Honk Honk, Make Row – Here cums NANO

Tata Nano, the world smallest car, had made its maiden visit outside the curtain. Its sleek and attractive design cast a jaw-dropping spell on the watchers. People were amazed beyond words as the car looks like an everyday car and costs almost a fraction of the car prices in India.

What else do ya want? I guess its gonna be a blessing for the ones with modest incomes. People in their hundreds made way into the stall and shelled out bucks for this car.

Priced @round US$2500, the all new TATA venture is a serious HIT! Its 10 feet long (smaller than the previous smallest Indian car, the Maruti Suzuki 800) and has got: room for 5 people (skinny ones), a mileage of 22km/liter, a 624 cc engine that gives 33 bhp.

 The VERDICT is out by the Indian public – “This car is just the thing, the 2 wheeler-obsessed Indian people desired”.

This release of Nano marked the beginning of a race by the other motor giants to get their “Nanobreed” on roads. TATA plans to put 10 million Nano’s on the roads in 5 years. Nano hunger has gripped not only the Indians but also the Americans who are also in need for fuel-efficient cars.

But first, I wud suggest the Indian government to implement the idea of creating world-class roads ASAP (As soon as possible).

The Green Peace dudes are alaready on the roads in their huge numbers armed with slogans and a determination to eliminate  the pollution-causing stuff. They argue that the Nano will cause pollutions in the already heavily polluted India, to soar much to fatal levels.

Get set to receive, TATA Nano, The Most Wanted!

Oh! wait a minute! What do we see? … We’ve got competition already,

Renault has teamed up with Mahindra to create a US$3000 budget car and it looks better off than the humble Nano.

Below is an inside view of the Renault Mahindra YENI. Simply Stunning! 😉

Without the Steering Wheel

Visualize having a coffee and reading a newspaper whilst commuting at 250km/hr all by yourself. Yep! That will definitely be possible – in a decade’s time. Researchers @ GM’s R&D (Research and Development) Unit said that they predict these driverless cars to be out in around 2018. The plan is to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with radar-based cruise control, lane change warning devices, electronic stability control, satellite global positioning systems and digital maps. It may be a boon for the physically challenged. So what I saw in the movie “i-Robot” is actually factual: People with hands free gadgets: mobiles, cars, doors, computers, machines, etc.

Prototypes are already on the roads and automobile companies are racing each other, like usual, to get their one on the stage. The US Department of Defense even held a race to test these prototypes. About 30 teams each with their ‘Driverless Car’ participated in the contest. Some teams faced an early “knock out” as their vehicle did some serious mistakes: some crashed into buildings while one of them mysteriously pulled into a house’s carport and parked itself.

Duh! All by themselves! Bingo! This is one more drawback on the list: “If the car feels tired, it’ll take a rest, no matter what the owner wants!” Phew, we can’t allow a car to dictate. My friend once told me, ‘If ya keep on adding advanced stuff into the car, it merely becomes a complex box’. Thatz what all the cars are coming down to.

No doubt, no more driving but commanding your vehicle to follow orders will be great, but surely it has its own disadvantages. If they plan to use ‘in-built’ computer systems for these intelligent vehicles, then there may be a possibility of them getting infected with viruses, Trojans, Spyware, etc just like any other present-day computer. And the rest of the surviving “earthlings” will witness the unleashing of a new breed of Hackers: Automobile hackers. I’m sure if they are prepared to come out with these space-age cars, they must hav, at the same time, thought of the anti-virus software too.

Time for Symantec and McAfee to get cracking in going “off the grid” to create the first Anti-virus for Cars. 😉

We have predicted the possible advent of Driverless Cars, So whatz next … Flying Cars or Airplane Cars!

BIG BANG 2

Here are some of the snapshots of the “Huge-Accident” at the highway on a very foggy day when the visibility was almost 0%. Some 80 cars were involved in the mishap and about 10 cars were burned to ashes.  It was prob’ly one guy’s fault, who braked so hard and the ones tracing his path were unable to detect him as he was without fog-lights and hazard lights. And … then, cars began going “bumper into bumper”. The stats of the accident and that of the after-effects were wicked!  There was a huge traffic jam behind the crash scene involving more than 300 people who were already geared up to manage the frown on the heads of their bosses. Fortunately, No deaths were reported.

The bang was so big and load so I titled it as “BIG BANG 2”. (The first BIG BANG was millions of years ago!)

Shivers up the Spine

Yesterday, December 19, Wednesday, we were encountered by something that send shivers up our spines. “A Car Accident”

First Lemme me first define the phrase “Car-Accident”

“A car accident, sometimes called a car crash or car wreck, is an incident in which an automobile collides with anything that causes damage to the automobile, including other automobiles, telephone poles, buildings or trees, or in which the driver loses control of the vehicle and damages it in some other way”

Now ya’ll may be scratching your heads wondering why you want to know what a car accident is.

As it was Eid, we and my cousins who were our guests for the Eid, were in a festive mode and decided to pay a visit the unspoiled beach of Ras Tanura which shares some water with the Arabian Gulf. All had a great deal of fun there holidaying for some hours, inspecting Malls, downloading city-scenes in our heads as we passed through the streets of Ras Tanura (where the worlds’ biggest refinery is based), Qatif, Safwa and after using all our time allotted for our excursion, we planned to exit back home, Jubail. As I was peacefully sleeping in our car after a tough day of the trip, the cousins were following us. Jubail was some 65 Kms. away from the place where we were.

Out of the blue, I heard faded voices of my mom and dad as I was in a dreamland, but I somehow opened my eye lids.

I went like “WHAT!!”

I really cudn’t believe my eyes. Jus a few meters away from our car took place a fiery car accident. I woke up fully seconds later deleting away my precious sleep. All I cud see was FIRE, in the dark lanes of the busy Khobar-Jubail expressway. To my horror, it was a car which had jus lit up in flames after being hit hard by a “fleeing above 160” sedan. When I saw three men running away form the car, I knew the bang took place some jiffies ago.
My Dad braked hard as we were shocked beyond words. The sedan driver who had hit the car came out unhurt so as the other victims of the accident. Soon later, in about 2 minutes, highway Patrol Police came rushing towards the yellow scenario. I wanted to get outta the car and help n pacify the poor ones involved in the mishap. But, before I actually cud, my dad hit the gas pedal and off we went. He cudn’t take this anymore. I turned back as much as I cud, trying to see fire as it totally engulfed the car. (Gud thing I had a mobile phone equipped with a camera within my range)

As we went further we saw some more rescue unit headed for the accident scene and I sat upright on the seat and began recalling those images that I stored in my mind sum moments ago. I really wished they were a bit more careful, sitting behind the wheel.

We never experienced a live accident ever before, but according to some stats, Saudi Arabia has one of the highest car accidents rates in the world which also imply that these kinda accidents occur almost once in two days. I wish the traffic authorities take strict measures to root out this “F1-ism” from our roads by:

1)    Issuing harder penalties on law breakers,
2)    By lowering the default speed limit,
3)    Educating people about defensive driving,
4)    Awarding people who have no accident record,
5)    Installing a gadget in vehicles which stops them from crossing the adjusted limit.
6)    Monitoring of the roads more vigilantly,

Etc …

Moral: Think twice before hitting the gas pedal.