Hybrid News

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

The video above describes the idea of a gravity train, which imagines drilling a hole through the Earth to travel to different locations on the surface of the Earth. The gravity train would mean travel times of about 42 minutes from any two locations on the Earth’s surface. Of course, digging a hole to China is really hard. Just ask any third grader. But what if the Earth is hollow?

Below the fold is a video of a guy who actually thinks the Earth is hollow. If he is right and all of all of geological science is wrong, then we won’t have to drill a very deep hole. Traveling from one point on the surface of the hollow Earth to the another would only require the creation of a giant glider, that would fall through the Earth. So, as soon at the hollow earth theory is proven (don’t hold your breath), we should see proposals for transport systems soon after.

[Source: YouTube, Neatorama]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Transportation Alternatives, On Two Wheels

The video above is the Switchbike, which looks like a regular bike but can transform into a recumbent, lay-back seating type of bike. There is only one and creator Ron de Jong is still looking for someone to bring this concept to production. Below the fold is a video of the CBC show’s look at the VeloMobile, a covered, three-wheeled, human-powered vehicle. Hilary Doyle is really funny in the segment with odd observations like “this is a sex toy.” Velomobiles are not new vehicles but they are getting a lot press attention recently with our new focus on green forms of transport.

[Source: YouTube]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Recently, Korean scientists created glow in the dark cats and scientists have created glow in the dark rabbits and pigs in the past. Glowing animals are novelties but GMO or Genetically Modified Organisms are actually quite common in our food supply and you often see these foods bannned because of concerns over safety. While not technically possible currently, the creation of genetically engineered vehicles is imagined in science fiction and fantasy (like the cat bus in the anime My Neighbor Totoro, which you can seen in the videos above and below the fold).

A living car would mean efficient production, repair, energy collection and disposal because living systems are much more efficient than traditional technologies. However, the impact on the eco-system is unknown and possibly detrimental. For example, a cat bus might escape, grow wild, change the eco-system and endanger the survival of some species. So, while it would be really cute and furry to ride in a giant cat bus, it’s probably not a good idea to create these things until we have a much better idea of their impact on the environment.

[Source: YouTube]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, MPG

The day you simply step into your car and it takes you where you want is not here just yet, but we are giving up control of small things to the vehicle’s computer. Take, for example, BMW’s Active Cruise Control, which takes control of the car’s speed, or Lexus’ Advanced Parking Guidance System, which parallel parks your car for you. The video above is a system imagined by Zurich where stop lights are replaced by systems that control the speed of the car. There is no need for a car to stop, only slow down or speed up to allow for the continuous flow of traffic from all directions.

For this system to work, you would need government laws to not only ban traffic lights but place some kind of navigation system in your car. There is already talk of putting GPS in all cars, so don’t be surprised if you see this sooner rather than later. As any hypermiler will tell you, slowing down and stopping wastes a lot of gas, so, if a system like this were implemented, the gas savings would be enormous. Maybe we should try it now, without all that fancy technology?

As crazy as it sounds, the idea of banning stop lights and traffic signals, so called “naked streets,” is catching on and some people even think it’s safer for pedestrians. The idea behind naked streets is drivers will be more aware of pedestrians if there are no signs or signals and the CBC reports a 60 percent drop of pedestrian accidents. This system already exists in many places, as the video below the fold shows, due to a lack of money or just bad planning.

Perhaps someday our grandchildren will ask us “what are stop lights?” for a report in their history class.

Related:

• HAWK, a crosswalk button that actually works

[Source: YouTube]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: MPG, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy, Green Daily, USA

The video above, “The Energy Debate: Just the Facts,” is from the Heritage Foundation and includes the results of a study on CAFE and safety that I think may have been misstated. The video starts out by asking the loaded question “why will raising CAFE standards hurt Americans?” to which Ben Lieberman, a Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation, answers:

Raising CAFE standards will make cars less safe. In order to meet these standards cars have to be made smaller which makes them less safe in crashes. The National Academy of Sciences have confirmed this effect. Past CAFE standards have caused an estimate 1,300 to 2,600 lives per year. So, tightening these standards will only add to the death toll on the highways.

