SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Chrysler is betting millennials will want to be as connected in their cars as they are at home with a new concept car that mixes high-tech gadgetry with a head-turning design.
The Portal concept was unveiled on Tuesday at CES in Las Vegas as Chrysler's proposal to the millennial generation and is designed to be a comfortable "third space" for a generation that is just as much at home in a coffee shop as they are at home or work.
[...] On the tech side, the Portal hits all the right notes when it comes to the current crop of concept vehicles: A large sweeping digital dashboard with many of the internal surfaces doubling as flat screens, and internet connectivity throughout.
There are an impressive 10 gadget docks so the six passengers will never be fighting over who gets to charge their device, and Chrysler said speakers direct audio to each seating zone so it's possible to each listen to their own music.
[...] The Portal is a battery electric vehicle with a 250 mile range, and supports fast-charging that can deliver a 150-mile charge in 20 minutes.
Setting aside its intended market, the car has good features that would appeal to a lot of customers.
[One thing to note is that this is a concept car, not intended for production - Fnord666]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday January 05 2017, @01:59PM
You sound more like a Baby Boomer than a Millenial to me.
ICEs don't do well in hot weather (have you never had a radiator pop?) and work even worse in cold (refuse to start). EVs have no particular problem with temperature extremes. Norway is one of the strongest markets for Teslas. Norway has mountains and quite cold weather. Their road conditions are arguably worse than most places people live in North America or Europe. I also have anecdotal evidence from my brother, and my brother-in-law, who both drive BMW i3's exclusively. The former is an automotive engineer in Michigan, where it gets quite hot and quite cold, and the latter in Long Island, where it's the same. They both fetishize cars and miss no opportunity to talk about automotive subjects; weather affecting their range has never come up.
That could be personal preference. I have tactile controls in the console of my car, and I don't fiddle with those while driving, either. Too much traffic, too many jehus pulling dangerous maneouvers to take your eyes off the road or even one hand off the steering wheel. When I ride in other peoples' cars with touch screens they seem to manage fine.
You're mistaken if you think those things aren't in your car already. Back when my brother the engineer still had an ICE he would hack the firmware in the car all the time to try to get better mileage/performance out of them.
You can probably get aftermarket modifications, like you can now. The see-through roof appealed to me because we took a family roadtrip around the country last summer and it would have been fantastic to have that roof while going through the redwoods or capitol reef national parks. Even here in NYC it would be nice to be able to look up at the buildings.
Also because of our experience with two kids on the roadtrip, it would have made it easier to have the extra ports and zones for the kids to keep them entertained. We did OK with tablets, but keeping all the devices charged was a juggling act.
The sliding doors for everyone was appealing, too, because often we find ourselves in tight quarters in parking lots and on busy streets. Not having to swing the doors out the extra 2-3 feet would help.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday January 05 2017, @02:51PM
You sound more like a Baby Boomer than a Millenial to me.
Um, thank you? Not sure if that is meant to be a compliment or not, especially considering the (IMO) general prevailing stupidity of my generation. Being in my late 20's, that puts me in the "early millennial" bracket I think, but to be honest I don't care enough about labels to find out exactly where the cutoff point is.
ICEs don't do well in hot weather (have you never had a radiator pop?)
Can't say I have ever had a radiator pop. Never had any problems in hot weather either. 42C+ heat was the worst I saw.
Only time I actually stopped to let the car cool down was while hauling a trailer at the cars haul limit up the Pyrenees mountains with it being around 30 outside. That wasn't because the car failed, I just didn't feel comfortable with the temp pegged to max for more than 30 minutes at at time.
and work even worse in cold (refuse to start).
Only time I had a car refuse to start in the cold, was because its battery self discharged overnight to the point it could not crank. I have never had a car refuse to start in the cold due to non electric issue. Admittedly I never had a diesel, as those can apparently gel up in cold weather.
EVs have no particular problem with temperature extremes. Norway is one of the strongest markets for Teslas. Norway has mountains and quite cold weather. Their road conditions are arguably worse than most places people live in North America or Europe. I also have anecdotal evidence from my brother, and my brother-in-law, who both drive BMW i3's exclusively. The former is an automotive engineer in Michigan, where it gets quite hot and quite cold, and the latter in Long Island, where it's the same. They both fetishize cars and miss no opportunity to talk about automotive subjects; weather affecting their range has never come up.
