REALLY? You citation needed guys will throw that out over anything won't you? I don't even know what the hell you people are talking about but this thing just caught my attention. It pisses me off. Oh and to steal your thunder, I already realize I'll get at least 2 AC's responding with a [citation needed] and they'll all get modded funny. HAHA, good for you.
I will append to my previous post that it is also just as likely that the US blocks or tariffs the shit out of cane sugar because of the corn industry lobbying to keep the competition out. Monsanto, Conagra, and all those other big players do have an immense amount of influence and money. Still the problem lies with us, the US.
Which proves his point. It's cheap everywhere but here so the problem must lie with us. You may be too young to remember the US's hate for the Commies but it was pretty damned bad. This "grudge against Cuba" claim is just as valid as any other claim the slashbots have posted today.
Now hold on dude. You can't be bitching about the evil gubermint trying to take away your freedom to guzzle fat by the bucketful and then in the next sentence say "but it's ok to fuck those guys over cause I don't like that salt they eat". Major hypocrisy there. Not surprising though- THIS. IS. SLASHDOT!
lied to about the nutrition of the shit their eating
Good choice of words there! Can anyone name any circumstance where eating any kind of shit for any reason is a good thing? One should always assume that eating shit is bad so don't eat shit. No one needs to lie to you! Shit is baaaadd umkay!
I don't even know what you're trying to say! Care to clarify? If you are attempting to make lard sound like some kind of evil thing, let me say this: Everything in moderation. Perhaps if you don't eat 2 pounds of fries everyday, then you might not be fat, have high cholesterol, and have had the experience of triple bypass surgery- regardless of what they've been cooked in! And no matter which side of the argument you are attempting to troll, go check out some history on medicine in the US. One month it is "fat is baaaaddd" and then "whoops, sorry bout that, we mean carbs are baaaaaaddd" and it goes on and on. I realize that scientists have to test thier theories and improve them in order to have meaningful progression, but for laymen, the constant flip flopping does nothing to inspire confidence in anything they say. It saddens me because I, too, am a scientist (engineer actually).
You know that several years ago, bullshit scaremongering was the exact same thing the proponents of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil were saying- look at em now.
Let me get this out of the way in case you think I'm trolling you- I also would prefer a flat tax. I also believe we should help the poor through subsides as you mentioned. Now that's out of the way...
WHAT? Adjusting taxes is communism? And you throw that out there like you want to point out communism is bad. You then follow that up saying we should provide Food Stamps & Section 8 housing. ----- THAT is communism! (socialism actually but most equate the 2). I also don't disagree with it at all. I have had to make use of both of those programs a couple times when I was younger and am thankful they were there. Anti-socialism folks tend to want to end those programs and stop the handouts (unless they come from a church). I just wanna say I think you are confused about your platform and you might wanna double check it. You sound an awful lot like a liberal and I'm pretty sure that is not your normal stance on here. Hey if you did change sides though, Welcome to the Club!
When someone posts a 2 sentence response that basically just says "hate it" and fails to highlight the reason(s) why, folks like me have to put words in your mouth because you couldn't be bothered to do it yourself. Thank you for clarifying your position. I'll give you a bit of a reason I have been fairly active posting in this thread. I want these auto driving cars to become a reality. Not because I hate driving and all things automobile. Quite the opposite. Like you, I enjoy driving and when I say driving, I mean I drive every car (even my minivan!), everyday like I was doing a lap around Monte Carlo. I have had tickets upon tickets though no impoundment. I may be no professional like you, but I've been around the track myself. I do not want this hobby destroyed and there is no indication whatsoever that autodriving cars will kill motorsports of any kind (except street racing maybe, which is already illegal). These cars will be for those times when you need to do mundane things but just don't really feel like it. The utterly boring commutes to work, the 5 hour trip to the mother-in-law's, New Years Eve night when you've drank entirely too damned much, you've got your foot in a cast, you're too sick or sleepy to drive, you wanna do a line of coke off a hooker's ass and get a highway hummer, etc. The possiblities are endless.