Now, let’s take a look at how the study was presented to the Congress:

There have been adverse consequences as well. Safety is most important. The majority of the committee concludes that the downsizing and downweighting that occurred in the 1970s and 80s (partially in response to CAFE) resulted in an additional 1,300 to 2,600 fatalities in 1993. While fatalities were declining in this period, most committee members believe that they would have declined much more had the downweighting and downsizing not occurred. Two members of the committee dissent from this view. They believe that the data does not support this conclusion, and that the net effect on highway fatalities of the increases in fuel economy may have been zero. David Greene, one of the authors of the dissent in the report, may elaborate on that conclusion.

So, the study concludes CAFE was “partially” responsible. Maybe. In 1993, fatalities were actually going down at the time and not everyone on the committee agreed with the conclusion. What are some of the dissenting views from the National Academies? David Greene found “higher mpg is significantly correlated with fewer fatalities.” I think the Heritage Foundation misstates the conclusions but we want to know what do you think. Did they cross the line? Do you think higher CAFE mpg requirements increases fatalities?

[Source: YouTube]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Hybrid, GM, Toyota, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, China

The videos above and below the fold are parts 1 and 2 of a 50-minute speech by GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz after receiving an award at the Western Automotive Journalists′ meeting. Even with no voice, jet lagged and after a drink at dinner, Bob had lots of interesting things to say. Is anyone surprised? He says, for example, that GM’s CEOs took their eyes off the car business for the last 15 years, that Toyota will have egg on its face for criticizing the Volt and GM is making a $2,500 car in China. At the AutoChannel’s website, they have more videos of Bob taking questions where his responses include calling the Union of Concerned Scientists a joke group and saying that if he were president he would support ethanol. Let’s go through these comments, starting with assessment of the last 15 years of GM.

Bob says the “new” GM has no resemblance to the GM he knew in the sixties when he worked there or the “incredibly ponderous, multi-divisional, multi-departmental, incredibly intertwined, interlinked, almost unmanagable” GM of the seventies and eighties. Jack Smith and Rick Wagoner (GM’s CEOs for the last 15 years) had to “take their eyes off the car business for a while” to struggle to clean up GM to make it lean, accountable, global and as nimble as any small, auto company … ah, I really hope that was not slam at the late Roger Smith who served as CEO through the 80’s.

In the last few minutes of the above video, after saying GM just needed a little consideration in the market place because they have improved while Toyota has not, Bob says the criticisms of the Volt by Toyota’s Okamoto will be proven wrong next Easter. I will let Bob speak for himself (after the break):

[Source: YouTube, AutoChannel]

By the time the Easter Bunny delivers his or her first egg shipments we hope to have demonstrated initial prototype drives that demonstrate the feasibility of the 40 or 50 miles on pure electric drive. That sets up an interesting confrontation between ourselves and the other large automotive manufacturer because at the Tokyo show Mr. Okamoto, who is the head of R&D and technology at Toyota, conducted a press briefing during which time he showed lovely power point charts much like this one demonstrating that General Motors was completely wacky, that this wasn′t going to work, it was a public relations exercise. Only we at Toyota truly know what battery technology is all about and as the world most credible car company, we hereby declare this whole thing to be non-sense and General Motors is going to fail miserably [see related post here]. Well, lets wait for the Easter Bunny and see who’s right. Somebody is going to have egg on their face and I personally don’t like that. So, somehow I don’t think it’s going to be us but watch that with interest because around Easter time somebody is going to lose credibility.

In the Q&A, Bob was very positive on ethanol saying the source of criticisms were the $350M per year campaign from American Petroleum Institute. “If we have to produce like a 100 percent of vehicles to run on ᭉ, we will do that,” Bob says and adds that if he was running things (Bob Lutz for President?) ethanol and flex fuel is the smart place to put the money. Bob says the Union of Concerned Scientists is a “joke group,” basically an “advocacy group,” and almost none of them have a degree in science. On CAFE legislation, Bob says that CAFE failed because the oil companies are in favor of it.

