The great cockpit debate; 'discussion' this Friday....

Very sad; horrible to lose a close friend. I'm glad AJ has the NASCAR ride and doesn't have to race in a formula in which he is no longer comfortable.

 

An airline pilot told a friend of mine that he only lands manually about once in every four times just to 'keep his hand in'.

 

Especially in congestion scenarios, automated cars are worth their weight in gold. We at Mercedes already have systems in our cars for a few years now that allow you to hardly do any driving in a traffic jam, and it is very very relaxing to have them.
Watch out for the new E class with the new Drive Pilot that you'll be able to buy in March or April, it'll bring automation to quite a new level. Test drive one if you have the chance!

 

Two things:

1. Isn't it counter productive for manufacturers to produce cars that drive themselves. By this I mean why buy a BMW, for example, the so called Ultimate Driving Machine ... when they drive themselves this will not matter. The only thing that will matter is the comfort of the rear seat.

Long term I can see a lot of manufacturers going to the wall and the car becoming as interesting as a fridge. Again a lot of marketing and stuff on cars is for the driver. Self driving cars no longer need all that, they don't need to corner with feel (suspension and brakes will become the cheapest possible option, engine power and sound, roll centres - who cares, etc.) ... just get somewhere.

2. Unfortunately I can see no better way to perfect the self driving technology than F1. Yes the WCC will finally actually be the one that matters, the only one in fact!

Pete

 

I think cars, as possession, will still be seen as status symbols, just like houses, jewels and other signs of wealth.

A fully automated Bentley will probably be more desirable than a fully automated Nissan, etc... Just a guess ...

It's not what possession do for you, but how they represent you in the social order that matters for many. Hence Rolex v. Casio watches, etc...

 

Agree. Rolls Royce may finally come out on top again.

It really is going to be all about the interior and badge. Nothing else will matter, except maybe how long the battery charge lasts ... but that will even out very quickly.
Pete

 

This is depressing.

 

1) It depends of course. A self-driving Porsche, for example, may seem strange at first sight, and surely no one would like a Porsche to drive itself on a mountain pass in the Alps. But on long distances or in heavy traffic, even driving a Porsche gets old really quickly. The driver may want to do something else meanwhile, and even if he stares out of the window, he's less stressed from traffic when he finally arrives at said mountain pass.
For manufacturers with more focus on comfort or those whose customers mainly see cars as appliances of course have even more interest in automated driving.
I also doubt that everything will be reduced to the cheapest option - ride quality, top speed, acceleration they're all the same, regardless if a human drives or the computer. Think of it this way: If your assumption was true, every chauffeured car, which the owner doesn't drive himself, would be a Dacia today and not a Rolls Royce

2) No answer from me here, but two questions to you: What would you personally think that a computer that drives a car would have difficulties with? And how would that list match with what you find in a F1 race?

 

I think you have miss-understood my point. There are huge savings in cornering, acceleration, top speed because the computer is driving and speeding will simply not happen. So roll centres, etc. will not matter because the computer will slow to a comfortable speed and take the corner.

The only thing that will matter is comfort. So car manufacture will become considerably cheaper because they can exclude the enthusiast and passive safety stuff (like multi-link suspension that does cool things under stress) because it is not required any more.

A Rolls Royce with a Nissan Micra's mechanicals will be perfect.

Good question but heck I would be mightily impressed if computer controlled cars could get through the first corner with all the ducking and diving for position. We like to think of computers as being superior to our brains but a heck of a lot judgement and instinct is used during the first few corners ... not a strong point for computer logic.
Pete

 

After pre-season testing of the "Halo", Kimmi seems to be traumatized.
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I'm not a fan, but at least the halo does not have transparent canopy, which would create reflections. Point is, the helmet of the driver is still visible.

 

+1

Like Ian said as well, I'm pleasantly surprised at this. Looks way better without, of course...but I'll get used to this very quickly.

 

"Vision is ahh ok"

"Smell is not so good"

 

It looks like a they are testing a G string!

I don't know, but it's either they do pit properly, and get a LMP1 style cockpit, or nothing at all.

 

Are they trying to imply Kimi is a dxxxhead?

 

+1000

 

I can just see it now. A field of F1 cars racing around Monaco with Oprah Winfrey's G string bolted to the front of their cars.

Oh, the glamour...

 

Hamilton and Hulk now publicly in opposition to fat-lady-gstring.

Respect.

 

I just hope they do not prefer the canopy "solution".

 

F1 makes no sense nowadays

Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Vettel much in favour.

I see both points...it's not really elegant, but on the upside it is quite helpful to have when a wheel/wing/whatever is flying towards your head. I'd quite like to have it at that point. It's very rare, but does happen. Would have saved surtees, as vettel says, and Wilson.

Some are saying it won't have made a difference in Massa's incident, but I beg to differ, as it could have struck it and ever so slightly changed the course of spring. Not that it really matters, because Massa was able to continue racing, and it never happened after (or before) that one in a billion incident.

I'm not saying we should all install these things as of right now, but when the change does happen, I'm not opposed to it.

 

They may take anything after being shown the thong. Perhaps that is the strategy?

Since it looks like they are definitely going to do something, I'm hoping for a half canopy if they can make it work. Who knows.

This thing is idiotic looking though. I mean I do not want to drive that stupid looking car. That's hard to swallow as a fan.