Hard drives and cars — a rebuttal | Andrew Kantor's Place

Hard drives and cars — a rebuttal

Published 9/22/06

Once upon a time, Dave Wickersham, COO for hard-drive giant Seagate, commented:

A car in 1956 cost about $2,500, could hold five people, weighed a ton, and could go as fast as 100 mph. If the auto industry had kept the same pace as disk drives, a car today would cost less than $25, hold 160,000 people, weigh half a pound and travel up to 940 mph.

Funny. But SFGate’s Tech Chronicles has a wonderful rebuttal showing that there are at least two perspectives.

A sample:

If my car was like my computer and it failed to start on the first try, I would have to go back into the house, get back into my pajamas, get into bed, re-set the alarm clock and start the whole process all over again.

The Fray

2 responses (add yours)

Leland says:

That’s the way I get up every morning.

September 23rd, 2006 at 1:46 PM

Jeff says:

This sounds like a rip of something that I find quoted at least as far back as March 2005:

http://www.thatwasfunny.com/car-that-crashes-four-times/344
“Bill Gates is hanging out with the chairman of General Motors. “If automotive technology had kept pace with computer technology over the past few decades, ” boasts Gates, “you would now be driving a V-32 instead of a V-8, and it would have a top speed of 10,000 miles per hour.” Bill Gates continued, “Or, you could have an economy car that weighs 30 pounds and gets a thousand miles to a gallon of gas. In either case, the sticker price of a new car would be less than $50.” In response to all this goading, the GM chairman replied, “Yes, but would you really want to drive a car that crashes four times a day?”"

September 29th, 2006 at 10:28 AM