Bob says when GM asked Japanese battery companies to make a battery for the Volt, they got a reply of “no desire to quote.” Bob says the U.S. government should recognize that we are in a technology war and give U.S. carmakers more help. In case you′ve been living in a cave for the last 20 years, Bob had some scary numbers on the growth in China and he literally says that “the Chinese automobile industry, in another 5 or 6 years, is going to be scary.” Don′t worry, because they are ripping apart Hondas to learn how they reduce weight and they are making a $2,500 car. Then, Bob jokes, they are going to sell them for $3,000 so they can make some money.

This speech is a perfect of example of why the press loves Bob Lutz.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Etc., USA

This is a great story. A raised train track in the middle of New York City was abandoned. Unused since the 1980s, this train track actually began to grow wild grasses. So much wild grass grew on the track that you could mistake it for the countryside and not a space in the middle of a city. A group formed called Friends of the High Line with the goal of maintaining this green space. In 2005 they got permission to build, in 2006 Mayor Bloomberg broke ground and now architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro are working on making an elevated park from a space that was once a rail road. You cannot legally walk on the High Line right now but there is a book of photos called Walking the High Line to show us what it’s like. The video above and two videos below the fold explains the project and include interviews with High Line supporters like movie star Edward Norton. I can’t wait for the project to be finished. I wonder if this is the fate of our highway system as well?

[Source: YouTube]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Green Culture, Hybrid, Ford

The video above is the Climate Kids ad where children are asked how do cars harm the planet. There responses are what you might expect from kids except for the second to last kid who understands it better than I do. The ad was done by Ibuyeco, an eco-friendly car insurance company that off sets your carbon pollution and adds it your car insurance rate. Kids say the greenest things.

Below the fold is the Ford Escape hybrid ad “Father / Daughter” that shows a daughter asking her father to drop her off a block before she gets to the movie theatre. That part of town, she explains, has people that ride bikes and hybrids and stuff, and she doesn’t want to be embarrassed by showing up in an SUV. But this is a hybrid, her father explains. Why didn’t he talk about this before she asks. Her father replies I never thought I had to talk about it. Yeah, who talks about their cars?

[Source: YouTube]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen, Vegetable Oil, AutoblogGreen Exclusive

Mythbusters, a popular TV show on the Discovery Channel, tried to bust the myth that there are devices out there that can dramatically improve your fuel economy. I think Mythbusters made a lot of mistakes in the episode with claims about hydrogen, used vegetable oil and EPA testing. I also think they did bad experiments and should have done more research.

Lets start with hydrogen: As you can see in the above video, after making a car turn over by hosing hydrogen into the carburetor, Adam proclaims “I guess you could, if you had a lot of hydrogen, run your engine completely without any other modification.” The experiment they did is interesting but there is no reason to make the claim that a car can run unmodified on hydrogen. Who would consider the installation of a hydrogen fuel tank on a car un-modified anyway? They could have mentioned hydrogen combustion engines and fact that there is serious research on using hydrogen in gas cars.

Now, about the used vegetable oil. Adam got used vegetable oil from a restaurant, filtered it and ran a diesel car on it. They claim just 10 percent less fuel economy and Adam said “we did not make any modifications to this car. That means anybody who had a diesel car could just pure this stuff into the gas tank and it would run fine.” Again, like the hydrogen experiment, interesting but it’s not that simple. You can use vegetable oil in a diesel engine and it does work but there is a small industry of people that do conversions to diesel engines to make sure there are no long term damage to your car when running on VegOil. Why not mention them? Also, mileage really depends on the type of oil you use but I doubt a 10 percent reduction in fuel economy is accurate for everyone.

Go below the fold for more mistakes.

[Source: MythBusters]
EPA testing. Adam and Jamie said the EPA tested over 100 devices and at best they only showed 6 percent improvement in fuel economy. I did a quick web search, found an EPA page with testing data of devices that promise to improve fuel economy and the first one I looked at “ACDS Automotive Cylinder Deactivation System (2)” said it showed fuel economy improvements of up to 20 percent. Why was this device not mentioned on Mythbusters? I am not defending these devices - most of them are crap - but why didn’t the Mythbusters at least start with the ones that showed an improvement from the EPA testing?