Let's look at what banning a human could invlove. Firstly, to my knowledge, there are no laws in effect or even proposed to ban human drivers. I think it's only legal to have a non-human drive a car in a couple states. So immediately you are assuming the worst. Since no laws are in effect, we can only look at what has happened in the automobile industry historically. Historically, whenever a game changing technology has become mandated by law, every vehicle in existence to that point has been grandfathered. You mentioned some of your clubmates have cars that can't even do the speed limit. Well you should already know that in many states, they are probably in violation of the law....except they aren't are they? Because those classics are grandfathered from needing to meet the requirement. If human drivers were banned tomorrow, there is no reason to think that you will be unable to drive your Ferarri or Toyota. Those will be grandfathered as they always have been. You will still be able to have your rallys and your car shows and whatnot. At the extreme worst, you might have to stay off the Interstate since it will probably be mandated autodrive only (and that won't happen until after you are most likely dead cause all these existing non-auto cars have to disappear off the road). I don't know about you, but when I am stretching the legs on my cars, a twisty backroad is far more enjoyable than rolling down the Interstate even doing 140. No loss there in my book. We can't see the future yet I still feel pretty confident that you aren't gonna lose your hobby. There are just too many people that enjoy classic cars to just flip a switch and tell us all to scrap our cars. It just won't happen. We'll get exemptions or at the worst, we'll have to claim the old "for offroad use only" like we already have to for racing cars, mud trucks, and all the other cars that aren't technically street legal.
My final point is that the way most people get to enjoy a start in track racing is through buying and converting a road car.
Now hold on there buddy. You can't use that argument. You are a professional driver, the VP of an autoclub, and have already stated just how safely you drive. Furthermore you ever so snidely look down your nose at us folks who do drive Camarostangs (BMWs are junk? WTF man!). Therein lies the problem: 1) you are actually advocating for street racing (until you can afford the track) which goes against everything you claim to stand by and 2) most people do not have Ferarri's, Jags, or AM's to drive. They have Camarostangs and probably shitty ones. Those are the cars you don't want people street racing because th
I try man, I try. Your non-response though just proves my point. Denile is not just a river in Egypt. Like I said, I've already heard every single argument made why banning human drivers would be worse than reenacting slavery. Every single one of them falls right into the category of "afraid of change"
What exactly do you think you are gonna lose if they ban human drivers? I know when you say that you love driving, you mean "driving" not commuting. However, right now at this very second it illegal to "drive" your car. The only place you can take your Camaro/Mustang/Beemer is to a track to really drive. If you drove the shit out of it now (what most mean when they say they love to drive), you'll get tickets upon tickets or even impoundment. So if you already pretend your morning commute is a lap around Rallye Monte Carlo then making it illegal for you to drive your Camarostang will not affect you at all. You'll still jump in it, slam the pedal to the floor and boil the tires off in a mad rush to Wally World. You will risk tickets upon tickets or even impoundment.
I have already had this argument countless times. You will tell us that you are an above average driver, have never had any accidents, tickets, and haven't even smashed a bug on the windshield- you're that good. You have never even once exceeded the speed limit and wouldn't know what the smell of burning rubber is if you were sitting front row behind the burnout box at a drag strip. So if your rebuttal is that when you love to drive, you don't mean drive it like it's stolen, then what the hell do you mean? You cannot possibly mean that you enjoy sitting in traffic for an hour plus, doing 15mph through downtown Atlanta. No one here buys that argument.
So are you suggesting the level of strict that one has to do if you own/operate a plane? Whenever anyone suggests that things need to be stricter, better analyzed, and thoroughly trained, that is the kind of thing you end up with. No one will want to have to mess with all that hassle. Even with the minimal vehicle inspections we have now, there are still tons of folks who won't change thier brakes, buy new tires, or even bother putting the bumper they half tore off in the last collision back on. Now you specifically seem to be pointing at the manufacturers here, as in they need to be more strict and need to test more thoroughly. That sort of thing with a super low failure rate is running up into MIL-SPEC quality stuff. You aren't gonna want to buy a car for the price they will be charging for it. People already bitch like crazy because a Prius costs about 10k more than it's non-hybrid version (the Yaris I think). If you want F16 reliability and build quality, you'll pay the price of an F16. Be careful what you wish for.
