Since we like to time travel, here’s a vehicle to take us back to 1969 and see how the automotive technologies we take for granted were being conceived and developed. Electric cars, air bags, ABS braking, adaptive cruise control, navigation, and more. Except for the EV (a Rambler, no less), there’s little or nothing about emission controls, never mind fuel efficiency. Oil and fuel were cheap at the time, and global warming due to CO emissions had already been predicted in the 1950s, but had certainly not entered the mainstream consciousness.
There’s some really cool stuff in that video. I knew some of those things were being tested and used on the roads (ABS and Airbags), but I wasn’t aware of most of it.
Oh boy ! Walter Cronkite .
Back when a ‘SMOG Control’ was primarily a PCV valve .
-Nate
A great video on state of the art of technologies in 1969 and commentary about how our cities are built around the automobile. First time I have seen this video and blown away by much of it. I could write an entire article in reply but that’s just not my jam. Computers and memory storage devices taking up an entire trunk that cost more than a house is what shelved these great ideas. Most people including myself up through the early 2000s could never have imagined current computer miniaturization and capabilities. Thankfully the aerospace industry has provided decades of experience using these technologies so they are finally feasible for use in automobiles.
call Not Just Bikes!
Loved this show when I was a kid! Couldn’t always watch it because the rents(parents) controlled our one TV a 1957 Philco Black and White 25 inch. I repurposed the 3 speakers it had when it finally died in the early 70s.