I remember my dad teaching me about cars, how to check the engine, tires and suspension. It was really a good skill to have back then because cars were always breaking down and leaving people stranded. He showed me how to pick the rocks out of the tread to keep the tires more in balance and prevent flats. I don't think anyone ever does that any more.
I inherited a bunch of tools from him and purchased more when I worked as a mechanic:
Since we were going on a bit of a trip and hauling the trailer, I thought I would check the engine over to see if everything was alright; I started testing the tires to see if they were inflated and thought that my son might be interested. It turns out that he was, so I went through explaining how to check the fluid levels, the oil, and what to look for on the belts and hoses. I could tell he was kind of politely watching but quickly reaching his limit.
Here's our big boy V6:
I got to the point where I was thinking about checking the transmission fluid but I started looking for the stick and couldn't find it. I guess I'm guilty of letting all quick service guys usually take care of that. When we couldn't find it I asked my son to help look for it but he really wasn't interested, so I let him go back to watching YouTube or whatever he was doing, he thanked me for showing him the engine as he hastily retreated away.
My son's about 14 and should be driving soon, yet he doesn't seem to all that interested in anything mechanical. As I remember, at his age I couldn't wait to drive and would spend hours helping out Dad as he repaired the car. We once even rebuilt part of the engine together, I was fascinated as he took the heads off and had the valves redone by a shop.
Back then things didn't run too long without a lot of servicing, it was something of a life's skill to at least know something about it so that you could tell about how much something should cost or what type of issues might happen. Certain mechanics had kind of a habit of embellishing the costs or selling service that wasn't really needed, for example by not pushing the dip stick all the way in and selling an extra quart of oil. I seem to recall us having to get some oil drained out once when the engine was running badly.
We recently saw an Olds Cutlass convertible in really nice shape. I was reminded of my first car, an Olds Dynamic 88, it had a 425 cubic inch V8. People were really into cars back then, it feels like that's not the case so much now. I was always wanting something with a four barrel carburetor, headers and racing cam shaft but I never spent my cash only anything like that.
Electric Vehicles
I got to thinking about it and truth be known, I'm really not that interested in how to maintain a car any more either, and I'm way past wanting a hot rod at this point in my life, I'd much rather drive something non-polluting. Times have changed and with cell phones, GPS, and other support, the roadways have become much easier for long distance trips. Cars break down less frequently and tires in general last longer and rarely blow out.
Electric vehicles are starting to get popular and that will make maintenance issues so much easier – this is what is making me really excited! No hoses or belts to check. No barked knuckles from dismantling a big block V8. No oil to change or transmission to service. It is no wonder my son is not really that interested in the aging technology under the hood of our current vehicle.
Self driving cars may soon eliminate the need to pay attention to driving, so maybe I can just hang out playing with my phone too and not worry about how to get places. Sounds like fun to me!
Batteries
Recharging batteries and getting the range go across the country as always been an issue with electric vehicles. Hydrogen storage was sounding like a solution but I guess there must be some technical or financial issues that are making it slow to become available. I've heard some other solutions based on storing hydrogen peroxide for use in fuel cells to generate electricity that sounds promising, but fuel cells are very expensive. I can't wait for someone to come up with a good solution for this. Hydrogen peroxide for fuel cells
Performance
Will the kids be into electric vehicles? Maybe it's just my generation that worries about such things as global warming, and loss of biodiversity, so I don't know.
I've heard electric vehicles can be a lot faster and more torque producing than gas engines. I never thought that would be the case. There could be a whole new generation cramming ever increasing numbers of batteries in lighter weight vehicles with multiple high torque electric engines. Somehow I can't picture an electric Harley Davidson motorcycle though.
Will electric vehicles be up to the task of hauling a boat, trailer or other load up over a mountain pass? I sure hope so. To me they are the first step towards a clean energy future.
Although we currently generate most of our electric energy through fossil fuels, this can certainly be changed. Solar, geothermal, wind, wave, and who knows, maybe someday nuclear fusion, are all good possibilities for generating electricity. A fleet of electric vehicles could be non-polluting if we generated electricity in these ways.
The next generation
It is towards the end of summer and someone is really bored. “Want to go hiking?”, I ask.
“Nah”, my son replies.
“Want to get a Steemit account, and post something?”, I ask.
“I'll think about it”, he replies.
“Want to help with the yard work?”, I ask, already knowing the answer. The facial expression on my son is easy to read.
In his defense he does great in school and loves playing music. It seems like he has a lot of ambition and has really excelled in music, and can play several different instruments.
I can see his generation cruising around in electric self driving cars playing music and interacting, while robots and AI processes do all the work and us older guys cash in our cryptocoins. So far, at least in the US, it does seem like we're not running out of work. If we do, the next generation may need to deal with an endless summer vacation in some cases, I hope we can find enough to entertain ourselves.
Earth Overshoot Day
August 8, 2016 is a day that reminds me of the infinite abundance potentially in nature (the numbers 8-8-16 are like a pair of infinity symbols on their sides and a 16). Yet this day this year, has been calculated as the date when humanity has exceeded the ability of the earth to sustain us. Like a well being overdrawn, eventually the physics of the situation demands that we must make some major changes.
One of our friends asked me recently, “why don't you go back into working as a Mechanic or teach Auto Mechanics?” I replied that, it was something I studied and worked at for a while but I never really liked it or got really good at it. Somehow the solvents, fumes and noise didn't suit me real well, and it doesn't feel like something anyone would like to do, if there were easier better paying alternatives.
I've always felt that so much of the recent global conflicts is caused either directly over oil and the resulting economic imbalances it has caused or the climate changes that have stressed the worlds food production and governments. It is hard for me to get excited any more over gas powered cars.
At this point I feel the transportation industry is ready for a major change and I'm not sure what is going to happen in the future. Trucking and delivery driving may well be replaced by automation and the current cars seem like dinosaurs to me.
Maybe we will clean up our act and the world will work towards clean energy solutions. Personal robots might do our every bidding, cleaning dishes, sweeping floors, weeding, massaging the bunions, etc. Or maybe they will be out of most everyone’s price range, as dollars are drained from main street economies into the hands of a few very wealthy individuals when the last good jobs disappear from automation and artificial intelligence. My hope is that what we are doing with cryptocurrency will help the economic system and put more value into the hands of everyone.
As the low hanging fruit of easily obtained oil is pumped from the ground things could get more and more expensive. All of food production is closely related to the price of petroleum. If we are still working on cars the same way as before I would be surprised. I'm expecting the current auto technology to become as hard to maintain in the future as the early steam engines are now, when new advances are made in engines and auto bodies using 3D printed lightweight composites.
It feels inevitable that we change in a big way in a pretty short period of time. It seems like the next generation is somehow expecting a good change, in many ways this keeps me hopeful as I listen to my son practicing his saxophone.