You mean $10 for the mfr cost right cause I have never bought any cable for a car that was 10 bucks! But that aside, you already have a guarantee that you can get parts for at least 10 years. I think the original limit was 20 but has since been reduced (damned lobbyists!). You already have an insanely expensive ECU that causes many to trade/scrap cars for new ones and the systems for the self driving cars are already in production ie standard ABS pumps and new electric power steering motors. The electric steering systems are probably already expensive since they are new but so is a regular power steering pump and rack.
Regarding standards, I am right there with you. Several responders have already pointed out to you that some currently exist but there is no guarantee they will stay "the standard". HD-DVD was a standard at one time if you recall and man I love my HD-DVD players don't you? The problem with new technologies is that they are changing so quickly that you can't really make a standard. If we always accepted Rev 1 as the standard there would be no innovation. Allowing each mfr to tweak the systems is what makes us progress and also which allow us to have preferred car brands. For instance, do you have any older GM cars that have that annoying turn signal switch which is also the wipers and cruise control? Oh and you had to pull it back once to engage high beams and once more to disengage. I hate that design. If it were standard though, no matter what brand I bought I'd have to deal with that horribly designed piece of shit switch. I prefer the dual stalks where the turn signal/high beam is on the left (and you flip forward for bright and back for normal) and the wipers and cruise are on the left like my Toyota and Hyundai has. But that is personal preference and one of many (little) things that make you love or hate a car. Now take something about a car you have owned that you hated and imagine if EVERY car had to have that cause it was standard. Ugh. I love standards, I really do, but on emergent technologies, standards are often a hindrance and often leave out a couple ideas that seem like no brainers. This is where I post a link to that XKCD comic about standards but I'm too lazy to google it:D
You haven't owned many cars have you? American cars, especially the pre-2000 ones, had an e-brake (not handbrake!) pedal like you described but it pulled a cable. This pedal is/was located far left where you handbrake people have "dead pedals" that you rest your foot on. Actual handbrakes are more of a euro/asian made idea though many American cars these days have swapped to them- especially the small ones. Trucks rarely have hand brakes (and sorry minivans dont count as trucks in my book, my Freestar has a handbrake) and most of the big body cars with bench front seats don't get them either. Now I'm not arguing whether this design is stupid (I too prefer handbrakes) and the designer should be shot but your argument is a pretty old one. Since we're bitching about old arguments, let me go ahead and complain that I miss foot clicked headlight dimmer switches. I especially miss the little goofy foot shaped ones:D
Like you, I'm not sure which safety mechanism Stormy thinks we'll install on a car but if they are referring to the big red button...
A big red stop button should work just fine for all those systems. One of the neat side effects of the new electric power steering systems is that they can turn themselves without your help at all and do it with great precision so it makes for easy self-steering. There is however still an actual linkage between the rack and steering wheel. The ABS pump is also completely automatic but there is still a standard vacuum master cylinder with a real connection to the pedal. If you were to cut power to those 2 items then they will shutdown along with the engine when the E-Stop is pressed and you will retain a very rudimentary level of control of the vehicle. Just like today should your engine shutdown while in motion. Now eventually we will eliminate those hard links and go true drive by wire but going by previous vehicle evolution, there is no reason to suspect first gen self drivers to have those backups eliminated. If they did that, whether rational or irrational, fear would dissuade adoption.
You evidently have never had a bad ignition switch/lock cylinder. I have had three because I only buy old people's junk cars. 2 of them would not shut the engine off when you switched them off, and the other one constantly kept trying to start the car even when it was already running. You may have also not enjoyed the phenomenon of dieseling where the engine continued to run on its own even when you shut the ignition off. Do not get lulled into a sense of comfort because you believe when you pull your mechanical safety that it is gonna do what you tell it. It will do what it wants when it wants. You say you did an LPG mod to your vehicle. You should already know this.
