|
Is complaining about the range of electric cars obsolete yet? "I can afford an expensive electric car but, unlike the average person, I am unmarried and only own one vehicle. Too bad I have to drive 2-3 hours away and then come right back without stopping." Thank god nobody ever buys motorcycles, sports cars, or anything else impractical for a road trip. Oh, and the only people who drive a manual in the U.S. do it because they enjoy it. If anyone (for or against) starts talking about fuel efficiency, acceleration, track times, how manly it is, or maintenance they're just trying to convince other people that 99% of their decision didn't come down to "I do/don't like it".
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 04:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 7, 2024 05:50 |
|
|
Cat Hatter posted:Oh, and the only people who drive a manual in the U.S. do it because they enjoy it. If anyone (for or against) starts talking about fuel efficiency, acceleration, track times, how manly it is, or maintenance they're just trying to convince other people that 99% of their decision didn't come down to "I do/don't like it". Meanwhile, I grew up in Norway where the prevailing attitude has been that automatic transmissions are for people who are incapable of driving a manual, such as my middle school teacher (paralyzed in one arm) or high-functioning mentally challenged persons (at least it used to be that you could get a driver's license only valid for automatic transmissions, and this used to be mostly for the special ed crowd). Apparently, though, this attitude is either obsolete or well on its way there, now, automatics are creeping their way into the mainstream market and have been for some time.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 05:30
|
|
|
There's a doco by James May "Cars of the people" which did look at the history of electric cars. Other early alternatives were steam. Battery powered cars were popular in the city as they didn't have the drawbacks of steam or twitchy starter motors of early gasoline cars and you only were travelling a few blocks. The one thing that is interesting is that an electric car of 1912 has around the same range as one of 2015 so until a massive advance in batteries comes about it's not going to be seen as an horridly expensive gimmick. Jeremy Clarkson described it best as it being like an early laptop - or portable computer. It weighs a ton and seems to do everything worse, but give it ten years and it might just come together.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 05:32
|
|
|
WebDog posted:Battery powered cars were popular in the city as they didn't have the drawbacks of steam or twitchy starter motors of early gasoline cars and you only were travelling a few blocks. Even a twitchy starter motor was a luxury when the alternative was hand‐cranking. Even if you had a chauffeur, you don’t want him breaking his arm all the time. A Model T enthusiast, in 2009 posted:The pain was so excruciating I lay down on the ground and passed out. When I came to, I got up and drove to the hospital. Years later that right wrist is still a little stiff. That experience made me a believer: NEVER, EVER, crank over the top. How I do it: WITH THE IGNITION OFF pull out the choke with the left hand and pull the crank up a couple of strokes with the right. THEN turn the ignition on, engage the crank at about 7 or 8, and pull up with the left hand. A kickback is likely to throw your left hand out of the way. If you use the right hand to pull, the crank may spin back around and whack it before you can get it out of the way. Platystemon has a new favorite as of 05:43 on May 2, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 05:40
|
|
|
Groke posted:Meanwhile, I grew up in Norway where the prevailing attitude has been that automatic transmissions are for people who are incapable of driving a manual, such as my middle school teacher (paralyzed in one arm) or high-functioning mentally challenged persons (at least it used to be that you could get a driver's license only valid for automatic transmissions, and this used to be mostly for the special ed crowd). Yeah, I came pretty close to accidentally posting that without the "U.S. Only" disclaimer. I always find it interesting how car culture evolved in different areas. Coming out of WW2, most of Europe was on the verge of bankruptcy and with piles of rubble instead of factories. Meanwhile, the U.S. had more manufacturing capacity and money than it knew what to do with and ended up cranking out huge land barges while European car companies were building much smaller/cheaper cars. Now Americans are seemingly permanently stuck with the "biggest car is best car" mentality and since nobody wanted a manual transmission on their Extra Bigass Buick any more than anybody wanted a 2 or 3 speed slushbox automatic on their Hemi Cuda, a manual has become a mark of a True Driver(tm) instead of some 50's housewife who needs her car to shift for her. Oh, and all those post-war baby boomers would go take their cars to get away from their parents, hang out with friends, go drag racing, and have sex in the enormous back seat at Lookout Point so now cars=freedom too and you'll take them from our cold dead hands (although cell phones and social media are starting to erode that mentality in the young). Also, if anyone hasn't watched James May's Cars Of The People, you should go do that right now. poo poo, what were we talking about? Elon Musk being literally the devil or banging atomicthumbs's mom or something?