Range reduction in EV's that I have heard about was in Finland, which I imagine has pretty much similar kinds of cold to Norway. The car was a Citroen C-Zero. While it had no problems getting going, after about 5 minutes range dropped 25% on normal. Seemed that the battery was discharging faster than usual. All we really have is anecdotes. Plus nobody I know has the i3, so perhaps that is better suited for temperature variation (better insulated battery compartment?). ICE cars don't have those issues, but we have a lot more data on them and their variance of temperature.
And strength of Tesla sales seems to be based more on government subsidy and fashion than actually how good the cars are, and also are bought as a second (or third) car rather than as a main one. So I don't really pay attention on sales strength as an indicator of suitability to an environment.
That could be personal preference. I have tactile controls in the console of my car, and I don't fiddle with those while driving, either. Too much traffic, too many jehus pulling dangerous maneouvers to take your eyes off the road or even one hand off the steering wheel. When I ride in other peoples' cars with touch screens they seem to manage fine.
Can't argue with that, I admit I am not a fan of touch screens at all. I miss when phones had hardware keyboards. However while I don't need to fiddle with much when driving, I can (if I need to) reach out and turn on the demist, or change track on the radio, I can do it without looking, or even without much distraction. When I was driving a modern rental, I could not do a single thing without looking down at the touchscreen to find out where the bloody button was to do what I wanted. It was infuriating.
You're mistaken if you think those things aren't in your car already. Back when my brother the engineer still had an ICE he would hack the firmware in the car all the time to try to get better mileage/performance out of them.
I know they aren't in any of my cars, because I work on my cars. While my cars have ECU's and firmware, they are standalone, and not wired up to each other or (god forbid) the Internet. You would have to physically remove my ECU to reprogram it, and with an 8051 and 8k of flash there isn't much you can do apart from tweak it for better performance/economy.
With a car like this Chrysler, it probably has as much combined computing power as my workstation, and runs fully fledged operating systems. Plus they mention it will be connected to the Internet. The attack surface area for nasty is magnitudes higher than current modern cars, let alone older models.
You can probably get aftermarket modifications, like you can now. The see-through roof appealed to me because we took a family roadtrip around the country last summer and it would have been fantastic to have that roof while going through the redwoods or capitol reef national parks. Even here in NYC it would be nice to be able to look up at the buildings.
Indeed, all my cars have glass roofs that are removable. However they are tinted/chromed so you can't see in very easily, plus can remove them if I want the full view. Admittedly I didn't think of the fact you can just get those tint sheets and apply it to the roof. You're right, it isn't really a problem.
Also because of our experience with two kids on the roadtrip, it would have made it easier to have the extra ports and zones for the kids to keep them entertained. We did OK with tablets, but keeping all the devices charged was a juggling act.
That is interesting. As a kid I could not do anything else except stare out the window. If I didn't I would get car sick. Couldn't even play on my Gameboy. So the desire to use devices while in a moving vehicle is lost on me, but I don't begrudge others on it.
Even to this day as a passenger I can't do much except stare out the window. Driving is the most pleasant for me, otherwise I am bored stiff. So I tend to always volunteer to drive on long road trips. If they ever force only self driving cars on the world, I will probably end up so bored, as I can't really do anything in a moving vehicle, and definitely not look at screens.
The sliding doors for everyone was appealing, too, because often we find ourselves in tight quarters in parking lots and on busy streets. Not having to swing the doors out the extra 2-3 feet would help.
Indeed I agree, but sliding doors are not new. I remember seeing them growing up on minivans since, well. forever. The Peugeot 1007 was the most popular round these parts (and that was 2004), but the Japanese mini vans were popular as well, and they had sliding doors (I remember them in the 90s).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 05 2017, @08:37PM
Can't argue with that, I admit I am not a fan of touch screens at all.
I am neither a fan or proponent. In a car though they are not as good of an idea. They encourage you to take your eyes off the road. To use a touch screen you have to look at it first. It is why keyboards have those little nubs on f and j. So you can find where you are without looking.