Testing. If they did real tests instead of picking devices with crazy promises they would have found most don′t work but some do improve fuel efficiency by small amounts even if they don′t make sense economically or are not worth the hassle. The Mythbusters tested acetone added to gas, for example, and found no improvement but there are fuel additives that improve fuel economy because they are basically fuel, just not good ones. The myths you hear about these devices are not unfounded because the devices basically work and I really don′t think it would have been that hard for Adam and Jamie to find one that worked. Maybe they thought busting the myth on the economics of using these technologies or retrofitting older cars with modern technology would have been boring?

The Mythbusters claims also went too far. The myth included the claim that the automakers and oil companies worked together to keep these devices from the market. They really did not get into this but the auto makers and oil companies did work together to kill the street car, for example, many years ago. There are serious claims brought up in the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?” that would make anyone wonder why GM took the EV1 off the market. I don’t think there is a conspiracy between oil and car companies because I don’t they they need to work together; they have common interests. The car companies have reasons to keep electric cars off the market, for example, other than helping the oil companies keep the price of gas up. The lucrative repair market for gas cars compared to electric cars is a good reason for the automakers not to make electric cars.

Besides their claims, their methods were also very questionable as well. Before making the claim that you can run your engine on hydrogen un-modified, the Mythbusters did not completely drain the engine of gasoline and got a false result with a hydrogen hydrolysis device. They did nothing to make sure this did not happen again or find a way to measure the amount of gas in the engine. After trying to hose hydrogen into the carburetor again, there is a small, accidental explosion. Someone is going to get seriously hurt on this show because they do not consider safety much. The point of the show almost seems to be, “Hey, let’s do unsafe stuff.”

I understand the show is just entertainment and not scientific research but there is an aura of science and they need to stop making grandiose claims and do some research. I give them credit for considering the myth but they got the myth of the fuel efficiency devices so wrong … which only confirms the myth they Mythbusters were paid off by the oil companies. Just kidding I think their most major mistake is taht they did experiments and presented information that supported their ideas before they started the experiments. That’s not science. In fact, that’s the opposite of science.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: MPG, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy

I watched the last six hours of the House of Representatives debate on the energy bill yesterday and recorded significant references to CAFE, fuel efficiency, transportation, etc. and whittled it down to five minutes because hey, I know you’re busy. The video above includes Dingell being praised twice for his work on CAFE by Republicans that opposed the rest of the bill. I think that the industry support for the CAFE portion came from the work done by Dingell even though Detroit did not get everything that they wanted. In the video, Pelosi said this bill could be a part of someone’s legacy and I think that was directed at Dingell. Anyway, here are the list of stars and a summary of their lines in the video above:

• Doc Hastings (R) says that giving tax breaks for riding your bike to work won’t solve global warming.
• Jay Inslee (D) has a giant poster of the Volt.
• John Hall (D) gives us some hyper milling tips.
• Llloyd Doggett (D) is a Paul Simon fan.
• James Oberstar (D) says the bill will authorize a center for global warming in the Department of Transportation.
• John Shimkus (R) actually has an ICE (internal combustion engine) because he is tired of carrying a half of a horse.
• Rahm Emanuel (D) says the bill will save you $1,000 a year.
• Joe Barton (R) says only eight cars get more than 35 MPG.
• John Boehner (R) says consumers are going to pay for this.
• Nancy Pelosi (D) ends it all with a smile.

Over the last week, we have told you about the compromise, the debate and the vote on the Energy Bill in the House of Representatives. The bill is now on its way to the Senate and is almost certainly doomed because it’s facing a filibuster in the Senate and if it survives that, there are repeated threats of veto by the president. Rep. Lee Terry, of Hill-Terry, did a 30 minute interview with CSPAN and even he said the energy bill is “dead on arrival” in the Senate, at least in its current form. We should know the results of the bill in the Senate soon. So, stay tuned.