Second reply to your rants today, you're on a roll sista. Could you please point out why precisely if plain old simple mechanical parts were superior, then why did everyone change over to electromechanical? Since this changeover has happened vehicles are immensely more reliable, need very little maintenance at all, and are actually simpler to work on (despite the old fogeys claiming your need a supercomputer to diagnose a modern EFI engine). Have you ever set points or adjusted your valves every month? Swap out those spark plugs every 6 months to a year? Oh and I almost forgot, the seasonal carburetor adjustements and almost guaranteed rebuild every 2 or 3 years? Do you not recall the spaghetti monster of vacuum lines, linkages, and cables that used to adorn vehicles, epecially the 1976 to ~1990 models (years where EPA regs went into effect but carbs were still prevalent)? All of this annoying nusance maintenance just doesn't need to be done any longer because by adding electrical sensors & actuators the entire system has been simplified. One especially atrocious examples of frankenbastard attempts to keep that old technology chugging along for a few more years instead of actually redesigning would be the ECU controlled Quadrajet carb from the 80s. I know your entire post is rant because if you had ever touched one, you wouldn't have typed any of what you did. Those things had so many mechanical parts that were necessary to emulate the functions that a $5 modern sensor replaced, that it did indeed make me convert several vehicles back to the simple Holley. That wasn't because it was BETTER but because if you are gonna go all mechanical, then go all mechanical. If you're gonna go all electronic then go all electronic. Trying to slap the 2 together with a bunch of duct tape is just asking for trouble and that trouble did indeed rear its ugly head on many occasions. These days because modern engines are just so much better, I have tossed the junk 289 from my 69 Cougar and replaced it with a late 80s 5.0HO (full EFI & full roller bearings). And now that it has broken down from having the piss driven out of it, I do believe it is time to upgrade it to at least a 4.6L DOHC. You don't have to scrap the old cars since they did indeed seem to have some "art" to them but the powertrain technology of the time just sucked. Toss the shitty part out and keep the part you like. Oh and by your very very loose definition of what a mechanical component is and what "all solid-state" is, you attempt to prove your own point but your point is still wrong. If something as simple as a spade connector is "mechanical" then you can't have anything at all because then even a wire is a mechanical component. There would be no such thing as "all solid-state" (it has wires and substrate and many other physical properties) but you knew that already didn't ya?
Could you please point out which vehicles use the same CPU for the engine and the entertainment systems. I'll wait.
Alright, now that you haven't found any, be aware the ECU that runs the engine is a completely separate microcontroller that doesn't even have what you'd call a real OS. Multimedia systems require an actual CPU with at least a basic OS to do all the video and what not. These 2 systems MAY talk to each other via CANBUS or through the ODB interface but they are standalone systems. I mean really people, engineers aren't totally stupid. You may also want to redirect your rage about the non-upgradeable android systems at the bean counters. Left to thier own devices, the engineers would have probably put a full linux pc in the damned thing. Planned obsolecence is almost always the fault of greedy number crunchers and PHB's.
While what you mention is a great side effect and definitely desirable, why TBW is used is because of traction control and stability control systems. To make them work properly, you can't have the operator attempting to override your safety program. So they broke that link. You can thank SUV's, especially the good ol Explorer, because of thier flip over incidents it was mandated into law.
Re:statistically, cyclists don't hit pedestrians
on
How Safe Is Cycling?
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· Score: 1
It's just like running up on a deer at night doing 85mph, you don't dodge them, you just hit the bastard because everyone knows wrapping your car around that tree is probably gonna kill you but hitting that deer is probably just gonna kill it and mess your car up pretty bad. Many would think that is a pretty cold way of thinking since you're hitting a human and not a deer but I have to invoke one of the biggest "cards" used here on Slashdot- the personal responsibility card. Don't step out into the street without looking. If you get hit, it's your own damned fault. This is not an immoral stance. Why should you, the rider, have to break or maim yourself to dodge that asshole who will walk away most likely unscathed when it was his direct action that caused it? What makes him more important than you? He has a wife and kids to feed right? Well so do I. So if someone runs out in front of you, dodge him if you can, but if it is probably gonna kill you to do it, then run him over and maybe you'll both share the pain. He'll learn to look where he's going and you'll learn to be better aware of your surroundings and prepared for the event that some daydreaming asshole is gonna wander the fuck into your path of travel. Win-win!
