Lincoln's Concept Car Replaces Steering Wheel with Mouse-Like 'Controller' (thedrive.com) 63
Engadget reports that the annual "Monterey Car Week "has been a hotbed of EV debuts this year with unveilings from Dodge, Acura, DeLorean and a host of other automakers." But then on Thursday, Lincoln unveiled its Model L100, paying homage to the opulence of Lincoln's original 1922 luxury car by "redefining" vehicle controls.
A video on CNN explains that "the fully autonomous vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals," emphasizing that it's a "concept car" — a show piece. ("It's not set for production and won't be sold to customers.") But yes, it's an electric car that replaces the steering wheel with what Lincoln is calling a "chess piece controller," a hand-held, car-shaped piece of crystal that sits on a table in the center of the car. Drivers "grab it and move it around and move the actual vehicle," Kemal Curic, Global Design Director for Lincoln Motor Company, tells the Drive. (The table-top surface apparently functions like a kind of map, with the hand-held piece acting as an avatar.) Or as the Drive puts it, "Remember being a kid and pushing a toy car around on a city rug? Lincoln designers do."
The site ultimately concludes that the designs "really speak to one's natural instinct of movement. As humans, whenever we want to move something we just pick it up and move it; so why should our cars be any different...? [C]oncept cars don't have to make sense. They just need to be a cool representation of our wildest ideas."
In addition, CNN explains, "Because the car drives itself, the front row seats can be turned to face the rear passengers."
There's other futuristic features. CNN's video shows what Lincoln is calling "smart wheel covers" which fully encase the tires while offering a decorative electric light show (which doubles as a battery indicator). Even the floor is a massive digital screen, and there's also a full-length hinged glass roof — an upper canopy which according to Engadget "can project realistic animated scenes onto the floor and ceiling."
"Unfortunately many of the ideas presented here will inevitably be cut, going the way of Mercedes' awesome, Avatar-inspired trunk hatch wigglers."
A video on CNN explains that "the fully autonomous vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals," emphasizing that it's a "concept car" — a show piece. ("It's not set for production and won't be sold to customers.") But yes, it's an electric car that replaces the steering wheel with what Lincoln is calling a "chess piece controller," a hand-held, car-shaped piece of crystal that sits on a table in the center of the car. Drivers "grab it and move it around and move the actual vehicle," Kemal Curic, Global Design Director for Lincoln Motor Company, tells the Drive. (The table-top surface apparently functions like a kind of map, with the hand-held piece acting as an avatar.) Or as the Drive puts it, "Remember being a kid and pushing a toy car around on a city rug? Lincoln designers do."
The site ultimately concludes that the designs "really speak to one's natural instinct of movement. As humans, whenever we want to move something we just pick it up and move it; so why should our cars be any different...? [C]oncept cars don't have to make sense. They just need to be a cool representation of our wildest ideas."
In addition, CNN explains, "Because the car drives itself, the front row seats can be turned to face the rear passengers."
There's other futuristic features. CNN's video shows what Lincoln is calling "smart wheel covers" which fully encase the tires while offering a decorative electric light show (which doubles as a battery indicator). Even the floor is a massive digital screen, and there's also a full-length hinged glass roof — an upper canopy which according to Engadget "can project realistic animated scenes onto the floor and ceiling."
"Unfortunately many of the ideas presented here will inevitably be cut, going the way of Mercedes' awesome, Avatar-inspired trunk hatch wigglers."
Re:Translation: designers are retards (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
its not designed to be a new car, its designed to get clicks in the internet
Fine. Re-define Lincoln as a social media company then, and not a licensed manufacturer of personal transportation.
Fucking pointless, is fucking pointless.
Re:Translation: designers are retards (Score:5, Insightful)
Faster horses. Remember "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."
If people don't get creative and experiment, we won't explore the other possibilities. The purpose of concept cars and such is, in part, to try out wacky ideas to see where they lead.
On a more realistic level, it's worth noting the cockpits of fighters, where the control stick has moved from something in the middle (e.g. with the F15), to something more like a computer joystick to the right of the pilot, where there hand rests with their arm to the side. With fly-by-wire, there is no longer the need for the stick to be central as it was in the past.
