Car of the future - M5 in 1971

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Jonathan B4027
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Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by Jonathan B4027 »

https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1 ... 6764892160

Apologies for those without Twitter, there may be a more clever way of showing the video? Appears to be the M5 in Worcestershire in 1971, the junction at 2.52 is J5?? some excellent old signs.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by scragend »

Did that car have any sensors? He never mentioned them.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by wrinkly »

Jonathan B4027 wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 13:28
Apologies for those without Twitter, there may be a more clever way of showing the video?
I had no problem watching the video though I'm not a registered Twitter user.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

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Jonathan B4027 wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 13:28 https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1 ... 6764892160

Apologies for those without Twitter, there may be a more clever way of showing the video? Appears to be the M5 in Worcestershire in 1971, the junction at 2.52 is J5?? some excellent old signs.
Worked ok for me opening video in web browser.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by Bryn666 »

It is J5.

Fun fact for the streetlight nerds - that column in the foreground is still there even though the slip road was rebuilt when the M5 was widened.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by XC70 »

scragend wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 13:42 Did that car have any sensors? He never mentioned them.
No but it had quite a few censours.....
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by ravenbluemoon »

It still had "keep fit" windows - obviously electric windows hadn't been thought of then! Incidentally I remember my Grandad's Nissan Sunny in the mid-80s, which had electric windows at the time. It was often quite a surprise to people when you wound the window down to pay a parking attendant, get directions etc.!

Thinking about my Toyota campervan, which although was a late 70s model was still based on the previous model from that era. No mod-cons whatsoever... the heated rear window and the AM/FM radio were optional extras I believe.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

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ravenbluemoon wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 00:10 It still had "keep fit" windows - obviously electric windows hadn't been thought of then! Incidentally I remember my Grandad's Nissan Sunny in the mid-80s, which had electric windows at the time. It was often quite a surprise to people when you wound the window down to pay a parking attendant, get directions etc.!

Thinking about my Toyota campervan, which although was a late 70s model was still based on the previous model from that era. No mod-cons whatsoever... the heated rear window and the AM/FM radio were optional extras I believe.
A few higher end cars had them in the 1970's, the Vauxhall Viscount comes to mind. The Cresta on the other hand despite having a monstrous 3.3 litre straight 6 engine didnt even have power steering.

In the 1970's a favourite add on was a stick on rear window heater. One of the retrograde steps in recent years has been the loss of the standard DIN radio slot, in was a trivial job on my Rover 75 to swap the radio cassette for a modern CD/Radio. With many modern cars replacing OEM head units in can be rather harder especially as an increasing number are integrated with touchscreen LCD panels.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

KeithW wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 13:54 One of the retrograde steps in recent years has been the loss of the standard DIN radio slot, in was a trivial job on my Rover 75 to swap the radio cassette for a modern CD/Radio. With many modern cars replacing OEM head units in can be rather harder especially as an increasing number are integrated with touchscreen LCD panels.
The loss of the DIN slot isn't retrograde, IMO - the use of model-specific units has reduced the car break-in theft rate considerably - although the source is China, most models can be upgraded with a model-specific unit, typically a standard unit with specific surround and mounts.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by roadtester »

Ruperts Trooper wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 14:08
KeithW wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 13:54 One of the retrograde steps in recent years has been the loss of the standard DIN radio slot, in was a trivial job on my Rover 75 to swap the radio cassette for a modern CD/Radio. With many modern cars replacing OEM head units in can be rather harder especially as an increasing number are integrated with touchscreen LCD panels.
The loss of the DIN slot isn't retrograde, IMO - the use of model-specific units has reduced the car break-in theft rate considerably - although the source is China, most models can be upgraded with a model-specific unit, typically a standard unit with specific surround and mounts.
I'm a bit hazy on this but think a lot of Volkswagen ones have been of a sort of "fake integrated" type - i.e. they look integrated thanks to fascia plates and the design of the dash trim but the slot behind is in fact a standard DIN/double DIN. IIRC my old Skoda Octavia had this
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

roadtester wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 14:14
Ruperts Trooper wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 14:08
KeithW wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 13:54 One of the retrograde steps in recent years has been the loss of the standard DIN radio slot, in was a trivial job on my Rover 75 to swap the radio cassette for a modern CD/Radio. With many modern cars replacing OEM head units in can be rather harder especially as an increasing number are integrated with touchscreen LCD panels.
The loss of the DIN slot isn't retrograde, IMO - the use of model-specific units has reduced the car break-in theft rate considerably - although the source is China, most models can be upgraded with a model-specific unit, typically a standard unit with specific surround and mounts.
I'm a bit hazy on this but think a lot of Volkswagen ones have been of a sort of "fake integrated" type - i.e. they look integrated thanks to fascia plates and the design of the dash trim but the slot behind is in fact a standard DIN/double DIN. IIRC my old Skoda Octavia had this
Some owners of 2nd generation Touaregs (2010-18) have fitted aftermarket Android units in place of the VW RNS850 which is the same as Audi MMI.

