3 ms·

Build the BUS. They did the beatle. Now they need to bring back the bus!!

Animats 9y ago
The article has drawings of a proposed new Microbus. They will have to make it more crashworthy than the original. The original had the driver so far forward it had near-zero crush depth.
- hinkley 9y ago
  The blind spots on that proposed design are crazy bad. I can’t see that surviving productization.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    So blind spots matter so much these days when cameras and sensors to mitigate them are cheap?
    - yellowapple 9y ago
      Well yeah. If the cameras and sensors fail, then you'll probably want to replace them with your own eyes. That's kinda hard to do when there's a bunch of car body in the way.
      - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        Do they actually fail in practice? Seems very unusual for what is most likely a pretty discrete component. Also, does failure have to be so graceful? For example, if my windshield wipers fail during a heavy rain, I have no choice but to pick t my hazard lights on and move off the road. If my car tells me my sensors are broken, I can see doing the same for that. Driving with technology is so much safer anyways, it’s like constant awareness without needing to look backwards (and consequently not look forward).
        yellowapple 9y ago
        "Do they actually fail in practice?" There's not enough data for cars specifically to know if they do anything in practice, let alone fail. With other things, though, cables come loose and voltages get spiked/sagged and so on - yeah, not common failures, but common enough to be forseeable. My point, though, is more that if these sensors do indeed fail, I'd much prefer to be able to have at least enough ability to sense my environment to still safely navigate, even if I have to do so with much greater caution. That is: losing my sensors shouldn't be as catastrophic as losing my windshield wipers in a heavy downpour.
    - hinkley 9y ago
      In this case I’m talking about the double A pillars, not the D pillars. Backup cameras are fine. But seeing someone approaching a residential intersection on foot or on bike is important.
      - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        Ya, I agree. My tech package can capture pedistrians behind and aside, but not front (and preemptive breaki is disabled at slow speeds). It seems like technology will enable new designs (and ultimately, a fully autonomous car doesn’t really need windows at all).
newnewpdro 9y ago
A friend who does networking @ VW tells me they're working on an electric bus. But last I heard it was kind of fancy and expensive, not a low-cost eco-friendly hippy RV.
- tonyedgecombe 9y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQut6ks3nSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQut6ks3nSY
drchaos 9y ago
The bus never went away in Europe, it's called Multivan nowadays and pretty popular over here, albeit somewhat expensive (50-70k€ for a decent model). https://www.volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge.de/de/modelle/multivan.html https://www.volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge.de/de/modelle/multivan....
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Those aren’t really the bus form factor though, more like a full sized van.
whatusername 9y ago
https://www.volkswagen.com.au/en/models/multivan.html#item=1&gallery=151814148195135301 https://www.volkswagen.com.au/en/models/multivan.html#item=1...

The article has drawings of a proposed new Microbus. They will have to make it more crashworthy than the original. The original had the driver so far forward it had near-zero crush depth.

hinkley 9y ago
The blind spots on that proposed design are crazy bad. I can’t see that surviving productization.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  So blind spots matter so much these days when cameras and sensors to mitigate them are cheap?
  - yellowapple 9y ago
    Well yeah. If the cameras and sensors fail, then you'll probably want to replace them with your own eyes. That's kinda hard to do when there's a bunch of car body in the way.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Do they actually fail in practice? Seems very unusual for what is most likely a pretty discrete component. Also, does failure have to be so graceful? For example, if my windshield wipers fail during a heavy rain, I have no choice but to pick t my hazard lights on and move off the road. If my car tells me my sensors are broken, I can see doing the same for that. Driving with technology is so much safer anyways, it’s like constant awareness without needing to look backwards (and consequently not look forward).
      - yellowapple 9y ago
        "Do they actually fail in practice?" There's not enough data for cars specifically to know if they do anything in practice, let alone fail. With other things, though, cables come loose and voltages get spiked/sagged and so on - yeah, not common failures, but common enough to be forseeable. My point, though, is more that if these sensors do indeed fail, I'd much prefer to be able to have at least enough ability to sense my environment to still safely navigate, even if I have to do so with much greater caution. That is: losing my sensors shouldn't be as catastrophic as losing my windshield wipers in a heavy downpour.
  - hinkley 9y ago
    In this case I’m talking about the double A pillars, not the D pillars. Backup cameras are fine. But seeing someone approaching a residential intersection on foot or on bike is important.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Ya, I agree. My tech package can capture pedistrians behind and aside, but not front (and preemptive breaki is disabled at slow speeds). It seems like technology will enable new designs (and ultimately, a fully autonomous car doesn’t really need windows at all).

newnewpdro 9y ago

A friend who does networking @ VW tells me they're working on an electric bus. But last I heard it was kind of fancy and expensive, not a low-cost eco-friendly hippy RV.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQut6ks3nSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQut6ks3nSY

drchaos 9y ago

The bus never went away in Europe, it's called Multivan nowadays and pretty popular over here, albeit somewhat expensive (50-70k€ for a decent model). https://www.volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge.de/de/modelle/multivan.html https://www.volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge.de/de/modelle/multivan....

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Those aren’t really the bus form factor though, more like a full sized van.

whatusername 9y ago

https://www.volkswagen.com.au/en/models/multivan.html#item=1&gallery=151814148195135301 https://www.volkswagen.com.au/en/models/multivan.html#item=1...