Comments | deep_musings: Smart

deep_musings

Smart

Sep 14, 2006 21:12

I am getting very little time outside of office to explore and experience Taiwan. But I am trying to take in as much of Taipei as I can during the 20+ minute commutes to and from office. Today I spotted this interesting vehicle on the freeway and recognized it to be the same as the one I noticed in the movie "The Da Vinci Code". On investigating ( Read more... )

travel, taiwan

Comments 6

anonymous September 14 2006, 15:16:10 UTC

very interesting! would love a car like that...it looks sturdier than the Reva. How much does it cost, do you know?

deep_musings September 14 2006, 15:34:29 UTC

I was told that it costs somewhere around 20,000 USD.

mvenugopal September 15 2006, 03:22:20 UTC

Say Hi to my good buddies in Taipei ;) where are you staying? near the central district (railway station etc)? Try to see the Taipei world trade center- that area is terrific. You can also hire a car to take you near the beach where there are some nice attractions. If you don't like chinese tea, politely avoid going into any famous tea shops. My darned driver almost drowned me in dreadful tea.

deep_musings September 15 2006, 13:44:09 UTC

I visited Taipei 101 which is in the WTC area. I am staying 10-15 minutes away from there. What other places would you suggest visiting? With a typhoon lingering around and work to be done on Saturday, I am not sure how much sight seeing is going to happen but I am hoping for a sunny Sunday :)

Btw, I don't mind Chinese tea half as much as I mind the Chinese food :).

Fond memories shivspeak September 15 2006, 04:33:33 UTC

Hmm...Interesting!! The Mercedes Smart!! Brings back fond memories. When I was doing my Practice School (Internship) at Daimler Chrysler (DC) Research Center in Bangalore I worked a bit on the navigation system of Smart. At that time DC invested in the Smart with two ideas in mind. The first as you mentioned was to provide a "small" car that would make driving and parking a better experience in Europe's clogged cities. The second and the more interesting idea (that apparently didnt take off) was to use these Smarts as "self driven" cabs. ie. the Smarts would be parked in designated places and any citizen could use his/her card to get into the Smart, drive it around and return in to any other designated place. He or she would be charged appropriately for the use of the car. Wondering why this idea didnt take off? My dear friend Kannan wrote the "Homing signal system" for the car ;). That explains it.

Re: Fond memories deep_musings September 15 2006, 13:45:46 UTC

Wow! That's amazing. Didn't know you actually did something that useful at DC (Just kidding). Guess we must try driving around this car sometime down the line. What says?