Author Topic: Driving in the future (Read 848 times)

richardfrost · « **on:** May 27, 2020, 03:46:23 AM »

From 1971...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/a-car-with-no-driver/zmwdcqt

richardfrost · « **Reply #1 on:** May 27, 2020, 10:05:35 AM »

Also this, featuring a tricked out Triumph 2000 with an early version of ABS and electronic ignition...

https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/523456054924704/

Can't find a link to the item itself sorry. You will need to have Facebook to watch this.

culzean · « **Reply #2 on:** May 27, 2020, 10:32:04 AM »

Very interesting, just had to wait for electronics to get cheaper to implement all the ideas people had - Concorde introduced 'fly by wire' where controls no longer directly connected to the things they operated - and all this was being designed less than 20 years after the Lancaster first flew..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde

Loved those Nixie tubes ( cold cathode displays ) in the car with no driver clip. Dekatron counting tubes used to fascinate me with their spinning displays.

The ideas were there, but mass production cheapened things enough that they could be used in everyday items without pricing them out of the market.

Didn't see him demonstrate the ABS in the Triumph clip - maybe they tried it and it didn't work properly so cut that bit out the final video.

Jocko · « **Reply #3 on:** May 27, 2020, 10:57:23 AM »

When I worked in Ferranti, in 1967, I had a hp digital voltmeter that cost more than the then price of an E Type Jaguar. And all it measured was DC volts.
Last night I caught this fascinating programme about IBM at Greenock.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jltz/silicon-glen-from-ships-to-microchips
If you are into computers at all it is an hour well spent.

richardfrost · « **Reply #4 on:** May 27, 2020, 12:06:15 PM »

Quote from: Jocko on May 27, 2020, 10:57:23 AM

If you are into computers at all it is an hour well spent.

I am and I will watch after work, thanks Jocko.

I worked for Marconi Radar in Leicester on the same campus as Ferranti. We had some pretty spectacular equipment there too.

We used the 54 series of Texas Instrument TTL chips. The 7400 series were commercial items, the 5400 series were military grade 'nuclear hard', designed to resist the effect of the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from a nuclear blast.

As a student trainee, we were encouraged to build our own projects, so I built a device to count the ignition pulses on my Morris 1000, displaying a count every 6 seconds. So essentially I had a nuclear blast proof digital rev counter on a 1969 Trafalgar Blue Morris 1000 'Coupe' (it had two doors

).

sparky Paul · « **Reply #5 on:** June 27, 2020, 07:12:04 PM »

Quote from: Jocko on May 27, 2020, 10:57:23 AM

Last night I caught this fascinating programme about IBM at Greenock.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jltz/silicon-glen-from-ships-to-microchips
If you are into computers at all it is an hour well spent.

This is on BBC Scotland again tonight at 7.30pm.

I presume you know how to find it north of the border, but it's on Sky 457 Freesat 108 Virgin 162 for rest of UK.