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TxtStopper: Probably Illegal

I saw a press release about a device called the TxtStopper, which is a cell phone jammer you wire into your car's 12v power line to jam cell phones when your engine is running.  The idea is to keep your teenager from texting while driving.

This device is probably not legal in the U.S., since it interferes with legal and regulated cell phone signals.

Also, I don't see how they keep it just to your vehicle.  If it is so low powered that it doesn't extend much beyond about a 5 foot radius, it may not be powerful enough to reliably jam your phone.

Also, cell phones in vehicles have legitimate safety uses, such as 911. 

Bad idea.

Boycott BP?

Should you boycott BP?

Yes, maybe, no.

Yes because reduced wholesales of their products will hurt them in their pocket books and teach them a harsh lesson.

Maybe not, because chances are if you have a 401(k) or pension plan, you are infact a shareholder of BP, one of the largest (by capitalization) companies in the world.  You will help to damage your own retirement funds.

No, because you will hurt your local small-business owners who own BP stations, which are almost all franchises.  And BP is one of the largest employers in oil producing regions.  Many more people will lose jobs, than already are.

Myself, I am ambivalent.  I don't actively avoid BP stations these days, but I don't really seek them out either.  Besides, near me, Speedway and Valero brands are usually cheaper!

Want Less Oil Use? Raise Gas Taxes!

The laws of economics are nearly as immutable as the laws of physics.

If you want to reduce consumption of an item, increase its price, or reduce its supply (same effect, different mechanism).

David Frum points this out in a very lucid piece on CNN.com, here.

We want to get the country off oil? Tax it. (Politicians may not wish to say it, but their advisers can at least think it.) Then liberate people to find their own best alternative -- and incentivize industry to develop alternatives that make sense at the new higher price. And be prepared to argue candidly and straightforwardly in the marketplace of ideas why this new tax is right and justified.

If not, then kindly please spare us the grand speeches about how the status quo is the thing you will not accept. It is precisely the thing you are accepting.

However, as Frum correctly points out, a politician who raises gas taxes by $1+ per gallon will soon be an ex-politician.  That's because there is not really a strong consensus on reducing our use of fossil fuels in this country.  As I write here so often, people want cheap gas and high fuel efficiency, but they aren't willing to pay much for it.

One sensible solution to the sting of higher taxes is to do a "feebate" scheme, where the taxes which are collected are distributed back to the taxpayers as tax rebates.  This way, you would nudge the consumer to consume less fuel, but on average wouldn't hurt the economy much.  Congress can even play with the rebate rules, to penalize higher income consumers less than low income consumers, exclude business and agriculture uses, etc.

Instead, we have the perverse system of CAFE, which tells automakers what cars to build and in what mix they can sell them, but is largely invisible to the consumer except on the window stickers at the dealership.  

Well, CAFE isn't free either.  Getting to 36mpg is going to have some nasty side effects on the vehicles available on the marketplace, foremost of which is that cars are going to get more expensive.   So instead of slightly less expensive cars and pricier gas, we are going to have cheaper gas and more expensive cars.  You still pay in the end, though--efficiency costs money.  The advantage of the market approach is that the consumer has choice--if someone wants to drive a thirsty vehicle, and they can afford the gas tax,they can choose to pay.  With CAFE, the very choice of the thirsty vehicle may be taken away, depending on how the fleet average works out.

Gordon Murray's (Controversial) T.25

There are new photos out of designer Gordon Murray's proposed T.25 city car (see photos here).

It looks like a very tidy design, with a 1+2 seating arrangement where the passengers sit behind the driver, who is front and center.  But the ergonomics look very tricky--to get those 2nd row passengers in their seats, they have to climb over (I assume) a folded forward drivers seat, after negotiation the forward tilting cab.  

Unless the rear of the cab opens as well?  It is hard to tell from the press photos.

Even if the rear cabin opens, I don't think a forward opening door will be well received.  If it is raining, you (and our seat) are getting wet while you work on getting in or out.  If you are in a front end accident, it seems like it would be harder to open the door, if the hinge was crushed.  

The half-windows are also not going to go over well, although perhaps in the U.K fast food drive-through is not as common as in the U.S.  

Mandatory Breathalyzer Interlock?

Did you know that the NHTSA, together with 13 automakers, is working on a device which will test your breath alcohol concentration, to be installed (they hope) in all vehicles?  Did you know that they are spending $2,000,000 per year (some of which is taxpayer money) on this project?  Now Senator Udall from New Mexico is proposing to increase funding to $12,000,000/year.   

