WAS CHATTING to two of the young guys at the office here in Indiranagar and musing about the possibilities the auto-rickshaw might offer.
That was spurred earlier on this morning by the sight of an auto, or tuk-tuks as they call them in other parts of Asia, which had its music turned up way too high, destroying the early morning call of the screaming Hoopooh, or whatever it is.
We speculated on how we might create a designer auto, complete with all mod cons, and even toyed with the idea of a stretch auto-rickshaw. One of the guys came out with the idea of special big wheels for the autos, which would raise them way above the rest of the traffic, and with special alloy hub caps.
The sight of 500 taxi autos at the traffic lights here in Ole Bengaluru is certainly enough to cause awe, fear and shock as they all shoot off together in totally different directions, yet apparently never managing to bump into each other, a bit like the ideal dodgem drivers in the days of old fashioned fairgrounds.
One of my colleagues wanted to know why when you caught an auto, you always paid one rupee less than the meter said, yet in cabs you always paid three rupees more than the meter said. I hadn’t realised that meters worked in autos nor in cabs. The auto meters are never turned on for me, and the taxi meters are discreetly covered in a cloth, as if to say ‘don’t mention the price’.
We’re all a bit scandalised by cycle rickshaws and there still are human powered rickshaws apparently in some parts of India. Not in Bangalore, although we’ve seen pony traps and chariots being driven along the highways and byways. ♥
Hey, I’ve always had this idea of using modern safety ideas and modern materials of making a classy chariot and racing it. You know, carbon fiber or even for that matter fiberglass, brakes, windshield, seat belts, roll cage, etc. I think you could sell them and make a killing in a ‘startup’ developing country or as a sport in the US or Europe.
uh…at least you are continuing the run for the roses. i thought that the pile up copy strategy was good. you are missing the hands on geekfest section it seems thou i know from the initial look of the examiner you are aiming a bit wider with resp portals et al. overclocking and gaming needs to have solid 2000 fsb and 4 ghz would be nice- i am talking on a pretty easy overclock- i don’t think we are quite there yet but the market is def brewing- x86 is going to rule the roost and running linux on handhelds (as well as a standard 1000 mhz handheld) is going to be huge- the modules people coding for android looked decent- wait til things get rolling…hopefully- eventually it is ineviatable anyways no matter what anyhow but the speculation as to what is going to happen of sig along the way is where we are- in 10 yrs probably the photonic and quantum things will be scaled up and that is bound to be fairly revolutionary. of course it is easy to be cynical; as joe thiesman sad on monday night football- you don’t have to be a genius like norman einstein to understand and play football- how well said!