Poll & Prediction: Autonomous Car Equipment at 5k by 2019

[Travis In Austin]

5 hours ago, Mallette said:

Yes.  AVs.  Every prediction you listed up there is shorter by 50% or so from 2 years ago to MUCH more accelerated from 5 years ago.  All will arrive sooner and the governments "we can make BIG money from this" and the consumers "Me WANTS the precious..." will set in.  And that's leaving out a massive industry that has the opportunity to replace almost every vehicle on the road in a decade.  Try and stop it...

 

For me, I think I have enough years left to travel this country some day in an AV.  Tell it to hit the interstate at night when I can't enjoy the scenery, get fuel as required, and wake me when the coffee is ready at daylight.  Then, tell it to hit the old Federal highways while I simply look out the window for something interesting to explore.  Oh, the motels are in for a BIG hit.  They'll survive on those who decide to stay in a place for a day or few or other reasons.  But no need for sleeping from driving fatigue. 

 

Dave

You will have to stop and recharge your Tessla. 

[Mallette]

2 hours ago, dwilawyer said:

You will have to stop and recharge your Tessla. 

Love everything about them but that.  And I am a bit surprised Elon hasn't done what, at least appears, to be obvious.  Don't charge'em, change'em.  Seems the most cost effective and efficient thing would be to simply drive up, have an automated system extract the low one, and insert a fresh one.  Off and away in a couple of minutes.  Granted, I am no engineer and hardly a great thinker, so there are probably issues there.  However, that is no issue to AVs.  Automated refueling by gasoline, LP, NG, Hydrogen, or what have you works just fine. 

 

Actually, taking the battery switch thing to a higher level, I am not sure the government shouldn't mandate that the industry set several levels of battery capacity for the size of the specific vehicles, or a single size that can be used in multiples, that is common to all electric cars.  In no way inhibits competition, and would greatly improve cost and time efficiency...especially with the "remove and replace" model. 

 

Dave

[DizRotus]

We see a lot of Teslas around here, which is somewhat surprising, given that Michigan prohibits direct manufacturer to consumer sales.  One must travel to a neighboring state to purchase one.  I saw two in the same block yesterday.

 

Of course, this is a poor area to gauge the rest of the country's automotive tastes, due to the influence of the auto industry here.  On the on the one hand, you have the concentration of "car guys" which skews the product mix.  On the other hand, you get the manufactures unloading vehicles on employees; vehicles regular people don't want.  Based on what was seen on the roads around here, you would have thought this was a popular car.  That would have been a Breaking Bad conclusion.

 

[Mallette]

That is a Tesla?  Believe it or not, I don't keep up with them that much but that doesn't look like any I've seen.

Dave

[CECAA850]

31 minutes ago, Mallette said:

That is a Tesla? 

That's an old Pontiac Dave.

[Mallette]

I know NOTHING about cars after about 1967.  Wonder what the relevance was?

 

Dave

[CECAA850]

6 minutes ago, Mallette said:

  Wonder what the relevance was?

 

 

 

6 hours ago, DizRotus said:

 Based on what was seen on the roads around here, you would have thought this was a popular car.  

 

[DizRotus]

7 hours ago, Mallette said:

I know NOTHING about cars after about 1967.  Wonder what the relevance was?

 

Dave

 

Dave,

 

Apparently you didn't watch Breaking Bad,  Walter White drove a Pontiac Aztec to reinforce the point that he was a relatively clueless HS chemistry teacher before getting into the meth business.

 

The point of the post was to reinforce the concept that seeing Teslas frequently -- plus the odd Fisker -- on the streets of suburban Detroit is not an accurate gauge of their popularity elsewhere.  The Pontiac Aztec is a case in point.  GM compelled employees to take Aztecs as their company cars, in an effort to keep the production line busy.  The streets of suburban Detroit were littered with Aztecs, not because they were popular, but because GM made its employees offers they couldn't refuse.

[Mallette]

Thanks, I needed that.  Can't help but have heard of it, but I don't watch any normal TV.  So, I had no idea what it was about.