To its credit, the DADSS project acknowledges that in order to be accepted by the public, the system they come up with must be practical and non-intrusive.  They are pursuing several methods of doing a passive test, to avoid having to have the driver blow into a tube and wait several minutes before allowing the car to start.

They are looking at both contacting and non-contacting methods.  One method is to have an IR spectrograph system which reads the blood alcohol level by analyzing the reflected light from a persons skin, which would have to be touching a sensor hidden somewhere such as the steering wheel or shift knob.  Another method would be to analyze the vapor in the cabin using several "sniffers".

However, even a passive system has some significant issues that will need to be overcome before the average person will agree to have one in their vehicle.  The chance of a false positive must be vanishingly small.  But at the same time, the system must be difficult to defeat, or it loses its protective effect.

And any system that degrades over time, to the point where it starts calling false positives, would not be acceptable.   

Consider a contacting spectrograph sensor.  What if it is winter, and our driver wants to wear gloves?  Do you make him remove his gloves to start the car?  Would people submit to that? (No).   

Can the system tell the difference between a bag of saline solution and a persons finger?  Could it be fooled with a hot dog? 

Or what if you are using cabin air sensors, and you are sober but your friend in the passenger seat is drunk?  The system must be able to tell the difference reliably to be acceptable.

Would an air analyzer system work with the windows down, or with the ventilation fans blowing?  Any solution which requires people to start with closed windows or without ventilation won't be accepted.

Could a cabin air analyzer be fooled by taping over the sensor inlet ports?

To be effective and safe, the system would have to make an up or down call quickly while the car is parked.  Which means it will almost certainly have to be a default-to-guilty (restrictive) system as opposed to a non-restrictive  default-to-innocent system.   If the system allows you to drive away, but then makes a "intoxicated" call later, and stops your car, it may leave you in an unsafe situation.  

I am skeptical about the idea that every car should have an alcohol detector on board.  I think many lives could be saved if, instead, the system were required as an after-market installation for anyone who is caught DUI.  I am not ready to accept, and I don't think most people would accept a system which presumes that you are drunk unless you can prove otherwise.  

You can read more about the DADSS project at http://www.dadss.org/.

An interesting source of counter-advocacy is here: http://interlockfacts.com/, which is run by the American Beverage Institute.

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Camry Most "American" Car?

According to the Detroit News (here), Cars.com finds that the Camry is the "most American car", based on domestic parts content and popularity.

I suppose it is fair, and congratulations to Toyota for supporting the U.S. economy as much as the Camry does.

But...

If you follow the flow of engineering and the flow of money, the picture is a little different.  The Camry has quite a bit of its engineering done in Japan, which means that Japanese engineers are doing the work, not U.S. engineers.  Also, the profits from the sale of the Camry flow back through Japan, though the shareholders of Toyota are global.

Consider instead a car designed in the U.S. and built over the border, such as the Ford Fusion, or the Chrysler 300.  Yes, it is being bolted together by Mexicans (or Canadians, or even Mexican-Canadians), from parts that flow from all over.  However, U.S. engineers and technicians worked on the product, and and the profits flow mostly to U.S. shareholders (and the .gov in the case of Chrysler and GM).

It isn't black and white, and if you buy a Camry, to my thinking it is much better than buying a car designed and built overseas.  But if you want to support American engineering and American shareholders, you can do better than Camry.

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The Truth About The Vuvuzela

The vuvuzela was originally invented by the Jews! Made of a rams horn, the shofar was blown during battle, and I am sure during ancient soccer games. Today, it is blown during the high holidays.

Why Not Small Cars?

Mark Tapscott at the Examiner (link) does a good job discussing why it is that small and fuel efficient cars are not taking off in the marketplace yet. He mentions several major reasons, such as safety issues (perceived and real), and cargo capacity.

I can add a few more.

Perceived Value: Americans still associate size/mass with value. Many of them are not yet ready to agree to pay mid-sized car prices for a small car.

Ride and Handling: Americans seem to be divided on how they want their cars to handle. Some of the best selling cars (Toyota Camry, Corolla) are comparatively squishy, while others (Honda Accord, Civic) have sharper handling and firmer rides. While it is not impossible to produce a small car with a softer ride, light weight and short suspension travel limits do make it more difficult. Also, when efficiency is the overriding design factor, one of the easiest places to lose weight is in sound isolation materials. Do the "silent majority" want little cars with go-kart manners (Mini, Smart) or do they want scaled down couches? Currently, most small cars are tuned more towards go-kart.