[Source: C-SPAN]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Toyota, On Two Wheels

After the violin-playing robot in the video above, we get a look at Toyota′s Mobility Robot (or MR), which we told you about yesterday. MR reminds me a lot of Toyota’s I-Real, which was on display at the Tokyo Auto Show and seemed very close to production. There are a handful of a good designs for chair vehicles and clever, new wheelchair designs like Dean Kamen’s iBot. Although I think a Segway (another Kamen invention) with a chair added is a better design than the iBot. You can check out a video of Josep Mora’s Segway wheelchair design below the fold. I really hope these type of vehicles take off.

Related:

• MagicWheels can add mileage to your wheelchair
• MTV and Xzibit: Pimp my Wheelchair!
• Suzuki working on the MIO, a hydrogen fuel cell wheelchair. Who wants one?

[Source: Dailymotion via Engadget]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: MPG, Legislation and Policy

In September, I wrote Dingell would kill CAFE. Earlier today, I wrote he played a part in delaying a vote on the energy bill in the House. However, a rebel alliance has pushed the vote through, and it should happen later today. We′ll have more updates the vote occurs. Until then, I thought this was a must see the video above is the great John Dingell himself admitting defeat and saying he will vote for the energy bill. So, did he lose? No, the bill is dead.

Huh? In the video above, John says the White House showed no interest. No interest? They threatened to veto it Monday and repeated the threat to veto it again today, again citing Dingell’s problem with the CAFE portion of the bill. That’s lack of interest? Why would Dingell doublespeak like that? John did the same thing, as you can see in the old video below the fold, when he proposed the gas tax which everyone knew he did not really support.

The energy bill needs friends and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should have just given Dingell a delay, dropped three MPG from CAFE and all of her problems would have gone away. Along with the veto threat from the president, there is a fillibuster threat when the bill goes to the Senate. What will we see in the vote tonight? Will the bill pass? Will the CAFE standard in the bill be lowered? Stay tuned.

Related:

• Fuel economy bill has seventy percent chance of passage

[Source: CSPAN]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Green Culture, Holidash

A father and his kids caught Santa Claus on video driving an SUV and they uploaded the video to YouTube. Why is Santa driving an SUV? He is giving his reindeer a rest, of course, which one child repeats in a very funny way. Some of the commentators on YouTube have noticed that the vehicle is not an SUV but a Minivan, that a child that small should not be in the front seat and that the kid in the back is not wearing his seat belt. Not mentioned in the YouTube comments is that Santa could have chosen a car that does not contribute to the melting of his homeland as much or maybe could have taken public transport. While I′ve got my soapbox out, perhaps eating fewer cookies might help with his weight problem too. Maybe I am over thinking this wonderful little moment?

Happy Holidays everyone!

[Source: YouTube]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Hybrid, On Two Wheels, EV₃

Electric car advocate and vlogger Doug Korthof has posted several videos from EVS23, including the video above, which is a look at Ener1′s lithium-ion Prius. Doug asked Eneѵ fairly technical questions, so if you are interested in things like the top of the discharge curve, the above video is just for you.

Below the fold is Doug’s look at Vectrix’s new three wheeler and a walk and chat around the A123 and Killacycle booth. That video has interesting tidbits about the Killacycle crash. Apparently, if the bike had not slowed down, it would have torn the other vehicle in half … that would have been cool.

Doug is still adding videos and AutoblogGreen was there as well, so stay tuned for more coverage from EVS23 very soon.

Related:

• EVS23: Enerdel’s “end-to-end” lithium solution for hybrids
• Eneѵ first to integrate lithium-ion battery into HEV

[Source: YouTube]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton

Filed under: Transportation Alternatives, Buick, On Two Wheels, Green Daily

Artist Michel de Broin stripped down a 1986 Buick Regal and added pedal power. The video above shows some guys taking it on the road, then the Toronto police pulling the car over and eventually towing it away. Don’t feel too bad for the concept because there is a street-legal human-powered car available from the HumanCar Company. I think a covered human car and even the Buick would be street legal if the people that made the video took the right steps. I assume riding in a comfortable, aerodynamic, safe human-powered vehicles is a funny, stunt to these people but it’s a serious issue. Below the fold is a video of an electric-assist Velomobile, a popular covered bike-car concept.

[Source: Jalopnik]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Original post by Lascelles Linton