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DRIVERLESS ELECTRIC CARS
On Wed, 11 Oct 2017 11:26:41 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote: On 10/11/2017 2:40 AM, John B. wrote: On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 08:30:52 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: On Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 1:19:43 AM UTC-4, John B. wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 22:37:43 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 10/9/2017 3:13 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 11:30:40 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski wrote: I wasn't doubting that auto-cars will exist and become popular. I was doubting that the government will "shove them down our throats." I wonder whether they will ever become popular given that they quite obviously will be more expensive, perhaps much more expensive, I am reading numbers as large as $75,000 for Google's autonomous driving vehicle. Didn't SMS recently post something about buying a new car? I seem to remember numbers in the range of a third of that value. I imagine you're right, that in the short term these things will be expensive. But I expect that long term the price difference will be greatly reduced. (I imagine the phone in my pocket would have been worth ten thousand dollars 10 years ago, if it existed at all.) Maybe. But the cost of electric cars is still a bit frightening. However I do read that they qualify for some sort of government pay back scheme in the U.S. Another point is battery replacement cost, from what I read an individual that drives everyday may be looking at a battery change in as little as 5 years. I know several people who own hybrid cars, plus one guy who owns an all-electric Nissan Leaf. What I've heard: The dominant model is the Toyota Prius. It seems Prius battery life has been much better than anticipated; they're going way over 100,000 miles. One guy I know has a hybrid Honda Civic. He lives in a hot southern state. After something like seven years, his battery capacity dropped terribly. IIRC, there was some sort of recall for recalibration of software, but he's still very dissatisfied. Another guy, until very recently, owned a Honda Insight, the very first hybrid I'd ever heard about. It's a tiny, super-aero two seater. He bought his used, it had some electrical/battery problems, and Honda astonishingly replaced the entire battery pack and some wiring for free. However, I wouldn't count on that ever happening again. It didn't with that Civic owner. But the battery packs do have limited life, even if that limit is very long. Replacement is very expensive. So when gauging the long term cost of these cars, it would be good to know the battery lifetime. It might be wise to sell it or trade it in before the battery's due to crap out (if you're that kind of person), and it might be good to research the battery issue heavily before you buy one that's used. Even if self-driving worked only on limited access freeways, it would ease a lot of frustration. I think it would make the experience of freeway driving much more like the experience of riding a train in a private compartment. The couple times I've done that, I found it to be fairly pleasant. I was thinking about the subject last night before I dozed off and the question popped up. At the moment (from what I read) people drive as much as 20 mph faster then the posted speed limit. How is that going to work in the robot car? Will it be possible to order the robot to break the law or will traffic move at the legal speed? IME, seeing someone 20 mph over the limit is pretty rare. Lots of people seem to shoot for 2 to 5 over the limit, though. I used the number as someone here posted that there was usually a 20mph allowance before you get ticketed. I'm sure that the auto-cars will be limited to the limit (duh!). Again, it really doesn't add much time to a typical drive. To divert into psychology: Somehow, being in a car triggers urges to "get to the front" or "get past this guy." The slightly more practical justification is "I don't want to be slowed down." But as we all know, it's not unusual to have a motorist race to pass a bicyclist, then end up sitting at the same red light. The even more stupid freeway example is when a construction project reduces everything to one lane. Passing is impossible, traffic might be lined up for a mile ahead, yet some dolts will tailgate and even honk horns if you're not near the rear bumper of the car in front of you. I don't know whether you remember Uncle Tom McCahill's articles in Mechanics Illustrated but he wrote an article about speed on trips. He drove a car coast to coast and return. One way he drove as fast as possible and on the return he drove at the legal posted speed. The difference was measured in hours. Driving makes many people insane. -- Cheers, John B. |
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