Styling: Looks still matter. Americans want a sharp looking car, although what "sharp looking" is is not always consistent. Designers have to work hard to avoid designing short little jelly beans with high roofs, which is really the most space efficient design with some aerodynamic efficiency. On a larger car, there is more surface to play with, and more ways to draw the eye. Americans don't really want something that looks like a rollerskate, with a tall roof and little wheels pushed out to the corners.

Comfort: Americans are not getting thinner. I recently witnessed about 500lbs of female Target shopper (a mother and daughter?) flow out of both sides of an old Dodge minivan, you could almost hear the springs sigh in relief as the ride height jumped by 2" in front. Show those women a Fiesta and they will probably laugh at you. They might then go ahead and eat it.

Toy Story 3

I went to see Toy Story 3 today, it is a real work of art, absolutely wonderful. The opening scene features a wild get-away by train robbing Potato Heads in a purple Barbie corvette driven by Martians.

Even if you have not seen the earlier installments, go see this one.

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The Jaguar XJ220 is a mid-engined sports car produced by Jaguar in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing as Jaguar Sport between 1992 and 1994. It held the record for the highest top speed of a production car (350 km/h, 217 mph) until the arrival of the McLaren F1 in 1994.

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n the early days of the company, certain Jaguar employees had created an informal group they called "The Saturday Club" (so-named because they would meet after-hours and on weekends to work on unofficial pet-projects). In the 1980s, Jaguar's chief-engineer Jim Randle, as part of that group, began work on what he saw as competition for cars like the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959. He envisioned what was essentially an updated XJ13 - a lightweight two-seater with a powerful mid-mounted V12 engine. Randle expanded on the idea by settling on all wheel drive for increased traction and better handling and an integral safety-cage so the car could be safely raced at extremely high speeds. From the outset, the intention was to create a vehicle capable of exceeding 320 km/h (200 mph).

Cheap Gas, Low Demand For Hybrids, B-Cars

According to Ward's Auto, sales of fuel efficient vehicles (cars with 30mpg+) are falling, as customers move back to their mid-size cars and crossovers.  Toyota's Prius is selling well, but the hybrid Camry and Honda Civic Hybrid are declining.  Small gasoline cars such as the Yaris (down 38%), Honda Fit (down 20%), and Smart ForTwo (down 63%) are not doing well.

Unless Obama can find a way to ramp up the price of gasoline soon, the near term sales of the many new B-cars are not going to be pretty, and fleet fuel economy improvements are going to be small.

Let's face it, Americans don't want little cars.  They want cheap gas and large cars.  I can't wait for the public reaction when the 36mpg CAFE regulations force people to look at B-cars, or pay a premium for larger vehicles.  

 

HP2G Vaporware?

I keep tabs on HP2G, Doug Pelmear's startup which is working on a hybrid electric V8 engine design, because he is somewhat local (Toledo OH) and makes some astonishing claims (110 MPGe and 400HP).  As you may have heard already, HP2G was a Progressive Automotive X-prize contender but dropped out in the early stages of the competition.  HP2G also had a deal with Revenge Design to supply the HP2G engine for a hybrid supercar, the Revenge Blade.  Revenge has broken off its relationship with HP2G, and posted this nasty item on its web site:

Revenge Designs Inc is announcing the withdrawal of all support and funding to Hp2g llc, due to numerous requests for third party validations to the claims of their 110mpge Hp2g engine. Revenge Designs was informed the patents were in place late 2009, since then Revenge Designs has requested documentation for the third party testing to no avail. Revenge Designs finds this to be unacceptable. 

A quick search of the U.S. patent database shows that the only patent that Doug Pelmear has to his name at this time is one for an engine block brace--nothing about his magnetic cylinder assist system.  There are no applications by Pelmear in the U.S. patent application database.  A quick search of the EU patent database also shows only the engine block brace patent.  So it appears that HP2G has failed to apply for a patent for its magnetic hybrid engine technology until very recently.  And it is odd that HP2G refuses to allow 3rd party testing of its prototype, an old Mustang.

Does Pelmear have a 110MPGe V8 engine that also makes 400HP, or is he selling snake oil?  I wonder if we will ever be able to find out.

New J.D. Power Initial Quality Rankings

Some interesting results in the new J.D. Power IQS. (Full press release here)

For 2010, "domestic" brands are beating "import brands" as a group, 108 PP100 vs 109 (Problems Per 100).

Toyota has fallen to significantly below average, at 117 PP100. That crashing sound you hear is the sound of Toyota execs jumping out of high-rise windows.

