GM Unveils Networked Electric Mini Cars 206
suraj.sun writes "GM introduced its Electric Networked Vehicle prototypes, one third the size of a typical car, as a way to reduce big urban auto emissions and traffic congestion. The EN-V relies on dynamic stabilization technology similar to that of the one-person Segway scooter to keep its balance, and can be operated autonomously or under manual control. In autonomous mode the EN-V is designed to use high-speed wireless connectivity and GPS navigation to automatically select the fastest route, based on real-time traffic conditions gleaned from the Web or some other networked source of traffic information."
GM's eyes are bigger than its stomach ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously? Toyota — the guys who ate your lunch in the marketplace — can't even make a software-gas-pedal work correctly and you're trying to float an EV that navigates autonomously? Good luck with that. You guys need to stick to trying to make what people want now, not what Shatner fanboys are hoping will exist in 20 years. There are so many technical problems here I don't even know where to start. GPS can't detect when little kids run into the road chasing a soccer ball. Trust me, just work on making the Volt not suck, and maybe try to do something like the Aptera, and you'll be just fine.
On a serious note, I don't get why companies introduce "concept" cars with shit they know can never exist in the near future, and with shit no one wants either. If the idea of a concept car is to "WOW" me with all the stuff you're working on making in the next 10 years, how about you start bragging about high density energy storage and biodiesel powerplants that run on algae-derived fuel. This is the stuff people want that isn't practical yet, but might be someday soon[ish]. No one gives a shit about Segway gyro (remember how well the Segway sold?*) and autonomous driving is best left for SciFi films.
*Dean Kamen is a complete badass, though, and despite his misunderstanding of the market, DEKA's other work [wikipedia.org] is amazing.
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Doesn't solve the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The big problem with automobiles is the problem of space. Modern American cities look like a bomb went off in their downtowns; just a few buildings surrounded by flatness for the sake of parking.
As long as we rely on automobiles for everything, we'll still be consuming too much energy, paying too much to pave too many roads, spending too much money to buy and maintain automobiles, dying in traffic, and wasting time in traffic jams.
Everything besides decreasing auto dependence is just a bandaid. Of course, I wouldn't expect GM to participate in this since they're the ones who killed our public transit system in the first place. [google.com]
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
This ones problem is image (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think this will sell well as most cars and trucks because it's so small. It's like a Prius, small and 'cutesy'. Thing is most people when they buy a vehicle want big, bold/macho, not small and tiny. This is why so many people own trucks, not because they have a need to use it to load things from point a to point b, it's because they want it to be big and send a type of message.
People want their 'must-always-have-with-me' electronics small, but something that isn't meant for your pocket is wanted more as bigger is better.
Re:GM's eyes are bigger than its stomach ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, in an HOV lane this would be easy and a reason to buy one. You could eat breakfast, talk on your cell phone (or text), do your makeup etc. in comfort.
And, with your top speed of 40kph, completely piss off everyone else on the highway.
Re:This ones problem is image (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think this will sell well as most cars and trucks because it's so small. It's like a Prius, small and 'cutesy'.
A prius isn't that small. It's about 'average' sized when compared against a mini, a smart, or even some of the smaller fords and chevys.
Thing is most people when they buy a vehicle want big, bold/macho, not small and tiny. This is why so many people own trucks, not because they have a need to use it to load things from point a to point b, it's because they want it to be big and send a type of message.
People want big vehicles because a whole heck of a lot of Americans live in suburbs or quasi suburbs, where its 5+ miles to the nearest supermarket and the population density is not sufficient to justify a direct bus route from here to there. So even if you are within walking distance to mass transit in these areas, it's a one hour trip vs a 10 minute trip, without having to wait for the bus to come, and without having to crowd on to said bus with enough food to feed a typical family of 2 adults + 2.3 children for a week, and without having to deal with bad weather.
That's a sufficiently drastic difference in quality of life for many people to object to. To put it politely.
As for why trucks/SUVs: Well, until the end of the 1980's you could go out and buy a big station wagon that gave you all the cargo space you could ever want to go grocery shopping for the wife and 2.3 kids, haul plywood and sheetrock for your remodeling/renovation project, and pack the wife and ceil(2.3) kids in comfortably for a road trip, all while getting about 20-25 mpg highway.
Then the first CAFE standards were passed (to stop global warming/reduce dependence on foreign oil, whatever got Al Gore off at the time), and station wagons were no longer profitable to manufacture, what with the huge ass federal tax on them. Trucks, OTOH, weren't covered by CAFE, and people still needed cargo space, so the SUV was invented, and now you get people driving vehicles that are 'bigger' (read: taller), get worse milage than the station wagons did, and don't really have any bigger cargo space. Some are actually shorter and narrower than the station wagons were, and the extra height is taken up by the suspension, so you actually get less cargo space.
So the answer is, as always, blame your congressman.
Re:GM's eyes are bigger than its stomach ... (Score:3, Insightful)
I already read books while driving. Audiobooks, of course.
I can't stand how slow the people read.
Re:GM's eyes are bigger than its stomach ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously? Toyota — the guys who ate your lunch in the marketplace — can't even make a software-gas-pedal work correctly and you're trying to float an EV that navigates autonomously? Good luck with that.
Please. How many cases of "unintended acceleration" have there been? 30? 50? Hell, let's be generous and say 500. Out of 4 million vehicles. In comparison, the US has roughly 6 MILLION accidents per year, more than 80% of which are a result of human error. More than a million people are killed world-wide in traffic accidents every year, and another FIFTY million are injured. And you're worried about an electronic failure rate of 0.01%? Talk about ass-backward priorities!
The sooner we can replace human drivers with computers, the better off we'll be.
Re:GM's eyes are bigger than its stomach ... (Score:3, Insightful)
It'll never fly in America, where cars, like corporations, are deemed to have the same rights as individuals.
A country that's in love with handguns isn't going to give up their god-given Right from when Jesus and Ronald Reagan signed The Constitution to barrel down the federally-funded highways and burn up federally-subsidized oil supplies and listen to anti-government talk radio on the public airwaves. When the most vocal 20 percent of the population literally shat on the floor in fury over regulation of insurance companies, you think they're going to put control of their vehicles into the hands of the communo-fascist Belgian government in Washington?
Sometimes I wonder why the rest of the world hasn't just wiped us off the map as a sensible preventive measure. Maybe the importation of bad British reality TV shows like American Idol is their way of keeping us occupied until they can figure out how to vote us off the island.
Re:GM's eyes are bigger than its stomach ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Mind you, airplane autopilots only need to pay attention to other airplanes, which not only carry a transponder but also are monitored 24/7 by ground control crews, which make a damned good job at placing the airplane somewhere where it can't screw things up. Moreover, on top of all those security systems in place an airplane also carries two or three blokes who dedicate themselves monitoring all those security systems in real time.
Back in the surface, kids don't carry transponder units, nor do other cars, and you wish to rely on the car alone to navigate and evade any objects which may be thrown your way. And if all hell breaks loose the bloke who you are relying to save the day is yourself.
Knowing that, throwing computers at something won't make the problem go away. So as you can see things don't tend to be all that easy.
Re:This ones problem is image (Score:3, Insightful)
That still doesn't require a BIG vehicle.
When I read about Americans upgrading from minivans because precious little snowflake hasn't got enough legroom for the school run I just want to bash my forehead on the desk. And I've read it. Many times.
The other head-basher is when I read macho types saying they need a bigger truck for the daily commute because they have to tow something or other once a year.
And yes, it's a USA thing.