The firm that designed the G1 phone, Mike and Maaike, have developed a concept electric car. OK, I admit that this has nothing to do with Google except in the one degree of separation. It might have more to do with Apple in that the car, dubbed the "atnmble," looks somewhat like an old-style Macintosh monitor. The designers also envision this car to be "driverless." So, while it is toting you around town, you can chat on your G1 or surf the Web.
The car isn't expected to come to life via any particular manufacturer, or perhaps at all, says the earth2tech blog on GigaOM. It is merely a concept offered as an idea for others wanting to design clean-energy transportation for real.
What do you think of this concept? How would a car like this look driving on the 101 toward the Googleplex in Mountain View? Can you see it?
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Googlemobile
I cannot imagine the Google concept car driving on 101 toward the Googleplex but I CAN picture it outside of DC, in the afternoon rush hour, either crushed by or plastered across the grill of a semi. It's small, very unnoticable and look inherently deadly.
Googlemobile
Some people really enjoy driving. I don't want a car driving for me. I don't want to sit on the couch in my uglycapsule on the way to work. The only good thing about this is the fact that by 2040 I'll be approaching senility anyway, and can live in my own little fantasy world where garbage like this doesn't exist.
You don't get to keep
You don't get to keep driving yourself after senility sets in anyway. So, would you rather spend the last 20 years of your life sitting on a couch in your "assisted living" apartment watching TV, or take advantage of amazing technology that still lets you get around and have a life?
Googlemobile
I think that driverless cars, especially cabs are coming - it's only a matter of time. Why does every family need the expense of multiple private cars, and why do business need the expense of providing parking? And I don't see a lot of semis in residential or office districts.
Driverless cars still need
Driverless cars still need to be owned by those who need to be transported. Additionally, driverless cars still need to be parked.
On another note, I saw a semi truck driving down a street in downtown Milwaukee...until it crashed into a skywalk, haha.
Isn't that from the Tilt-a-Whirl?
It looks like the things you sit in on the Tilt-a-Whirl at a carnival. I'd hate to be in an accident with anything bigger than a bicycle in one.
Why?
I could take the bus, or subway, or train and be able to work and surf the internet on the way to my job. Why do I need this?
I agree. But perhaps the
I agree. But perhaps the developers are really just concentrating on the energy-efficiency of it... which I really wonder about. It doesn't look very aerodynamic. It also looks pretty lightweight. A few beefy men could pick it up and take it away.
It's also a bit of a death mobile... So, all in all, let's hope it's never made. It's impractical.
Not everyone lives in major
Not everyone lives in major metropolitan areas with mass transit.
Utterly Impractical
Several key attributes of the design are flawed beyond redemption.
1. It is less aerodynamic than a cinder block. It will require 10 times the energy of a 1965 Econoline van to push down the road. Given anything more than the lightest cross-wind or head-wind component, this thing will immitate your average SunFish mainsail and go careening across all available countryside, despite any amount of potential control input to the contrary.
2. It is a nearly-perfect solar energy collector, much like those portable solar camping ovens, designed to flash-broil any living being unfortunate enough to occupy the interior when exposed to the Sun. Cancel your tanning booth appointments and put a skin cancer specialist on retainer.
3. Wheel base deficiency. Ever driven a luggage cart at a high rate of speed? This thing will wander across any and all traffic lanes on a whim due to its nearly complete lack of a longitudinal axis, without accounting for wind effects. Add in point number 1, and consider yourself strapped-in for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
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