-- Lets take the A/C out of the engine rpm load and make it a constant speed electric compressor ( much like a refrigerator ) which then could be mounted anywhere else.
--
Joy stick steering ( with accelerator too ) anyone ?
Already done, The prius has an electric ac compressor. I don’t think its a constant speed, it variable, This way when the car engine is not running you still have ac. In fact the new prius has no accessory belt.
I also thought someone experimented with joystick steering.
When I was a kid our family had a 1950’s Chrysler that had push button shifters. I don’t recall there ever being a problem with them. My dad would let me sit in his lap and push the buttons when he wanted to shift. Hey, come to think of it, that wasn’t such a safe idea! Well, nobody even had seat belts in their cars back in those days. There was no neutral-interlock safety switch. In the 1950s, safety was an afterthought in car designs, if that.
While the push buttons were pretty cool, and worked fine, if I wanted to buy a car w/an automatic, I wouldn’t pay more for push button shifters. The column shifter is perfectly functional.
While we’re at it, why not voice recognition shifting. Just yell “Drive” and off you go. “Back” “Park” “Nothing”, it’s easy. And without the shifter nonsense, we can go back to 3 across bench front seats, and maybe a suicide knob on the steering. More snuggling, less struggling. Hop in, no key needed, push the button, “Drive”, you hardly have to take your mind off the voice recognition text you are exchanging with your BFF.
Now if only we could develop self repairing front ends that automatically wash off the embarrassing blood and guts from the pedestrians you ran down.
Who said they had to mount the buttons for the tranny on the center console? A couple of flappy paddles or just integrated buttons on the steering wheel would work just as well. A display on the dashboard would indicate which gear you were in.
A Miata I test drove a few years ago had buttons on the steering wheel where I could put the auto into manual mode and use the buttons to shift up or down.
How does push button shifters relate to reckless driving? All im saying is that alot of new vehicles have no mechanical linkage between the shifter and the transmission, so why not just put in a keypad like the big trucks with allison transmissions, The have had them for over 12 years.
Trucks and buses don’t have to worry about a torque locked transmission-they only have parking brake. Most cars with automatics that have park paws that sometimes need to be pulled out using a sturdy shift lever, especially when someone parks on a hill without using the parking brake
An electric AC compressor does seem to be a logical improvement over the belt driven model we are accustomed to. If the operating voltage of automobiles is increased significantly a great many power options and accessories could be efficiently run with dc or possibly ac current.
As for electric power steering, isn’t that accomplished by an electric pump producing the hydraulic pressure to assist driver effort?
An electric AC compressor does seem to be a logical improvement over the belt driven model we are accustomed to. If the operating voltage of automobiles is increased significantly a great many power options and accessories could be efficiently run with dc or possibly ac current.
As for electric power steering, isn’t that accomplished by an electric pump producing the hydraulic pressure to assist driver effort?
The electric ac compressor does make sense, in a standard system you have a clutch slamming on and off all the time, its archaic.
I think the first gm cars to have electric power steering were the malibu and malibu max from 04 on. They use a assist motor, it numbs the steering feel a bit, but a 90 caprice don’t have much steering feel either so who knows.
@RodKnox, your iPad steering wheel rest is a brilliant way to add a little chlorine to the gene pool. I applaud you! There may be some collateral damage, but hey, there are just too many pedestrians wandering around making driving and web-surfing just that much more difficult. (tongue firmly in cheek)
@ken green Several prototypes have been built with joystick steering. Waayy tooo twitchy!
You only move the stick +/- 30-45 degrees versus 1200 degrees (3 1/3 turns lock to lock) for a steering wheel. Also you toss away the human muscle power used to help the steering wheel turn (50% at highway speeds, 5% while parking) and rely 100% on a servo-motor to turn the wheels.
Designers like joysticks, engineers still like steering wheels.
In spite of our attempt to go completely electronic, there are some controls that are still ergonomically better suited one way, and until some one finds something more natural, the steering wheel and the shift lever make sense in a car. I can change gears with a lever more intuitively then with buttons. Buttons that I must look at. Those of us that have been weaned on manuals still have a generation left before buttons make sense in an auto… My first car, a Desoto had push buttons which took my eyes off the road every time I used it.
In Minnesota when it’s 20 below out with heavy gloves or mittens on, makes hitting the correct button a problem. I like the idea of electric compressors though.
@dagosa
Were those old push button models manual or automatic gearboxes? If automatic, why were you pushing the buttons while driving?
With modern vehicles, most people just put the thing in D and go. With CVT transmissions, I don’t think it’s possible for the driver to select a certain gear, so 4 buttons would be all that’s needed; P R N D
@bing
I’m sure they would probably factor that in when they designed it. Make the buttons large enough for seniors and people with gloved hands to be able to see/push them. To make them the size of the buttons on a TV remote would probably kill the idea before it went to production.
@bscar2–The fine art of driving an automatic transmission car in the 1950s required* that you start in low, accelerate, then shift into drive, and accelerate some more and shift back into low. This locks the transmission into second gear. This is more easily done with a lever than pushbuttons which requires one to take one’s eyes off the road.
*required happens when you need to out-drag the car in the next lane over.
Rod, only a handful of cars have used electric/hydraulic steering, for the traditional feel. The rest have a motor mechanically linked to the steering mechanism. It provides varying amounts of supplemental twist. A few cars have variable steering ratios. I suspect that will eventually become standard as it isn’t the difficult to do when you already have a motor involved.
Next up ?
no steering wheel.
no shifter.
no need to look out the windshield.
Just a smartphone or similar device held horizontally between both hands ( in the manner of the old fashioned steering wheel ). Shift commands, radio, and a/c on touch screen for thumb selection. Steering is gyro sensitive as you lean the device side to side, and windshield ( and rear view ) displays on screen.
Driver can sit anywhere in the vehicle.
– just sayin’ –
The sci-fi, waht-ifs of applying existing tech to other uses.
What COULD be, what might be …what IF ?
Just thing of all the old sci-fi that is now in actual use.
