Transportation Technology "Bombs".

[Dirt Roads]

Dare I say it, the monorail?

Cal Expo has a monorail that was intended to help with getting around, and was put into operation in 1969. Due to accessability and safety issues with the other stations along the route, this monorail effectively is a amusement ride whose sole station is above the main game. Japan seemed to have a more developed monorail system.

That's a great video. That's what it takes to do branching on a monorail. The mechanism probably costs a thousand times as much as a switch that flexes a couple of rails on the ground a couple inches one way or another, something that was originally done by moving a manual lever next to the switch. And there's no way to overcome that cost difference.

The Honda commercials where someone pulls up to a scenic part of the Southwest; pushes a button and the scenery changes are reminiscent of switching at the Newark Airport Monorail:

This switching technique comes with some quirks:  Before the Newark system opened to the public, I was assigned to ride out the "Blizzard of '96" as a test of the guideway heating system.  There were a few minor issues, but guideway heating system proved reliable for about 6 hours, and after two feet of snow we decided to call it quits for the weekend.  When came back, there were huge icicles hanging from the guideway switch panels.  When they flipped over, those icy stagatites became stalagmites.  The first train to hit one got some not-so-minor damage to its fancy-dancy handcrafted aluminum carbody.  Ouch!  Afterwards, they installed additional power rail heating in certain areas and some of the heaters sometimes need to stay on when the trains are shut down.

Another near-oops:  the original cables to the guideway switch panels were installed with the panels in the "normal" position (ergo, straight).  Somebody caught that problem before they tried to flip over the guideway switch panel for the first time (which would have twisted the cable too far, ripped out the cable and probably done some structural damage as well).  It took several days to figure out how to position and hold the guideway switch panels in the halfway position to install the cables correctly. 

[pderocco]

Back in the 1990's I think it was, some cars were equipped with a digital speedometer rather than a dial.  What car dealers found out - motorists at the time didn't care for them. They actually liked the dials.  So they faded away.

My new Subaru Forester has both. I find myself only looking at the digital speedo, because the center of the console shows three speed-related numbers that I have to compare: my speed, the speed my cruise is set for, and the speed limit. They're all displayed differently, to avoid confusion, but having to compare two numbers and a pointer angle wouldn't be quite as easy.

For your commute, you may actually like the automation, especially when incidents do arise, because the car will communicate with other vehicles and find the best way real-time, rather than depending on today's version of GPS which doesn't do a good job of predicting the jams it's creating by detouring traffic.

I haven't noticed Google Maps making much effort to direct people intelligently, or stupidly, around temporary blockages. When they occur, it still seems to me that very few people take the alternate routes that I know about because I'm a road geek, but sit resignedly in the multi-lane parking lot. Perhaps they just listen to music or drive-time radio, and don't really care.

[zachary_amaryllis]

DIA's baggage system they tried to implement in the 90's. Way ahead of its time, but had a habit of launching baggage.

I think they should take whatever remains of it, and rebrand it as a ride.

DIA seems like it might well be a more entertaining destination than whatever you were flying into Denver to do.

I thought they fixed the system, rather than replace it with something entirely different.

My (possibly flawed?) understanding, is that a lot of the stuff from the planned system got sort of morphed into what it is now. The original system had individual 'cars' on tracks that routed all the baggage around. After they determined it wasn't working right, they went with the good ol' conveyor belts.

[Rothman]

DIA's baggage system they tried to implement in the 90's. Way ahead of its time, but had a habit of launching baggage.

I think they should take whatever remains of it, and rebrand it as a ride.

DIA seems like it might well be a more entertaining destination than whatever you were flying into Denver to do.

I thought they fixed the system, rather than replace it with something entirely different.

My (possibly flawed?) understanding, is that a lot of the stuff from the planned system got sort of morphed into what it is now. The original system had individual 'cars' on tracks that routed all the baggage around. After they determined it wasn't working right, they went with the good ol' conveyor belts.

Ah, okay.

[jeffandnicole]

For your commute, you may actually like the automation, especially when incidents do arise, because the car will communicate with other vehicles and find the best way real-time, rather than depending on today's version of GPS which doesn't do a good job of predicting the jams it's creating by detouring traffic.