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 06:19
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLg1Wtl9ffQ
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 06:45
|
|
|
WebDog posted:The one thing that is interesting is that an electric car of 1912 has around the same range as one of 2015 so until a massive advance in batteries comes about it's not going to be seen as an horridly expensive gimmick. I like TG as much as the next person, but when it comes to electrics I wouldn't trust them one iota. This is the same crew that went to the North Pole, saw a whole bunch of ice, and declared it was doing "just fine" in face of global warming. That's GOP-quality reasoning. More to the point: even if the car from 1912 had the same range as a Model S or a Leaf, it couldn't do more than 20mph. Or seat five, uh, corpulent modern humans. It didn't have airbags. Or power I know this derail makes me seem like a fanboy, but I drive an IC car from 2005 and I'm not even a Tesla investor like some people here. I just want some proper car comparisons on my comedy forums.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 07:01
|
|
|
Trabant posted:I like TG as much as the next person, but when it comes to electrics I wouldn't trust them one iota. This is the same crew that went to the North Pole, saw a whole bunch of ice, and declared it was doing "just fine" in face of global warming. That's GOP-quality reasoning. Not to mention how Top Gear (aka The Show Formerly Known As Top Gear, aka Jeremy, James, and Richards Currently UnNamed Tv Show) will complain about an electric car for being impractical and then champion the technological dead end of hydrogen fuel cells (which would admittedly be pretty cool if anyone figured out how to produce, store, and transport hydrogen for the prices/scales required).
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 07:28
|
|
|
average volvo 240 owner: average tesla owner: 
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 07:34
|
|
|
OMG shut up about Telsas and Volvos. Lookie here!  http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/old-weird-tech-fascist-italys-mechanized-horse/239259/
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 07:41
|
|
|
Boiled Water posted:I hear you can take this liquid with you in a container of sorts. This is pretty annoying to do with electricity. On the other hand, there's a hell of a lot more places you can plug in a mobile connector than there are gas stations... literally anywhere with a power outlet. Sure, charging off a normal wall outlet is kinda slow, but it's pretty comparable to using a gas can if you plan badly and run out. You can also use the NEMA 14-50 connectors that RVs and campers use for faster charging, and SAE J1772 stations designed for electric vehicle charging are starting to show up too and offer faster charging yet. If you're going across the middle of nowhere, yeah, you probably want the stupid energy density you get from hydrocarbons. But electric vehicles are starting to be practical for many people, and continuing improvement will make them even more so. (And if you're really worried, well, throw a portable generator in the back and you can use a gas can, I guess?) Here, have something related that should be obsolete, but isn't because Japan is insane: NEMA 1 sockets. Jesus christ, it's not like you can't use the plugs in NEMA 5 sockets, it's a fairly common configuration for things that don't need to be grounded in the US. Keiya has a new favorite as of 08:15 on May 2, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 08:06
|
|
|
Keiya posted:On the other hand, there's a hell of a lot more places you can plug in a mobile connector than there are gas stations... literally anywhere with a power outlet. Sure, charging off a normal wall outlet is kinda slow, but it's pretty comparable to using a gas can if you plan badly and run out. You can also use the NEMA 14-50 connectors that RVs and campers use for faster charging, and SAE J1772 stations designed for electric vehicle charging are starting to show up too and offer faster charging yet. NEMA 1 sockets are some third-world poo poo. Get it together, Japan. Wikipedia posted:Ungrounded NEMA 1-15 sockets have been prohibited in new construction in the United States and Canada since 1962.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 08:38
|
|
|
finally something we can all agree on   
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 08:57
|
|
|
Keiya posted:(And if you're really worried, well, throw a portable generator in the back and you can use a gas can, I guess?) I can see it now, a Tesla towing a diesel generator hooked up to the charging port.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 09:14
|
|
|
Pure electric cars are something of a dead end because you introduce an extra layer of energy inefficiency when you create the electricity. The only way they will ever be viable is if all electricity is generated by a fuel source that cannot itself be contained in the vehicle (e.g. nuclear).