 

dave

[MookieStl]

3 hours ago, Mallette said:

I know NOTHING about cars after about 1967.  Wonder what the relevance was?

 

Dave

You only missed 5 more good years!

[oldtimer]

23 minutes ago, MookieStl said:

You only missed 5 more good years!

For American cars, maybe.

[MookieStl]

5 minutes ago, oldtimer said:

For American cars, maybe.

yes, stand corrected!

[Jeff Matthews]

I did the retro thing and got some 50's era cars a few years back. If you really like to work on cars, they are fun.  I merely thought I'd like working on them and fixing them up. Not fun.

 

I have to say, those old cars are pieces of crap compared to today's engineering.  We now have the benefit of 6 decades since then to find out how to engineer cars to ride much more smoothly and quietly and to be safer and more comfortable.

 

I'm glad to be through with that hobby.

[JJkizak]

19 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said:

I did the retro thing and got some 50's era cars a few years back. If you really like to work on cars, they are fun.  I merely thought I'd like working on them and fixing them up. Not fun.

 

I have to say, those old cars are pieces of crap compared to today's engineering.  We now have the benefit of 6 decades since then to find out how to engineer cars to ride much more smoothly and quietly and to be safer and more comfortable.

 

I'm glad to be through with that hobby.

 

They used every trick we used to make cars faster then--- to make today's cars faster and more efficient. Aluminum blocks, Aluminum heads, Variable valve timing, Turbocharging, Low pressure fuel injection, Super high voltage spark plug wiring, reverse coolant flow, 4 bolt mains, roller cams, dry sump, light weight oil, tuned exhaust, tuned intake, enhanced intake air flow ducting, high compression, aluminum pistons, less and thinner piston rings, full floating rods, piston ring location more to the top of the piston, piston top configuration, overhead cams, steel cranks, more transmission gears, overdrive gears, aluminum wheels, and the Hemi is still with us.

JJK

[Jeff Matthews]

Just now, JJkizak said:

 

They used every trick we used to make cars faster then--- to make today's cars faster and more efficient. Aluminum blocks, Aluminum heads, Variable valve timing, Turbocharging, Low pressure fuel injection, Super high voltage spark plug wiring, reverse coolant flow, 4 bolt mains, roller cams, dry sump, light weight oil, tuned exhaust, tuned intake, enhanced intake air flow ducting, high compression, aluminum pistons, less and thinner piston rings, full floating rods, piston ring location more to the top of the piston, piston top configuration, overhead cams, steel cranks, more transmission gears, overdrive gears, aluminum wheels, and the Hemi is still with us.

JJK

That, plus all the suspension stuff.  The old cars are like driving bricks down the road.  Just clunky and rigid.  The new cars drive like a charm by comparison.

[Mallette]

3 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said:

The old cars are like driving bricks down the road.

Fully agree...but I DID enjoy 50/60s Italian and British sports cars with rack and pinion steering.  Now, keeping them running was not so much fun.

Dave

[DrWho]

On 5/3/2017 at 10:07 PM, Mallette said:

Actually, taking the battery switch thing to a higher level, I am not sure the government shouldn't mandate that the industry set several levels of battery capacity for the size of the specific vehicles, or a single size that can be used in multiples, that is common to all electric cars.  In no way inhibits competition, and would greatly improve cost and time efficiency...especially with the "remove and replace" model. 

Yikes, that's a horrible idea....but I think it'd require a lot of battery engineering experience to explain why. The Model S is a crap car though, so maybe the exploding batteries might do the world a favor by getting rid of these obnoxious cars and their owners, hah.

 

I'm a big fan of swapping batteries, but standardizing on Lego pieces doesn't work. The real solutions for batteries won't be ready until 2025'ish based on the battery conferences I attend.

 

Btw, autonomous doesn't require electric.

[DizRotus]

On May 4, 2017 at 3:25 PM, CECAA850 said:

That's an old Pontiac Dave.

 

Carl-

 

" . . . old Pontiac" is redundant.

@CECAA850

[CECAA850]

Ha!

[oldtimer]

The Chieftan  hubcap.