I haven't noticed Google Maps making much effort to direct people intelligently, or stupidly, around temporary blockages. When they occur, it still seems to me that very few people take the alternate routes that I know about because I'm a road geek, but sit resignedly in the multi-lane parking lot. Perhaps they just listen to music or drive-time radio, and don't really care.

It doesn't.  It just pushes people onto the same option (as long as these people are all headed in the same general direction).  Once that backs up, then it finds a 3rd option, or by then the original incident has been cleaned up and Google can route people back to the normal path.

BTW, just to be clear, that earlier comment of mine was in regard to potential future automation of most vehicles on the road, where cars are driving themselves and "talking" amongst each other.

[ZLoth]

One thing that GPS and navigation combined with mobile phones is the ability to see (approximately) where someone is at on a map. Very important for both trucking and adult caregivers.

[1995hoo]

One thing that GPS and navigation combined with mobile phones is the ability to see (approximately) where someone is at on a map. Very important for both trucking and adult caregivers.

Also very helpful for those of us whose spouses tend to make wrong turns or otherwise get lost. My wife has, on more than one occasion, called me from a rest area or the like saying she thinks she missed her exit. Because we share our location, I can look at it and tell her where she is and whether she made a mistake.

[mgk920]

I'm also thinking that 'touchscreen' controls in vehicles will be a transport tech 'bomb'.  They take too much attention away from the primary task of controlling the vehicle and have too many 'cold weather' operating issues.

Mike

[SEWIGuy]

I'm also thinking that 'touchscreen' controls in vehicles will be a transport tech 'bomb'.  They take too much attention away from the primary task of controlling the vehicle and have too many 'cold weather' operating issues.

Agreed.  I completely dislike my wife's touchscreen. Give me knobs and buttons!

And I am not alone.

https://slate.com/business/2023/04/cars-buttons-touch-screens-vw-porsche-nissan-hyundai.html

[thenetwork]

One thing I think was a total bomb in the motorcycle field, that I don't see as much anymore in recent years, were the cycles with the "pulsating" headlights.

I know it was created for brighter visibility for the cyclists, but when you are cruising down the road and one of those motorcycles comes behind you, you think you have a motorcycle cop behind you [despite the lack of blue/white lights] and you suddenly pull over or slam on the brakes which might confuse or cause the motorcyclist to think you were brake checking them.

[ZLoth]

I'm also thinking that 'touchscreen' controls in vehicles will be a transport tech 'bomb'.  They take too much attention away from the primary task of controlling the vehicle and have too many 'cold weather' operating issues.

Agreed.  I completely dislike my wife's touchscreen. Give me knobs and buttons!

You will _never_ get rid of touchscreens because they are also used as displays for backup cameras.

Having said that, there is a strong need for dedicated controls with haptic feedback such as climate controls and the audio volume. While I do want Android Auto in my next vehicle (in about six years!), and I'm sure plenty of CarPlay users are saying the same thing, the focus should be on driving on the road, not spend several seconds fiddling on a touch screen. That can be done when your vehicle is stopped.

[thenetwork]

I'm also thinking that 'touchscreen' controls in vehicles will be a transport tech 'bomb'.  They take too much attention away from the primary task of controlling the vehicle and have too many 'cold weather' operating issues.

Agreed.  I completely dislike my wife's touchscreen. Give me knobs and buttons!

You will _never_ get rid of touchscreens because they are also used as displays for backup cameras.

Having said that, there is a strong need for dedicated controls with haptic feedback such as climate controls and the audio volume. While I do want Android Auto in my next vehicle (in about six years!), and I'm sure plenty of CarPlay users are saying the same thing, the focus should be on driving on the road, not spend several seconds fiddling on a touch screen. That can be done when your vehicle is stopped.

They need a better user-friendly voice control installed in vehicles that can recognize more basic commands/requests....AND....make it easier for even the not-so-brightest of bulbs to use it on a regular basis.

You still need to be somewhat tech savvy to use your smart phone hands free for phone calls and messages, which is why you still see so many people calling and texting while oblivious to their driving performance.

