I have been pondering some items related to electric cars and autonomous cars, and in particular how messy even the automotive press treats these subjects.
Which is point one. While the development of autonomous cars is expanding seemingly in tandem with electric cars, they are in fact separate and distinct. More on that later.
The release of the Tesla Model 3 seems to be at the heart of the current news wave. So, while I love the direction that Tesla is taking the automobile industry and what I’ve seen of the Model 3, let’s remember that it is just a car.
It has four wheels, a steering wheel, a pedal or pedals, seating for a driver and passengers, etc. In the end, it’s just a car! The propulsion system is the only real change. The advantage with the Model 3 or any electric car is that an owner gets to leave home every day with a full tank of fuel, assuming charging can be accomplished there.
In the meantime, Chevrolet released its Bolt fully electric car and Nissan has updated the Leaf, already fully electric. And what does the press do? It compares the Bolt and Leaf to the Model 3! This is akin to comparing a Honda Civic to a BMW 3 Series. The only thing the Bolt and Leaf have in common with the Model 3 is battery power, period. Talk of range is in parallel to talk of fuel mileage. The Civic wins, but the BMW buyer couldn’t care less!
Where’s the Appeal?
That said, while the Civic outsells the 3 Series, the Model 3 will eat the Bolt’s lunch on style alone. Electric cars a not so mainstream that value purchasers are driving market volume. So until BMW or Audi or Lexus, etc releases a pure electric – not electrified – model that looks like it belongs to their family of cars, the Model 3 will stand alone.
Sorry BMW, while upcoming changes are a plus, the current i3 simply looks like a toy with a matching grill. Until value buyers begin opting for electric- rather than gas-powered cars in general, the Model 3 will outsell all comers.
Back to the Bolt, it is a step back for Chevrolet. The Volt looks like and is a wonderful, useful, attractive sedan. While it shares some styling cues from the Chevrolet line, the Bolt returns to what U.S manufacturers have done since the 70s when they’ve attempt to build a car ultimately aimed at saving gasoline – making them too small and too unappealing.
One would think that they had learned something from Tesla’s success and they’re own failures from the past.
Meanwhile, the Leaf is a definite step in the right direction for Nissan. It important to remember that the Asian market is far more important to them than the U.S. market and that the Leaf already sells well. Range anxiety is far less an issue overseas. That said, the restyle is far more appealing – the Leaf now actually looks like a Nissan – and sales will likely expand across the board.
Developments do point to the acceptance of electric cars. I ran across a wonderful quote in an article from Automotive News recently. It noted that Volkswagen founder Ferdinand Porsche had shown an electric car with motors in the wheel hubs at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. One hundred seventeen years ago! The suggestion was that the oil boom that occurred at about the same time set the current auto industry in motion (pun intended).
Ulrich Eichhorn, corporate research manager at Volkswagen Group is then quoted as saying: “If the technologies had been reversed, it would be hard to conceive an engineer now successfully proposing that combustion engines replace electric cars. Imagine that person would say, ‘Rather than having maximum torque available from the start like an electric car, it had to ramp up over time.’
“Imagine he then said it involved a device where thousands of tiny explosions occur every minute using a toxic and highly flammable liquid that had to be stored in the vehicle somewhere. And then imagine him saying that this fuel came almost entirely from crisis regions. What do you think his boss might have said to him?”
Oh an interesting question indeed.
Which brings me back to autonomous cars. In the middle of what was painted as a discussion about electric cars, I heard the following (it is paraphrased because I didn’t save the content): cars are like guns in the U.S., its freedom, don’t try and take them away.
This left me scratching my head until I realized that electric propulsion had been confused or paired with autonomous technology! The electric car, regardless of make and model, is still just a car. Just as the comparison of electric cars on range alone is a massive mistake, merging the rise of autonomous technology with electric propulsion also misses the mark.
Any move to force autonomous driving is decades off, assuming it ever occurs. But perhaps by then, jumping into the car to take a weekend drive without actually having to do any work at all will seem very, very appealing.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Just a few weeks ago (2015), we castigated Mercedes marketers for posting a video ad showing one of their vehicles being driven autonomously with the driver in the back seat working. What really got to us was that the ad featured a baby in the driver’s seat, and facing forward! Our argument was that someone out there would be stupid enough to replicate it. That post is here.
The Proof
This week, a truly complete moron recorded his Tesla operating in Autopilot on a Dutch highway. And he did the recording from the back with the driver’s seat empty. Hopefully he can be found and arrested.
