10 years all cars, 'HAVE' to have 54mpg?

[Stevearino]

The most complicated issue to overcome with the "Self Driving Cars" is not the technology. It is the legal issues. Who is libel if the car is involved in an accident. The owner, the manufacturer, the GPS satellite provider.  They haven't a clue as to how this aspect will play out. And in a nation of people who have a lottery mentality believe me someone will have to pay.

As for the Prius both my daughter and son have one and like it or not  they are very well built dependable roomy cars . My daughter once ran out of gas on the interstate and was able to make it to the next gas exit on electric only. Not a bad option to have. The best thing about the car though is a piece of technology that could be available on any gas engine car and would save loads of gas in congested stop and go commutes. That is the instant on feature that turns engine off when you are sitting in traffic . When you hit the gas to go it comes to life as if it was idling. 

[Steve P.]

I have a buddy that works for Tesla... He tells me about stuff they are working on and the 0 to 60 times they get to play with...

The thing about an electric car is that it goes from zero power and RPM to full torque in half a NY second.. Tesla is coming out with much better batteries and charging systems and cars that will go much further on a charge..

As mentioned before, horses use to be the thing and people said the automobile was a joke. 100 plus years ago there was a fight over gas or electric as well... Everything electric was much worse than today. Gas was not so fantastically safe either but was considered much more safe than electric.. Mostly because people were charging off power lines on street corners..

Also, I believe it was Neil Young, (may be wrong), that was building a lincoln or something large, to run off an electric motor and a small generator to recharge the batteries.. I never saw the conclusion of this car..

[Mike DC]

             

The thing about an electric car is that it goes from zero power and RPM to full torque in half a NY second..

The electrics will kick our cars' asses on the tracks when they get serious about trying.  Like it or not, scream and yell all we want, it's simple physics.  They don't even need gears. 

[polywideblock]

and 500 ft/lb instantly

[JB400]

             

The thing about an electric car is that it goes from zero power and RPM to full torque in half a NY second..

The electrics will kick our cars' asses on the tracks when they get serious about trying.  Like it or not, scream and yell all we want, it's simple physics.  They don't even need gears. 

The new Koeninseigg doesn't even have a trans.

[1974dodgecharger]

Its gonna get really boring in the future even now modern cars are boring.....you can go from zero to 120 and not even feel your going 120mph.  The cars are so voided from actually in coming contact with reality of road feel that you don't know how fast your going. 

Anyone who has gotten in my car and we hit 80mph feels different than a car going 120mph they tell me its more, 'EXHILIRATING' than regular cars.  Even my kids love it when I accelerate from a stop they, 'feel' it and the push back. 

[Steve P.]

 

Anyone who has gotten in my car and we hit 80mph feels different than a car going 120mph they tell me its more, 'EXHILIRATING' than regular cars.  Even my kids love it when I accelerate from a stop they, 'feel' it and the push back. 

I think that feeling of being slammed into the seat is exactly what you will feel in an electric car if you drop the hammer. You go from nothing to full torque with electrics. Unless you are dropping the clutch at high RPM's, you are not feeling your engines full torque.

I don't claim to know a lot about the electrics, but from what I have seen on youtube videos, I think there is a new excitement coming...

Here are a few videos from BIG DADDY himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea4igN8Thtg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xycfysAM7IY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiu84nDORtI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcmYP1lLpi0

[Steve P.]

This video is getting old now, (a few years), but really a good look into electrics..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=369h-SEBXd8

[Mike DC]

I think that feeling of being slammed into the seat is exactly what you will feel in an electric car if you drop the hammer. You go from nothing to full torque with electrics. Unless you are dropping the clutch at high RPM's, you are not feeling your engines full torque.

I don't claim to know a lot about the electrics, but from what I have seen on youtube videos, I think there is a new excitement coming...

Exactly.  It's a matter of time before gasoline cars can't beat electrics, even in raw grunt. 

We will be left with the charm of the loud, vibrating, gasoline-burning, gear-shifting, mechanical feel of our cars.  It's still a lot to love IMO.  But it will be harder to explain to younger kids why these cars are cool.  Even in heavily hot-rodded form the old cars won't be winning on the tracks anymore.   

[1974dodgecharger]

I would still find it boring...... aint nothing like manual brakes, manual clutch, everything manual......vs a modern car where you can eat a steak and drive fast.....

 

Anyone who has gotten in my car and we hit 80mph feels different than a car going 120mph they tell me its more, 'EXHILIRATING' than regular cars.  Even my kids love it when I accelerate from a stop they, 'feel' it and the push back. 

I think that feeling of being slammed into the seat is exactly what you will feel in an electric car if you drop the hammer. You go from nothing to full torque with electrics. Unless you are dropping the clutch at high RPM's, you are not feeling your engines full torque.

