At least the dinosaurs were spared the pain of knowing they were going to become fossils.

Mercedes Benz has previewed their SCL600, a car that is really different. What's different? It has no steering wheel and no foot pedals...It's driven with a joystick. Can you drive with a joystick? (OK, I know what group this is, but no pun was intended.) I'll bet your children or grandchildren can. The influence of video games has arrived. Younger engineers are comfortable with the video game interface and are designing with it. Scary thought...Now a seven-year-old could steal your car and probably drive it better than you can.

As a graduate anthropologist, I know about fossils and personally, just ask anyone in the chat room and they'll confirm by swearing, "yup, MacWolf is indeed a fossil."

Most newer ships along with some tugs are steered with joysticks. Most riverboats are steered with steering levers. Only small vessels and some specialty vessels are steered with wheels. --FLO--

In the mid 60's GM had a car, a Pontiac Catalina I think, equipped with an experimental joystick steering system. I remember seeing Walter Cronkite, driving it on a TV series that dealt with items that might become commonplace the future.

Quite a few early automobiles including the Lanchester were steered with a lever, so it's nothing new. The advantage of a steering wheel is that, providing you hold it with both hands, the forces of cornering, acceleration and braking do not cause the weight of your arm/s to influence the control of the vehicle. Just think about it: As you corner hard to the left, the weight of your arm will throw the joystick to the right. Bumps and lurches will all be transfered to the steering. Little childern playing on a PlayStation are not subject to these forces. But it sounds as though they are growing up with the idea that it would be better to drive a real car like that.... OMG! And then the twits let them design cars ?????

I've got to believe that a joystick is a very bad idea. Consider the kinds of things that could happen with kids in the car, reaching for things without looking or trying to stretch over the back seat and bumping the stick. A steering wheel is far less vulnerable to that kind of thing. Just 'cause it works in a plane with licensed pilots doesn't mean its going to work in cars with morons in control.

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:56 pm As a graduate anthropologist, I know about fossils and personally, just ask anyone in the chat room and they'll confirm by swearing, "yup, MacWolf is indeed a fossil."

Yep its true, MacWolf is a fossil, no doubt about it.

River

Riverwind's scientific classification in Latin is:

fluvio ventrus eunuch