Read this, pretty cool car of the future

[fretman124]

I guess PBS did a little documenttry on cars of the future. I didn't get to see it, but a freind who did pointed this out.

http://www.theaircar.com/#

pretty interesting. what do you all think?

 

[david_42]

I've been following this company for years. Some good ideas, but they can't make it work. And the "engine" is freaking complicated.

 

[kornkob]

This is one of those 'I'll believe it when I see it' kinds of things. Till then I treat it like perpetual motion.

 

[Docapi]

This is one of those 'I'll believe it when I see it' kinds of things. Till then I treat it like perpetual motion.

Actually, I saw this show.

The car runs on compressed air. They make the compressed air with a generator that runs off of- you guessed it- compressed air.

The announcer then went on to claim that they wanted to put the generator on board the car- then they could use the compressed air in the car to run the generator.

He claimed the car would never need a fillup- it would be using it's compressed air to make more compressed air and never run out.

Heck, that is BETTER than perpetual motion!

That was about the time I turned the channel. What kind of idiots do they think we are?

 

[rohanski]

Looks like a Barbie car to me.

 

[rdwj]

A little off topic, but I think the days of actually driving a car are close to being over. By the time I have grandkids, I expect all cars to be satellite guided; just state your destination and you're off.

We already have the backbone technology, with gps, we can pinpoint where people are on a map, we just need the ability to control - something I know the government is already doing with planes.

The cool thing is that accidents would be greatly reduced and drunk driving would become a non-issue.

 

[rohanski]

The cool thing is that accidents would be greatly reduced and drunk driving would become a non-issue.

I'm listening.

 

[Alamo_Beer]

A little off topic, but I think the days of actually driving a car are close to being over. By the time I have grandkids, I expect all cars to be satellite guided; just state your destination and you're off.

We already have the backbone technology, with gps, we can pinpoint where people are on a map, we just need the ability to control - something I know the government is already doing with planes.

The cool thing is that accidents would be greatly reduced and drunk driving would become a non-issue.

How sweet would that be? You'd have your own personal chaufer! Wonder if drinking AND "driving" would be ok then?

 

[Docapi]

A little off topic, but I think the days of actually driving a car are close to being over. By the time I have grandkids, I expect all cars to be satellite guided; just state your destination and you're off.

We already have the backbone technology, with gps, we can pinpoint where people are on a map, we just need the ability to control - something I know the government is already doing with planes.

The cool thing is that accidents would be greatly reduced and drunk driving would become a non-issue.

GPS is going to have to be improved as well. At this point, 10ft accuracy is only under ideal conditions with 30ft more common. Unless they make the lanes 60 feet wide, you are going to have a problem.

 

[rdwj]

GPS is going to have to be improved as well. At this point, 10ft accuracy is only under ideal conditions with 30ft more common. Unless they make the lanes 60 feet wide, you are going to have a problem.

It's actually already capable of being much more pinpoint that what's commercially available from what I've read. There are certainly advancements that need to be made, but technology improves rapidly.

 

[Tenchiro]

This is one of those 'I'll believe it when I see it' kinds of things. Till then I treat it like perpetual motion.

In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

 

[Cheesefood]

A little off topic, but I think the days of actually driving a car are close to being over. By the time I have grandkids, I expect all cars to be satellite guided; just state your destination and you're off.

We already have the backbone technology, with gps, we can pinpoint where people are on a map, we just need the ability to control - something I know the government is already doing with planes.

My wife will still get lost and call me with the

"I just passed XYZ street but I think I'm on the wrong street and going in the wrong direction. Help!"

"Which direction are you headed?"

"Left"

 

[Bobby_M]

It's actually already capable of being much more pinpoint that what's commercially available from what I've read. There are certainly advancements that need to be made, but technology improves rapidly.

There was something like military GPS and civilian GPS and for national security reasons that limited the accuracy of the civilian receivers to +/- 50 feet or something like that. It was recently opened up with no restrictions. IIRC, the military high end receivers are good for +/- 6 inches while the more cost effective consumer grade ones are more like 5-10 feet.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Crap, based upon the web address, I was hoping for something more like a Jetson's car... now that would be pretty sweet. No real "lanes" just wide open sky...

Hmm... on second though; people already have trouble driving on clearly defined lanes with clearly marked traffic signs - I can't imagine what it would be like with anarchy in the sky!

 

[the_bird]

Crap, based upon the web address, I was hoping for something more like a Jetson's car... now that would be pretty sweet. No real "lanes" just wide open sky...

What, you mean like "The Flying Car"?

[YOUTUBE]IsFfBB2W7IA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Kevin Dean]

It was recently opened up with no restrictions.

I was developing an application for OpenMoko (a phone built entirely on Free Software, meaning you're encouraged to edit, modify and share the code all you want) that took advantage of some GPS capabilities.

Unfortunately, not only are certain GPS applications regulated, they're HEAVILY regulated by the "International Traffic In Arms" regulations, right between rocket launchers and nuclear test equipment.

 

[Docapi]

There was something like military GPS and civilian GPS and for national security reasons that limited the accuracy of the civilian receivers to +/- 50 feet or something like that. It was recently opened up with no restrictions. IIRC, the military high end receivers are good for +/- 6 inches while the more cost effective consumer grade ones are more like 5-10 feet.

What you are thinking of was called "selective availability". What it did was send slightly fluctuating signals from the sattelites, so the receivers were not able to be very accurate (garbage in, garbage out). The government and military had the ability to clean up the signals somehow, so their GPSr's worked OK.

Clinton turned off SA in '99 or '00, and everybody's GPS receivers started working better the next moment.

A guy named Dave Ulmer celebrated by placing a sytash of stuff, or "cache" near a highway, recording the Coordinates, and posting in in a newsgroup, and the growing "sport" (For lack of a better word) of "Geocaching" was born.

www.geocaching.com


Yes, the high end GPS'es do work better, but they usually use a combination of sattelite and radio technoology, and are prohibitively expensive.

The regular ones you see in the sporting goods stores Claim up to 3' accuracy, but I have Never once seen better than 12' being displayed by mine, and even then, the reality is that the real error is much larger.