Using drive-by-wire technology, one could easily install a remote control component to remotely control a real car. While potentially useful for having your car meet you at the curb in inclement weather, I'm thinking of the more recreational aspects of the device. Who doesn't like jumping RC cars off minature ramps and the like? One of my favorite pastimes in ye archaic videogame days of yore was propelling my vehicle off and into the most destructive scenery possible in the (now tragically obsolete) car simulator Hard Drivin'. A demolition derby where the vehicles are remote controlled could be oodles of fun for all. When your vehicle is satisfactorily demolished, simply unplug the remote-control cartridge from the drive-by-wire component and plug it into a new vehicle to destroy. This idea obviously presupposes that all the vehicles in question utilize drive-by-wire technology.
-- nihilo, Jul 29 2006

Toy remote control car to scale http://www.thinkgee...flirpa/rc-car.shtml
Not nearly realistic enough. [nihilo, Jul 29 2006]

Drive by wire? http://www.worldwid...fphrase/tp-dri1.htm
Not nearly common enough. [nihilo, Jul 29 2006]

Hard Drivin' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Drivin'
Not nearly hard enough. [nihilo, Jul 29 2006]

Remote control car http://kwc.org/myth...oding_portapot.html
Not nearly original enough. [spidermother, Jul 30 2006]

Drive by remote wire http://i7.tinypic.com/21j6rkl.jpg
It oughta be clear enough. [nihilo, Jul 31 2006]

GM's drive by wires... http://www.wired.co...logy/1,55390-0.html
All this, and fuel cells too? [nihilo, Aug 01 2006]

The chassis are interchangeable! http://www.gm.com/c...y_policy/index.html
[nihilo, Aug 01 2006]

No onboard driver necessary. http://www.outrefra...020617/index2.shtml
D'abord, il n'y a pas besoin de personne! [nihilo, Aug 01 2006]

Once again, another idea already done on MythBusters. The used a remote control to drive something like an old Plymouth at cruising speeds and then drop the driveshaft out of the front yoke to launch the car in the air. The used solenoids retrofitted to the brake and gas pedals, and a worm gear on the steering wheel, if I remember it all correctly. But it would be cool to send a car off a cliff with little to no possibility of hurting anyone...
-- Hunter79764, Jul 29 2006


Also done atleast once on top gear. A British tv show.
-- fridge duck, Jul 30 2006


Also done on a recent James Bond film, perhaps "The World Is Not Enough".
-- xaviergisz, Jul 30 2006


What them lot said.
-- wagster, Jul 30 2006


No one ever questioned whether an actual car has ever been remote-controlled. THAT is NOT the idea. The idea is to make ANY DRIVE-BY-WIRE vehicle remote controllable (with just 2 units: a controller and a plug-in cartridge) and to do so primarily for purposes of reckless recreation.

Show me where THAT has been done, and I will eat my piscine skeleton hat.
(It hasn't, you can't, I shan't.)
-- nihilo, Jul 31 2006


What car is currently in production or soon will be that has drive-by-wire?
-- BJS, Aug 01 2006


[xaviergisz]- I believe it was in "Tomorrow Never Dies."
-- The Acrimonious Obfuscator, Aug 01 2006


[BJS]: "General Motors has created a working vehicle it claims could be road-ready by 2010." (link)
-- nihilo, Aug 01 2006


I rather like the term "reckless recreation."
-- The Acrimonious Obfuscator, Aug 02 2006


And being the antithesis of wreckless.
-- neelandan, Aug 02 2006


I have seen a test of an automatic reverse parralel parking system on a luxury car. You drove the car beside the car in front, pressed the button, and the car did the rest. The car was not drive-by-wire (The steering wheel turned as well, quite quickly).

Such a system could be employed on any car with both power steering and an automatic transmission. Power steering units give assistance when a torqe rod is turned, uncovering valves. If those valves are replaced with electronic solenoids, you can turn the wheel electrically, with nothing fancy inside the car.

Changing the gear lever position electrically is a slice of urine. As proven by mythbusters.

However doing that isn't exactly plug-in is it?
-- BLSTIC, May 30 2008


// This is not a toy. // Yet, toys for big boys. How about remotely clamp carnappers with seat hooks, then let them experience the gruesome ride of their lives!
-- rotary, May 30 2008



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