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REALLY? You citation needed guys will throw that out over anything won't you? I don't even know what the hell you people are talking about but this thing just caught my attention. It pisses me off. Oh and to steal your thunder, I already realize I'll get at least 2 AC's responding with a [citation needed] and they'll all get modded funny. HAHA, good for you.
I will append to my previous post that it is also just as likely that the US blocks or tariffs the shit out of cane sugar because of the corn industry lobbying to keep the competition out. Monsanto, Conagra, and all those other big players do have an immense amount of influence and money. Still the problem lies with us, the US.
Which proves his point. It's cheap everywhere but here so the problem must lie with us. You may be too young to remember the US's hate for the Commies but it was pretty damned bad. This "grudge against Cuba" claim is just as valid as any other claim the slashbots have posted today.
Now hold on dude. You can't be bitching about the evil gubermint trying to take away your freedom to guzzle fat by the bucketful and then in the next sentence say "but it's ok to fuck those guys over cause I don't like that salt they eat". Major hypocrisy there. Not surprising though- THIS. IS. SLASHDOT!
Good choice of words there! Can anyone name any circumstance where eating any kind of shit for any reason is a good thing? One should always assume that eating shit is bad so don't eat shit. No one needs to lie to you! Shit is baaaadd umkay!
I don't even know what you're trying to say! Care to clarify? If you are attempting to make lard sound like some kind of evil thing, let me say this: Everything in moderation. Perhaps if you don't eat 2 pounds of fries everyday, then you might not be fat, have high cholesterol, and have had the experience of triple bypass surgery- regardless of what they've been cooked in! And no matter which side of the argument you are attempting to troll, go check out some history on medicine in the US. One month it is "fat is baaaaddd" and then "whoops, sorry bout that, we mean carbs are baaaaaaddd" and it goes on and on. I realize that scientists have to test thier theories and improve them in order to have meaningful progression, but for laymen, the constant flip flopping does nothing to inspire confidence in anything they say. It saddens me because I, too, am a scientist (engineer actually).
"begs the question" does not mean what you think it used to mean any longer. The definition got changed; you lost. Get over it, AC.
You know that several years ago, bullshit scaremongering was the exact same thing the proponents of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil were saying- look at em now.
Bravo! You totally got me :D
I like the cut o yer jib matey! It's political piracy!
WHAT?
Let me get this out of the way in case you think I'm trolling you- I also would prefer a flat tax. I also believe we should help the poor through subsides as you mentioned. Now that's out of the way...
WHAT? Adjusting taxes is communism? And you throw that out there like you want to point out communism is bad. You then follow that up saying we should provide Food Stamps & Section 8 housing. ----- THAT is communism! (socialism actually but most equate the 2). I also don't disagree with it at all. I have had to make use of both of those programs a couple times when I was younger and am thankful they were there. Anti-socialism folks tend to want to end those programs and stop the handouts (unless they come from a church). I just wanna say I think you are confused about your platform and you might wanna double check it. You sound an awful lot like a liberal and I'm pretty sure that is not your normal stance on here. Hey if you did change sides though, Welcome to the Club!
Umm Netcraft did NOT confirm that!
