Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

Don't need a full clone activation? Gold Cross still has you covered!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-0...-parts/4666886

Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

I know squat about building cars, but this has a few interesting notes about high-performance gas engine accessories:

Ten fastest production cars 5/13: http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-10863_7-10016810.html

Numbers one and four use four turbochargers. Numbers two, three, six, seven, and eight use two turbochargers. Number five uses "a unique combination of a supercharger and turbocharger". Number 10 is a hybrid.

Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/...-food-printer/

What would you like our chef to print for you today?

Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

$1,400: Extreme Driving Class trains Car vs. Car and Car vs. Pedestrian Tactics, 2003.

"At Bill Scott's anti-terrorist driving school, students learn to spin, shoot, and ram their way through any auto-borne attack."

http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2...eapon-survival

By completing the training, the creator of the class claims that you raise your chances of survival from 10% all the way up to 60%...

What would be the odds if you armed and armored your vehicle? ;)

Phones
 

It seems minor, but... do phones work? Are they smaller yet more advanced? Does the whole phone fit in the bluetooth earbud and do everything via voice command? Do they only work around towns/cities because it's still too unsafe to maintain cell towers in the wasteland? Or has the world reverted to chunky satellite phones? (Not that anybody necessarily maintains satellites...) Or is an LD Radio seriously your only option?

Smartphones outsell dumb phones worldwide in 2013 (and first did in the US in 2011 -- 3news.co.nz)

Edit: CWC 2.5: Portable Earth Station: "When deployed, it automatically tracks the best available satellite for world-wide voice and data communications." Computer Navigator: "It ties into the satellite network and local transponders to determine exact positions." Obviously that suggests satellites are still operational. Though if we fast-forward from the 80s to today, I'm not sure whether we'd say the cell net is still operational because you can maintain it without spaceflight, or the satellites are still operational because nobody can vandalize them.

Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

The cell net is almost as fragile as the GPS system. Besides, there's a certain tough-guy cachet about the CB. :)

Augmented Reality
 

Augmented reality is coming:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57...ented-reality/

On the one hand, it would have a sort of cheesy cyberpunk feel if every Car Wars driver tooled around in AR glasses. But something has to be done beyond 1980's computers plus a "wristcomp."

Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

Algae. It's Not Just Food - It's Fuel!

http://www.algaeliquor.com/home/index.php

With the company name, one would figure that 'algae shots' would come into play... but alas, no.

Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

We are not going to run out of fuel

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?p...1-a31100a83461

The new Free Oil States should be Canada, Montana, and North Dakota - you know they're plotting against us! lol

The end of easy oil production will be destabilizing though... and extracting oil from shale and tar sands will be extremely dirty, possibly creating a smoggy polluted dystopia where gas is $40/gallon ... ;)

Re: "100 Years Ago Today" - Car Wars News
 

Yeah, according to the EIA (note: different than the IEA), "the US would change from the world's leading importer of oil to a net exporter over the next five years."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22850607

Still, I find it easy to believe that fracking and shale and tar extraction technologies and equipment and expertise would be lost during the apocalypse (whatever it's exact nature may be). Especially if you cut off access to foreign suppliers, and there are food riots where the refineries are, I can believe that the remaining oil in north america would get pretty stinking expensive until the recovery catches up enough. It's plausible to me that a coal mine would be easier to keep operating, and therefore electricity would be a better deal.

Bottom line, I think the fundamental "gas is really expensive" effect could be maintained with a small change of the flavor of stuff that justifies it.

But it also wouldn't be bad to model electric engines as more powerful but with more limited range (e.g. batteries having higher space/weight per mile of range provided than gasoline). Especially if fewer people are traveling long distances due to intervening wastelands, and if the few stable interstates have regular fortified truck stops for recharging, I can believe that electric cars would be attractive even if the gas shortage isn't as acute.