Posted on 08/01/2005 1:37:14 PM PDT by kerrywearsbotox
CHICAGO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Commuters cruise down Interstate 95 from New York City to Washington, D.C., bumper to bumper, at a speed of 120 miles per hour -- about a two-hour trip at that speed. Do they worry about collisions? Not at all. They can even check the Dow Jones industrial average or browse new books on Amazon.com while they motor. By Gene Koprowski
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
We need smarter drivers first.
That sure would make for bad gas mileage.
If the cars are ug close to each other, it would be a lot less impact on mileage. Gear the cars differently, too.
Brought to you by the same people who promised you that everyone would have their own airplane by the year 2000.
Vaporware
For some reason the movie iRobot and The Minority Report come to mind.
The idea has been around for a while, I've never really bought into it. Too many potential random issues (breakdowns, weather created road conditions, the need to pee), plus you've got to find a way to grandfather in the pretech cars that need to be driven by hand, and you've got to deal with the fact that so many Americans still enjoy the act of driving and want to control their own car. But it frequently makes for good sci-fi.
Sounds great.
That is, until the power goes out.
Then what?
Another blackout would bring everything to a standstill.
Murphy's law!
If they're smart, they must be liberals.
hehehe... I thought the same thing.
I-95 goes from Washington DC to Richmond, VA, then down the east coast through Savannah to Miami.
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That sure would make for bad gas mileage.
It could be done, but not cheaply. You would need serious acceleration to catch up with the other auto-traffic when you merge onto the highway. That means you either need lots of gears, or loads of torque to handle the really tall gears needed to get the RPM's down to a reasonable level. To get an engine to do 120mph at an RPM of about 1200 (which is a fairly mileage friendly level), on a car with a 25inch diameter tire and 3:1 rear end you would have to have a transmission with a .25:1 ratio.
And who's going to brake for the child chasing a ball into the road while the driver browses romance novels on Amazon? I guess we'll RFID tag the kids too.
Yeah, I won't hold my breath either.
Insert lyrics from "I.G.Y"
by Donald Fagan, here.
I have a much simpler solution for California. Just get rid of diamond lanes.
A lot of people are driving down I-95 at speeds of up to 100MPH right now , even as we speak.
Didn't GM predict this at the 1964 World's Fair?
(s)how many of those on freeping at 100 mph?(/s)
Seriously, I think there are more than enough low population highway areas that would allow 100 mph speed limits.
I think the REAL issue is that infractions equal income.
Well, I can see a big waste of taxpayers money when the "Acela"...high speed (cough, cough) Amtrack train flies by my shop 200 feet away at a blistering 45 mph.
I've been on steam powered locomotives that would blow it's doors in.
Let's hope the goobermint stays out of this project.
"A lot of people are driving down I-95 at speeds of up to 100MPH right now , even as we speak."
My personal best was 154 on a 1990 FZR 1000 with a $339.00 speeding ticket to prove it.
I'm a lot older now...and a lot smarter (slower) ;)
"ug" close to each other?
Huh?
Of course, if we halted America's runaway population growth by calling an end to immigration, we wouldn't need to make life and government so much more complex than it already is.
Fewer immigrants, less people, fewer cars . .
No need for the nonsense complexity proposed in the article.
Most likely the smartest thing in your car of the future will be the black box that will send a signal to a satellite every time you exceed the speed limit.
And then a fast printer down at the police department will print out your ticket, untouched by human hands.
Paypal, Visa or Mastercard?
If highways get smarter, will people get dumber?
Totally agree, the 55 mph standard for "saving gas" had no respect for the time value of the people who were traveling at 55 rather than 70 or 75 mph. Total PC idiots determined and foisted the stupid "law" on the people.
Totally agree, the 55 mph standard for "saving gas" had no respect for the time value of the people...
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People in Los Angeles do this every day, although not at 120 mph. But they can do it at 70... I grew up doing that.