All GM brands are below average, though all but GMC are better than Toyota.

Ford has charged up to just above Honda, well above average, and Lincoln is better than industry average, but oddly Mercury is below average.

Land Rover continues its dominance as the worst in the industry.

Audi (VW) has improved dramatically over the last few years, from 136 PP100 in 2007 to 111 in 2010. VW has also improved, 135 PP100 in 2010 vs 160 in 2007, but relative to average, is still near the bottom.

Volvo improved from below average to above average since 2007.

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The Kia Soul isn’t thinking outside of the box, it’s thinking “beyond the box.” Or so says Fred Aikins, Kia senior product strategy manager. The “box,” of course, is a thinly veiled reference to the boxy Scion xB and the cubic Nissan Cube. The Soul adopts the slab sides of its squared-off Japanese rivals but then throws in a few angles. Most notably, the shoulder line of the Kia Soul tapers upwards. With the wraparound windshield, Soul looks its wearing a really cool pair of shades.

It’s what Gen Y, that group in their 20s not long out of college and buying a first car wants. Or at least that’s what Kia is banking on with the Soul.

Perhaps that’s ahead of the story. The Soul dates back to January 7, 2006, when the original Kia Soul concept debuted at the Detroit Auto Show. Put simply, it was a hit, enough so that Kia decided it had to be built. A little more than three years later, Kia has a production model on sale. A product of Kia’s Southern California-based design team, the Soul is a significant indicator of where Kia plans to go.

2010 Kia Soul 2.0-liter engineMechanically, the Kia Soul is based on a “highly, highly modified” version of the Kia Rio platform, enough so that Kia refers to it as unique. Still as such, it’s a front driver with a choice of 1.6-liter or 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines mounted crosswise under the hood. There’s a choice of a five-speed manual and four speed automatic; suspension is struts front and a twist-beam rear axle. In other words, it’s a well-proven concept.

Prices It’s available in four trim levels, the base Soul at $13,300, the Soul+ (“plus”), the Soul! (“exclaim”), and Soul sport (“sport”). The Soul+ is expected to be the volume leader, starting at $14,950 and with all options added, $17,100. The Soul! is the “luxury” trim version with a range of prices from $16,950 to $17,900. The Soul sport is what its name suggests and come standard with a sport-tuned suspension and vivid red-and-black interior. Prices range from $16,950 to $18,600 when fully loaded.

That’s the boring but necessary housekeeping stuff. The styling on the other hand is the love-it-or-leave-it and it comes off better in three dimensions than on a flat screen or printed paper thing. The bowtie-shaped grille, distinctive without being bizarre, is the new face of Kia. The liftgate on the Soul is unique. Set between tall taillights—the turn indicators are even with the rear glass—the metal panel on the liftgate is beveled and recessed into the rear body panels. Rather than trying to smooth the liftgate into the body, they’ve made it stand out—or actually in—from the surrounding panels. Despite the apparent slabsidedness, the Soul isn’t completely flat, what with pronounced wheel arches over the standard 15-inch (optional 18-inch) wheels.

The inside’s funky if not as bizzarro as a Scion’s or Cube’s. Kia stylists have made good use of color, especially in the Soul sport, which has red and black contrasting panels. It’s a bit strong for some people, but then it’s questionable whether they should be allowed to drive a Soul anyway.

The interior of the Soul is huge for the exterior dimension, with a lot of headroom and shoulder room and generous passenger compartment volume, as one might expect from the squared-off exterior/interior. That means a lot of cargo capacity with the 60/40 seatbacks folded. Unfortunately the seatbacks don’t fold completely flat but they’re close. The cargo floor also lifts for added secret storage underneath. Don’t tell anyone else, let’s keep it between us.

Audio Back to the fun stuff: The standard audio includes AM/FM/CD/MP3 with Sirius-ready capabilities (and three month teaser service—bet you can’t quit). The Soul has USB and auxiliary input jacks in the center console also, with full iPod and MP3 controllability via the audio head unit and steering wheel controls achieved with an optional accessory iPod cable, It’s all very important to the Gen Y target market. Or so we’re told.

2010 Kia Soul +Actually, even the base Kia Soul comes well equipped with air conditioning, tilt wheel, power locks and power windows with driver’s side auto-down, external temperature display (why can’t we call that a “thermometer”) and a rear window defroster. Unlike the Scion xB, the Soul has a cargo area light.

Steering wheel-mounted controls, Bluetooth, two 12-volt power outlets and tweeter speakers go to Gen Y-er’s who move up to Soul+. Kia also puts a lid on the dash-top tray and puts Soul logos on the seats.

