Network of autonomous small cargo vessels ("Matternet" on the water)

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Matternetaqua, May 8, 2012.

  1. Frosty

    Frosty Previous Member

    All the posts from Australia are socialistic ideals and union mind set.---Brother.

    We started off on automation of large ships now we are talking about outboards!!!!!

    You cant stop a large ship with a bowl of noodles and some fishing line.

    Who's in charge of this thread.
     
  2. CatBuilder

    CatBuilder Previous Member

    Here is the smart car video that changed my mind about them.


    http://www.spike.com/video-clips/gocdvc/crash-test-shows-smart-cars-might-not-be-smart

    Don't think I would want my wife in one. This is a 40mph crash. Can you imagine the acceleration involved inside the smart car? That would be enought to kill or cripple anyone, while there is much less in the other small car.

    There is no engineering that can protect your body from that kind of acceleration.
     
  3. daiquiri
    Joined: May 2004
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    daiquiri Engineering and Design

    It is not that bad little machine. I have had first-hand experience with Smart cars, so I'll share it with you.

    Few months ago my car was stolen, so while waiting for the insurance money to arrive, a friend of mine lent me his Smart car. I drove it mostly in the city, but have used it twice on the highway too. In the city it is a nearly perfect car, provided you don't have to move steel tubes (like someone mentioned before) or go to Ikea to buy a table and bring it home. It has an excellent acceleration because it is very light-weight and has an automatic gear-shift (thought rather primitive and weird one). It is pretty spacious inside (and I'm more than 6' tall - 1.91 m precisely) but so compact externally that it can be parked in spaces normally only usable by motorcycles.
    On a highway, it can reach 140 km/h in 6th gear, but at that speed the car suffers and feels every air movement caused by the other cars, especially by trucks, so one cannot afford himself distractions.

    As about impact resistance, the cell is so crash-resistant that the main danger for the occupants are the inertial forces due to it's light-weight construction. But it is also well-stuffed with air-bags, so I don't know how much is that actually an issue. Several years ago I have witnessed an accident occurred to a guy driving one of the very first versions of Smart. It happened in the late night, he was drunk and has engaged a pretty tight curve at a very high speed. He lost control of the car, crashed sideways into the road guard rails (side bumpers or however you call them in English), flipped over and started rolling like a hamster wheel down the road for around 100 meters. At the end, the car stopped in the upright position. Me and few other guys stopped by, got out of our cars and ran towards the Smart. Frankly, we didn't have too many hopes to find him still alive. Instead, to our big surprise, the cage around the driver's compartment was still in one piece, with no significant deformations! The guy inside had cuts and bruises all over his face, but nothing really dangerous. He was sitting inside, looking around and rambling that perhaps, at the end, he actually is a little drunk... Fortunately for him, he was sober enough to fasten himself with the seat belt before moving towards this disaster. He wanted to get out of the car, which we have forbidden him to do, before the ambulance was there.
    The ambulance and the police have arrived at the same time, and you should see the surprised face of the officer when he saw that the guy was alive and basically unharmed after that crash... :D Now, that was not a frontal impact case like, I guess, the video shows (can't view it from my location, the caption says :( ), but it was a high-speed accident with a very violent rolling.
     
  4. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Might as well drive a beer can.
     
  5. mydauphin
    Joined: Apr 2007
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    Somehow your post just confirms my thoughts on it. I rather have a Honda Fit, My Ex-wife has one, and I would regularly get close to 50 mpg when I would drive it nicely. It also performed like a normal car, and handled high-speeds curves nicely. It is also alot cheaper than a n Smart Car, a Prius, a Volt or any of these new fangle cars. For that matter a Honda Civic, a Toyota Corolla or Camry provide you with good Return on your investment.

    I believe the Smart car is just not very smart, neither are tiny cargo vessels, Solar powered boats, nor replacing your diesel engine with a golf cart setup.
     
  6. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Toyotas are very dependable. My present and last vehicle is or will be a Toyota. I am done with the UAW crap.
     
