Saw an interesting commercial about the Tesla car...
- Thread starter Jace
- Start date
I've seen that commercial. I never felt good about self-driving cars, my worst fear is self-driving semi-trucks. If you have to sit there and babysit them, you may as well drive yourself, IMO. I've heard for a long time now that they can be affected by glare on signs, glare on passing vehicles, etc. I'm old school, and not ready to experiment with such new inventions.
The evolution of cruise control
"Jump back half a century, and the introduction of an automated mechanism for speed control was having a momentous impact on the automotive world. And while cruise control has been maintaining speeds in vehicles for decades, the technology hasn’t remained stagnant it’s been changing and improving immensely to this day."
Inspiration strikes in a strange place
"While riding as a passenger in his lawyer’s car in the 1940s, American engineer Ralph Teetor was irritated by the constant jerking along the journey. The cause? His lawyer had a tendency to slow down when talking and speed up when listening."
"Already experienced with vehicle mechanisms, having been a pioneer of automatic transmission, Teetor set about designing a solution to his lawyer’s pesky driving habits. His solution would count the rotations of the vehicle’s drive shaft to calculate its speed, then use a bi-directional screw-drive electric motor to adjust the throttle and maintain an even pace."
"After several years of work, not to mention a procession of names for his invention (the ‘Controlmatic’ and ‘Speedostat,’ to name a few), Teetor was able to secure a patent for a “Speed control device for resisting operation of the accelerator” in 1950." (READ MORE)
"Jump back half a century, and the introduction of an automated mechanism for speed control was having a momentous impact on the automotive world. And while cruise control has been maintaining speeds in vehicles for decades, the technology hasn’t remained stagnant it’s been changing and improving immensely to this day."
Inspiration strikes in a strange place
"While riding as a passenger in his lawyer’s car in the 1940s, American engineer Ralph Teetor was irritated by the constant jerking along the journey. The cause? His lawyer had a tendency to slow down when talking and speed up when listening."
"Already experienced with vehicle mechanisms, having been a pioneer of automatic transmission, Teetor set about designing a solution to his lawyer’s pesky driving habits. His solution would count the rotations of the vehicle’s drive shaft to calculate its speed, then use a bi-directional screw-drive electric motor to adjust the throttle and maintain an even pace."
"After several years of work, not to mention a procession of names for his invention (the ‘Controlmatic’ and ‘Speedostat,’ to name a few), Teetor was able to secure a patent for a “Speed control device for resisting operation of the accelerator” in 1950." (READ MORE)
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