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Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Technical issues not related to a DLOC car marque, eg tyres, ethanol, other car makes, etc. and legal, political and insurance
PatrickDixon
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Location: Gloucestershire UK

Re: Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Post by PatrickDixon »

I think driverless cars will change the whole game.

Once you have driverless cars (and it won't be long) you'll call the car to the door when you want to go somewhere and it'll go and recharge itself at a central storage point when you are not using it. That covers most local journeys and gets over the issue of charging cars for people with no off-street parking.

For longer journeys, maybe improved battery technology or petrol/electric hybrids will be the solution (but still driverless).

I don't think people will own driverless cars; they'd just rent what's appropriate for their journey using a phone app.

Once driverless cars are established, you'll find that self drive will be forbidden on certain roads. Probably city centres to start with and then maybe the m-way network.

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John-B
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Re: Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Post by John-B »

Patrick, I think that will be long after I'm dead. In the meantime, electric cars with more charging points aren't really the answer as you have to wait so long for a recharge. The proposal to exchange batteries automatically from under the car at a booth like a car wash seems the way to go. You drive into the booth and the battery is unclamped and replaced by a mechanism from underneath.

Christopher Storey
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Re: Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Post by Christopher Storey »

I regard driverless cars as a fantastic dream which will forever remain just that . The automated transport systems which have been installed e.g. DLR , some airport shuttle trains etc , have proved far from reliable despite the very limited number of variables which have to be dealt with. The limitations of aircraft automated systems which are operated in a heavily monitored - and disciplined - environment still cause significant problems , some of which culminate in fatal accidents. The number of variables which a moving vehicle has to deal with simultaneously is virtually exponential in comparison, and the sensory and computing power needed is of a completely different dimension from that in more regulated environments such as aviation

Sydsmith
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Re: Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Post by Sydsmith »

In 1958 I went to a presentation to radio and TV engineers by Mullard in the Green Dragon Hotel Hereford. It was the introduction to the trade of Transistors. Us young ones drank it all in, the sages that attended were entirely convinced that it would never catch on, far too fragile, beside what on earth would be the use of such a device.

Some years later I went to a seminar in Birmingham presented by Panasonic. It was the introduction of flat panel plasma TV to the trade, still in the development stage. Colour TV's were then costing about £3-400. It will never catch on said the sages, far too expensive, no one will ever pay a £1,000 for a TV.

Point I am making is that you can never tell where development will take us. That which today appears incredible is often tomorrows must have.

I personally dread the thought of being dragged about in a driver less car. Hopefully I will be well past it or in my box before we have to suffer that horrible development.

This afternoon I popped the lawn mower in the back of my car, drove half a mile, cut my daughters lawns and drove back, my neighbour out for a sunny afternoon run gave me a toot as he passed in his Morgan with the hood down. How is a driver less system going to cope with that scenario. Will people be content to be at the beck and call of a robot system?

But 60 years ago, some said the transistor was a dead duck.

A.N.Other
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Re: Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Post by A.N.Other »

Advancement in technology claims to present opportunity for one and all from prince to pauper.
In reality it makes George Orwell’s imagination more realistic.
Driverless cars are without doubt a fantastic concept which solve the need for taxis. Don’t for one minute think that they will be cheap and for use of the average paupers, they won’t. Folk like me will be on the driverless bus.
In an ever increasingly populated world the gap between the haves and have nots will grow.
I don’t really care what fuels my choice of vehicles in future. What I want to maintain is my freedom to use what vehicle I wish, when I wish to use it and when I want to use it.
A matter of freedom. Some thing I believe is diminishing as time rolls on.
Colin,
I may be slow but I’m rough as well !

Sydsmith
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Re: Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Post by Sydsmith »

The performance of the computer, TV, radio and domestic electronics industry over the past ten twelve years in providing value for the masses would question your claim Colin.

Current quality home electronics prices are a fraction of what they were 10 years ago. Almost every thing home electronic has fallen greatly in price year on year and at the same time improved greatly in performance and facilities. Products now very much in the ball park of the minimum wage earner. Lower income families have a great deal from those products.

Development and manufacturing improvements have very much been to the advantage of the less well off as a proportion of their income. Syd

A.N.Other
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Re: Electrically v hydrogen powered vehicles

Post by A.N.Other »

Yes your right Syd and the world is probably a better place for it.
The exception to your accuracy is vehicular transportation. I would question in real terms if cars have followed the same trends.
Colin,
I may be slow but I’m rough as well !

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