Trying this out in a concept car is a good idea. Putting it into production most likely isn't. But a seemingly silly experiment like this may inspire a series of progressively less silly ideas, until something new arises that is good for production.
Re: Translation: designers are retards (Score:2)
No, it is stupid. Cars are not airplanes. The dynamic range necessary in a steering wheel is not necessary in an airplane yoke. And btw, in an airplane, even though the yoke became a stick, the footpedals (ie the analog of the steering wheel that controls yaw) did not change.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Translation: designers are retards (Score:2)
I'm not a pilot but even I know that makes crosswind landings harder than they need to be.
Re: Translation: designers are retards (Score:2)
Yet oddly even the latest fly by wire airliners still use rudder pedals. What does that tell you about what a great idea it is?
Re: Translation: designers are retards (Score:3)
Yeah, that'll be it. They dumped the yolk for a side stick but couldnt leg go of the pedals for sentimental reasons. Sure, whatever you say.
New License Required (Score:2)
On a more realistic level, it's worth noting the cockpits of fighters, where the control stick has moved...
Yes, but pilots have to get specially qualified for each different type of plane that they fly because there are often significant differences for important controls. This is not needed for cars because the important controls are much simpler and basically the same for all cars.
That's what will ultimately kill this - if you start radically rearranging the controls then you are going to end up with legislation requiring new classes of license for these cars and once that happens your market will be limit
"Faster horses?" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Concept cars are the just the automotive equivalent to fashion clothing. You know, the industry where they make corsets out of wood, and skinny models stomp their feet on purpose to make their boobs jiggle as much as possible.
I've looked at concept cars over the last 40 years, and have seen very little that actually seemed like a good idea, let alone went into production. That link to the Mercedes concept car gave me a Lord Helmet moment as I thought to myself, "What the hell am I looking at?!"
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Point and shoot (Score:2)
Finally... (Score:2)
I can 360 no-scope in my car
Re: (Score:3)
Re: So, a car-shaped joystick? (Score:2)
GPS doesnt work in underground car parks so good luck pointing out that parking spot on a map. At some point manual control will be required.
Re: So, a car-shaped joystick? (Score:2)
Dead reckoning for possibly hundreds of metres on maybe worn tyres so with a shorter radius to a necessary accuracy of inches? Yeah, right, that'll work just fine.
Re: (Score:2)
Dead reckoning for possibly hundreds of metres on maybe worn tyres so with a shorter radius to a necessary accuracy of inches? Yeah, right, that'll work just fine.
Apparently they use cameras for those last inches.
Re: (Score:2)
Depending on the tyres condition it could be several metres out of position, not inches.
Re: (Score:2)
The tires are irrelevant. You can measure motion with accelerometers and a clock.
Re: (Score:2)
LOL, yeah ok , accelerometers are really that accurate :)
Re: (Score:2)
The cheap accelerometer ICs that are added to phones and tablets aren't that accurate, but there are extremely accurate accelerometers available. Here are some of the products from one of the larger companies that make them:
https://www.pcb.com/sensors-fo... [pcb.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, thanks for that. I wouldn't use hobby-grade sensors for this job. As was mentioned previously, SRS now utilizes extremely accurate accelerometers rather than the ball-and-ramp crash detectors of yesteryear, so the sensors are literally already on the vehicle. Even if they need to be upgraded, it's still going to be a relatively low cost differential.
Re: So, a car-shaped joystick? (Score:2)
I love how slashdotters can so easily think up problems that the experts clearly missed, but are unable to think up the simple solutions.
You are concerned about the car's dead reckoning (in the absence of GPS signal) being off because the tires are slightly worn. Gee, if only the car could compare its predicted dead reckoning against the GPS data while it is available, to determine if (and by how much) the tire diameter is off from expected size, and compensate accordingly when it suddenly loses gps data. S
Re: (Score:2)
The sort of dead reckoning required to navigate to a conservative precision of 10cm over 100m would need to be accurate to 0.1%. Good luck with that.
