car
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Background: Automobile names come in many categories: some are whimsical (e.g. “Ford Fiesta,” “Fiat Panda,” “AMC Gremlin”), while sports cars are often named more “professionally” (“BMW 507“) or aggressively (“Dodge Viper,” “AC Cobra,” “Lamborghini Diablo”). The Issue: Maybe the name of the car influences the behavior of the driver. Consider how the following (sadly not…
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Background: When traveling in a vehicle, a person’s intuitive sense of speed is partly determined by the feeling of air movement. For example, going at 30 miles per hour on a bike (enclosed cabin: no) may feel faster than going 600 miles per hour in an airplane (enclosed cabin: yes). The issue: It’s important for…
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The issue: Imagine that you are driving a car down a narrow road and you see a person unloading groceries from a car trunk. There are two common options: Continue driving: hope the person unloading the car doesn’t walk out into the street Honk the horn, to inform the person unloading the car that you…
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Background: When an action is routine and uninteresting (e.g. locking a door, turning off a light, etc.), it’s sometimes hard to remember if you did it at all. The issue: Occasionally, people find themselves wondering “did I close the garage when I left the house?” or “did I remember to lock the car when I…
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The issue: One transportation model used by ride-sharing cars (formerly called “taxis”) is the “carpool”-style trip, where multiple passengers are picked up and dropped off at various points along a mostly-shared route. (Lyft Line and Uber Pool are currently the most well-known of these.) This “carpool”-style trip is cheaper than a normal ride for each…
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The issue: One ever-present hazard for bicyclists is the possibility of being “doored”—hit by a suddenly-opened driver’s side door of a parked car. A similar issue confounds carpool passengers: when exiting a full vehicle, the driver’s-side passenger must open the door directly into traffic (since they cannot exit on the curb side). This presents the…
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Background: “Lost cat” and “lost dog” signs are often placed up on telephone poles (Fig. 1), but it’s unlikely that a specific person who sees a lost pet will also have seen the sign (or even know that the pet is actually lost in the first place). Proposal: In order to add more people…
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Background: It can be difficult to safely drive down the street AND find a parking spot at the same time. Many locations look like parking spots until you get right next to them (Figure 1) and see the fire hydrant / driveway / red curb (Figure 2). Fig. 1: This is a road with two…
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Background: Bank robbers have occasionally been foiled by dye packs, which can be placed into a bag of stolen cash and then detonated as the robbers make their escape. The dye sprays out everywhere and contaminates the stolen money, making it valueless. Fig 1: The bag of cartoon money (top left) is rendered…
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Background: It’s often hard to assess the total cost of renting vs buying. For example: Renting a house (plus renters’ insurance) versus owning a house (plus homeowner’s insurance, property tax, and maintenance, and possibly offset by property value appreciation) Owning a timeshare versus renting a vacation house once a year Taking a taxi / using…
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