Seems GM has some interesing ideas:
GM Hy-Wire "Car of the Future"

Who knows if it will actually go into production.

- L

 

wasn't the Hy-floor introduced back in 02 or 03? the wikipedia entry shows a picture of something else and suggests a production projection of 2010. go figure.

 

Wow that's cool. I wonder if they'll make a miata body for it.

I really don't think i would like driving a car that I didn't do anything in. It would feel too much like my video games. I think the reason we all have cars is because we like the feeling of being in control. Especially those of us that have manual trans. I hate driving my wife's auto.

 

Yeah thats an OLD concept. Seeing as they have pushed the Volt so hard and have a release this year or next, this thing will never happen. Or if it does it will be redesigned and released in another 5-10 years. I don't trust drive by wire. I know I wouldn't trust my computer with controlling all aspects of my car.

 

...and yet multiple Air Forces have combat and cargo aircraft that are completely fly by wire.


- L

 

And have multiple failovers and mechanical backups. That car has, 1 cable.

 

Uh huh, and thats not a GM piece of **** either now is it? GM can't make an interior with plastic ***** and switches that don't fall off after 4 years. I would trust their drive by wire like I would trust a crack head to watch over my house while I am out of town. Even if it wasn't GM, I still wouldn't like it. No feedback would suck and would do little to inspire confidence in my driving. I like having some kind of physical attachment to my controls. Everything else wouldn't be so bad as long as they give me a traditional steering system.

 

While the old farts may disagree, to me, there's not quite as rich an array of tactile feedback that we derive from the flight controls of an aircraft as there is from a car. Even in a 172, the feedback you get from the yoke is pretty bland: resistance increases as a function of deflection angle and airspeed. The only sort of feedback that really matters is when you're approaching stall, and that's not an activity that most of us partake of on a regular basis, at least, not after the first week or so of instruction.

It's also not a very fair comparison. The control column and associated electronics and force feedback devices on a fly-by-wire aircraft, be it military or commercial, costs more than most of us pay for an entire car.

 

and how many hours of training are required in a car before you can drive alone? like 3?

 

Considering this is a prototype, I would expect the NHTSA and insurance companies would demand more than one data-cable and multiple failsafes.

However, I agree the training, initial costs and maintenance schedules for aircraft are orders of magnitude higher than those of automobiles.

- L

 

Honestly, I'm not concerned about control system failures.

With the litigious sword of Damocles hanging over their every decision, nobody stands to lose more from an injury or death caused by a failed component than the automaker itself. Besides, nulling out error in a system like a steering wheel isn't hard. On the input side you use three redundant sensors in a voting configuration, and on the output side you use a servo mechanism to verify operation of the actuator.


I just agree with seraph. A fly-by-wire system in a car will rob something from the tactile experience of driving. Take any F1 driver who has never played GT4 before, and stick 'em behind a joystick at Laguna Seca.

 

car of the past:

2007 Lvov Car

 

Looks like a severely molested TT

 

*snicker*