Some Hyundai's are like that as well - I toyed with the idea of fitting a double DIN sat-nav + CD/radio in my Santa Fe but backed down when I saw how much of the dash needs disassembly just to fit the trim panel.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by RichardA626 »

My Micra radio looks like it's a double DIN unit.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by KeithW »

Here is what I had in mind, this is what is fitted in my C-Max. Its a very good unit, excellent sound quality and has bluetooth, USB ports and even wifi etc but it is hardly a standard unit, the older models were double DIN. The touch Screen is used to toggle between different modes, navigation, audio , system settings etc. The CD slot is above the screen. The software it runs is Android which is handy for syncing my smart phone as it allows me to use google maps on the inbuilt screen. There are also standard steering wheel mounted controls for the radio which are what I normally use. Vauxhall have a similar but clunkier unit on some of their newer models.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

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scragend wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 13:42 Did that car have any sensors? He never mentioned them.
Not in the modern sense.

Back in the 1970's I had a Vauxhall Magnum and it had warning lights on the dash very similar to those shown in that video but they really were using the standard sensors used to drive analogue gauges and warning lamps. Cruise control was being fitted to American cars back in the 1950's but auto transmissions made that relatively easy and the speed sensor was taken off the standard speedometer.

Modern cars have cruise control that works fine with manual transmissions and adaptive cruise control uses sensors, typically radar and/or optical to maintain distance to the vehicles in front, they also have sensors for the collision avoidance system. All this really needs quite powerful micro processors, my car is connected to my smart phone and can download software updates.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

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KeithW wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:06...The software it runs is Android which is handy for syncing my smart phone as it allows me to use google maps on the inbuilt screen...
Surely you can do that whatever it runs? Using whatever Google's <s>knock-off of</s> equivalent to CarPlay is?

I can use Google Maps on my Pug's screen using CarPlay.

I choose not to (though I use Waze, which is also a Google product I think?)
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by KeithW »

hoagy_ytfc wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 23:28
KeithW wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:06...The software it runs is Android which is handy for syncing my smart phone as it allows me to use google maps on the inbuilt screen...
Surely you can do that whatever it runs? Using whatever Google's <s>knock-off of</s> equivalent to CarPlay is?

I can use Google Maps on my Pug's screen using CarPlay.

I choose not to (though I use Waze, which is also a Google product I think?)
Android Auto is the interface and yes I also have Waze installed. The software runs on the phone but not all Google Apps are Android Auto compatible. I also use Facebook messenger and I can access SMS texts etc, in fact the system does a reasonable job of reading SMS. The other app I sometimes use is Amazon music.

What I like about google maps is I can plan a route on my pc and then upload it and supporting maps to the phone.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by Duple »

KeithW wrote: Mon Jan 11, 2021 09:16
hoagy_ytfc wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 23:28
KeithW wrote: Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:06...The software it runs is Android which is handy for syncing my smart phone as it allows me to use google maps on the inbuilt screen...
Surely you can do that whatever it runs? Using whatever Google's <s>knock-off of</s> equivalent to CarPlay is?

I can use Google Maps on my Pug's screen using CarPlay.

I choose not to (though I use Waze, which is also a Google product I think?)
Android Auto is the interface and yes I also have Waze installed. The software runs on the phone but not all Google Apps are Android Auto compatible. I also use Facebook messenger and I can access SMS texts etc, in fact the system does a reasonable job of reading SMS. The other app I sometimes use is Amazon music.

What I like about google maps is I can plan a route on my pc and then upload it and supporting maps to the phone.
Ford's Sync 3 system is Blackberry QNX based, and the older Sync 2 is a Microsoft product. Sync 3 allows Android Auto/Apple Carplay but is not a Google derived system.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by A303Chris »

Going back to the M5, how strange to see it without any central reservation barriers.

I remember the first time I drove it in 1988, was surprised to see it was two lanes from J8 to J4.
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Re: Car of the future - M5 in 1971

Post by BOH »

A303Chris wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 13:24 Going back to the M5, how strange to see it without any central reservation barriers.

I remember the first time I drove it in 1988, was surprised to see it was two lanes from J8 to J4.
That's because that section was part of the original mid-60s built M5. It was all slowly widened in the 90s with the Worcester to Strensham section being the last to be done.
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