Bill Gates Envisions Cars that Can't Crash

On second thought, I just might linke this idea..... I am in the computer, network, security business. This would definately give me job protection and may actually line my pockets!

The new acronym for Ford:

Format Or Reboot, Daily.



[edit on 3-5-2005 by HowardRoark]

Originally posted by HowardRoark
The new acronym for Ford:

Format Or Reboot, Daily.

Well, I'm sure that won't be necessary if you drive the open source version, the Fordux. You'll have a choice of the following models:
Debian, Suse, Red Hat and Scientific.

Originally posted by dawnstar
ahhh.....give a me a car that can't crash....I'll prove them wrong!!!

ha ha ha

cars that CANT crash- i only believe when i see lol

Yes, we all see the irony of Bill Gates talking about building anything that doesn't crash. Personally, I'd give my car over to Steve Jobs. It'd be faster, more reliable, look amazing, play my music, and would seriously never crash.

In reference to the news, read it on /. earlier. Don't think it's possible without a number of things.

1. Complete control by other's outside of the car. That'd never happen because who wants to give a giant computer control of everyone's car. HAL without leaving the planet.

2. Building tracks. Works much nicer, but stupid because you can't stop for emergencies. Helps a lot with traffic. There'd be special cop lanes, etc. No way to get off track, except when you rather simply add to your wheels so you're too high to ride. That just encourages accidents.

The problem with these options is that they limit a lot of the joys cars bring people. Tricking them out, showing em off, racing, etc. They're full of hot air.

Insurance companies will never let this happen

well...

i take your jokes as your way of saying:

"this is a great topic"...

and:

"they see ALL is god!!!"

Originally posted by Djarums
Ask yourself if it's really necessary that we should have cars that run on tires that blow out from a little nail someone left on the street. I can have a nightvision sensor in my dashboard, and a backup camera, but my tire can be blasted by a thumbtack.

Actually a thumbtack would do nothing to your vehicles tire...it seems your really worried about a tire blow out, not sure why, you can still controll your car even it a tire blows on the interstate...its happened to me before, it gets your attention quick, but nothing to worry about.

Maybe you would like a set of these.

new wheels

Crashless cars=Non-human driver component needed for automobile steering=many years in the future if at all...

It's nice to think that there may some day be cars which drive themselves, as Bill Gates wants to be at the forefront of, but undoubtedly there will be ways to short cut the soft ware and allow the human anomolie.

Allot of good technology is coming to the auto industry. I work for one of the largest wheel producers in the world and were starting to put sensors on all the wheels that will give you tire pressure readings so you'll be warned if a tire is going low. That will come in real handy. The downside of that is the sensors cost the company 50 bucks apiece so you can bet you'll be paying $1,000 for them.

I still have trouble believing in cars that won't crash though. The parts industry would go bankrupt. Secondary market is their biggest cash cow.

I can go down right now and buy a starter for my car that has a lifetime guarantee for less then 100 dollars. Why didn't the automaker just put that starter on my car to begin with, instead of one that blows up after five years?

Technology is changing the automobile, in a good way i might add, but it won't go that far. Too much money is at stake.

Love and light,

Wupy

.
Please correct me if i have missed something.

Wouldn't that require an operating system for it to run on that doesn't crash?

Bill doesn't exactly have a perfect record on that count.

I think this idea needs some work before i decide to read a book in my self driving auto.
.

Maybe I am wrong, but what would happen if you were driving down a highway at rush hour in LA and there was a large magnetic quirk of some sort? would you have all the memory wiped and well, lose all control of your car?

Originally posted by dawnstar
Maybe I am wrong, but what would happen if you were driving down a highway at rush hour in LA and there was a large magnetic quirk of some sort? would you have all the memory wiped and well, lose all control of your car?

I'm willing to bet that if ever implemented, there'd have to be an emergency manual control setting. No way in hell it'd get done otherwise.

[edit on 5/4/2005 by Amorymeltzer]

Howard LOL
I figured you ripped it after getting a little ways in, but made me almost fall out of my chair anyway!

So Billy wants to get into the car bizzinezz.. He already tried it with GM, I wonder how far he'll get with Ford.
Seems fitting he keeps picking car companies that make junk on wheels...
So now not only will parts fall off rollin down the road, but you'll have to deal with MSCops trying to give you tickets for making Illegal Operations... RDR^2

Directed to whoever was talking about people needing to get inside cars and redesign aspects: Uhm... this has been done since cars were invented. It's called 'owner modification.'
Directed to whoever said whooptie doo towards flat tires: Try having a front blowout at 80mph. See how long you stay on the road

If this comes to the mainstream it will bring a whole new meaning to the term 'war driving.'
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

All the good microsoft jokes and puns (the two are mutually exclusive, btw) are used up, so I'll default back to topic.

I remember seeing on a science show years ago that a Northern European nation had invented trucks that drove themselves on straight, or near-straight, roads with an autopilot similar to an aeroplane. They had radar sensors (like speed cameras) and visual cameras in front and back and would adjust speed and breaking accordingly. Several trucks' systems could be linked up to enable them to travel in convoy at speeds over 100Kph, and only a meter apart.

Guess the tech never got the funding.

Read the SF Short story "The Last of the Wild Ones" by Roger Zelazny. He wrote about this type of thing in 1980.

Computer controlled cars that kill their owners and then go wild. All due to faulty programming.