Japanese car Pod [OT]
From: f s (for888sale@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon 18 Nov 2002 - 22:11:54 EST
--- MATSUBAYASHI 'Shaolin' Kohji
<shaolin@rhythmaning.org> wrote:
>
> We Japanese may be the craziest people on earth:
> there are both LHD and RHD, and many highways and
> parking lot
> even have two tollbooths for LHD and RHD (Doh!)
better than doing the keystone cops thing in the rain
just to pay toll :-)
article:
The Car of the Future, Today
By Sean O'Hara
I want a flying car, dammit.
For most of the last century, science fiction writers
have been promising us flying cars. But does Ford do
anything about it? No. Does Volvo? Of course not. BMW?
Absolutely not.
But what about the Japanese? The Japanese love to
invent weird stuff for Americans to buy. Gigapets,
gaydars, hentai, Nintendos. Yet they’ve still failed
to invent the flying car. Instead, they give us Pod,
the world’s first empathic car.
The car, produced by Sony and Toyota (a combination
that should give us the coolest car this side of
vehicle Voltron), looks like a cross between a
Volkswagen Beetle and anime character Totoro. The
headlights change colors to represent the car’s
emotions – a cheery orange when the owner approaches,
blue when damaged or out or fuel, and angry red if the
driver abuses the car by braking sharply or driving
erratically. For added kitsch, the car has a wagging,
tail-like antennae on the back.
The car also contains sensors in the steering wheel to
measure the driver’s pulse and the amount of sweat on
his palms. When Pod thinks the driver is upset, it
will play soothing music; if the driver is too
aggressive, Pod will warn the driver to be more
careful.
Now, if you’re sane, you’ll agree that this is the
craziest idea ever to grace the face of the Earth. And
it could only come from Japan. Upon learning of Pod,
noted social commentator James "Kibo" Parry said,
"This goes in that tiny little section of the Venn
diagram for ‘Things Japanese people would like but
Vulcans wouldn’t,’ along with PostPet and Panty Cat
and dirty-underwear vending machines." And yet,
America is Japan’s (and especially Sony’s) bitch. If
the Japanese think this is a cool idea, then in ten
years, so will we.
And we still won’t have flying cars
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