Discovering the potential of technology.

[john1701a]

I just got done watching "The Making of Jurassic Park" from back in 1993. Throughout the special, Spielberg made comments about the whole new world of opportunity the animation technology he just discovered had introduced... how 10 years from now that technology would evolve to such an amazing level that people's imaginations would thrive... how movies would never be the same... how new stories would be told... how new jobs would be created... how accepting the new ground he was breaking would become. Needless to say, all that became very true. The technology of movie making is an expectation now, a new standard we now adhere too.

It sure sounds like the very same discovery process is at play with the technology showing up in hybrids. Prius is breaking ground by introducing a whole new level of expectations. Common vehicles will no longer be limited just power & size appeal. The convenience of SE/SS will take the masses by storm. No more fumbling for a key to get in. No more squeeze & twist required for starting. No more reaching for a remote to lock the vehicle. The digital speedometer is a given. It works so amazingly well, absolutely no comments about washout from the sun or inconvenient location surface any more. That idea is set firm, well accepted. A new one that's formulating is the Multi-Display. Years from now, people will have no clue how they could ever tolerate not having one. The potential of information that device can provide has barely begun to be tapped. Imagine the Navigation System being updated through a bluetooth connection on your cell-phone from a local Department of Transportation data feed of traffic congestion, accidents, construction, and weather information... all live and seamlessly displayed on the touch-screen. And the amount of performance data the car could collect & display boggles the mind. Then there is the hybrid technology itself. Just try to imagine how far that will evolve over the next 10 years.

People are just beginning to discover now. Be thankful you had the opportunity to participate in the early stages. The potential is enormous. Vehicles will never be thought of the same why again. You'll look at a traditional vehicle and exclaim, "Oh! That's so 20th Century."

[LeVautRien]

Some say the SE/SS thing is a bit much, but I think it has the potential to become as ubiquitous as keyless entry.

Another big thing I see is the parking button. I'm sure having a parking button instead of a parking function on the shifter would save many an accidental runaway.

[Gurmail]

John, are you going to write any more Prius Logs??? They make such good reading. Thanks for promoting the Prius in the early days.

[LeVautRien]

I would assume so...he updated the logs a few days ago. He writes them and then uploads them in batches every so often. No reason for me to suspect that he'd stop writing them.

[daniel]

Originally posted by john1701a
... Imagine the Navigation System being updated through a bluetooth connection on your cell-phone from a local Department of Transportation data feed of traffic congestion, accidents, construction, and weather information... all live and seamlessly displayed on the touch-screen.

In 10 years from now, traffic congestion in major cities will be so bad, this will become absolutely necessary, just to keep taffic moving at all. Then some band of brigands will bomb the central traffic computer, or figure out how to jam the radio signal, and the entire city will turn into a grid-locked parking lot, with people eating each other just to survive, and abandoned vehicles making the grid-lock permanent. There'll be no solution but to evacuate the survivors and pour fresh concrete over the immobile cars, creating new streets one level up. For a month, people will take public transportation, but then they'll get complacent, and the whole cycle will repeat itself ad nauseum, until the streets are higher than the buildings...