Accelerating the Future - Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE

[Loathomar]

I still thing the future lays in hands of self driving cars far more the just increasing the MPG of cars. This push to take cars to the limit did make some drivable 100 mpg cars, but I still have a hard time see many on the roads. Self driving cars, that can talk to the cars near them can drive at extremely good efficiency and without no traffic (as I live it LA, that is reason enough).

[cyr135]

soon the time will come when that thats all we'll see on our highways

Rangel...

[GavnatronTarasattva]

I want the skinny yellow one!

[antiigravity]

The only concern with all those vehicles is that they absolutely don't look appealing, plus there's a safety issue. A lot of them I noticed are unstable during turns, braking and so on. Regular cars are proves through thousands of crash tests and century of use. I don't think I'd but one of those. That's why I drive SUV and not Civic or Smart car, and never will, even if gas $10 Gallon.

[kaje01]

@antiigravity Not appealing? I like the x-tracer, aptera, and the edison. I would buy any of these cars but not at the $40k+ they are currently asking. As far as saftey goes, any of these vehicles would fare better then the motorcycles on the road today, and the ability to avoid a collision is just as important as the ability to absorb one. I think once the prices come down and these cars get better advertisements people will adopt.

[antiigravity]

@kaje01 Your opinion is VERY subjective. There's a tendency in buyers market though. There were a lot of attempts to sell vehicles that are outside of standard, accepted by most car manufacturers, look, and all of them failed. Even now survey will show that people like YOU are minority, one of the examples is this: anyone who's driving a Prios is considered to be an imbecile, provided that it has almost a standard look.

[antiigravity]

What's more important, is to concentrate on developing alternative resources, instead of trying to reinvent the whole structure from top to bottom, which takes 10 times more efforts and resources (one of the reasons so many teams dropped out so fast, trying to debug their "creations" on the go). A large amount of finances goes to development, repair, and servicing ICM and transmission. It also eats up to 35-50 % of the new vehicle cost. Let alone the gas prices.

[antiigravity]

@kaje01 As a proof that you're wrong, I can show you statistics that states how few people bought Smart car that already has 60+MPG, I bet YOU don't even have one.

[kaje01]

@antiigravity That's because the smart car gets 40 mpg and costs too much. If it got over 100 mpg you might see different. I would never buy that car when for $13k I could get a loaded used car that still gets 30 mpg. Frankly, less car is less money. You don't need the super high mpg's. Throw a ninja 250 motor in a street legal go-kart and sell that for $3k. See what happens.

[Loathomar]

@antiigravity "EPA reported the smart car mpg achieved 33 city and 41 mpg on the highway" and compared to a Civic's 24 City and 36 hwy, you are talking about a 23% increase for what is nearly half the car. But when you are talking about a 200% difference, it is a big difference.

[Chrisjr2007]

Ah!Innovation drives the future.

[Chrisjr2007]

Awesome!!!:)

[mask667]

Amazing, thank you.