What exactly is this? Do I need one? (Any excuse to shop…)
My newish car has cameras all around.
With the front cameras I can see what’s in front of the front bumper, compare how far my nose is ahead or behind the other cars on each side and exactly where it is versus the curb or bumper ahead.
With the side cameras I can look down at the side of the car full length and at the stripes on both sides of the parking space to see whether I’m straight vs crooked and centered vs offset to one side. If parallel parking I can see the whole curb alongside and how far out I am.
With the backup camera I can see behind me like the last few years’ cars have done, with the projected path as I turn and what’s the tightest possible turn I could make from here and whether that intersects any obstacles displayed. Plus out to the sides from the rear so I’m not blind as I try to back out between two tall trucks or vans. And of course the cameras and the all around ultrasonic sonar are measuring the distance to the closest obstacles and providing visual and audible warnings pointing towards the closest obstacles as I get close to scraping paint.
Pretty cosmic compared to older cars.
All factory installed features; I don’t think there’s any way to buy an aftermarket gizmo like this.
“Rump roasters” - HAHAHAHA
I have to agree with heated car seats. I would not have gone out of my way to get this feature. A couple years ago, we rented a Ford Expedition for a family car trip - my son and I were driving from DC to Milwaukee for a wedding, and I’d reserved a minivan as we’d be transporting others once we got to Milwaukee. Another family came in just as we arrived, hoping for a minivan - another location had told them that this one likely had one.
Well, they had one - the one we’d reserved. The clerk asked of we’d be willing to take that Ford Explorer up the hill. I glanced up the hill, said “will it seat 6?” and he said he thought it would seat 8, so we took it. I’m quite sure they lost money on that rental - they charged us the minivan rate, and even discounted that a little bit - but we really enjoyed it. That thing was a monster - took nearly 30 gallons to fill it, on the other hand we only had to refill once on the trip, once there, and once on the way back. And it had every bell and whistle you could think of and then some - including heated seats. I tried 'em, and thought “meh. Nice but not essential”.
Maybe I was lightheaded from the altitude - that thing was hard for ME to climb into, and I’m quite tall; the floorboards were above my knees when I stood next to it.
Anyway - last fall we had to get a new car. No, we did not get that Ford Explorer (though I still recall it with fondness) but we wanted the top trim line of the Honda CRV because that version had the parking assist and some other goodies… and heated seats were included.
And I love them. Not that we did much driving this past winter what with COVID, but it was nice to be able to run out to the garage, sans coat, and have ourselves comfortably warm that much faster. The heated steering wheel is still sort of meh though I expect if we were in a colder climate, or had arthritis in my hands, I’d love it.
I’m jealous. Mine has the noise maker when there’s an obstacle, but no visual (aside from the backup camera).
Note to self: never, EVER dine at ChefGuy’s, despite the username. Methinks he’s a very ConfusedChefGuy :D.
Okay, I think I get it. It’s the camera that shows you the view when you’re backing up the car. The terse language did not convey that to me on first reading. Carry on.
P.S. I have one, too.
Cayman Jack’s canned margaritas. I have extremely low expectations for what is basically a wine cooler with better marketing.
But they are actually pretty good. Not far from a generic house margarita. And a hell of a lot easier.
Boy, could I ever use one of those right now! (Just the thing when you’re taking a break from the Mosquito Wars…)
I think @LSLGuy might have talking about is surround view vehicle cameras, which is much more than a backup camera. You actually get a top-down view of your vehicle in reference to your surroundings. Here’s a short YouTube video that explains it and shows what the system looks like from inside your car. I too have backup camera, and I would love to have this instead.
But are those surround view camera setups in autos available as an aftermarket addon, or must they be designed into the car?
Mrs. L is especially fond of these items—not the specific brands, but this type of thing. My qualms about the veggie chopper are the cleanup after using it, plus damn easy to cut yourself on the razor sharp blades.
Apparently there’s aftermarket units but the install must be a bitch. I’d rather have one in a new vehicle purchase.
Interesting. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos on Near Death Experiences (NDEs), and this sounds like a camera that gives you the view of someone who leaves their body during surgery (for example) and hovers near the ceiling of the operating room where they can see and hear everything. They could call them “NDE Cameras” – on second thought, not such a great idea.
I use regular kitchen scissors to cut up salad. After the greens are in the bowl, I stick my scissors in and just snip-snip-snip away. But those dedicated scissors are very cool. And the chopper, too.
Yeah, my ex was way into these gadgets, and personally 99% of the time I’d rather use my mad kitchen knife skillz than clean up a kitchen gadget, and yes, some of them, like mandolines, are pretty dangerous in use or during cleanup.
Speaking of which, my son got me a Chinese chef’s knife as a gift. I was quite skeptical as a long time French chef’s knife wielder, but I love it! Extremely versatile and my regular chef’s knife mostly sits in a drawer now. Here’s one like the one he got me, but mine is much less expensive.
If it amuses you, Mad chinese chef’s knife skilz. Note the technique where you hold your knuckles against the tall blade for fine slicing, this is a great technique and I use it. There’s a bunch of cool tricks that don’t work on a Euro knife.
My sister has a version of the veggie chopper she uses for onions. She finds it easy to clean.
I use something like this for small stuff. Smack your hand down repeatedly, easy peasy. Does poorly with garlic – too sticky. But onions or cucumbers or whatever are fine.
My new favorite saying (I picked it up on Jalopnik dot com) is “It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast.” Better than spending way more on a fast car that you have to drive slow… in other words, slower than it wants to go (especially problematic if you don’t want a ticket).
My car got totaled (it’s a miracle I wasn’t totaled as well, so I’m on Bonus Time now)… anyhow, insurance gave us less than $3k for it, and my wife said “Well, there’s your budget. Good luck finding something.”
LoOoOoow expectations.
I went over the local Craigslist listings with my car guy, and when I saw an old Honda Insight (2-seater, first hybrid!) being sold for pocket change, Car Guy said “Don’t expect much, it’ll be tiny and too slow for the track… I wouldn’t buy it, but I know you and this car is Quirkiness Over Practicality.”
It’s been a blast, and no repairs after the ones Car Guy did right off the bat… so I’ve had years now of solo 50+ mpg adventures. And I can redline it and drift, all without speeding!
Oh, almost forgot, the best part is that my wife hates it. So not only will she never want to borrow it, but its very existence annoys her. That elevated it from Cheap Beater to Dad’s Midlife Crisis Car.
I love watching stuff like that. If you slow the video down to .75 or .5 speed, the skills are still great, but the performance is much more normal than the speeded up version.
That way of holding the veggie while slicing is The Claw, and professionally trained chefs use it. You can tell who’s not one by observing their slicing grip (lookin’ at you, Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, and Nigella Lawson). Bracing the knuckles against the blade is definitely easier with a wide knife like the Japanese/Chinese cleaver.
I drove an Insight for over 15 years! The transmission died at about the time the batteries would need replacing, I was going to retire in about a year and didn’t really need the great mileage, so I replaced it with a Civic. But I liked driving it. Yeah, sometimes it was a little scary on the freeways (especially the 710), but I really liked it. It was a great commuting car. And when we had a gang going out to lunch I never had to drive because it wasn’t optimal to take a two-seater.
One of my first longer trips was up to the Bay Area to visit friends. I was in a gas station in Vallejo, and as I was filling the tank, a couple of guys came over and were really interested because it was the first hybrid they’d seen. One guy nearly fell over when I said this was the first time I’d put gas in the car since leaving Los Angeles…and I even had a little left in the tank.