Re: (Score:2)
GPS doesnt work in underground car parks
They solved that for tunnels quite a while ago with bluetooth beacons. iOS and Android location services can navigate under "La Defense" in Paris perfectly well - even better than outside: with all the reflections on the tall buildings, the GPS tends to get lost from time to time.
I see no reason not to do that in an underground car park - or anywhere with no GPS service for that matter.
Re: So, a car-shaped joystick? (Score:2)
So... it's a mouse
Re: So, a car-shaped joystick? (Score:2)
Saab. It was a dumb idea then and it's a dumb idea now but like 3D TV it comes around every decade or 2 because some new kid on the block wants to make a name for himself but doesnt read the history books first.
Gesture Controller (Score:3, Funny)
What you really want is one of those hand gesture controllers.
So you can wave to the left or right
"go that way no that way you stupid car, no that way" (waves hands / arms maniacally to the right)
Car controls UI (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly. We've been trying alternative interfaces for over a century now.
Driving a Ford Model T is actually a challenge because even though most of it is the same, there are still enough differences that you cannot simply go from today's car to a Model T without a little retraining. And we're not talk
Sedan (Score:2)
Would have been nice to see the car (Score:3)
First, did we have to have a video of the car when it's not even being shown? No, showing some vague nebulous shape with a single light is not showing something. We don't need the dragon fight scene from Game of Thrones. If you're going to show the vehicle, show it. With plenty of lights and no 2 second clip jumps.
Second, that is somewhat similar to the Citroen Karin [9cache.com] concept car from 1980.
Third, that single roof piece will be a nightmare. Better have a high ceiling in your garage or be prepared to leave the car outside all the time.
Finally, I'll take this [9cache.com] concept car instead of the Lincoln any day. Even this [9cache.com] concept car is better.
Re: (Score:1)
This is not the first time... (Score:2)
This is not the first time...I read about a steering control that uses the wrist [popularmechanics.com]. So twist of the wrist instead of point and click.
JoshK.
Not A Thing (Score:1)
In order to be street legal, a car needs an actual, round steering wheel. This is a statutory requirement. You can't put such a vehicle on the roads.
This is before you get to the whole "self-driving cars aren't a thing that can exist and are functionally a grift by sectors of the tech and auto industries to siphon off VC dollars" thing.
Re: (Score:2)
In order to be street legal, a car needs an actual, round steering wheel. This is a statutory requirement. You can't put such a vehicle on the roads.
I'd like to know more about that law. [tesla.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Past forward (Score:2)
The 1922 Lincoln and the DeLorean? Have we gone forward to the past [wikipedia.org]?
Money well spent (Score:1)
Even the floor is a massive digital screen (Score:3)
There's that possum you just ran over ...
it's 10pm, do you know where your tv remote is (Score:2)
Stupid, Unlawful Idea (Score:2)
Just another bullshit marketing stunt (Score:2)
eh not a big deal (Score:2)
most the people who buy Lincoln's can't drive the fucking things anyway, I think the worst was the panther platform car's with granny blue hair and skeleton paw paw, yea lets give old people a squishy couch to sleep on while driving
An extremely stupid idea (Score:2)
This idea is horrible for so many reasons, but primary - you don't want sudden, dramatic changes in navigation to be easy to perform, especially by accident! The steering wheel is hard to turn for a reason - it's almost impossible to flip your vehicle over by accidentally turning the steering wheel 720 degrees in the duration of a second or two.
The proposed control scheme here seems like it would be easy for a bump in the road to cause the driver's hand to jerk far enough to send the car out of control.
IBM called, they want their TrackPoint back (Score:2)
Minesweeper (Score:2)
You got this! (Score:2)
wheel so good (Score:2)
The steering wheel is so good that Boeing keeps using yokes in their fancy shmancy high tech planes, even though fighter planes and Airbus now use a stick. I guess Lincoln wants to put drivers through the same training as fighter and Airbus pilots. Or maybe they plan to do it by Natural Selection.
In this comment thread (Score:2)