[ExI] RES: future ape haulers: the tata nano

[Henrique Moraes Machado]

<spike>
 Ja, and of course make them one-seaters, or perhaps two.  Plenty of
motorcycles are one-seaters, and most of them are two, people still use
them.
</spike>

Like... myself for instance.
But It being intended as a family car, probably the current Nano buyers
wouldn't want a two seater (or a one seater). 
But anyway if it was a two seater, why not make it three wheeler instead of
four? You even can make it a three seater with three wheels.

<spike>
The headlamps can be white LED, which would allow them to either have
separate rechargeable batteries or a single one that runs both headlights,
so you save weight and  manufacturing cost in copper wire and wiring
harnesses.
</spike>

That's beautiful. I like this solution a lot. Are LED prices already
competitive to allow this?

<spike>
 The brake lights and  turn signals can all be done wirelessly, so you can
get by with no almost no  wiring harnesses at all.
</spike>

But what about interference on other cars? Can I prevent my car from turning
the lights of the other cars around me with a wireless system that's still
cheaper than the wired system?

<spike>
You can make engine control by wire and shift by wire.  We can have
integrated unit engine and transmission, as seen on smaller motorcycles.
That would allow easy carrying of a spare engine and transmission behind the
front seat, and make it to where one feller could  swap it out beside the
road.
</spike>

Interesting idea. This spare engine would be functional or would it be dead
weight most of the time?
I have one: Let's say it's a three wheeler in the form of two front and one
back. Now suppose that you integrate engine, transmission and the back one
wheel into a single unit. Then you can swap it at will.
I allways wondered what if cars were more like PCs, where you can upgrade
the mainboard or add more memory or a bigger disk. It always bothered me
that every car model is completely different from every other car model and
there's almost no interchangeable parts at all. We need an open car!
 
<spike>
 Those weight savings and obviating of wiring harnesses allow the
polystyrene  body shells to be cast as a unit, very little assembly
required.  Next time you  see a motorcycle fairing, imagine a thinner
version of that: consider that  those things are cantilevered and made for
triple digit speeds as measured in miles per hour.
</spike>

Yes. Why are we still making heavy chunks of steel! They should be all
plastic by now.