Hypercar Saturation

[Modificato]

Its a bit long to post here

Cut n paste?

[Modificato]

I’m intrigued to understand with the current trend of touch screens and ipad type displays, how are car makers going to make a distinction in quality/ perceived luxury between in what’s fitted between say a Hyundai and a Bentley? Old style gauges you could do this, in my opinion.

Here is one we did earlier - https://youtu.be/OKKiWaBVECk

[Kyodo]

Here is one we did earlier

That is pretty stunning. Perhaps when a marque loses its 'soul' with the loss of its traditional (ICE) drivetrain, the other stuff takes its place. So we have this work of art and on the flip side the mainstream Tesla Model 3 still looks like it was designed by school children.

ps. Can you imagine the bill for crashing this into the back of someone?! Although with all the AI maybe that'd never happen, I don't know.

[Mark Blanchard]

I just can’t imagine an electric car, even a $2.5 million one, aging well and ever achieving classic status. Same holds for the Lotus Evija, given Lotus’ challenges in getting its base portfolio updated, the Evija seems like a massive unneeded distraction.

Great article and thanks for posting. Not sure I agree with your comments about the Evija though. The Evija is stunning piece of design and the order books are sold out. It's just what Lotus needed, an iconic, halo car. Defiantly a future classic. The company has never been in a better position, with a completely new range of models coming out in the next year and with the stable backing of Geely, who own Volvo amongst other makes.

Exciting times for Lotus.

[Nosevi]

Here is one we did earlier - https://youtu.be/OKKiWaBVECk

That's all really clever ........... and yet I don't seem to want and feel I don't need any of it. As a tech demonstration I get it, as an actual vehicle I don't really. It lost me at autonomous vehicle........ and really lost me at autonomous vehicle in which the 'driver' can turn round and chat to the passengers while the car drives itself. I mean, what's the point?

ps. Can you imagine the bill for crashing this into the back of someone?! Although with all the AI maybe that'd never happen, I don't know.

I do - no one has yet designed or made a computer which can't go wrong. Jet fighters with price tags that would make this frankly look cheap are built with masses of redundancy and even then they go wrong from time to time.

[A348W]

. I mean, what's the point?

.

One presumes so one can have a “conversation” with ones mistress(s); hence the tinted glass

[Nosevi]

One presumes so one can have a “conversation” with ones mistress(s); hence the tinted glass

Make for an interesting crash report.........

[sssdu01]

Make for an interesting crash report.........

Once the authorities can work out who is responsible for a crash ?? 1) the driver 2) the manufacturer 3) the software engineer

Its of academic interest to me as the one and only time I might go in a driverless car on the public highway, is in the back of a Herse !!!

[Modificato]

That's all really clever ........... and yet I don't seem to want and feel I don't need any of it. As a tech demonstration I get it, as an actual vehicle I don't really. It lost me at autonomous vehicle........ and really lost me at autonomous vehicle in which the 'driver' can turn round and chat to the passengers while the car drives itself. I mean, what's the point?



I do - no one has yet designed or made a computer which can't go wrong. Jet fighters with price tags that would make this frankly look cheap are built with masses of redundancy and even then they go wrong from time to time.

Why not consider this...

Bentley donÂ’t want you to want it - the timescales are such that they want the high potential teenagers of today that are going to be the super successful in China, Africa and India to want it. They donÂ’t care about you, me or our kids either.

On the second point heÂ’s computers do occasionally have problems but not nearly as often as humans do.
Computers fly aircraft all the way to and from the other side of the world every day of the week. They drive trains, ships and trams. Meanwhile humans kill or get killed by driving in huge numbers. The WHO records that road traffic injuries i.e. drivers in their cars cause 1.35 million deaths a year world-wide and it grows in direct proportion to the growth in the number of vehicles being driven. ThatÂ’s why manufacturers, non enthusiasts and legislators alike are taking us to autonomous vehicles. Road injuries are the 10th highest cause of avoidable death worldwide and in poor countries that cause of death is higher up the list ahead of things like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Note this statistic does not even take account of the pollution related effects.

In our increasing wealthy and risk averse world autonomous vehicles are going to be the norm. As computing power gets cheaper and more powerful it will become easier and easier to achieve. Once a couple of generations have gone by no one will even remember driving their own vehicle.

ItÂ’s as inevitable to us as un-manned space exploration was to the Apollo program.

I enjoy driving as one of my most treasured things in my life but my ancestors loved working horses in the fields and driving canal boats.

[Nosevi]

What was the quote? "People tend to underestimate the change that will occur in 5 years and overestimate the change that will occur in 50 years." Something like that.

This is their vision of what 1976 would look like in terms of personal transport back in 1956:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2iRDYnzwtk

All cars powered by a new clean energy, autonomous 'safe' travel etc. Sound familiar?

While the guys in the film may have wanted to sing about it and big companies like GM were pushing hard for it, it simply didn't happen in the following 20 years.......... and still hasn't in almost 70 years, in fact not all that much has really changed in terms of how we get about.

If I had one wish, just one, it'd be that engineers, car companies, 'concept companies' and especially legislators would stop telling people what they want and what they will want in the future. People by and large didn't want this back in 1976, they don't really want it now and I dare say they won't particularly want it 20 years from now. I actually don't think the kids in China, Africa or India will want an autonomous driving Bentley over a Ferrari or Lamborghini either but we'll see.

To this point engineers have largely failed to predict what the next generation or the one after than will want and the really big advances have largely been unexpected. Who'd have thought that many kids' most treasured possession in 2021 would have been their phone just 30 years ago before you could even text.

Engineers should concentrate on what people actually do want, not what engineers want people to want.