What technology are we still waiting for ?
Discussion
Max_Torque said:
Sixpackpert said:
How about auto fog lights. They go on when they should and go off when they should. PH's retina's would be saved!
TBH, it's about time we stopped fitting fog lamps to cars. They were useful 40 years ago, when all you had was a couple of dim 5w rear marker lamps. Now, when most cars have a massive array of super bright LEDs across the back they are pointless imo, and just help to "hide" the action of the brake lamps. I literally cannot think of a single case in probably 10 years where i have sen just a cars fog lamps and not the normal tail lamps ??xRIEx said:
I'm fairly sure it's classed as forcible entry. To clarify, I think the intention is to place the onus on the policyholder to ensure the house is secured (no particular reason why an electronic lock wouldn't count, there). However, part of the issue is what can be proven - picking a lock may leave scratches or something that indicates the lock was picked; a cloned electronic key (or physical key for that matter) may not be so easy to detect. There could be parallels with how insurers dealt with the BMWs stolen with cloned keys.
I understand what you're saying but in the case of your average house burglary, I've never heard of insurers / the police really taking the time to examine locks to see if they've been picked, electronic locks to see if they've been circumvented etc. - The house owner would probably only know that they'd been burgled, without a clue as to how.dme123 said:
T0MMY said:
While it would be nice for me to sleep in the back of my car while it whisked me along on my 90 minute commute, I'd be extremely worried that the natural end point of self driving cars will be that humans are no longer allowed to drive at all.
You're not wrong, but having seen the dreadful driving standards of your average motorists I might be willing to accept that on all major roads if we could still have some fun on the B roads that those knob ends are too scared to use anyway.Clivey said:
dme123 said:
T0MMY said:
While it would be nice for me to sleep in the back of my car while it whisked me along on my 90 minute commute, I'd be extremely worried that the natural end point of self driving cars will be that humans are no longer allowed to drive at all.
You're not wrong, but having seen the dreadful driving standards of your average motorists I might be willing to accept that on all major roads if we could still have some fun on the B roads that those knob ends are too scared to use anyway.Edited by hidetheelephants on Saturday 27th December 07:50
Clivey said:
xRIEx said:
I'm fairly sure it's classed as forcible entry. To clarify, I think the intention is to place the onus on the policyholder to ensure the house is secured (no particular reason why an electronic lock wouldn't count, there). However, part of the issue is what can be proven - picking a lock may leave scratches or something that indicates the lock was picked; a cloned electronic key (or physical key for that matter) may not be so easy to detect. There could be parallels with how insurers dealt with the BMWs stolen with cloned keys.
I understand what you're saying but in the case of your average house burglary, I've never heard of insurers / the police really taking the time to examine locks to see if they've been picked, electronic locks to see if they've been circumvented etc. - The house owner would probably only know that they'd been burgled, without a clue as to how.rovermorris999 said:
SpeedyDave said:
Tesla Gigafactory will be running within a couple of years and will produce more batteries than the rest of the world's li-ion production combined, ultimately scaling up to many times existing worldwide production capacity.
Expected to drive the cost of the batteries down at least 30% and I expect there will be performance improvements there too.
Their cars do pretty well already, 250 mile range, charge 80% in 40min at their fast charge stations and you're filling completely for free forever.
Battery swap system isn't being deployed but its been demonstrated that could change the battery twice in the time it takes to fill a petrol tank.
Lots of 'could' and 'will' in there. We'll see. Expected to drive the cost of the batteries down at least 30% and I expect there will be performance improvements there too.
Their cars do pretty well already, 250 mile range, charge 80% in 40min at their fast charge stations and you're filling completely for free forever.
Battery swap system isn't being deployed but its been demonstrated that could change the battery twice in the time it takes to fill a petrol tank.
The Gigafactory is being built, and the first public battery swap has been installed in a US supercharge station. Tesla will be rolling this out to all supercharge stations.
Batteries have been increasing in energy density, and getting cheaper regardless of their use as traction batteries.
They have also just released a 690bhp 4wd Model S, that Is more efficient in like for like driving than the 400bhp model.
Speed 3 said:
For all the amazing progress we've seen in cars over the years, one thing that continues to irk me is we haven't yet elegantly solved the windscreen problem. Wipers haven't fundamentally changed in a hundred years and make even the most beautiful cars scarred. Surely to buggery we should by now have invented some kind of force field, air cushion and/or effective coating to repel rain. I work in aviation and even the latest Airbuses and Boeings still have them.
Is there anything else we should have engineered out by now or do I just have OCD ?
The best bit of kit I have got this year is the new Pioneer Double Din Head Unit that lets my Samsung phone plug into it then the screen becomes the phone all my steering wheels control the stuff they used to plus the touchscreen to access the phone functions like spotify etc I have the bonus of a better nav as it's on the phone, a great upgrade on my 2007 CLK63 so that's my contribution.Is there anything else we should have engineered out by now or do I just have OCD ?
Wiper work so why change them? Push air down the windscreen big compressor & less efficient.
