The Null Device

smart

Wired has a piece about the Smart car, the European microcar which is half the length of a regular car, seats 2, has plastic panels which are interchangeable like mobile-phone fascias, has a Bluetooth-enabled dashboard which cooperates with mobile phones, is apparently remarkably safe in collisions for its size and gets better mileage than the Toyota Prius hybrid car. Smarts will soon go on sale in the US, and Americans (whose love affair with huge cars is legendary) seem to be taking to them better than expected. Though even if they don't, the company is planning a miniature SUV for the US market.

There are 3 comments on "smart":

Posted by: Ed
http://asseptic.org/blog/
Sat Oct 9 22:37:36 2004

Funny thing, we actually have a love-hate relation to Smarts (there are actually three models: two seats, a slightly bigger four seats model, and a 75 horsepower 'roadster'). Indeed, the cars are 'cute', ecological, small and very practical for urban traffic. They are also, scary as hell. A 40 HP engine mounted to a very light plastic body is like having an old Mini with a rocket engine. Besides, Smart drivers tend to be rich wankers who buy cars with excessive speed and manouverability to scare other drivers rather than the ecologically-minded people one should expect.

Posted by: acb
http://dev.null.org
Sat Oct 9 23:05:14 2004

If I had the money, and the need, I'd buy one. Maybe in a few years, given that I'm likely to be here in Britain for a while.

Posted by: Tory Ben
http://
Sun Oct 10 02:48:42 2004

First of the emigre exiles? BTW is the picture on your blog mainpage variable or am I imagining things?

Want to say something? Do so here.

Post pseudonymously

Display name:
URL:(optional)
To prove that you are not a bot,
please enter the text in the image on the right
in the field below it.

Your Comment:

Please keep comments on topic and to the point. Inappropriate comments may be deleted.

Note that markup is stripped from comments; URLs will be automatically converted into links.