[1995hoo]

I think (this is a guess) that the automakers seem to think we'll all use voice control to operate touchscreen features when a vehicle is moving. The trick is knowing the particular command the vehicle expects to hear and, in some vehicles, knowing how to activate the voice controls (for example, my Acura has a button on the steering wheel with an icon that makes it clear which button it is, but in a Tesla you use the unintuitive method of pressing in on the right-side scroll wheel).

[kphoger]

I even have the experience of working with someone doing grade crossing inventory work and he liked to put every crossing into GPS.  Works great for public crossings, but for private crossings, some of them aren't anywhere near a public road that's in the GPS.  Often simes we'd have to hunt around for the crossing.  A few times we never found them at all.  The most memorable time was when the closest road was a Thruway entrance ramp, so we were blindly following the GPS when it randomly said "you have reached your destination", by which point we were stuck getting on the Thruway and then driving 10 miles to the next exit just to turn around.

My counterexample...  I used to drive a delivery route of janitorial supplies in southern Illinois and nearby areas, back before GPS-enabled doodads to get you from A to B.  Some of my customers were rural schools with no address other than a PO box or whatever.  The paper ticket would have nothing but the town name of the school district HQ, or maybe the useless PO box number, or something like that.  Before I moved away from the area, I had started working on pinning all of my customers on Google Maps, for use by other drivers, but of course they wouldn't have had a way to access that while on the road.  Something like what you're describing would have been a big benefit, because it would have at least gotten drivers somewhat close.

For Berry School, in particular, I remember telling the front office to start putting this in the address section of the ticket:
900E RD & 1250N RD, 5 MI NORTH OF SIMS

Why wouldn't someone want a digital speedometer?  You can ... switch to metric with a push of a button.  No small numbers for me when I go to Canada!

This can work for dials too.  See below:

Our car doesn't have a digital speedometer, but it does have the ability to switch the dashboard displays from US customary to metric units.  When I do that, the temperature display changes to °C, the odometer changes to kilometers, and the speedometer switches from mph to km/h.  It only has one set of tick marks on the circle, but the numbers switch from meaning 'mph' to meaning 'km/h'.  In fact, if I switch to metric while I'm on the highway, the speedometer needle immediately jumps from, say, 50 to 80.

[SEWIGuy]

I'm also thinking that 'touchscreen' controls in vehicles will be a transport tech 'bomb'.  They take too much attention away from the primary task of controlling the vehicle and have too many 'cold weather' operating issues.

Agreed.  I completely dislike my wife's touchscreen. Give me knobs and buttons!

You will _never_ get rid of touchscreens because they are also used as displays for backup cameras.

My display for my back up camera in my 2020 Kia is my audio screen. I can still control almost everything audio from my steering wheel. Everything else (climate, seat warmers, etc.) are all buttons and knobs.

[vdeane]

I'm also thinking that 'touchscreen' controls in vehicles will be a transport tech 'bomb'.  They take too much attention away from the primary task of controlling the vehicle and have too many 'cold weather' operating issues.

Agreed.  I completely dislike my wife's touchscreen. Give me knobs and buttons!

You will _never_ get rid of touchscreens because they are also used as displays for backup cameras.

Having said that, there is a strong need for dedicated controls with haptic feedback such as climate controls and the audio volume. While I do want Android Auto in my next vehicle (in about six years!), and I'm sure plenty of CarPlay users are saying the same thing, the focus should be on driving on the road, not spend several seconds fiddling on a touch screen. That can be done when your vehicle is stopped.

My 2014 Civic has a backup camera and no touchscreen at all.

Automakers seem to be betting on voice commands to solve a lot of that (even those that are going back to physical buttons for some things), which is unfortunate.  I don't want my car to have a microphone listening to (and maybe recording?) every word I say.  Especially since I talk to myself a lot when I'm alone.

[SEWIGuy]

Why would a car record everything you say?

[ZLoth]

You will _never_ get rid of touchscreens because they are also used as displays for backup cameras.

My display for my back up camera in my 2020 Kia is my audio screen. I can still control almost everything audio from my steering wheel. Everything else (climate, seat warmers, etc.) are all buttons and knobs.

