www.networkworld.com/news/2009/102109-goodbye-stee...l
"Today it's the stuff of video games but Toyota is experimenting with joystick control for a new breed of compact cars and transporters. The world's biggest car maker built the technology into a couple of concept vehicles that were on display Wednesday at the Tokyo Motor Show."
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so someones reinvented the wheel
why dont they just concentrate on making cars cheaper for the masses
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Heaven help us if this does get used...
imagine for instance getting sideswept by another vehicle, or even hitting a pothole, and your body/arm getting jarred - with a steering wheel you partly support yourself by holding it, with a joystick you would lose control!
Edited by Webmaster on 22/10/2009 at 02:39
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it would be a lot easier when using your mobile...
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is this the one where you flip a protective cover off the top revealing a red button underneath and at the same time the missile pods deploy ready to...
Maybe not.
JH
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I'd like one. I really fancy walking in slow motion in my RayBans down the drive in soft focus with a helmet under my arm in a green romper suit to the sound of Berlin's "Takes my breath away........"
It'd make the roundabouts on the Shavington by-pass so much more of an event.....
" I put the brakes on and he flew right by......"
;-)
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 21/10/2009 at 21:03
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Worst. Idea. Ever.
Nice in principle, but what happens when a spectacular electrical failure or computer glitch takes out the steering? No mechanic link = spectacular oopsie. Fly-by-wire on aeroplanes needs multiple redundancy and control laws and has proved very successful.
Unfortunately, in this case the person working on your car might be completely incompetent. What happens when they connect something back to front? It's happened on an Airbus (saved only by a very fast-thinking copilot), it's bound to happen in a car. :-)
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Is it in front of the driver or by the arm rest? I can't see how you can have much control if the latter - like leaning over and trying to steer from the passenger seat.
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Maybe it could be wireless like the Nintendo Wii and shaped like a steering wheel......................er
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Maybe it could be wireless like the Nintendo Wii and shaped like a steering wheel......................er
And hand it to the Mother-in-law in the back seat and tell her to get on with it!
If you could get the range to about 6 feet, you could drive another Toyota alongside and steer each other's cars....
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like leaning over and trying to steer from the passenger seat.
At least some modern fighter jets have joysticks to the side rather than the middle. Same sort of thing, driving an Aygo and flying an F-16 :-)
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Reminds me of when Hi-Fi manufacturers started switching from rotary volume and tuning controls to those stupid sliders. The precise fine touch you could get with a rotary knob disappeared and you ended up with a fiddley and irritating "forward a bit - damn - back a bit" piece of tomfoolery.
Joysticks might be ok on a plane where you've got all the sky to aim at, but I wouldn't fancy trying to manouvre through London traffic with one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Designers with too much time on their hands would be better off making lights where the bulbs could come out without dismantling half the car instead of indulging in these clever fantasies.
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It sounds as precise a method as that report here some years back of a South African taxi driver who had a mole wrench instead of a steering wheel.
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They must be joking!
I can make a direct comparison:
I have driven two hovercraft. one was fitted with a traditional yoke control and the other with a joystick.
By far it was much easier and more comfortable driving the one with the traditional yoke. And experience from hitting large waves confirms what has been feared above about potholes etc; the jolt WILL transfer up your arm and flick the stick, no matter how hard you concentrate.
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