The Kia Soul! Adds feel-good leather on the shifter and steering wheel and an audio upgrade package that includes a center speaker, subwoofer, a 315-watt external amplifier and…from the we don’t really need this but it’s probably cool department—lighted speakers that can pulse with the music (if you turn it up really hig), pulse at their own speed or just turn off. Floor mats are included, too. Floor mats are extra on BMWs, like wifi in expensive hotels.

The Soul sport includes a sport-tuned suspension, metal pedals, the red-black interior with metal-finish accents.
Your (capitalized) Soul, regardless of trim level, watches out for your (lower case) soul with standard front seat-mounted and full-length side-curtain air bags, and all Souls also are equipped with ABS, electronic stability, traction control, electronic brake-force distribution, and brake assist.

Driving We drove two Souls, a Soul+ and a Soul Sport. As such, both were equipped with the 2.0-liter engine, one each with the four speed automatic and five-speed manual transmission. (Only the base Soul is available with the 122-horse 1.6-liter engine). The 2.0-liter four is rated at 142 horsepower and 137 lb-ft of torque and while it hardly has accelerative thunder, it’s eager and sounds good doing what one can do with 142 horses, at least of the internal combustion variety.

The automatic transmission’s shifts were clean and in keeping with the class and price range. We found the shifter in the manual transmission to have rather long throws and a rubbery Saab-like feel. The clutch was light and progressive, however, so if the shifting invokes the occasional “Ja, sure” and dreams of Nordic rallies, its relative lack of sportiness withstanding, we’d quickly recommend it to the manual transmission novice.

Both the Soul! And the Soul sport had a well-controlled if firm ride. On the straight and level roads around Miami and down to Key Largo, where we test drove the cars, there was little opportunity to flex the sport’s sport suspension muscles. The steering on both trim levels was nicely weighted but we were easily able to spin to full lock to make a tight-radius U-turn when we repeatedly got lost.

Overall we found the Kia Soul to be a friendly driver and well suited to cruising South Beach among the Maseratis and BMWs and, at least for the nonce, attracting at least as much attention. It’s not loud inside, even over coarse pavement, and thanks to roof reinforcements, the roof doesn’t boom over bumps and such. And there really isn’t much difference between ride between the standard and sport suspension.

Living inside The dual-level glovebox, large enough to swallow a notebook computer, has a damped door so that it doesn’t slam down on your knees and in contrast to most cars in this class range, the Soul has a center console arm rest with storage. There’s not a large amount of storage but some is more than none. The seats are comfy and the driver’s seat has enough adjustments to justify a lot of fiddling.

Kia has a list of fifty accessories to, as Kia marketing veep Michael Sprague puts it, “personalize your Soul.” There will be optional grilles (extra cost, with no exchange) and other cosmetic pieces, plus racks for various sports. There are no performance parts, at least so far, though one Kia insider let it slip that he had been driving a Soul with and intake and exhaust kit.

Whatever the accessories and add-ons, however, the Kia Soul strikes not just a new pose for its maker, but it also leads Korean automakers to a place none have ever been. The Kia Soul, though underneath a conventional small car, is fun and funky and that’s the sort of thing you don’t want to keep in a box.

Mahindra Trucks, In Trouble?

This may be a sign that Mahindra's attempt to import diesel pickup trucks into the U.S. is in big trouble.

According to Global Atlanta (here), Mahindra's U.S. distributor Global Vehicles has filed a federal lawsuit against the company.  Mahindra, despite rumors to the contrary, has not yet filed for EPA certification of its pickup trucks.  Which likely means, they aren't making emissions.

Meanwhile, the many U.S. dealers (some of them closed Chrysler or GM dealers) who put down money on a franchise to sell Mahindra trucks have nothing to show for their investments.

The Card Car aka JoeCar From New Zealand

TheCardCar nicknamed JoeCar or JOKERis 1983 TOYOTA STARLET, created by Ted Charlton for art and fun and I believe the first art car submitted from New Zealand. The car has a dozen jumbo decks, four 500 decks and approx. four standard decks, then coated with two coats of polyurethane resin. The character cards from two German decks are also placed behind the rear doors and inside on the front dash, due to their wonderful artistic quality.

Ted is looking for like minded art cars covered in cards so he can compare notes on technique, so be sure to let him know if you come across another one. I know of a few cars covered in paper products such as the Pokemon Art Car and the Stamp Art Car, so their might be some connection there. Good luck Ted and thanks for your submission.