On Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:32:21 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
Cabs are not chosen on the basis of looks, and no London cabs look good.
They're tools of business, and are chosen on the basis of lower costs,
better reliability, better resale value, capacity, etc. If these are the

Sure, but you can say the same about trucks. But the manufacturers do make
some attempt to make them look a bit nicer than a box on wheels. This looks
like it was designed in 5 minutes on autocad.

only fully emissions compliant model that also complies with London's
strict taxi regulations, they'll sell well.

If you have a monopoly of course your stuff will sell well.

--
Spud

On Tue, 31 Jan 2017 12:10:57 +0000, Recliner
wrote:

On Tue, 31 Jan 2017 12:07:02 -0000, "tim..."
wrote:



"Recliner" wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 31 Jan 2017 10:32:18 -0000, "tim..."
wrote:


So you think Geely is like Sinclair? Jeez!

If you don't like what tim... contributes to this ng, why don't you
just ignore it.

Guy Gorton

On 2017\01\31 10:24, d wrote:

Is there some TfL requirement along with the turning circle that London taxi
designs are all done by the RNIB? The current design looks like Noddys car,
the metrocab was a box on wheels, the old TX was straight out the 1950s.


What old TX? The TX1, TX2 and TX4 are indistinguishable to the cahual
glance. The Fairway was the last LTI taxi that looked different to the
current ones.

On 2017\01\31 12:41, d wrote:
On Tue, 31 Jan 2017 11:50:26 +0000
Recliner wrote:
The TX5 design concept captures the spirit of past generations of LTC
models and draws on more than sixty years of style that has made the

He's having a laugh. Clearly they have no concept of what style means.

The new design uses a similarly vertical front grille, and rounded
headlights, with a more upright stance and chrome touches. While the

Rounded headlights that look like cast offs from a 1990s toyota corolla.

- The taxis are inevitably boxy, as the aim is to carry 5/6 passengers
plus some luggage using the least possible road space.

The merc ones are boxy but still look good.

- They should look distinctive, so they're not confused with other
vehicles.

They manage in other countries with normal cars. I think the word "Taxi" on
the roof is the giveaway!

Other countries perhaps don't have the same tradition of taxi drivers
helping each other in traffic, so don't need the vehicles to be
recognised by the tiniest bit of wing glimpsed in the corner of the eye.

On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 10:14:22 +0000 (UTC), d wrote:

On Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:33:23 +0000
Basil Jet wrote:
On 2017\01\31 12:41, d wrote:
On Tue, 31 Jan 2017 11:50:26 +0000
Recliner wrote:
The TX5 design concept captures the spirit of past generations of LTC
models and draws on more than sixty years of style that has made the

He's having a laugh. Clearly they have no concept of what style means.

The new design uses a similarly vertical front grille, and rounded
headlights, with a more upright stance and chrome touches. While the

Rounded headlights that look like cast offs from a 1990s toyota corolla.

- The taxis are inevitably boxy, as the aim is to carry 5/6 passengers
plus some luggage using the least possible road space.

The merc ones are boxy but still look good.

- They should look distinctive, so they're not confused with other
vehicles.

They manage in other countries with normal cars. I think the word "Taxi" on
the roof is the giveaway!

Other countries perhaps don't have the same tradition of taxi drivers
helping each other in traffic, so don't need the vehicles to be
recognised by the tiniest bit of wing glimpsed in the corner of the eye.

You could be on to something there

Of course the reality is - if taxis were required to look distinctive they'd
be bright yellow as in new york or white and green like brighton. Not black
which is almost invisible at night and blends into all the other vehicles in
the day.

Not many 'black cabs' are black!

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 06:06:32PM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:
On 2017-01-30 16:59:31 +0000, Recliner said:
The vehicle isn't the interim model.
That kind of hybrid is; the long-term solution is a pure electric
vehicle when battery technology is good enough.

We don't know when it will be good enough. Or if it ever will be. We can
at least be fairly sure that it ain't gonna be any time in the next few
years.

So waiting until it is good enough is silly.

--
David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence

Languages for which ISO-Latin-$n is not necessary, #1 in a series:

Latin

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 09:59:01AM -0000, tim... wrote:

And ISTM that if you are going to have to spend billions on zero-emission
R&D that is more likely to be profitable if the product you are making is
more generic than a "London" cab.

There's no real research needed for a plug-in hybrid. And the owners
aren't going to do any research purely for the London cab market,
they're going to do it for cars in general, a small fraction of which
will be London-style cabs. Once you've done the research, making and
bolting together appropriately shaped batteries and motors is relatively
straightforward.

The only real spanner in the works that I can foresee is if the Wonder
Miracle Battery (tm) has specific size and shape requirements.

--
David Cantrell | Pope | First Church of the Symmetrical Internet

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands,
hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H. L. Mencken

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 10:24:00AM +0000, d wrote:

For such a large company you'd think they could have designed something a
bit less utterly butt ugly than the horror that was presented the other day.

Have you not seen any cars manufactured by large companies recently?

--
David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands,
hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H. L. Mencken

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 11:50:26AM +0000, Recliner wrote:

- They need a large grille as they spend a lot of time idling in
traffic, so they need lots of cooling air. The earlier TX4 model had
engine fires because of the lack of cooling air.

I assume that with this one if it's not moving it won't be burning fuel,
just like a Prius.

--
David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire

In Victorian times, when every man wore a beard the size of a yew,
Britain ruled the world. In the early 20th century, when the beard
was trimmed to a moustache, we scraped through two world wars but
lost an empire. Today, when Mach3 Turbo multi-blades are the norm,
our national pride derives largely from beating the Swedes at
Olympic cycling.

Grow a beard. Your country needs you.

"David Cantrell" wrote in message
k...
On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 06:06:32PM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:
On 2017-01-30 16:59:31 +0000, Recliner said:
The vehicle isn't the interim model.
That kind of hybrid is; the long-term solution is a pure electric
vehicle when battery technology is good enough.

We don't know when it will be good enough.

Ah,

we might not know

but TPTB do

otherwise they wouldn't have put in laws mandating use of 100% emission free
vehicles by insert some date in, the not to distant, future

If technology hasn't invented new battery technology by then, we will all be
breaking the law (or only allowed to drive cars with pathetic ranges)

tim