Perhaps I miscommunicated. On March 31, 2014, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it would require all automobiles sold in the United States built beginning in May 2018 to include backup cameras, although many car models have backup camera before then, including my 2013 and 2016 vehicles, which incorporate a LCD display. A logical extension is to add a touchscreen, which both of my vehicles have. There is no integration with the climate controls, and the closest thing to the radio is the six favorites being currently displayed and can be touched, and that functionality is replicated in the physical buttons. Everyone else on that screen is configuration and non driving-critical, whether it be adding a Bluetooth device, or security features such as whether the drivers door or all doors can be unlocked.

[jeffandnicole]

You will _never_ get rid of touchscreens because they are also used as displays for backup cameras.

My display for my back up camera in my 2020 Kia is my audio screen. I can still control almost everything audio from my steering wheel. Everything else (climate, seat warmers, etc.) are all buttons and knobs.

Perhaps I miscommunicated. On March 31, 2014, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it would require all automobiles sold in the United States built beginning in May 2018 to include backup cameras, although many car models have backup camera before then, including my 2013 and 2016 vehicles, which incorporate a LCD display. A logical extension is to add a touchscreen, which both of my vehicles have. There is no integration with the climate controls, and the closest thing to the radio is the six favorites being currently displayed and can be touched, and that functionality is replicated in the physical buttons. Everyone else on that screen is configuration and non driving-critical, whether it be adding a Bluetooth device, or security features such as whether the drivers door or all doors can be unlocked.

Our 2011 Honda Pilot, purchased in 2010, has a backup camera. The screen is incorporated into the rearview mirror. While small, it's actually in a convenient place - where you're already looking when you're backing up.

[Rothman]

Why would a car record everything you say?

To sell your data to third parties.

And possible blackmail.

[tmoore952]

Also very helpful for those of us whose spouses tend to make wrong turns or otherwise get lost. .

And not yourself? There have been several times I've been in situations where I go some place I hadn't been to in a fair number of years and things had changed roadwise.

Perhaps this is just old-fashioned me speaking, since my car does not have satellite navigation, and I have to research what I know are tricky areas ahead of time, and pay good attention to the signs in real time (if they exist, back roads are not signed that well at times). But even satellite navigation doesn't get updated in a timely manner.

[tmoore952]

Our 2011 Honda Pilot, purchased in 2010, has a backup camera. The screen is incorporated into the rearview mirror. While small, it's actually in a convenient place - where you're already looking when you're backing up.

Ditto for my 2012 Suburu Outback. However, the camera fails from time to time (I get blue screen or nothing at all -- but it doesn't always fail). The picture quality is not great either, especially at night. When it does fail, I have to go back to checking the mirrors constantly (actually, I am really doing that all the time anyway, since people are worse drivers now).

The Suburu is reaching the end of its useful life, and I will not be sad to see the camera go (but I will be sad to lose my manual transmission, as that probably will not be easily available now).

Having also driven newer car as rentals when needed, in my opinion the newer backup cameras are infinitely better both in picture size and picture quality.

[mgk920]

Why would a car record everything you say?

To sell your data to third parties.

And possible blackmail.

I could easily envision such a thing being required in China (and other similar places).

Mike

[vdeane]

Why would a car record everything you say?

To sell your data to third parties.

And possible blackmail.

Exactly.  Has any company been able to resist selling customer data to advertisers and who knows who else?  Not to mention getting recorded in the event recorder black box.

I don't want a car that has a camera to monitor me and potentially deem me "tired" or "distracted" based on what it assumes head and eye motions mean, either.

[Rothman]

Why would a car record everything you say?

To sell your data to third parties.

And possible blackmail.

Exactly.  Has any company been able to resist selling customer data to advertisers and who knows who else?  Not to mention getting recorded in the event recorder black box.

I don't want a car that has a camera to monitor me and potentially deem me "tired" or "distracted" based on what it assumes head and eye motions mean, either.

Then again, I think a lot of privacy concerns stem from anxiety about facing one's true insignificance or unimportance.  "If someone actually cares about the mundane conversations in my car, it must mean I am important!"  I've yet to be negatively affected because someone else has sold my "data."  Life goes on.

Then again:

"All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'"