On 08/24/2012 12:54 PM, Terry Blanton wrote:
On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 12:28 PM, ChemE Stewart <cheme...@gmail.com> wrote:
I guess even though it might me simpler just having three wheels, a tricycle
will not attract babes like at the end of the video...
There's a big difference between riding a three vs a two wheeler.
It's in the dynamics.
T
now that I see this two-weeler, and its four wheeler stability, it sets
me to thinking: *why*? Terry's answer may be true. It may be for the
nice dynamics of a two wheeler (though most have become artificial in
this specific example). The other case behind this vehicle must be: the
trend in cars is towards smaller.
So I was wondering, and have been a while, what the future trend will be
in car sizes. I honestly don't know the answer myself.
As said, nowadays, the trend is towards much smaller cars. A large part
of this has to do with pollution and economy.
It is almost certain that In the decade(s) to come we will have
autonomous, self-driving cars, like Google is testing now. There is also
not unthinkable that variable costs will become ultra low, for example
when LENR becomes practical for use in cars.
Initially, the self-driving will be human assisted, meaning you will
actively participate in traffic. Soon, however, we will all want to turn
our chairs and sit at a desk and do some work, or have some
entertainment, as the car brings us where we want to be. For this you
will need some amount of space.
Parking space for these larger cars may not be much of an issue, when
you can instruct the car to park itself outside of town, if only to save
some money, and ask it to be back in time to pick you up later.
In traffic itself, it may not take long before we introduce some kind of
scheduling or reservation algorithm (much like you can have QoS -
Quality of Service - on a computer network). We can then 'reserve' a
slot for our car in non congested traffic. This allows for less
congestion, more optimal use of asphalt and more space on the road for
bigger cars.
Thinking even further, and taking into account 'free' energy like LENR,
I envision that if, for example, you live somewhere in Europe and want
to spend the weekend in southern France, you just make arrangements for
this around bedtime, get in your much bigger car and make it go it that
way, then go to sleep. This would call for a more camper / Van like
configuration, with room for some pre-sleep entertainment and a bed. And
maybe even one that will provide you the comfort you need for your stay
there. Costs would only be some tire wear and maybe toll for the roads.
Even when forgetting all this really sci-fi autonomous stuff (that I
think in fact has a larger reality factor than free energy) , would it
be true that if by using LENR we get rid of the "guilty" feeling most of
us now have with big pickup trucks and SUVs etc, everyone will want to
have one, again?
What do you guys think... will cars become bigger again?
Andre
