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Originally Posted by GreyGoose006
i was sitting in my engineering lecture class today and heard the scariest thing i have ever heard.
the class was a mechanical engineering class, and we were talking about automotive technology.
the professor mentioned how automotive technology was advancing so fast that in 30-40 years, cars as we now know them would be obscelete...
the idea is "Smart Cars" that drive on computerized highways, and run on automated GPS guided information. these cars would be safe. nearly ELIMINATING all traffic colisions and fatalities due to these collisions.
these cars would be electric, and have a nuclear battery pack located in a "Trunk-like" area. you wouldnt need to drive the car, just get in and say the name of the place you want to go. there would be no humans driving. just a bunch of automated vehicles driving around. worst prt of it is, when the technology is widespread, it will be impossible for a human driver to drive on these "Smart" roads. the computers will likely trim following distances to mere feet. there may not be turn signals, or headlights, or brake lights. it would be illegal to "drive" your car manualy due to the enormous risk.
this must not happen.
it would be bad enough to have an electric or hydrogen car, but i could live with it if i knew that it is still possible for me to push the clutch, jam the e-brake, floor the throttle, and sidestep the clutch while my car does donuts in the wal-mart parking lot.
as long as i can go to the autoparts store and buy extra capacity batteries and larger electric motors to put in my electric car, i'm OK.
but when cars become a means of simply getting from A - B, and are no longer an american passion, i dont know what i will do.
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Not to be a complete ass... well ok I might as well be, I'm pretty good at it afterall.
What you said is one of the most ignorant things I'v ever read- reminds me an old man, removing the oxygen from the hole in his neck to take a puff on a cigarette. Roads are for transportation, not your pure enjoyment. There are plenty of tracks, be it drag strip, road coarses, ect or your enjoyment- that not only are better for the purpose, but also are safer. I'm all for driving, but if you look at the number of people killed every year in accidents that could be avoided, the amount of polution that comes from cars, the amount of time you spend stuck in traphic every day... does this stuff still seem like such a bad idea?