. Did you know 100% Juice means 100% water and absolutely no juice? You can't make this stuff up.
The current record-holder is Domino's Pizza. They gave me a cheap price so I bought some pizza. As I got home, I read on the box that their old recipe sucked and they "changed everything." I got a rush of excitement. Finally, someone understands my Dominos-hating ways! Dominos itself understands!!
As I was chewing on their shitty, over-manufactured slice, my mood started to turn sour. Well, the cheese is still gritty. The sauce is still too red. The three choices of crust are EXACTLY the same crusts they had five years ago...
Is it possible that Domino's didn't change anything? Is that legal?
Yes, my friends. That's how advertising works. It is all in the mind.
But they successfully trolled Rolling Stone. That month, in their "With Us or Against Us" chart, Domino's was "with us" for changing their shitty slice. All because they said so.
>just start by reducing engine displacement and increasing efficiency.
That's a lovely post, but we have a problem in the U.S. in that our consumer culture is really dumb.
Examples: Cadillac SRX Crossover, Cadillac Escalade HYBRID LOL $73,000.
First, ask yourself if you could ever see yourself in one of these cars. Stretch the limits of your imagination. Imagine that P. Puff Diddy Daddy Combs, aka "Sean", personally invited you to a coke party and offered you a ride. Even then it's 50/50 on stepping into an Escalade, right? I mean, your balls could literally fall off.
Now realize that a Cadillac Escalade is precisely what the average American uses to buy groceries.
America is Disneyland, my Irish friend. It is literally Disneyland. And that's not good if you're over 10 years old.
I'm actually amazed it gets 40mpg and why I haven't heard about this.
Now we need trucks that get better mileage. If you notice how many Dodge Sprinters are out there, it's because they get 29mpg. Nothing else is even close.
In a discussion about cars, that is a very clever way of saying that people should switch to synthetic motor oil.
You'll eventually get tired of burning oil and failing sensors. Brake lines rot, hub bearings get worn out.
It's still cheaper to maintain an old car than buy a new one, but you need a lot of tools, time, and patience. You'll be a full-fledged mechanic by the time the car is 20 years old. You'll have a garage almost totally given over to automotive work, a lift, and a crane for pulling out the engine.
My car is 13 years old and I see where it's going.
60mpg makes the Toyota Prius look stupid. Not that diesel engines are all that clean, but these 60mpg diesels are a lot bigger than a Prius. And they probably won't drive themselves into a wall either.
A review of the 2.0L version says 46mpg average, so highway driving a 1.8L might give you 55mpg. Besides, worst-case gallon conversion, 55 --> 45.
Looks like a nice car. I don't think anything is stopping you from importing the car of your choice, either.
I want one now.
Because they're just kids? Man up. How would you feel about sitting by and not doing something?
I understand your Darwinian point, and there's certainly an element of truth to it. The question is, how much do you value human life? You could, for example, send all your kids off to war, and indeed you will have "survival of the fittest." But you will also lose a lot of perfectly good future husbands and office workers, not to mention a lot of senseless, random deaths.
Kids do need to learn how to stick up for themselves, but in this case you had a 15-year-old who didn't know how. That's a failure of education. Nobody took her aside to explain that there was a legitimate (i.e. non-suicidal) way out.
There is also an element of gang assault here that is criminal. And it's completely inappropriate that 17-18 year olds were involved in this kind of immaturity.
>I trust mechanical systems more than I do some software.
There's a reason it's called "soft." People keep thinking it's reliable but it's not. And people keep dying in car crashes, getting identity thieved, having their cell phones tapped, etc.
I'll be the first to say we've created a monster. Way back in 1968, Kubrick's movie depicted a computer-controlled vehicle that killed its occupants. Now we have the Toyota Prius. How lovely.
>they often have very little interest in finding you a permanent position.
There are plenty of perm agencies. They take 10% of your salary as a fee, so if you get hired for $60k, some guy in an office with a telephone gets a fat check for six grand. And you have to survive on the job for a few months, otherwise they lose it.
I would say going through an agency is pretty good, at least they get you interviews.
>There's a reason the professor has nothing but speculation to back himself up.
Yeah, it's because we can't see the code. What's worse, I've heard the NHTSA has no software experts on staff to evaluate automotive code.
>This is just some douchebag professor trying to ride the tragedies to fame.
Is that why he submitted it anonymously? I'd say the original flamebait mod was correct.
When I was a junior in college, they gave us an exam where we had to do some arithmetic in MB. Pretty much all of us, including the teachers, did it as a factor of 1,000,000.
When they handed the exam back, the teachers noted that a couple of students had done it as 1,048,576. The whole class was aghast that we had made such a simple mistake.
So, is 1000 "right" because that's what a whole bunch of C.S. students did? Or is it wrong because we all agreed that we were wrong afterwards?
>For example, I used to spend some time in datacenters, and amber and green LEDs look pretty much identical
As a non-colorblind person, I just looked at Wikipedia, and it seems red-green color blindness can be caused by either protanopia or deuteranopia, which is lacking the red or green cones.
Interestingly, the symptoms are similar. In either case, you don't have red OR green. You just have blue, orange, and yellow (and amber=yellow turning brown).
That's fucked up. Are trees yellow?
What's wrong with contacts? They're great for athletics, and you can swim and shower with them. Sometimes you can sleep with them. They rarely need manual cleaning, and they're cheap enough that you can throw them away.
Oh yeah, and the "disposables" last for months.
Are there? If light is a continuous spectrum, why should any of them be "primary?"
You realize God has no understanding of the word "blue." Blue is a wavelength, or rather a set of wavelengths. Because humans have 3 visual cones, we perceive as "colors" the cones themselves and their respective overlaps. You would figure 5 named colors, but of course there's 7 or 8...or 32 million...whatever.
Point is, color perception is an artifact of the primate brain. Cue a Matrix quote about tasting chicken.
>Imagine a society in which the rich lived twice as long.
We already have this. Japan's life expectancy is 82 years. There's a bunch of African countries in the low 40's.
>some of these elites will make their offspring genetically incompatible with others.
This happened too, when the royal families of Europe started inbreeding. Technically, they were still "genetically compatible," but they chose not to be.
>There is no clear line between fixing and improving.
Indeed, all of our "improvements" have side-effects. Just look at what cars and power lines are doing to the atmosphere. I don't see a clear line between genetic improvements and technological ones. It's just another dangerous territory to be entering.