Radar is already common on many vehicles with Parking assistance, Collision avoidance and or Adaptive Cruise Control. Most of this is in the 24GHz range (Ford, Chrysler, etc). 77Ghz bands are also in wide use, Japan has opted for 60GHz.
Go read TFA, and you quickly realize they are not talking about autonomous vehicles at all, but simply a car that has all the sensors and safety technology you routinely find on mid-to-high priced cars today. They talk like its new an innovative, because they blur the lines between what you've heard was possible and what they are actually offering.
The Ford Focus offers just as much as Toyota will be offering, they just don't use words like "autonomous" in their press releases.
I've generally attributed this to people buying Toyotas because they have a reputation for being safe.
No, its because people have long memories and the run-away vehicle and brake failures are still fresh in their minds. Toyota may think they have moved past that impression but they are sadly mistaken.
Nothing Toyota is offering in TFA is unique or new, and its long been in the market place on other vehicles. Don't be fooled by the use the word "autonomous" in their press release.
But ABS brakes have drastically reduced the number of high speed collisions, mostly rear-end collisions, and missed turns and sliding into ditches at 50mph with the wheels all locked up.
Bullet proof vests have led to an increase in broken rips a bruised torsos.
You overstate the prices of factory in-dash GPS. Its nowhere near that expensive anymore. Further, there are aftermarket kits for under 500 bucks and suction cup mount kits for under 200.
Factory in-dash is also coming down, and manufacturers are starting to unbundle it so you can buy that without it coming withe heated seats, and that is pushing the price under 900 bucks, (still excessive IMHO).
You're certainly not the kind of person to spend the money on a radar system, sensors, cameras, computing power, and the extra petrol consumption needed to lug that equipment around just in case you have a lapse in concentration.
Ah, No, that's not true for several reasons.
First and foremost, is that what Toyota is claiming as autonomous is pretty much the same as you find in mid to high end cars these days. You don't have to buy a luxury car or an Euro import to get these accident avoidance features any more. Ford and Chevy are putting these in relatively inexpensive cars. Toyota has nothing new here, they just found some buzzwords the marketing guys dreamed up. Autonomous? Please.
Second, these things cost virtually nothing in weight or gas mileage. The radars are simply those little round circles embedded in the bumpers of cars to sense proximity. All of them (usually 8 per vehicle) weigh less than the tennis racket you toss into the back seat on your way to the court.
Computing power? Chuckle. It takes FAR less computing power than you have in your smart phone.
Cameras? Again, its about the size of the camera in your cell phone, but much less sophisticated.
Blind spot monitoring, Adaptive cruise control, collision warnings, lane drifting detection, etc., all these things cost very little, and weigh very little.
However, (and this is where you miss the point), you will get an insurance rate break by having these safety packages installed which will come pretty close to offsetting set both the original price of the package and the extra power consumption over the life of the vehicle. My recent "safety package" which included everything Toyota was promising (except the 700mhz vehicle to vehicle radio) added about $1000 to the price of the car, but reduced my insurance by $180/yr over the same model without these features. The more expensive the car the more the insurance offset is.
These things are finding their way to the lower priced cars these days. Which is precisely why they are showing up on Toyota.
Simply tell the truth, that you went back to school to further your education. You don't have to mention that you got a degree, its not like it was a court imposed sentence.or anything. It is entirely optional like scout merit badges or a black belt, or something.
You will find that the right side of the keyboard contains a wide variety of layouts, not only in different regions of the world but also within a single country. Referring to key by its location is pretty risky, whereas referring to it by name seems to work for most people.
If your ipad or android tablet can print to your printer, it can print anything.
Not all tablets have the capability to print to all printers, but any modern printer that can be attached to your network has a high probability of working.
That's because swipe uses a ridiculous word list technology. Try your competition, Swiftkey, for a week and I guarantee you will never return to swipe. Swipe has lost every speed test it has been in, its built from a fundamentally flawed concept.
I'm book marking this post to show my swipe fan friends who are astounded when I finish their silly typing tests using Swiftkey in a quarter of the time they do.
Not to mention the random kid with a sling shot or bb gun.
These things would have to avoid airports and remain well below 1200 feet AGL. They would become popular targets. Drug dealers would steal them and re-purpose them.
E-mails can be pretty long. Sometimes they include attachments. Web browsing often means entering passwords and other intformation. And print receipts for filing. And what when she wants to do her taxes? That's a simple task that is beyond most tablets.
By all means, get her a tablet - after you replace her PC.
Nonsense.
