06-04-2012, 04:39 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Help Modern Cars
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Cars that self-parallel-park seem to be a given; there are several models advertised and more on the way. There also seem to be a lot of backup cameras and sensors for warning. The US DOT has proposed regulation to require this feature on all cars by 2014. The same kinds of sensors might be able to watch your blind spot and prevent hazardous lane changes. We've already got variable valve timing, and variable displacement by turning off cylinders. I don't know if TL8 will get sexy enough to have cylinders that change their actual displacement while in operation. Turbochargers sort of fit into this category. Is there an advantage to some sort of computer controlled supercharger, maybe to anticipate the "need for speed", or perhaps improve efficiency with fine-grained control? I seem to recall a Porsche or two that had an automatically adjusting spoiler. Extend this to the rest of the bodywork on performance cars so they can get that extra downforce at high speeds, but cut back on the drag at low speeds when it's not needed. Mighty Morphing Power Sliders. Electrochromic glass for adjustable window tint, and electrochromic paint for adjustable color. Nissan is supposed to be working on the latter. Apply it in separate pixels, naturally, so you can just download an image from your smartphone to the car body. |
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06-04-2012, 04:52 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Help Modern Cars
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06-05-2012, 05:23 AM | #23 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: Help Modern Cars
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The last review I remember seeing of a car with an automatic retractable spoiler pointed out that (a) it made no discernible difference to the car's behaviour, and (b) the driver had a button to deploy it at whim anyway. In other words, it was pure, 100% boy racer pose. Other body reconfigurations may end up in the same category.
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06-05-2012, 05:40 AM | #24 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Help Modern Cars
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Going to a gas turbine sounds simpler, though. |
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06-05-2012, 05:44 AM | #25 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Help Modern Cars
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* == and whoever else needs to drive a lot. |
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06-05-2012, 08:51 AM | #26 | |||
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Help Modern Cars
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There's also perhaps a fuel-efficiency angle. Reducing Cd is important for that reason -- but are there compromises that have to be made with a static shape that could be improved if the car could change its shape? Again, I don't know enough of the aerodynamics of cars to know the answer. If we take shape-changing to more of an extreme, I can recall once having to drive a rental Nissan Cube down a Western highway (75 mph limit) while it was windy. Cubes aren't so good at that; reconfiguring the roofline and sides might have been good, as I didn't need the interior space just then. More fancifully, what about relatively constant crosswinds (which effectively change the way your car is "pointed" and thus have different drag patterns) or even reacting to gusts? An ultimate in reconfigurable cars would solve the problem of having to buy an SUV or pickup because you sometimes haul stuff. Or even if your sport couple could stretch out to be more sedan-ish to make the trunk bigger when you make that trip to buy something that comes in a big box. (Infiniti G37 sedan, 13.5 cubic foot trunk; G37 coupe, 7.4... even though the coupe is only four inches shorter, but two wider. The coupe shape costs a lot of interior space.) |
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06-05-2012, 08:58 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Help Modern Cars
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As to spark-plugs, only diesels do without them to my casual understanding. Fuel injection v. carburators is about the air-fuel mix and not ignition anyway,
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Fred Brackin |
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06-05-2012, 09:31 AM | #28 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Help Modern Cars
Yes. Though there are some more obscure categories, like glow-plug ignition. And for compression ignition, there can be hair-splitting as to whether "diesel" implies fuel injection after the air is compressed (and already hot), as opposed to mixing the fuel/air cold and then compressing it until it ignites (what GM is calling "Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition", though I think the main point of that program is that it uses gasoline rather than diesel fuel).
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06-05-2012, 09:47 AM | #29 |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: Help Modern Cars
Anaraxes, I've seen video of a concept car which is basically a flat bed over the fuel/engine/batteries/suspension. This means that the floor is quite high off the ground, but (combined with drive-by-wire) means that even swapping the side of the driver's position is a trivial operation - and replacing body shells needs less than half an hour.
Of course this only gives you different seating/cargo/door arrangements, and doesn't do much about all-up weight and performance.
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06-05-2012, 09:44 PM | #30 |
Join Date: Nov 2010
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Re: Help Modern Cars
Obviously the condition and age of the vehicle play a large roll of how it performs. I have owned cars that were blowing oil, grinding brakes and veering all over the road because the stabilizer rod was broken.
I simply thought there may be some easy access stats out there. I looked online but really didn't find what i wanted. Handling and acceleration are at least as important as top speed, especially where the campaign will be happening. And in a campaign where life and death come down to what you drive, the darwinism will weed out the flaws of specific vehicles. I just thought it would be cool to have some real info on the subject to throw at the PCs. |
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car, contemporary, modern, statistics, vehicle |
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