No Luddites here, well, maybe a smidgin of one

27 November

Electric cars are coming to a dealership near you, if they haven’t already arrived already that is. Even Jaguar are going to produce one. Battery technology has improved so much that they becoming a real possibility for day to day motoring, so it shouldn’t be too long for that same technology to trickle down to smaller batteries like the AAA batteries that just about all of us use on a daily basis. But how good is the range of these cars, and how long do they batteries take to recharge?

I remember hearing on the news one time that the range of one car is around 200 miles on a full charge. That sounds good on the face of it; however, these car tests are not true pictures of day to day motoring. They normally take place on a rolling road at a set speed and without any other drain on those cells. Real driving isn’t like that. There are hills and bends in the way; slow moving traffic that needs overtaking; stopping and starting in heavy traffic and at red traffic lights; and of course, don’t forget the use of lights at night time and some people’s inability to sit quietly in their car without some sort of music blaring out of the speakers. I don’t know how much that will reduce the range, but it would be a goodly amount methinks. For local use only at the moment I think.

How much do you fancy being driven in a driverless car? I don’t fancy it at all, even if some manufactures are pushing ahead in developing them. And I certainly don’t want to own one. All computers are only as good as their programming and the people using them. How long do you think it will be before some nutty hacker manages to break into the programming and cock up the whole system? Can you imagine all those drivers less cars motoring around and suddenly stopping or performing some sort of silly games with each other? Of dear; the future of our lives in such hands is worrying.

I’m no Luddite either; after all, I am sat at a lappy writing this. I’m all in favour of advancing our use of technology, as long as it’s safe to use, and of course, reliable. Can you imagine a battery car running out of charge or having a major battery failure as it’s being driven through London in the rush? And what of a driverless car having a major fault in the same position? The biggest problems are not the failed car, but the other drivers on the road at the same time. Oh yes, what is likely insurance for such cars likely to be? Can you see the insurance industry missing a trick like that to make money? No, nor me!

Today’s photo …

A real car!

Today’s funny …

One fine afternoon an elderly gentleman tries to get into his local betting office. Much to his surprise, the door is locked. After a few more futile attempts at opening the door a man sticks his head out of a window. It turns out to be the bookmaker himself :
- Sorry, but we're closed today!
The elderly gentleman promptly replies: - But there's a sign on the door saying : Open : 9 - 4, and it's only half past eleven!
to which the bookmaker says: - But those are not the opening hours they are the odds that we're open today.