I don't claim to know a lot about the electrics, but from what I have seen on youtube videos, I think there is a new excitement coming...

Here are a few videos from BIG DADDY himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea4igN8Thtg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xycfysAM7IY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiu84nDORtI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcmYP1lLpi0

[hatersaurusrex]

This right here is more disturbing if it proves to be a future trend.
http://mashable.com/2015/03/17/elon-musk-nvidia/

I've been thinking this for years.  Once cars can self-drive the clock is ticking on our human driving rights.  People will gladly trade away just about anything for more safety these days.  

They don't have to make it flat-out illegal just to render human drivers a thing of the past.  The insurance industry could push the optional human-license insurance rates so high that it's not affordable/practical for most.  That would do the job.  Once a generation grows up without ever having the right to drive, and not missing it, the war will basically be lost.  

Self driving cars can't be made safer than humans without a large leap in standardization of roadways.   They use LIDAR currently, and things like a pothole or a puddle throw them completely out of whack.   A system that interprets only spatial data - reactively and relative to the car's sensors - will always be flawed.   For the entire road system to be fully driverless, some sort of ground-based locator device or similar will have to be embedded in the road every so often - and think how long it would take to get every road overhauled and standardized.  GPS just isn't precise enough to do the job within inches at 70+mph safely - if it were these cars would already be using it exclusively.

Until everything is standardized, some level of human intervention is necessary.   I see the immediate future being cars that are augmented with driver assist (we already see some of this on newer cars) and branching out from there.   Old cars will likely be limited to special use cases and driven only outside of congested cities or something.   And by old, I don't mean a 67 GTX - I mean a 2025 Honda.   It will take decades for the system to be fully driverless, and the people who can't afford a swanky new autopilot car will drive old junk - just like we have now.

In short, our Mopars will be safe.

[Mike DC]

I agree it will take decades.  

But I've probably got several decades more to live & drive so this still concerns me.


I agree they will need something embedded in the roadways to make it mass-practical.  But they can do that.  It may only hit the urban centers first but it won't take too long for the suburbs to follow.  Then human driving becomes a small-town-only thing.  That means it stops getting priority in the legal & social sense and the pressure starts to mount against it.  

(Widespread handguns are a problem in urban centers.  But rifles & handguns still make a lot more sense in rural areas. We don't need to worry about the urban centers overruling the needs of the rural areas & outlawing guns everywhere . . . right?)  


As I said above, human driving could see an insurance pressure against it too.  

Right now everyone who wants to be as safe & responsible as possible still has to human-drive their own cars.  But once that  crowd has the option of turning the driving duties over to a machine, many of then will elect to do it.  Therefore the average human driver gets statistically more accident prone as a side-effect.  This will drive up the insurance rates on human drivers.  That will make human-driving less cost-effective, further pressuring smart & responsible people away from doing it.  This spiral will keep worsening the insurance risk for human-drivers.

[moparjohn]

did I mention we are doomed?  My God, driving, at my speed, where I want to go, what route, what stops all of it, are near and dear to my inner being.  Yes, every year, slower, more dense traffic take away from it but I love it. I don't do trains, buses or planes-not in contol, also a hassle no thanks. I don't want that kind of future in my lifetime. Remember technology IS the enemy.

[Steve P.]

John, technology is what put you in a CHARGER. Gave you gas to burn and that thing you are reading this on right now!!!! Though I understand that some things don't seem to be better, think about where we would be without technology. We'd still be clubbing each other over the head for women and food. Think about a pinecone the next time you reach for toilet paper... 

[Mike DC]

 
We could reduce the traffic on the roads any time we want.  Just raise the price of gas. 
     

[moparjohn]

pass the pinecone, keep the low(er) price of gas.   I know time passes by quickly, advances are made every day in "tech" For me each adavancement slows me down and fustrates me more. I'm the guy who has the $2.00 in cash in my pocket to pay for my coffee and will never understand sending a check via phone to deposit in a bank. I understand why I have to die because if I lived forever I would explode or loose it.  Now back to our sheduled program...

[Stevearino]

Another enormous problem with autonomous vehicles is accident avoidance programming. Say there is a child in the road and the there are two choices. Either hit the child or swerve into a concrete pylon killing you and anyone riding with you. Or another scenario the car must choose between hitting a pedestrian or driving into oncoming traffic. Who would want to be the programmer that would have to figure out the ethics of how that car will treat the hypothetical situation. Better yet. Who would want to trust their life to a vehicle that would be capable of independently making a choice to end your life?    A better technology to pursue would be technologies that watch us and alert us when we are about to make driving errors. The airliner industry is slowly coming to realize that people in the cockpit are really bad at watching the machine but a machine can be made to effectively watch us.