I watched a program concerning cars and what cars were in the past and probably will be in the future. I was pleased to note that some manufacturers are turning back to rear wheel drive, since I always disliked it for several reasons.
The first was because on slippery corners, the darn thing made turning onto the road somewhat hazardous if you were in a hurry. Then I questioned the massive amount of weight on the reinforced front, leaving little in the rear for stopping power. (In a rear wheel drive car, the gear box, drive shaft and heavier axle added weight there. Plus, the rear brakes often grabbed first, throwing the weight forward, onto the heavier front end and forcing the wheels to dig in.) Lastly, those boots break far too easily and the pin bearings inside get all screwed up from dirt. Replacing them is expensive.
Besides, I like scratching off, being thrown back in the seat, the front end raising up and the big back wheels laying down an awe inspiring ribbon of black and twin streams of smoke.
Anyhow, they were discussing how a car might soon become electronically steered, with sensors in the steering to adjust to the road – they have those now – and make it less likely for the driver to over steer. In short, there might not be any solid connection between the steering wheel and the steering box.
We all better get massive raises to be able to buy these cars!
I’ve been around electronics as a user since before Microsoft. I’ve been around cars since birth, again as a user. One thing that I am absolutely sure of is that things human made break down. Look at that mass of sophisticated precision machinery known as the shuttle. It breaks down frequently. We’ve lost a few space probes, marvelous miracles of engineering, because something failed.
So, what happens if you’re tooling around in your electronic car and the steering computer packs it in? How do you steer to safety? Currently, with a hard connection to the gear box, if the sensors fail, so what? If the power steering goes out, you can still steer.
Plus the cars are to become virtually a computer. Web connections, Internet, phones, TV, guide maps, specialized air bags and so on. (They are up in arms about cell phone drivers getting in wrecks now. Just wait until they have access to the Internet. One car model has it already!)
Computer repairs on cars are expensive now! How about when they become rolling electronics? The last car I drove using electronic ignition crapped out on me and cost me a bundle to get it fixed. However, the auto shops sold standard ignition kits for under $10. $2 would get me a distributor cap and good rotor from a junk yard.
New auto shops charge now for plugging into your computer and electronically analyzing the motor. My home computer cost me $350 when I fried a component! I refill my $28 HP printer cartridges! A tiny chip burned out in my answering machine and the repair shop told me to buy a new one because they’d charge me more than the machine was worth to fix it! The last VCR I took in for repair would have cost more to fix than to buy another. (I pitched it.)
What if you electronic car pops a whole bunch of circuits out on one of those famous, long Western desert roads? Everything shuts down. Even the built in cell phone. What then? Fuel is regulated by computer now and when those babies go, repair shops drool with anticipation of the bucks they’ll charge to fix them.
With all of this, of course, comes more power demands, so they are building, or trying to, 42 volt batteries. With everything automatically powering up when you turn the key, you are screwed if you have a bad cell. My uncle’s car turns on it’s running lights when he starts it. Low battery and he can’t even turn them off to get the thing going to get it to a shop. (We found that out. I had to go pick him up and take him to the store to buy one.)
With older cars, you could get by if some systems failed. Many, you fixed yourself. My neighbor has a new car which firmly instructs him Never, Ever to get it jumped nor to use it to jump start another car. If his battery poops out because his alternator went, he can’t even jump it to drive to a shop. He gets to pay for a tow. ($30 to $60).
I don’t know. Are we starting to push the technology too fast for general use in transportation without examining the potential for major problems? I mean, look at Cuba. They’re still running cars from the 1950s because they can make replacement parts by hand.
They’d be sunk with more modern cars. How do you make a chip by hand? (Well, you can but it might be the size of a brief case when you finished.)
Should we be more cautious? The automobile industry has a long, long history of concentrating on profit verses safety, designing and selling new cars for higher prices and ignoring flaws until sued. Often, they, and we, produce and introduce products, excited about the demand and profit without looking into all aspects of potential problems.
Cell phones for one. Laptop computers on aircraft for another. Radar ranges and pace makers. Small boat motors and oil pollution from their exhaust. Weed blowers and noise pollution. Propane powered floor polishers and the increase in CO2 from their exhaust in the closed stores they are used in. Lithium batteries and land fill pollution. The ever famous freon and it’s effect on the ozone layer.
(Tires. A question. They wear out. The rubber grinds off into powder. I’ve seen it on the sides of paved roads. Billions of tires. What is happening to all of the rubber dust? What is it doing?)
Should we be more cautious with the car technology instead of ‘hey! Lets install this computer connected to the Internet! Think of the uses! Think of the profit!’ (They didn’t think of the distraction and potential for accidents.)