Let's look at what banning a human could invlove. Firstly, to my knowledge, there are no laws in effect or even proposed to ban human drivers. I think it's only legal to have a non-human drive a car in a couple states. So immediately you are assuming the worst. Since no laws are in effect, we can only look at what has happened in the automobile industry historically. Historically, whenever a game changing technology has become mandated by law, every vehicle in existence to that point has been grandfathered. You mentioned some of your clubmates have cars that can't even do the speed limit. Well you should already know that in many states, they are probably in violation of the law....except they aren't are they? Because those classics are grandfathered from needing to meet the requirement. If human drivers were banned tomorrow, there is no reason to think that you will be unable to drive your Ferarri or Toyota. Those will be grandfathered as they always have been. You will still be able to have your rallys and your car shows and whatnot. At the extreme worst, you might have to stay off the Interstate since it will probably be mandated autodrive only (and that won't happen until after you are most likely dead cause all these existing non-auto cars have to disappear off the road). I don't know about you, but when I am stretching the legs on my cars, a twisty backroad is far more enjoyable than rolling down the Interstate even doing 140. No loss there in my book. We can't see the future yet I still feel pretty confident that you aren't gonna lose your hobby. There are just too many people that enjoy classic cars to just flip a switch and tell us all to scrap our cars. It just won't happen. We'll get exemptions or at the worst, we'll have to claim the old "for offroad use only" like we already have to for racing cars, mud trucks, and all the other cars that aren't technically street legal.
Now hold on there buddy. You can't use that argument. You are a professional driver, the VP of an autoclub, and have already stated just how safely you drive. Furthermore you ever so snidely look down your nose at us folks who do drive Camarostangs (BMWs are junk? WTF man!). Therein lies the problem: 1) you are actually advocating for street racing (until you can afford the track) which goes against everything you claim to stand by and 2) most people do not have Ferarri's, Jags, or AM's to drive. They have Camarostangs and probably shitty ones. Those are the cars you don't want people street racing because th
I try man, I try. Your non-response though just proves my point. Denile is not just a river in Egypt. Like I said, I've already heard every single argument made why banning human drivers would be worse than reenacting slavery. Every single one of them falls right into the category of "afraid of change"
What exactly do you think you are gonna lose if they ban human drivers? I know when you say that you love driving, you mean "driving" not commuting. However, right now at this very second it illegal to "drive" your car. The only place you can take your Camaro/Mustang/Beemer is to a track to really drive. If you drove the shit out of it now (what most mean when they say they love to drive), you'll get tickets upon tickets or even impoundment. So if you already pretend your morning commute is a lap around Rallye Monte Carlo then making it illegal for you to drive your Camarostang will not affect you at all. You'll still jump in it, slam the pedal to the floor and boil the tires off in a mad rush to Wally World. You will risk tickets upon tickets or even impoundment.
I have already had this argument countless times. You will tell us that you are an above average driver, have never had any accidents, tickets, and haven't even smashed a bug on the windshield- you're that good. You have never even once exceeded the speed limit and wouldn't know what the smell of burning rubber is if you were sitting front row behind the burnout box at a drag strip. So if your rebuttal is that when you love to drive, you don't mean drive it like it's stolen, then what the hell do you mean? You cannot possibly mean that you enjoy sitting in traffic for an hour plus, doing 15mph through downtown Atlanta. No one here buys that argument.
So are you suggesting the level of strict that one has to do if you own/operate a plane? Whenever anyone suggests that things need to be stricter, better analyzed, and thoroughly trained, that is the kind of thing you end up with. No one will want to have to mess with all that hassle. Even with the minimal vehicle inspections we have now, there are still tons of folks who won't change thier brakes, buy new tires, or even bother putting the bumper they half tore off in the last collision back on. Now you specifically seem to be pointing at the manufacturers here, as in they need to be more strict and need to test more thoroughly. That sort of thing with a super low failure rate is running up into MIL-SPEC quality stuff. You aren't gonna want to buy a car for the price they will be charging for it. People already bitch like crazy because a Prius costs about 10k more than it's non-hybrid version (the Yaris I think). If you want F16 reliability and build quality, you'll pay the price of an F16. Be careful what you wish for.