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 09:35
|
|
|
Jedit posted:Pure electric cars are something of a dead end because you introduce an extra layer of energy inefficiency when you create the electricity. The only way they will ever be viable is if all electricity is generated by a fuel source that cannot itself be contained in the vehicle (e.g. nuclear). However, gas/coal/oil plants are significantly more efficient than appropriately-sized internal combustion engines for cars, plus the emissions control devices are also significantly more efficient, simply because they do not need to be small and light enough to be mounted on a car. And gas/coal is much cheaper than diesel or gasoline. You also make the car energy agnostic, because it doesn't care where the electricity comes from, so you can move to renewable energy without having to change anything on the cars. I guess you could mount a windmill and/or a solar panel, but the energy from that is not nearly enough to drive any kind of normal car.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 09:53
|
|
|
Loved old PDAs but need more power out of them? This guy might be onto a winner (currently an ongoing project): https://hackaday.io/project/4042-psio 
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 09:54
|
|
|
Car and vehicle chat in this thread really needs to be restricted to posting pics of 80's digital dashboards, anything else is bound to be lame. Have a computer with about a millionth the RAM of a modern home computer yet taking up a living room, and four programmers I guess operating it. 
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 09:56
|
|
|
open24hours posted:I can see it now, a Tesla towing a diesel generator hooked up to the charging port. It’s better than a pusher trailer. 
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 10:05
|
|
|
Jedit posted:The only way they will ever be viable is if all electricity is generated by a fuel source that cannot itself be contained in the vehicle (e.g. nuclear). Or basically any of the renewable options. For instance they make a lot of sense in Norway which is pretty much 100% hydroelectric. Oh, another obsolete (or nearly so) automobile technology: Wood gas-powered engines. Or rather, regular IC engines modified to run on wood gas which is produced right there in a generator unit attached to the vehicle. Used in hundreds of thousands of vehicles in Europe during WW2 when fossil fuels were in short supply (everyone's grandparents reminisced about these loving things when I was a kid), still used in some out-of-the-way places with lovely infrastructure (notably North Korea) today.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 10:08
|
|
|
Groke posted:Or basically any of the renewable options. For instance they make a lot of sense in Norway which is pretty much 100% hydroelectric. One of those prepper type reality shows had a smart old guy that converted a truck to run on wood gas. The only thing I took out of that series was seeing how much cool stuff the guy made with limited supplies.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 10:19
|
|
|
Pilsner posted:Car and vehicle chat in this thread really needs to be restricted to posting pics of 80's digital dashboards, anything else is bound to be lame. Operators operated computers. You know, SysOps.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 10:21
|
|
|
Obsolete technology: computer consoles with built‐in ashtrays:
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 10:30
|
|
|
Back in the day when computer people wore lab coats.  For some content: Ground Effect Vehicles. Essentially seaplanes with insufficient wing area to actually fly. Instead they abuse the ground effect that all aircraft experience where aerodynamic lift increases when close to the ground to skim a few meters over water. In theory, this lets you have a large, fast boat without that pesky water resistance. In practice it has all the limitations of a seaplane combined with the fact that it can't actually fly. The soviet union spent quite a bit of efford on developing the idea, constructing some large and moderately sucessful designs like the A-90 Orlyonok, but when their MoD Dmitriy Ustinov who was basically the 1-man fan club for russian GEVs died in 1985 the entire program was shitcanned. Iran apparently deployed three ground effect patrol craft in 2010, the Bavar 2 which is based on a German design from the 70s. Pictured: An A-90. 
