Recent Comments:
Smart Car does highway-speed triple roll. Driver unscathed, seeks orphan {Autoblog Green}
Jun 19th 2008 5:46PM I'll grant that "rolled", in car terms, does imply 'on it's roof' but would the naysayers prefer "flipped" or "somersaulted" or perhaps "barrel rolled"? Why are we surprised that a car weighing ~700kg (1600lbs to some of us) bounced and twirled after hitting what's essentially a highway-sized pinball bumper? FWIW, I'd rather be involved with a 1600lb 'ping pong ball' than a 4000lb land yacth.
The takewaya is still this: a driver walked away from an accident in a SMART Car after a highway speed collision... here's to SMART (pun intended) engineering.
GM struggling to recruit engineers for advanced projects {Autoblog Green}
Jun 17th 2008 1:37PM This is discouraging - to put it mildly. I'm at that point in my life where I'm chosing a proper career and I'm waffling between (green) Automotive Engineering or (green) Architecture, so when I see something like this it kinda tips the scales. I'm interested in working for the industry that'll have the largest environmental impact and I figure contributing my time to cars that are ZEV (or darn close) is more in line with my goal than cleaning up the world one LEED-certified building at a time... but then you see news like this (and people's reactions) and you wonder if it's worth committing to a cause that seems to have it's priorities all bass-ackwards.
VIDEO: $10,000 electric car coming this year? {Autoblog Green}
Jun 13th 2008 5:57PM @kakapo: thanks for representing the "dirty electricity is the Devil" camp... it wouldn't be a normal day on ABG without you and your kind. Did it ever occur to you that 100 EV's running off "dirty" electricity is going to pollute a fraction of what 100 conventional cars would?
The world isn't going to be emissions-free tomorrow - stop perpetuating your "all-or-nothing" approach and at least give this guy a nod for trying... all in all, it's still one less tailpipe on the road.
How much pollution did your PC produce by 'net effect' while you typed up your rebuke... or have you invented an off-grid computer? If so, post a video on YouTube.
Ford asks, DOE delivers: U.S. will spend $30m to fund PHEV development {Autoblog Green}
Jun 13th 2008 4:26PM How sad... 30M over 3 years is an insult - professional athletes make more. Jake’s right though, as long as Texas is in the White House all we’re gonna get is PHEV lip-service.
Personally, I like pretty much all ‘alternative’ fuel vehicles - but I love the idea of PHEV because it has the best market potential for the North American driver... BEV-equivalent operation for 20-40-60 miles and then a small displacement ICE keeps the charge topped up. Sure, they have their drawbacks but, from a feasibility point of view, they’re years ahead of the hydrogen/biofuel alternatives.
Volkswagen Golf getting even smaller engines {Autoblog Green}
Jun 4th 2008 11:17AM I doubt North America will ever see these... we can't even get a diesel Rabbit for Pete's sake!
Besides, would North America be happy with a 75HP engine that lacks the torque of a diesel?
Get schooled on building your own electric vehicle {Autoblog Green}
Mar 25th 2008 6:13PM @ #3 (steveW)... Just for clarity, that's not the link to the course, just to the info night. The course doesn't seem to be listed yet...