You mean $10 for the mfr cost right cause I have never bought any cable for a car that was 10 bucks! But that aside, you already have a guarantee that you can get parts for at least 10 years. I think the original limit was 20 but has since been reduced (damned lobbyists!). You already have an insanely expensive ECU that causes many to trade/scrap cars for new ones and the systems for the self driving cars are already in production ie standard ABS pumps and new electric power steering motors. The electric steering systems are probably already expensive since they are new but so is a regular power steering pump and rack.
:D
Regarding standards, I am right there with you. Several responders have already pointed out to you that some currently exist but there is no guarantee they will stay "the standard". HD-DVD was a standard at one time if you recall and man I love my HD-DVD players don't you? The problem with new technologies is that they are changing so quickly that you can't really make a standard. If we always accepted Rev 1 as the standard there would be no innovation. Allowing each mfr to tweak the systems is what makes us progress and also which allow us to have preferred car brands. For instance, do you have any older GM cars that have that annoying turn signal switch which is also the wipers and cruise control? Oh and you had to pull it back once to engage high beams and once more to disengage. I hate that design. If it were standard though, no matter what brand I bought I'd have to deal with that horribly designed piece of shit switch. I prefer the dual stalks where the turn signal/high beam is on the left (and you flip forward for bright and back for normal) and the wipers and cruise are on the left like my Toyota and Hyundai has. But that is personal preference and one of many (little) things that make you love or hate a car. Now take something about a car you have owned that you hated and imagine if EVERY car had to have that cause it was standard. Ugh. I love standards, I really do, but on emergent technologies, standards are often a hindrance and often leave out a couple ideas that seem like no brainers. This is where I post a link to that XKCD comic about standards but I'm too lazy to google it
What you don't take too fucking seriously is spelling and grammar. HA!
You haven't owned many cars have you? American cars, especially the pre-2000 ones, had an e-brake (not handbrake!) pedal like you described but it pulled a cable. This pedal is/was located far left where you handbrake people have "dead pedals" that you rest your foot on. Actual handbrakes are more of a euro/asian made idea though many American cars these days have swapped to them- especially the small ones. Trucks rarely have hand brakes (and sorry minivans dont count as trucks in my book, my Freestar has a handbrake) and most of the big body cars with bench front seats don't get them either. Now I'm not arguing whether this design is stupid (I too prefer handbrakes) and the designer should be shot but your argument is a pretty old one. Since we're bitching about old arguments, let me go ahead and complain that I miss foot clicked headlight dimmer switches. I especially miss the little goofy foot shaped ones :D
Like you, I'm not sure which safety mechanism Stormy thinks we'll install on a car but if they are referring to the big red button...
A big red stop button should work just fine for all those systems. One of the neat side effects of the new electric power steering systems is that they can turn themselves without your help at all and do it with great precision so it makes for easy self-steering. There is however still an actual linkage between the rack and steering wheel. The ABS pump is also completely automatic but there is still a standard vacuum master cylinder with a real connection to the pedal. If you were to cut power to those 2 items then they will shutdown along with the engine when the E-Stop is pressed and you will retain a very rudimentary level of control of the vehicle. Just like today should your engine shutdown while in motion. Now eventually we will eliminate those hard links and go true drive by wire but going by previous vehicle evolution, there is no reason to suspect first gen self drivers to have those backups eliminated. If they did that, whether rational or irrational, fear would dissuade adoption.
Well don't get too riled up about it! That means they skipped Ada ME, Ada XP, and Ada Vista!
You evidently have never had a bad ignition switch/lock cylinder. I have had three because I only buy old people's junk cars. 2 of them would not shut the engine off when you switched them off, and the other one constantly kept trying to start the car even when it was already running. You may have also not enjoyed the phenomenon of dieseling where the engine continued to run on its own even when you shut the ignition off. Do not get lulled into a sense of comfort because you believe when you pull your mechanical safety that it is gonna do what you tell it. It will do what it wants when it wants. You say you did an LPG mod to your vehicle. You should already know this.
