![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On the one hand, this looks really cool. On the other? I'm very unsure about it.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=iol1029480022328H600
Even assuming the technology pans out beyond the prototype stage, I have two serious concerns with this car, and one less-serious one, so far.
First, the engine compartment in a normal car protects you somewhat in a head-on collision, absorbing some of the damage first. Getting rid of that buffer doesn't strike me as entirely desirable....
Second, the new control is (for those of us without disabilities and not used to hand controls for these things) unfamiliar. Worse than that, it's unfamiliar in ways that could be very dangerous. I wouldn't want to be on the road with someone driving one of these things, if they'd had it for less than several months. Too high a risk that they would forget how to brake the damned thing. (They might forget how to accelerate, too, but that's a lot less likely to put me in danger....)
And the minor concern: seats right on the floor SUCK if you can't sit almost-straight-legged comfortably. The seating looks, in all honestly, MISERABLE to use.
Why change the interface? What's the purpose to getting rid of the pedals? As best I can tell, it's just a gimmick - and one that, if used, will endanger a great many people, not just the ones using it.
On the one hand, it's really cool. On the other hand? I'm terrified they might actually produce it in the form they have their prototype.
And that would suck.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=iol1029480022328H600
Even assuming the technology pans out beyond the prototype stage, I have two serious concerns with this car, and one less-serious one, so far.
First, the engine compartment in a normal car protects you somewhat in a head-on collision, absorbing some of the damage first. Getting rid of that buffer doesn't strike me as entirely desirable....
Second, the new control is (for those of us without disabilities and not used to hand controls for these things) unfamiliar. Worse than that, it's unfamiliar in ways that could be very dangerous. I wouldn't want to be on the road with someone driving one of these things, if they'd had it for less than several months. Too high a risk that they would forget how to brake the damned thing. (They might forget how to accelerate, too, but that's a lot less likely to put me in danger....)
And the minor concern: seats right on the floor SUCK if you can't sit almost-straight-legged comfortably. The seating looks, in all honestly, MISERABLE to use.
Why change the interface? What's the purpose to getting rid of the pedals? As best I can tell, it's just a gimmick - and one that, if used, will endanger a great many people, not just the ones using it.
On the one hand, it's really cool. On the other hand? I'm terrified they might actually produce it in the form they have their prototype.
And that would suck.
Re: This is really cool!
I just shudder to think of the safety issues of having only hand controls in a car, when most of us are not accustomed to them. I remember running into a fence the first time I used a bike with hand brakes, because in the instant I could have stopped, I was frantically spinning the pedals backward, having grown used to the (much easier to use!) foot brakes.
I'd hate to do that with a car. Or be anywhere around when someone else did it.