Perpetual payments are interesting, but not something I want in a vehicle. There are lots of reasons to own, but I don't want a perpetual payment. If the car is more reliable and needs less maintenance then I can expect it to last longer and be a better value to own.
The Car, Reinvented
71–80 of 91 posts
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#72> We will be talking exclusively about electric cars. he compared cost, performance, regulations, but I didn't see him tackle the issue of range and recharge times not even in passing. > It is the only way forward. with claims like these, skipping the two major drawbacks seems quite intellectually dishonest.
With all the major economies planning to ban ICE vehicles within the next few decades, I don’t really see a good argument for dishonesty here.
it ignores that there are pretty solid researches into biofuels which are reaching high yield, low pollutant emissions[1], would reuse most of the existing infrastructure and all without sacrificing range and versatility.
[1] note that it's misguided to claim you have to reach zero emission to compete with batteries, because batteries chemicals pollutes both during extraction, transformation and disposal.
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#73Since I'm a programmer I'd make the car-o-future modular. A kernel and different replaceable hardware and software modules. It bugs me how hard it is to customize a car now and the high cost of it.
the reason for this is obvious. Having a modular car with a high degree of customization would be a huge hassle in keeping cars safe.
There would be defined interfaces (APIs). Eg easy to add physical knobs to a Tesla for climate control.
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#74> Hybrid was interesting in its time (the Toyota Prius is a great car), but it is… well, hybrid, i.e. torn between the ancient and the new world, therefore a bad solution. But can be refilled in 5 minutes and driven for 300 miles, which I don't see happening with electric cars any time soon.
True, but do you need that feature often? When you drive 600km, it's okay to take a break to charge the car.
Also Toyota hybrids are not very responsive and fast. And they smell.
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#75> First, the skateboard and the upper body could be built separately. Maybe not at the same place (a handful of skateboards will fit perfectly in a shipping container for completion thousands of miles away). I hate to be critical, but this really reminds me of a 1950s "visions of the future" piece more than a practical design choice. For example, the skateboard is not a new concept [1], and there are reasons you don'…
I may be naive but I would love to see modular design. I just don't expect it from Apple. Also figure if there were an apple car there would be no right to repair for ordinary mechanic shops
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
HTTP1.0 is old. But we're nearing HTTP3.0 now. Not that HTTP1.0 has gone away, nor would it need to; but for the devices that need the features it offers, the newer versions are better. I think the author is pointing at that concept, with the idea that CAN hasn't evolved over time in the same way as HTTP. Ideally there'd be a CAN2.0 for the cars that want it, that's backwards-compatible with CAN1.0 readers/etc.
> I think the author is pointing at that concept, with the idea that CAN hasn't evolved over time in the same way as HTTP. If he works in this space, I would think he'd know that there are new things being worked on: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_FD * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexRay Not that these seem to work differently at the OSI Layer 1/2 layer, so while older messages can be sent over the newer trans…
Right, you'd likely have to connect your old CAN-bus reader to the new system through an active PHY-to-PHY adapter dongle, sort of like a VGA-to-HDMI adapter, or (presumably, once it happens) a MIDI1.0 to MIDI2.0 adapter.
As long as the new version of the protocol is still formatted on the higher OSI layers in terms of reusing the core messages from the old version, and then adding new messages that are optional to the understanding of what's going on from a CAN1.0 perspective, then a change in the PHY layer still isn't really throwing the baby out with the bath-water.
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
car safety come mostly from the chassis, an engine swap shouldn't really impact safety, unless it goes to fill crumple zones, but then it's not swapping engines per se that impact safety, the issue comes from putting too big of an engine. the real issue would be making the thing actually reliable. matings and fittings off the production line aren't the same you can get post assembly on a workshop, and that will affec…
Crash testing isn't the be all and end all. If you put a new engine in and it cuts out on the motorway, for example. The verification process takes a lot of time, even for a racing car let alone a road car that has to pass crash tests as well.
the assumption would be that modularization would come with standard interfaces, cutting down the need for verification
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#78> First, the skateboard and the upper body could be built separately. Maybe not at the same place (a handful of skateboards will fit perfectly in a shipping container for completion thousands of miles away). I hate to be critical, but this really reminds me of a 1950s "visions of the future" piece more than a practical design choice. For example, the skateboard is not a new concept [1], and there are reasons you don'…
The 'skateboard' really isn't a new idea, it's the early motoring era approach where you bought the rolling chassis from a chassis manufacturer and then hired a coachbuilder to design and build suitably elegant bodywork to your personal specification on top.
Then we got vertically integrated mass production which cost less and built cars which handled a lot better as they'd been designed as a unit with bodywork and chassis having complementary characteristics. "I wish my sports car also had the ability to handle like a family car or a commercial vehicle if you slapped the right bodywork on," said no modern driver ever.
Calling it a skateboard (bah! so twentieth century) doesn't change the fact it's the nineteenth century approach to doing things....
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#79> We will be talking exclusively about electric cars. he compared cost, performance, regulations, but I didn't see him tackle the issue of range and recharge times not even in passing. > It is the only way forward. with claims like these, skipping the two major drawbacks seems quite intellectually dishonest.
This was the point I started to lose interest. "Let's completely reimagine from scratch. But we all know there's really only one option so let's ignore any other ideas."
exactly, this "re-imagined" car just looks a lot like a tesla, but with proprietary connectors instead of the industry standards, I wonder why, surely it isn't to curb stomp the accessories and replacement parts market. (heck, bet they even want even to remove the obd port)
Re: The Car, Reinvented
#80Since I'm a programmer I'd make the car-o-future modular. A kernel and different replaceable hardware and software modules. It bugs me how hard it is to customize a car now and the high cost of it.
The problem is size and weight. To take a computer analogy, cars are smartphones, not desktop towers.
I sometimes entertain a fantasy where I have a car for which I pull out 75% of the batteries and leave them in the garage for my daily commute. Then for a trip to grandma's, I put them in. Along with the range extender. Oh, and the range extender is just plug-and-play; I can swap in a Honda, or a Briggs and Stratton, or whichever. It could be gas or hydrogen or nuke. Most of the time it just sits under a bench in the garage.
This fantasy highlights some of the absurdity of modularity. A car with only 1/4 the batteries and no generator will handle completely differently. It would really be a different car. But "reconfigured" in less than an hour by a complete luddite.
And, "nuke"? Really?
Why not imagine the owner could just snap in and out between 2wd and 4wd drive trains? Choose to insert one electric motor or two (or four?) depending on the day?
What could possibly go wrong?
Still, it's fun to fantasize. And maybe some of it could make sense. Like unplugging the driver controls and just moving them over to the left or right seat and plugging them back in. Wait... what?