  7. mydauphin
    Joined: Apr 2007
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    Agreed!! The only reason I will buy a US car, is that used they are dirt cheap. I can buy a $40k US brand car after 5 years for $5000. Drive them for a few years and then dump them. But if I want a reliable new car I go for a Honda, Toyota or Nissan. Even Hyundai and Kia are getting better. And before any "Buy American" guys get on my case, many of these cars have more American parts in them than GM.

    Ford those make new cars but the depreciate as fast as GM and Chryslers, really bad use of Money. Like I said a $40k pickup truck today is worth a forth of that in a couple of years if you have the cash.
     
  8. Submarine Tom

    Submarine Tom Previous Member

    I prefer walking.
     
  9. troy2000
    Joined: Nov 2009
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    The quality and reliability of American vehicles is much better than it was in the eighties, when they went in the toilet for a few years. I've driven American pickups for 12 years at work, including 4x4's to patrol pipelines thru the desert, and have no complaints.

    And why do you call them UAW crap? I assure you that automotive engineers and designers are not part of any union, much less the United Auto Workers. Neither are the management types who make the final decisions on what to build and how....
     
  10. Frosty

    Frosty Previous Member

    All the cars I ever had in UK was American and I am a professional mechanic. The big old ******* were a poor mans RR with loads of bells and whistles.

    My last was a Ford Mercury that had a tow ball on the front bumper and before that was an oldsmobile cutlass Brougham in gold and before that was a corvette L82 350 auto.

    I have also had 2 Jenson Interceptors with Chrysler 440ci and a smaller 383ci

    Big old stuff with an aquired taste. Maybe you mess with them too much and cant fix them. Many would mess with EGR and Catalytics --buggered them up by messing with emission control circuits.
     
  11. mydauphin
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    American, German, and Far East car companies work on different philosophies.

    The Germans try make the best cars in the world, they spend millions on R&D and are constantly improving their brand and product. When they find that the car cost a little more than they thought, they raise the price of the car.

    The far Easterns try to innovate, make reliable cars, and focuses on being the best in the price range. If the car comes in at a little higher price, they make less profit and sell more of them. They also scale up the cars and brand trying to match the Germans.

    The Americans try to make as much profit per car as possible so they cqn add meaningless options that increase that profit margins. Their car designs are managed by a marketing department. Every few years they cancel a car, rename it some other dumb name and try a new marketing approach. They spend more money on marketing than R&D. When there cars comes in overpriced because of their ridiculous overhead, they make car cheaper by making brake pads thinner, or reducing metal thickness in engine block, or electrical system. They make there profit on the higher end models which cost almost the same to build as low end units but sell at a premium.

    Simply put, Germans make the highest technology cars, Far Easter's make the best cars for the money. The American cars are hit and miss, it is a car by car thing, and they depreciate faster than the other two.
     
  12. Milehog
    Joined: Aug 2006
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    Milehog Clever Quip

    I suspect that as consumers realize the quality of newer Fords their depreciation rates will decrease.
     
  13. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Your union probably forced the company you work for to buy UAW junk.

    The engineers and designers aren't the problem. The problem starts on the assembly line.

    http://www.fredsauermatrix.com/73-U...nemy-The-Collective-Bargaining-Agreement.html
     
  14. DCockey
    Joined: Oct 2009
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    DCockey Senior Member

    Depends on which particular vehicles are compared.

    Some of the comments here are a amusing in a perverse way for someone who was directly involved in engineering cars and trucks.
     

  15. messabout
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    messabout Senior Member

    The latest Consumer Report magazine is an all automobile issue. They rate, among other things, the cars to avoid because of service problems. Guess who is in first place on the Caveat Emptor list.......BMW! Beautiful cars, unfortuneately, with a poor service record. Worse news is that their parts have fantasticly inflated prices. The small inline 6 cylinder engine that needs a new set of main and rod bearings, piston rings, and gaskets will need an expenditure well north of $3000. Roughly ten times the cost of the same complement of parts for a 350 Chev, Ford, or Dodge.
     
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