ZX10R NIN said:
The best bit of kit I have got this year is the new Pioneer Double Din Head Unit that lets my Samsung phone plug into it then the screen becomes the phone all my steering wheels control the stuff they used to plus the touchscreen to access the phone functions like spotify etc I have the bonus of a better nav as it's on the phone, a great upgrade on my 2007 CLK63 so that's my contribution.
What technology is that using? MirrorLink? I'm looking at getting an Alpine CarPlay heading which does similar for iPhone, but my understanding is that the Android equivalent wasn't in the market yet, as it is going to be the same hardware as the Apple version, but that the software stack is bit more complicated.I also think that having seamless smartphone integration is going to be a big plus point for a lot of people when choosing a car, especially for non petrolheads, so it is a shame that the manufacturers are still dragging their heals with their dated proprietary systems.
98elise said:
Which bits don't you believe?
The Gigafactory is being built, and the first public battery swap has been installed in a US supercharge station. Tesla will be rolling this out to all supercharge stations.
Batteries have been increasing in energy density, and getting cheaper regardless of their use as traction batteries.
They have also just released a 690bhp 4wd Model S, that Is more efficient in like for like driving than the 400bhp model.
I don't disbelieve any of it. Building something doesn't make it a commercial success. As I said, we'll see. Batteries still have a long way to go. I have nothing against electric vehicles per se, just that they are nowhere near good or cheap enough for most people. Perhaps they will become so.The Gigafactory is being built, and the first public battery swap has been installed in a US supercharge station. Tesla will be rolling this out to all supercharge stations.
Batteries have been increasing in energy density, and getting cheaper regardless of their use as traction batteries.
They have also just released a 690bhp 4wd Model S, that Is more efficient in like for like driving than the 400bhp model.
rovermorris999 said:
98elise said:
Which bits don't you believe?
The Gigafactory is being built, and the first public battery swap has been installed in a US supercharge station. Tesla will be rolling this out to all supercharge stations.
Batteries have been increasing in energy density, and getting cheaper regardless of their use as traction batteries.
They have also just released a 690bhp 4wd Model S, that Is more efficient in like for like driving than the 400bhp model.
I don't disbelieve any of it. Building something doesn't make it a commercial success. As I said, we'll see. Batteries still have a long way to go. I have nothing against electric vehicles per se, just that they are nowhere near good or cheap enough for most people. Perhaps they will become so.The Gigafactory is being built, and the first public battery swap has been installed in a US supercharge station. Tesla will be rolling this out to all supercharge stations.
Batteries have been increasing in energy density, and getting cheaper regardless of their use as traction batteries.
They have also just released a 690bhp 4wd Model S, that Is more efficient in like for like driving than the 400bhp model.
As I understand it Tesla are now making a profit, so commercial sucess seems to be on the cards.
Personally I love the thought of an electric drivetrain for my daily driver. Simple efficient engineering with huge torque and power
Craikeybaby said:
What technology is that using? MirrorLink? I'm looking at getting an Alpine CarPlay heading which does similar for iPhone, but my understanding is that the Android equivalent wasn't in the market yet, as it is going to be the same hardware as the Apple version, but that the software stack is bit more complicated.
I also think that having seamless smartphone integration is going to be a big plus point for a lot of people when choosing a car, especially for non petrolheads, so it is a shame that the manufacturers are still dragging their heals with their dated proprietary systems.
Not sure but I'll find out the phone plugs into the system via a USB in the glove box then everything pops up on the screen I was given it by a Pioneer Rep it's released in the UK end of Jan 2015 it'sa great bit of kit.I also think that having seamless smartphone integration is going to be a big plus point for a lot of people when choosing a car, especially for non petrolheads, so it is a shame that the manufacturers are still dragging their heals with their dated proprietary systems.
ZX10R NIN said:
Not sure but I'll find out the phone plugs into the system via a USB in the glove box then everything pops up on the screen I was given it by a Pioneer Rep it's released in the UK end of Jan 2015 it'sa great bit of kit.
Lucky you! It's probably the Android version of CarPlay then, I just wasn't aware of any having been launched, it turns out they haven't then!hidetheelephants said:
I don't see legislation as the potential problem, but it seems that a 'be careful what you wish for' situation will arise, with normal people priced out of manual driving by insurance costs as the covered risk will be so much greater than the automatic pilot.
Unfortunately for us though, the end result will likely be the same. I would honestly rather relocate to a less "advanced" country than live somewhere where I can't even drive. Certain groups seem to delight into making life miserable for others. 
hidetheelephants said:
Clivey said:
dme123 said:
T0MMY said:
While it would be nice for me to sleep in the back of my car while it whisked me along on my 90 minute commute, I'd be extremely worried that the natural end point of self driving cars will be that humans are no longer allowed to drive at all.
You're not wrong, but having seen the dreadful driving standards of your average motorists I might be willing to accept that on all major roads if we could still have some fun on the B roads that those knob ends are too scared to use anyway.Do we really believe that driverless cars will have a better safety record than driven cars?
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