[dba-Tech] Building a self-driving car

Arthur Fuller fuller.artful at gmail.com
Sat Jan 2 10:40:17 CST 2016


Way back when, I owned a BMW 2003 ti. Man, I loved that car! I was so
atuned to the music of its engine that I could slam-shift it through the
four gears without touching the clutch pedal, and no gear-grinding at all,
ever. Almost like tuning a guitar.

Speaking of guitars, when I first began guitar it would take me a long time
to successfully tune it. But a year later I could do it in a few seconds,
and that has stuck with me over the decades. Recently I was in a nearby
pawn shop looking for a guitar, and tried out about 5 of them, all of which
needed tuning (surprise). I had brought my tuning fork with me and in the
space of about 3 minutes had tuned them all. But I decided none was
appropriate so I left empty-handed. But it was nice to realize that the
skill of guitar-tuning, once mastered, never leaves you. And it's the same
with manual transmissions. There's a joy to be hand in sensing the music
inherent in them (well, actually, in the engine itself rather than the
tranny). But you get the idea.

On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 9:09 AM, Jon Tydda <jon at tydda.plus.com> wrote:

> Manual transmissions aren't about efficiency, they're about fun :-)
>
>
> Jon


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