Electric and Driverless cars

I bloody dont want one.

If replacing the battery in electric cars wasn't so expensive I'd have one at the drop of a hat. 
Really fancy a Tesla Roadster although it's way too expensive. Still it's faster than a Ferrari and the next release claims to be the first car to do 0 - 60 in under 2 seconds.

Of course the vehicles on the road with a driver are going to be a cause for concern as the driverless ones will still have to comply with the law. Going to be a whole new learning curve. And those lorries will still pull out and hold up traffic behind while overtaking.

As someone who doesn't drive i'd love a driverless car if they can be proved to be safe.

Mr Pig, how have you got through life without being able to drive ? (although it must be at a much more relaxing pace that those of us who tend to whizz round all the time.)

I have a licence Glos but haven't driven since around 2000. I was a late starter anyway and never really liked it to be honest. Whether that's because i didn't drive much after i passed my test or because i'm blind in one eye i'm not sure.

I can jump on the bus to work and pick up the kids from the childminders, so don't really see the need for a car that i wouldn't really use that much. It would be nice for things like days out and holidays and when the weather is bad but we get along fine without one i think.

Norpig wrote:I have a licence Glos but haven't driven since around 2000. I was a late starter anyway and never really liked it to be honest. Whether that's because i didn't drive much after i passed my test or because i'm blind in one eye i'm not sure.

I can jump on the bus to work and pick up the kids from the childminders, so don't really see the need for a car that i wouldn't really use that much. It would be nice for things like days out and holidays and when the weather is bad but we get along fine without one i think.

It must be nice to have the Mrs as a chauffeur. You don't have the issue of deciding who can have a drink if you both go out either!  

I never thought you could have a driving license if you only had one functioning eye.

Yes you can have a licence, we don't have a car at all KP, Mrs Pig is like me, she has a licence but doesn't like driving either. We are public transport experts 

This has reminded me of when I left school and went on the bread vans for mothers pride as a helper the driver ken lost the sight in his left eye after a log fell on his head after his mate rolled it off a toilet roof collecting Bonny wood. I didn't know about it for ages but he used to scare the shit outa me because he went so close to parked vehicles in the bread truck then one morning on Alexandra rd moss side he pulled in to the left in front of a parked car to deliver to a shop and completely tore the front wing off the shop owners car. It made a horrendous noise and he said to me stop looking at it you're making it obvious he might not have heard it.

Norpig wrote:Yes you can have a licence, we don't have a car at all KP, Mrs Pig is like me, she has a licence but doesn't like driving either. We are public transport experts 

Fair enough.

Still electric cars: cleaner, lighter, faster, safer - but for now a damned sight more expensive. Give it a few years until they become the mainstream and prices tumble and I'll be in there.

Problem is that they don't go very far between needing to be charged up.
I'm in Scotland at the minute and I'd have to stop somewhere like Carlisle (halfway between Rammy and Stirling) to recharge and that assumes that there are free charging stations.
I'll stick to petrol for the time being.

The charging stations aren't free, so I'll assume free as not in use 

When they finally get themselves sorted, I think I would open a cafe, with loads of chargers, and I'd make a mint, as no bugger can get past you, and all have to wait at least long enough for a cuppa.

Once they've driven the diesels off the road, they'll be looking for new ways to tax us. Heard a comment yesterday that pollution is being added to by the wear of our tyres.

I'm expecting the council round any time soon, so that they can measure our nostrils, and charge us for the amount of air we can take in, in one sniff.

They sold diesels on the benefits of this and that. Slowly cranked up the tax on it, and are now putting it in the same category as cigarettes, allowing them to tax this new demon, as much as they see fit. It seems irrelevant that vehicles are a necessity, and that not everyone can afford a new hybrid, or super fast milk float, in as short a time as they seem to think. Also, instead of having chauffeur-driven diesel Jaguars, (as is mine), why don't they get driven about in a Nissan Leaf, just to show us the way ?

gloswhite wrote:The charging stations aren't free, so I'll assume free as not in use 

When they finally get themselves sorted, I think I would open a cafe, with loads of chargers, and I'd make a mint, as no bugger can get past you, and all have to wait at least long enough for a cuppa.

Thanks Glos- that's what I meant, free in the sense that no-one else is charging up and I have to sit somewhere for about 30 minutes waiting for them to finish. Its no fun when you're driving home in lousy weather on a cold night.

Every year at this time we often here that if it's a hard winter there may be power cuts , because of the lack of capacity in the power industry.

So where is all this extra electricity going to come from, to charge and recharge all these vehicles?

Will they have to have a solar panel on the roof?

120 miles that's not going to work.

What about classic cars? I have a lot of money invested in a 68 bullet mustang that ain't gonna run on electricity and neither are those fuckin great big Air Liners. The roads are gonna bit littered with broke down electric cars and you won't be just bombing up to Scotland from London in a day. It's a load of bollox it won't work.

Its a good idea, but the infrastructure, planning and construction are so far behind the ideas currently being pushed, that its gong to cause problems for so many people, probably in the form of taxes as we cannot afford to carry out our masters wishes on time.