We need a universal Morse code headlight blink signal for “TURN ON YOUR HEADLIGHTS!” for the “I can see my dashboard and my Darls alone are adequate for forward vision when dark” crowd
And that, alas, is the problem I commonly see in Montreal.
Good lord, YES!!! I flash my lights all the time at people, and they never seem to know what it means.
This^^^ Drives me absolutely batshit. “I can see the road!” Yes, but can other people see you?
Legit self driving cars. Like actual chauffeur quality driving. All electric, natch, and done up via subscription rather than having to own and operate your own car. Tap your cellphone implant, bracelet or handheld, tell the service where you want to go, and a car will pull up to your location.
Want a long distance trip? The car will stop at a way station, give you a chance to stretch your legs, maybe get a bite to eat or drink, and you’ll hop into a different fully charged car, stagecoach style, and continue the trip.
The Subaru Express?
The Pony Car Express.
They used to have something very like this. They were called “trains”.
I deliberately drive dark colored cars for two reasons.
I live in snow country. When everything else is white, what are you going to see? A white car, or a dark car.
Also, a dark car will absorb more sunlight to warm it, and melt the snow off of it faster.
Yes I overthink this stuff. But everything helps. I’ll take any advantage I can get.
I live in rain country - no matter what color, against a gray, cloudy background with rain coming down, nothing is going to be readily visible without lights. And it’s not just oncoming, but people going my direction in the other lane, if I need to change lanes, they’re not readily visible.
Totally agree Dogginit. The plows in snow country scape the lines off the roads. Lines last for a bit, and are gone.
I make a lot of drives East to West, and vis versa. Lots of sunshine. I drive with my lights on day or night.
When driving in sun country, I see the little bump/reflector lane markers. Not so in snow country. They wouldn’t last a week.
State snowplows throwing sparks off its blade does get your attention though.
I would love this, I think. I might just enjoy doing the math every 10 minutes or so. Seriously, I like it.
I would like to see a semi-permanent non toxic pan seasoning product. Either spray or wipe on. I do mine the old fashion way with cooking oil but I have a feeling there might be a better product to make seasoning easier.
Trains in the US suck. Primarily because if your destination city doesn’t have good public transportation, you’re overpaying to hire a human to drive you around, renting a car, or waiting forever for lousy public transportation to get you where you want to go. I’m not taking a train from NYC to Baltimore just to have to rent a car, I’ll drive my own car the 3.5 hours.
Now, with my robot chauffeurs, trains may be more useful. The car service I pay for at home would grant me access to cars all over the network, so I get a robot car to drop me off at the train station in NY, and pick me up in Baltimore, and I have access to a car in Baltimore the same way I have access to a car at home.
I like this idea! Improve the trains too, though.
They suck now partly because the passenger train system has massively deteriorated. There used to be a whole lot more trains, and also a whole lot more stations. In the 1930’s it was possible get onto the system by flagging the train down as it passed my farm. (No cite. Verbal information from the man I bought the place from.)
The robot cars, or even a non-robot system of easily rentable cars at the stations, would indeed be a useful addition; but if it’s a day’s drive to the nearest passenger train stop and the train only goes through there once a day at 2 in the morning, the cars alone won’t fix the problem. Unfortunately a lot of the old railroad routes have had other things built on them by now.
I just thought of something else. If you’ve ever had to pack a moving van, a storage space, or your attic, etc., it’s difficult to know how to pack your items to use the space as efficiently as possible. It would be great to have an app that would calculate the items you have versus the dimensions of your storage space so that everything is packed intelligently (no concrete blocks on top of ripe tomatoes) so that you don’t have to rent another storage space.
I had this feature on my 1985 Oldsmobile 98 Regency. Nice cruiser.
I think something like this exists. Years ago I bought a box full of stuff (pantry items) that would ship for one price. As I added things, Amazon kept track of my available space.
I “filled the box” and when it arrived, it was, indeed, full.
That’s an NP complete problem–without even the added complication of no cinder blocks on tomatoes.