With any random bluetooth keyboard even book length emails are not a problem. Browsers remember passwords, enter it once, and done. Printing receipts (or anything else) is simply NOT a problem. My tablet prints over wifi. Hell it will print from anywhere on the planet with an internet connection. Even cheap printers these days support CloudPrint. Emails? Attachments? Seriously, you must be joking, either that or you've never actually used a tablet. Taxes. No problem. Intuit/Turbo tax have BOTH web based tax programs and install-able APPS that will work just fine, or you could use H&R Block's apps for Android or ipad. Many seniors have their taxes done professionally anyway.
Obviously you've never used a modern tablet. so I respectfully suggest you weight in on the subject.
If you are typing 200 characters on the screen, you are doing it wrong.
The predictive keyboard apps that come with tablets or are added as Apps to tablets mean that in most cases you tap a couple characters then select the word. Swiftkey will predict entire words you are likely to want to type BEFORE you type a single letter of the next word. It does this by analyzing your language style over time.
If you have to type tons of text, a cheap bluetooth keyboard built into a carrying case for the tablet will pretty much remove all typing problems.
Printing is no problem, as long as your printer supports either cat5 or a wifi connection. I print from my tablet every couple of days. Bank sites are no problem either, SSL is just about all any bank uses, and Android tablets (as well as IPads I suppose) support many different bank apps that allow you do do anything from the mobile device.
Email? Seriously? Tablets thrive on email. Typing long emails or documents can be made easy with a simple Bluetooth keyboard. Cheap, and often built into the case that you might want for the tablet anyway. Documents (word processing) on the device is also not a problem. If Google Documents can't handle it there are apps that will.
In short, you haven't put forth even one convincing argument.
A simple bluetooth keyboard addition to just any tablet solves your major objection. Often these come as part of a case, and the portability is much better than even a small laptop.
Many people would be fine with a chromebook, where nothing is lost when the device itself dies.
Slashdot Mirror
Radar is already common on many vehicles with Parking assistance, Collision avoidance and or Adaptive Cruise Control.
Most of this is in the 24GHz range (Ford, Chrysler, etc). 77Ghz bands are also in wide use, Japan has opted for 60GHz.
I wasn't aware of anyone using 66GHz.
Go read TFA, and you quickly realize they are not talking about autonomous vehicles at all, but simply a car that has all the sensors and safety technology you routinely find on mid-to-high priced cars today. They talk like its new an innovative, because they blur the lines between what you've heard was possible and what they are actually offering.
The Ford Focus offers just as much as Toyota will be offering, they just don't use words like "autonomous" in their press releases.
This story is not about self driving cars. Re-read TFA,
Nor was the post your reply to about self driving cars.
I've generally attributed this to people buying Toyotas because they have a reputation for being safe.
No, its because people have long memories and the run-away vehicle and brake failures are still fresh in their minds. Toyota may think they have moved past that impression but they are sadly mistaken.
Nothing Toyota is offering in TFA is unique or new, and its long been in the market place on other vehicles. Don't be fooled by the use the word "autonomous" in their press release.
Depends on what is in the punch.
But ABS brakes have drastically reduced the number of high speed collisions, mostly rear-end collisions, and missed turns and sliding into ditches at 50mph with the wheels all locked up.
Bullet proof vests have led to an increase in broken rips a bruised torsos.
I only use GPS about once a year, if that.
Some people actually drive more than 20 miles from their home.
You overstate the prices of factory in-dash GPS. Its nowhere near that expensive anymore.
Further, there are aftermarket kits for under 500 bucks and suction cup mount kits for under 200.
Factory in-dash is also coming down, and manufacturers are starting to unbundle it so you can buy that without it coming withe heated seats, and that is pushing the price under 900 bucks, (still excessive IMHO).
You're certainly not the kind of person to spend the money on a radar system, sensors, cameras, computing power, and the extra petrol consumption needed to lug that equipment around just in case you have a lapse in concentration.
Ah, No, that's not true for several reasons.
First and foremost, is that what Toyota is claiming as autonomous is pretty much the same as you find in mid to high end cars these days. You don't have to buy a luxury car or an Euro import to get these accident avoidance features any more. Ford and Chevy are putting these in relatively inexpensive cars. Toyota has nothing new here, they just found some buzzwords the marketing guys dreamed up. Autonomous? Please.
Second, these things cost virtually nothing in weight or gas mileage. The radars are simply those little round circles embedded in the bumpers of cars to sense proximity. All of them (usually 8 per vehicle) weigh less than the tennis racket you toss into the back seat on your way to the court.
Computing power? Chuckle. It takes FAR less computing power than you have in your smart phone.
Cameras? Again, its about the size of the camera in your cell phone, but much less sophisticated.
Blind spot monitoring, Adaptive cruise control, collision warnings, lane drifting detection, etc., all these things cost very little, and weigh very little.
