I'm not one to start a political thread and hope this doesn't turn in to one, so lets keep it non political if possible. I heard about this a little while ago and just saw this article http://www.mercurynews.com/business...hicle-vehicle-communication-road-self-driving. Apparently, there are some people who want all new cars to be able to communicate to each other for accident avoidance. If this does come to fruition, at what point will they make older vehicles illegal? I may have to move to Central or South America.
Eventually, we'll all be sitting in 'smart cars' where you simply punch in your destination and the vehicle does the rest. Although this is getting very close to being done on an experimental basis for individual vehicles, it's still far off for even nationwide implementation. The car-to-car communication thing is still very new. It will take a lot of work still. I'm thinking widespread use of this technology is at least 20-25 years out. It's not going to a thing where they flip a switch one day and all our vehicles will then drive themselves. It will have to be able to co-exist with 'regular' driver-operated vehicles on the road. Those won't go away for a long, long time. Don't get too worried, EF.
The only vehicle to vehicle communications that I can abide involves the use of human gestures and I won't have any part of the new cars in part because I can't be sure what kind of crap has been put in there. mike
The only communicating I do to others while driving is "UP YOURS !" Many newer cars are already smarter than the operators. My truck is so stupid it thinks the door is a JAR.
As one of the younger generational members here... I'm not comfortable with the thought that the cars that I love and cherish will someday [again] face becoming designated obsolete. I don't like the idea of driving a disposable camera with wheels. I refer to a comment that I made not long after I joined the SWF where I talked about the Back To The Future movies in which they took old vehicles and "Converted" them to the modern technology... I would rather drive a Mercury Marquis with an alternative power engine than have it taken away from me because of the engine it was meant to have... That being said. I would and always will prefer the engine it was meant to have. They're not taking my Wagon away from me!
I'm with KK on this one, this kind of technology being implimented on a wide scale at least 20 years out. It would be a dark day indeed if they took everything say pre 95' and deemed it non road worthy.
Given the state of current generations, a vehicle that drives itself is a necessity because they will be using all the other communications devices to socially network with one another, thus not having a clue what is going on outside of the vehicle.
I watched a short clip how crooks with nothing but a small electronic box walk up to a car and the doors all unlock. They then remove whatever they want in seconds. This is with later model computer controled cars. It's so nice to know these $50,000 vehicles are so safe. Next they will have a gismo to make the engine stop so they can rob the drivers when in the boonies. I remember never locking my cars or rolling the windows up in company parking lots. day or night. I often left the key in mine at home. Stop spanking kids and keep sending our jobs away and what do we expect?
