h a l f b a k e r yRenovating the wheel
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This would be mounted at the rear of a car and allow you to see how hard the car you are following is driving.
Speedo Confusion
http://www.baddesigns.com/speedo.html
Less is More [reensure, May 24 2002]
[link]
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Is this so you can be sure that you are yelling at them for the right reasons? (i.e. "SHIFT YOU A-HOLE!!") |
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If you're close enough to read it, you have other problems. |
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Either it would make the car really ugly, or anyone close enough would be tailgating. |
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Or go all out with a status display indicating things like:
--Actual Vehicle speed
--Average Vehicle Speed
--Current MPG
--Engine RPM
--Total Mileage of Vehicle
--Vehicle Weight
--Age of Driver
--Miles/Days Since Last Accident
--Cell Phone In Use
Deluxe versions could add things like:
--Number of Passengers
--Price Paid for Vehicle
--Driver Credit Rating
--Odds of the Driver Suddenly Applying Brakes
--Insurance Limits of Liability
--Inventory of Armaments Carried by Driver
--Current Vehicle Use [business, commute, errand, date, pleasure driving] |
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Of course, that would take up a lot of space on the back of the car and would be hard to read, so instead it should be done using some sort of electronic beacon. This could be easier than it sounds: your everyday LED can be modulated at pretty high speeds (megabits/sec), and most taillights these days are made out of LEDs, so the car could simply invisibly modulate this information into the car's taillights. (During the day, you'd only have this information while the car was braking --- a disadvantage.) Your car would pick up these data bursts and display them on its heads-up-display. An additional advantage is that you could customize the display to your own preferences, showing only the items you want. |
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Additions to bristolz' list:
-- number of hours since driver slept (and for how long).
-- state of other passengers (noisy kids? ex-driving-instructor uncle? distracting boyfriend?)
-- planned upcoming turns (this could be combined with the "Parking Light" idea)
-- random user-settable text fields, to be displayed on your HUD like a bumper sticker
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Apologies for my lacking elaboration. It would just be fun to compare your own cars performance to that of the person you are following/racing. Surely it would reduce the boredom of every day driving and allow you to impress other road users with your ability to drive your car right at it's limits. |
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I suspect that most people would not know or care enough to be impressed with how you drive....and the people who do know enough are probably too busy being impressed with their own driving ability. |
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"and the people who do know enough are probably too busy being impressed with their own driving ability." |
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Exactly. Imagine the fun. |
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If your close enough to read it, why not really impress yourself, drive a little closer still and read the dashboard directly? |
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Useful for the schmoe behind me when I downshift to enter a turn (or otherwise desire to decelerate quickly without using the brakes). |
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I'd rather my automatic transmission would just register its engaged gear on a dashbox digital display -- then I'd know if smoking along behind someone is bouncing me from 2nd gear to 3rd gear repetitively. |
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Y'know, it'd be easier to just mount a huge price sticker on the back of your car... imagine, then you'd know for sure whether the person has a reason to be driving like an idiot! |
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I think a "penis length" indicator would be neat. I could then test my PL = 1/TS theory. |
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PL = Penis Length
TS = Truck Size |
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