However, (and this is where you miss the point), you will get an insurance rate break by having these safety packages installed which will come pretty close to offsetting set both the original price of the package and the extra power consumption over the life of the vehicle. My recent "safety package" which included everything Toyota was promising (except the 700mhz vehicle to vehicle radio) added about $1000 to the price of the car, but reduced my insurance by $180/yr over the same model without these features. The more expensive the car the more the insurance offset is.
These things are finding their way to the lower priced cars these days. Which is precisely why they are showing up on Toyota.
Simply tell the truth, that you went back to school to further your education. You don't have to mention that you got a degree, its not like it was a court imposed sentence.or anything. It is entirely optional like scout merit badges or a black belt, or something.
You will find that the right side of the keyboard contains a wide variety of layouts, not only in different regions of the world but also within a single country. Referring to key by its location is pretty risky, whereas referring to it by name seems to work for most people.
Well said.
Choose wisely.
Bullshit. Pictures or it didn't happen.
Coupons don't have printer drivers.
Computers do.
If your ipad or android tablet can print to your printer, it can print anything.
Not all tablets have the capability to print to all printers, but any modern printer that can be attached
to your network has a high probability of working.
Wrong wrong wrong:
http://www.swiftkey.net/en/blog/swiftkey-x-user-smashes-world-texting-record/
http://mobilitydigest.com/world-text-record-gets-crushed-by-android-swiftkey-x-user/
She cut your record of 35 seconds to under 10.
Again, your research is simply wrong, which is why Swiftkey is eating your lunch. Its going to get worse for you, because Swiftkey is going to adopt the only claim to fame you guys have as an option.
Word prediction is where it is. Learn to do it right. Pop up lists are not the way to go.
That's because swipe uses a ridiculous word list technology. Try your competition, Swiftkey, for a week and I guarantee you will never return to swipe.
Swipe has lost every speed test it has been in, its built from a fundamentally flawed concept.
I'm book marking this post to show my swipe fan friends who are astounded when I finish their silly typing tests using Swiftkey in a quarter of the time they do.
Some on screen keyboards fail, others don't. The nice thing about them is you can go download another keyboard app.
Let me go direct to the source for you:
http://www.dhl.com/en/express/domestic_services.html
Not to mention the random kid with a sling shot or bb gun.
These things would have to avoid airports and remain well below 1200 feet AGL. They would become popular targets. Drug dealers would steal them and re-purpose them.
E-mails can be pretty long. Sometimes they include attachments.
Web browsing often means entering passwords and other intformation. And print receipts for filing.
And what when she wants to do her taxes? That's a simple task that is beyond most tablets.
By all means, get her a tablet - after you replace her PC.
Nonsense.
With any random bluetooth keyboard even book length emails are not a problem.
Browsers remember passwords, enter it once, and done.
Printing receipts (or anything else) is simply NOT a problem. My tablet prints over wifi. Hell it will print from anywhere on the planet with an internet connection. Even cheap printers these days support CloudPrint.
Emails? Attachments? Seriously, you must be joking, either that or you've never actually used a tablet.
Taxes. No problem. Intuit/Turbo tax have BOTH web based tax programs and install-able APPS that will work just fine, or you could use H&R Block's apps for Android or ipad. Many seniors have their taxes done professionally anyway.
Obviously you've never used a modern tablet. so I respectfully suggest you weight in on the subject.
If you are typing 200 characters on the screen, you are doing it wrong.
The predictive keyboard apps that come with tablets or are added as Apps to tablets mean that in most cases you tap a couple characters then select the word. Swiftkey will predict entire words you are likely to want to type BEFORE you type a single letter of the next word. It does this by analyzing your language style over time.
If you have to type tons of text, a cheap bluetooth keyboard built into a carrying case for the tablet will pretty much remove all typing problems.
Printing is no problem, as long as your printer supports either cat5 or a wifi connection. I print from my tablet every couple of days.
Bank sites are no problem either, SSL is just about all any bank uses, and Android tablets (as well as IPads I suppose) support many
different bank apps that allow you do do anything from the mobile device.
Email? Seriously? Tablets thrive on email.
Typing long emails or documents can be made easy with a simple Bluetooth keyboard. Cheap, and often built into the case
that you might want for the tablet anyway. Documents (word processing) on the device is also not a problem. If Google Documents can't handle it there are apps that will.
In short, you haven't put forth even one convincing argument.
But what's the chances that his mom has a huge music collection that needs uploading?
The requirements were:
Virtually everything she does is simple web browsing, email, light photo sharing but no heavy editing, and other simple tasks.
Many Android tablets support USB OTG, so other devices (even CE/dvd readers) can be plugged into them. That includes cameras or smart phones.
A simple bluetooth keyboard addition to just any tablet solves your major objection.
Often these come as part of a case, and the portability is much better than even a small laptop.
Many people would be fine with a chromebook, where nothing is lost when the device itself dies.