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Depreciation
Published in Anoop Desai, Aashi Mital, Production Economics, 2018
A machine could be in excellent working condition and perform its intended function, yet could lose value because of the obsolescence of the underlying technology. Examples of obsolete technology include engineering calculators from the 1970's. These devices used to operate on AA batteries and contained light emitting diodes (LEDs). Needless to say, they consumed a substantial amount of energy and were quite restricted in their computing capabilities. The evolution of the cellular phone has followed a similar pattern. In the 1990s, several high end cars used to feature a “car phone” to enable drivers to make a phone call from their car. With the advent of the cell phone and smart phones, the aforementioned technology quickly became obsolete in the 2000s.
Everyman’s radio-telephone: how CB radio users mobilized West Germany’s communication culture
Published in History and Technology, 2019
Motorists were also the first user group to adopt CB radio to their ends, thereby enlarging radio’s one-way to a two-way connectivity. CB radios were seen as alternative to the expensive car phone55 and in addition, provided motorists with navigational aid and helpful communication by co-listeners. Tuning in to CB radio on long, lonely or nocturnal journeys and having its sending function available for emergencies, made motorists feel connected and secure.56 CB radio users informed each other of changing local traffic conditions where traffic broadcasts only gave a general orientation on the regional traffic situation. Drivers in need used the dedicated channel 9 to ask the CB community for directions or spontaneous assistance. If drivers ran out of gasoline, for example, they would send out their coordinates, and a helpful driver would bring along a reserve tank. Local volunteers provided navigational advice to lost drivers, and many self-run ‘Autohilfsclubs’ still offered breakdown help. In addition, motorists warned their fellow-drivers of police checks. To avoid legal consequences, CB amateurs camouflaged their messages and spoke e.g. of ‘Trockengewitter’ (‘dry thunderstorms’) – meaning police checks – or ‘Glatteis’ (‘black ice’) – meaning a speed trap.
Travel-based multitasking: review of the role of digital activities and connectivity
Published in Transport Reviews, 2020
The first wave of research that appears to touch upon the role of connectivity while travelling (not yet termed travel-based multitasking then) emerged with the arrival of early generation mobile (cellular) telephony, in particular so-called car phones. Consider the statement: One way to visualise the combination of these three technologies [automobile, cellular telephony, voice input/output] is through the ‘office in the car’ concept. In this conceptualization, time spent on the road can become an extension of time in the office. A cellular telephone provides the voice/data communication links.which resembles statements encountered in the current literature on time use, yet was made back in the 1980s (White, Halas, & Davis, 1986, p. 263). The study already mentioned the expected productivity benefits from being able to transmit data from laptop computers while away from the home office (note that this is even before the public commercial use of Internet commenced at scale in late 1980s and early 1990s). Similarly, Mokhtarian highlighted the potentially negative effect of enabling communications while travelling, noting that “a car phone may discourage a commuter from adopting vehicle trip reduction strategies”, thus inhibiting attempts to reduce travel and the consequent congestion (Mokhtarian, 1990, p. 235). Even prior to the above discussions, the late 1970s saw studies focused on how interactions between connectivity-enabled tasks, in particular dialling numbers or lifting the handset, affects driving performance (Kames, 1978). Nonetheless, there were no systematic studies of how those early technologies were actually used, i.e. for what purpose, with what frequency, or how they affected travel experience.
The contingent futures of the mobile present: automation as possibility
Published in Mobilities, 2018
Sarah Pink, Vaike Fors, Mareike Glöss
Our research was based in an interventional sensory design ethnography methodology (Pink 2015) successfully used in earlier research into everyday mobilities (Pink and Leder Mackley 2016). This approach develops intensive encounters with participants in order to research collaboratively with them to learn about and reflect on their everyday life experiences. Five women and ten men participated in our research, aged between 45 and 65. All fifteen participants had a university degree or equivalent, professional careers, resided in middle or upper class housing areas in the suburbs of Stockholm or Gothenburg (Sweden) and commuted to work. Nine were recruited through the internal recruitment pool of a car company, to which a message was sent requesting volunteers, three through a previous project and three via snowballing. We conducted semi-structured interviews with each participant before accompanying them in reenactments (Pink and Leder Mackley 2014) of their usual everyday morning and driving to work routines to investigate their driving commuting experiences, as described for Håkan above. We did not centre our research encounters with participants solely on the technologies, but on the everyday routines in which technologies were used. We followed a three-stage research process as completely as possible with all participants. We met participants at their homes in the morning and began our encounter with an in-depth interview to explore their biographies, use and experience of cars and driving. We then asked participants to enact their morning routines, from when they woke up until they left the house, while we video recorded. We particularly probed about how the car or commute to work was part of their routines prior to leaving the house (like Håkan’s routines of checking waze notifications). We continued video recording while they went out to their cars, and joined them, usually in the front seat, to video record and discuss with them while they drove through their usual route into the city as if for work. The first three sets of video and interview materials were analysed ethnographically to respond to the core questions that guided our wider project, and to draw out emerging themes. One of which focused on the car-phone configuration. These were used to shape the ethnographic research with the remaining participants. Finally the materials were analysed in response to the key themes and to account for new emerging themes. Participants chose if we would use their real first names or pseudonyms in publications.