etothen

In the future you car will be the place you go to read, meditate or play games without your kids interfering. Hell, I'm setting up a PS4 and screen in my truck in the near future for my kids for longer trips.

I will need a track car though, or maybe Ill just play GT6 in the vehicle. lol

kinerin

Lot of speculation here as to whether an electric truck will ever fly...who knows.???

But I do love the new Audi ad campaign........"Electric has gone Audi."

Gotta love the Germans and their spin on things.

rmc63

"For those of you that don't think you will ever have a self driving car, i'll bet within ten years it will be so much cheaper to insure one and the autonomous lanes will be so much faster that you too will give up your horse an buggy."

Driving is my Zen and I want no part of your world. And I'll take that bet, in fact I'll GUARANTEE that fully autonomous vehicles not only won't be commonplace but they will still be VERY rare in TWENTY years at least. Take off those rose colored glasses once in a while and look at the real world.

antony1103

Looking at the real world, the entire history of mankind has pushed for autonomy. Not just cars, but nearly every aspect of life. Who goes to a bank to get cash when a purchase is automatically deducted from your debit card? Who washes their clothes by hand when a washing machine does it for you? Why build a fire to warm yourself when a thermostat starts your furnace for you? Why track the sun when a watch keeps time for you? Why take the stairs when an elevator can lift you? I can't really think of any task that humans have already started automating to make life easier. I would assume manually driven cars will still be around for "fun" for quite some time, but once self-driving technology has matured, I would bet a majority of the vehicle-owning developed population will have a self driving car. Whether they owe the car, or the technology advances towards a ride-sharing mentality. With that trend in mind, I would easily take that bet.

Realistically, I could see the manually-driven car going the way of the stick shift: I have one for fun, and a few automakers still offer it for a niche market, but my daily driver is and will always be an automatic.

But we're all just guessing here right???

antony1103

I work for the nuclear industry, so I'm probably bias... Renewables are all fine and good, but we need massive base-load capability now and in the future. Without fossil fuels, nuclear technology is the next logical step for reliable widespread power generation. I did a small calculation for a friend of mine a few years ago. If I remember correctly, even if solar cells reach their theoretical maximum efficiency (which they are far from right now), you would still need to cover half the state of Arizona in solar cells to meet the current average energy demand of the US. And that number assumes the sun is shining 8 hours a day. 365 days a year... with no clouds... at full mid-day intensity... Realistically, with worse efficiency, varying solar intensity throughout the day, and these pesky things called clouds, you probably need 5-10 times that amount. Not just that, we need a way to store massive amounts of energy when the solar cells aren't working during the night.

I have nothing against wind/solar/geothermal/etc., but if humanity wants to steer clear of fossil fuels we need a realistic replacement for our baseload. I'm doing my best to progress our nuclear technology!

SCORGE

Nuclear trucks
I do agree on the efficiency of nuclear, though.

antony1103

Ford is 60 years ahead of us on that front: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon

idrive

iTrader: (3)

The "rose colored glasses" help correct my near sightedness. If I knew I'd still be around in twenty years I'd probably take that bet. and No, you can't make that GUARANTEE unless you're a time traveler and have been to the future and back.

Technology is moving at a speed I don't think most of us can comprehend. It will move even faster with all of the advancements that have been made over the last few years.

Even if autonomous driving doesn't become mainstream in the years to come being able to have a robot drive you will be.

Joe Jitsu calling Dick Tracy...

SCORGE

Looks like something out of Fallout lol

rmc63

I don't base my "guarantee" on the tech, I base it on our crappy infrastructure.