[ExI] self driving cars again

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Eric Messick
Subject: Re: [ExI] self driving cars again

david <deimtee at optusnet.com.au> writes:

>>...With a smart enough despatching system covering the area, you could use

>a fleet of electric cars. You could even make cross country trips, 
>meeting and transferring to a new car each time the battery gets low.

>...Or, take a tip from railroads.  You own a passenger pod, which you can
customize with whatever amenities you want.  It has no power train, but
instead relies on a fleet of self driving engines...You don't need to worry
about sticky seats, or engine maintenance.  -eric
_______________________________________________

Ja, and there are plenty of minor variations on that theme.  We could
imagine a passenger pod set up any way you like with its own four wheels and
even possibly a small electric motor on one front wheel and a small battery,
just enough for very short distance and low speed, and for maneuvering, no
steering wheel but with a slider bar actuator on one front wheel (the other
front wheel being a free castor like on a shopping cart.)  Top speed about
average walking pace, range about a km, all the drive equipment fits inside
a box 30 cm on a side and mounted over the front left wheel.

Then when you need to go anywhere, you call on a tractor about the size of
somewhere around a riding lawnmower, which hitches to your passenger
pod/bedroom and hauls you wherever you need to go, dropping you off there
and going off to haul the next amorous couple.  

I can imagine the passenger pods being about the size of our current station
wagons, but the tractors being much smaller.

Good thinking Eric!

spike