4th of July, 2014

[Art Blade]

here you may use a mobile phone in a car ONLY IF you use a hands-free car kit. Which implies no texting (unless of course, speech-to-text can be used LOL)

[PZ]

The only way to stop people from using the phone while driving is to have a signal killer installed in every car

[Art Blade]

that will disable those GPS road maps navigator apps as well, not good.


Just have the car remotely detonated via GPS triangulation if text messages or related apps are being used when it's moving. Co-drivers and passengers are advised not to use their mobiles, either, just to avoid confusion.

[PZ]

Just have people purchase a mobile GPS device, and kill only phone signals. 

[Art Blade]

damn pacifists

[PZ]

 

[Dweller_Benthos]

Luckily for me, the new car came with cell phone integration with blue tooth, so I don't even take it out of my pocket when I get in the car. It actually surprised me with the text messaging when the car was brand new, as I was up north where there isn't a cell signal, and went out to town one evening with friends and once we got in range, the car starts talking and reading off the messages that had piled up while I was out of range. My friends were impressed, though I had no idea how to turn it off (luckily only a couple messages so it didn't last long) and also no idea how to respond if I had wanted to, which I didn't. But it will take voice dictation and send messages that way, so I guess we are living in the future where your car talks to you?

[PZ]

Sounds cool 

I'll draw the line at my car driving for me though - I enjoy that aspect of travel too much 

Funny that I suck at driving in a video game, but I'm fairly good in real life. 

[Art Blade]

I suppose you don't drive your real life car with ASWD or a thumb joystick.

[PZ]

 

Now, that would be a trick 

[fragger]

Hands-free systems are permissible here too.

I'm with you PZ, I don't want my car driving itself. For one thing, I enjoy the act of driving too much. For another thing, on a long trip, driving gives me something to do along the way, especially in a manual, which I prefer (I don't like automatics at all, a consequence of being a control freak ). In a self-driving car I wouldn't be able to nap or anything to pass the time, I'd be too nervous about the system making errors. So if I was in the car alone, I guess I'd just sit there like a nervous manikin. O joy.

[Art Blade]

manual is cooler. You can't really rev up like a maniac in an automatic.

[PZ]

Indeed - two of our three vehicles are manual transmission, and for my entire adult life I have always had at least one manual transmission vehicle.

[fragger]

True, Art Not that I do that though, I prefer to get good life spans out of my engines

I only ever had one auto, an '82 Subaru Liberty. I bought it off a Canadian neighbour who urgently had to return to Canada for some reason and he needed to get rid of the car ASAP, so I picked it up almost for a song. It only had about 17 thousand kays on the clock and was still like new, he'd really looked after it. It was a great car, but it just screaming to be a manual. I could actually get a bit of torque braking out of it, even downhill, which is pretty unusual for an auto. That's another thing I like about manuals - I use the gearbox for most of my braking, so I save a lot on brake pads. I've had my current car for 8 years now and not only does it still have the original pads, they're still good for a few more years yet.

[Art Blade]

Hehe I like to drive a car to the maximum range of the gears, so I do rev up quite a bit, like driving a racing car. However, if the traffic is slow, I won't do that, either.

Automatic.. it feels so strange when you try to kick down the clutch and only see those two pedals. One MASSIVE brake pedal as if meant for an elephant's foot and that gas pedal. I drove an automatic once or twice (as in one or two trips) and never liked it a bit. I remember an old battle cruiser size Opel Diplomat and one Opel Admiral, from the 70s, that came with auto gear shift. They were cool for cruising around a bit, but damn.. I much rather have some $p@rts car..