Second reply to your rants today, you're on a roll sista. Could you please point out why precisely if plain old simple mechanical parts were superior, then why did everyone change over to electromechanical? Since this changeover has happened vehicles are immensely more reliable, need very little maintenance at all, and are actually simpler to work on (despite the old fogeys claiming your need a supercomputer to diagnose a modern EFI engine). Have you ever set points or adjusted your valves every month? Swap out those spark plugs every 6 months to a year? Oh and I almost forgot, the seasonal carburetor adjustements and almost guaranteed rebuild every 2 or 3 years? Do you not recall the spaghetti monster of vacuum lines, linkages, and cables that used to adorn vehicles, epecially the 1976 to ~1990 models (years where EPA regs went into effect but carbs were still prevalent)? All of this annoying nusance maintenance just doesn't need to be done any longer because by adding electrical sensors & actuators the entire system has been simplified. One especially atrocious examples of frankenbastard attempts to keep that old technology chugging along for a few more years instead of actually redesigning would be the ECU controlled Quadrajet carb from the 80s. I know your entire post is rant because if you had ever touched one, you wouldn't have typed any of what you did. Those things had so many mechanical parts that were necessary to emulate the functions that a $5 modern sensor replaced, that it did indeed make me convert several vehicles back to the simple Holley. That wasn't because it was BETTER but because if you are gonna go all mechanical, then go all mechanical. If you're gonna go all electronic then go all electronic. Trying to slap the 2 together with a bunch of duct tape is just asking for trouble and that trouble did indeed rear its ugly head on many occasions. These days because modern engines are just so much better, I have tossed the junk 289 from my 69 Cougar and replaced it with a late 80s 5.0HO (full EFI & full roller bearings). And now that it has broken down from having the piss driven out of it, I do believe it is time to upgrade it to at least a 4.6L DOHC. You don't have to scrap the old cars since they did indeed seem to have some "art" to them but the powertrain technology of the time just sucked. Toss the shitty part out and keep the part you like. Oh and by your very very loose definition of what a mechanical component is and what "all solid-state" is, you attempt to prove your own point but your point is still wrong. If something as simple as a spade connector is "mechanical" then you can't have anything at all because then even a wire is a mechanical component. There would be no such thing as "all solid-state" (it has wires and substrate and many other physical properties) but you knew that already didn't ya?
Could you please point out which vehicles use the same CPU for the engine and the entertainment systems. I'll wait.
Alright, now that you haven't found any, be aware the ECU that runs the engine is a completely separate microcontroller that doesn't even have what you'd call a real OS. Multimedia systems require an actual CPU with at least a basic OS to do all the video and what not. These 2 systems MAY talk to each other via CANBUS or through the ODB interface but they are standalone systems. I mean really people, engineers aren't totally stupid. You may also want to redirect your rage about the non-upgradeable android systems at the bean counters. Left to thier own devices, the engineers would have probably put a full linux pc in the damned thing. Planned obsolecence is almost always the fault of greedy number crunchers and PHB's.
While what you mention is a great side effect and definitely desirable, why TBW is used is because of traction control and stability control systems. To make them work properly, you can't have the operator attempting to override your safety program. So they broke that link. You can thank SUV's, especially the good ol Explorer, because of thier flip over incidents it was mandated into law.
It's just like running up on a deer at night doing 85mph, you don't dodge them, you just hit the bastard because everyone knows wrapping your car around that tree is probably gonna kill you but hitting that deer is probably just gonna kill it and mess your car up pretty bad. Many would think that is a pretty cold way of thinking since you're hitting a human and not a deer but I have to invoke one of the biggest "cards" used here on Slashdot- the personal responsibility card. Don't step out into the street without looking. If you get hit, it's your own damned fault. This is not an immoral stance. Why should you, the rider, have to break or maim yourself to dodge that asshole who will walk away most likely unscathed when it was his direct action that caused it? What makes him more important than you? He has a wife and kids to feed right? Well so do I. So if someone runs out in front of you, dodge him if you can, but if it is probably gonna kill you to do it, then run him over and maybe you'll both share the pain. He'll learn to look where he's going and you'll learn to be better aware of your surroundings and prepared for the event that some daydreaming asshole is gonna wander the fuck into your path of travel. Win-win!