Collateral Damage has a new favorite as of 11:41 on May 2, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 10:32
|
|
|
The beautiful world of ekranoplans.  DigitalRaven has a new favorite as of 10:42 on May 2, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 10:39
|
|
|
atomicthumbs posted:average volvo 240 owner: I hope that color is obsolete. This looks like the start of an interesting music video. drat, beaten to posting ekranoplans.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 12:35
|
|
|
Buttcoin purse posted:This looks like the start of an interesting music video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lox2Ho-Dv9k
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 13:04
|
|
|
To give an idea of size, that particular one is about the same length as a Boeing 747. I think ekranoplans are really cool vehicles so it's a shame they failed
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 14:50
|
|
|
Someone post more about the Volvo 240 as it is the official car of my village.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 16:50
|
|
|
Platystemon posted:Obsolete technology: computer consoles with built‐in ashtrays: I'm old enough to remember arcade cabinets with ashtrays That SAGE console demonstrates two other obsolete technologies:
hackbunny has a new favorite as of 17:23 on May 2, 2016 |
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 17:16
|
|
|
Pilsner posted:Have a computer with about a millionth the RAM of a modern home computer yet taking up a living room, and four programmers I guess operating it. That's high tech compared to the really old computing technology: Mechanical Calculators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h71HAJWnVU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXMuJco8onQ My favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loI1Kwed8Pk These regularly go for 1000+ Euros on eBay.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 17:53
|
|
|
Along similar lines, here's a Navy film on analog fire control computers. It's awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:06
|
|
|
hackbunny posted:I'm old enough to remember arcade cabinets with ashtrays This is probably way off the mark, but I like to imagine that this means that, for a while, civil air flights were actually trying to bomb airports without bombs, making some rusty computer very confused before a pilot took over to land.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:06
|
|
|
I would literally pay 500e for a functioning Volvo 240-series automobile.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:19
|
|
|
Phanatic posted:Along similar lines, here's a Navy film on analog fire control computers. It's awesome. This reminds me of the Norden bombsight, super-secret technology ingredient in the WW2 aerial bombing campaigns by the US. An analog targeting computer, it was supposed to be protected at all cost on the ground (i.e., armed guards) and destroyed if capture by the enemy was likely. While the Norden sight wasn't the all-powerful machine the axis powers imagined it to be, it was considerably more advanced and accurate than competing designs of the time. Any book of WW2 in the air will most likely mention this truly obsolete piece of awesome technology. The last combat use was in Vietnam in 1967.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 18:20
|
|
|
hackbunny posted:That SAGE console demonstrates two other obsolete technologies: A computer with a built‐in telephone  with a rotary dial.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 21:25
|
|
|
Something I've wondered about are the Cray supercomputers of the 70s and 80s. How do they compare to todays computers? A typical PC today has 4 cores, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Do concepts such as RAM and CPU power even relate to a Cray?
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 21:46
|
|
|
TotalLossBrain posted:This reminds me of the Norden bombsight, super-secret technology ingredient in the WW2 aerial bombing campaigns by the US. An analog targeting computer, it was supposed to be protected at all cost on the ground (i.e., armed guards) and destroyed if capture by the enemy was likely. In practice, though, could something with an error factor of 1,200 feet really be described as "more accurate" than anything else? It's like trying to bomb Times Square Studios and hitting the Herald Square Macy's instead.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 21:55
|
|
|
evobatman posted:Something I've wondered about are the Cray supercomputers of the 70s and 80s. How do they compare to todays computers? A typical PC today has 4 cores, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Do concepts such as RAM and CPU power even relate to a Cray? They do somewhat, although the Cray 1 got its best speeds while doing vector processing (read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1#Vector_machines). You can get a little bit better of an idea by comparing operations or instructions per second, but it would be hard to do a completely equivalent comparison between a Cray 1 and a Dell. quote:The system had limited parallelism. It could fetch one instruction per clock cycle, operate on multiple instructions in parallel and retire up to two every cycle. Its theoretical performance was thus 160 MIPS (80 MHz x 2 instructions), although there were a few limitations that made floating point performance generally about 160[10] MFLOPS. However, by using vector instructions carefully and building useful chains, the system could peak at 250 MFLOPS. Bottom line is, even smartwatches have more computing power than a Cray 1.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 21:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 7, 2024 05:50 |
|
|
evobatman posted:Something I've wondered about are the Cray supercomputers of the 70s and 80s. How do they compare to todays computers? A typical PC today has 4 cores, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Do concepts such as RAM and CPU power even relate to a Cray? Your smartphone is more powerful than the 70s ones. Your laptop is more powerful than the 80s ones. Edit: beaten
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2016 21:57
|
|