The idea behind autonomous vehicles is to make roads and driving safer in the belief that computers and sensors will handle emergencies better than humans. We are a long, long way from that utopia.
We have always needed to protect ourselves from bad drivers, but autonomous operation has produced a totally new class of morons operating vehicles. To be clear, Tesla has done nothing to encourage this type of stunt. But we will use this opportunity to once again to call on marketers to stop encouraging this behavior, as recent ads from Mercedes, Nissan and Infiniti have done.
We originally included a link to the video as proof that we didn’t make this, but its been pulled by the publisher. If you are interested to see it, try searching YouTube.
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Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
According to Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, the U.S. risks losing its leading global position in the development of self-driving cars if it allows a patchwork of varying state laws and regulations.
Full Responsibility?
However, in what almost seems like an afterthought, Samuelsson added that Volvo will accept full liability whenever one if its cars is in autonomous mode. The details remain to be worked out – such as how the insurance industry will view this development and whether the driver will be assigned some liability, but Volvo is urging these and other issues be addressed sooner rather than later.
The company is concerned that legal uncertainties could delay the launch of autonomous vehicles. In a speech at a high level seminar on self-driving cars organized by Volvo Cars and the Embassy of Sweden in Washington DC, he said “the U.S. is currently the most progressive country in the world in autonomous driving, but this position could be eroded if a national framework for regulation and testing is not developed.”
“The absence of one set of rules means car makers cannot conduct credible tests to develop cars that meet all the different guidelines of all 50 U.S. states,” he said. “If we are to ensure a smooth transition to autonomous mobility then together we must create the necessary framework that will support this.” Samuelsson also urged regulators to work closely with car makers to solve outstanding liability issues from autonomous driving as well as from hacking “by a criminal third party”.
Time will tell if Volvo will follow through.
——————————————————————-
Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
Now Volvo has stepped up with the answer.
Electric Cars, Autonomous Cars – They’re Just Cars!
An EV Is Just a Car
I have been pondering some items related to electric cars and autonomous cars, and in particular how messy even the automotive press treats these subjects.
Which is point one. While the development of autonomous cars is expanding seemingly in tandem with electric cars, they are in fact separate and distinct. More on that later.
It has four wheels, a steering wheel, a pedal or pedals, seating for a driver and passengers, etc. In the end, it’s just a car! The propulsion system is the only real change. The advantage with the Model 3 or any electric car is that an owner gets to leave home every day with a full tank of fuel, assuming charging can be accomplished there.
In the meantime, Chevrolet released its Bolt fully electric car and Nissan has updated the Leaf, already fully electric. And what does the press do? It compares the Bolt and Leaf to the Model 3! This is akin to comparing a Honda Civic to a BMW 3 Series. The only thing the Bolt and Leaf have in common with the Model 3 is battery power, period. Talk of range is in parallel to talk of fuel mileage. The Civic wins, but the BMW buyer couldn’t care less!
Where’s the Appeal?
That said, while the Civic outsells the 3 Series, the Model 3 will eat the Bolt’s lunch on style alone. Electric cars a not so mainstream that value purchasers are driving market volume. So until BMW or Audi or Lexus, etc releases a pure electric – not electrified – model that looks like it belongs to their family of cars,
the Model 3 will stand alone.
Sorry BMW, while upcoming changes are a plus, the current i3 simply looks like a toy with a matching grill. Until value buyers begin opting for electric- rather than gas-powered cars in general, the Model 3 will outsell all comers.
One would think that they had learned something from Tesla’s success and they’re own failures from the past.
Developments do point to the acceptance of electric cars. I ran across a wonderful quote in an article from Automotive News recently. It noted that Volkswagen founder Ferdinand Porsche had shown an electric car with motors in the wheel hubs at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. One hundred seventeen years ago! The suggestion was that the oil boom that occurred at about the same time set the current auto industry in motion (pun intended).
Ulrich Eichhorn, corporate research manager at Volkswagen Group is then quoted as saying: “If the technologies had been reversed, it would be hard to conceive an engineer now successfully proposing that combustion engines replace electric cars. Imagine that person would say, ‘Rather than having maximum torque available from the start like an electric car, it had to ramp up over time.’
“Imagine he then said it involved a device where thousands of tiny explosions occur every minute using a toxic and highly flammable liquid that had to be stored in the vehicle somewhere. And then imagine him saying that this fuel came almost entirely from crisis regions. What do you think his boss might have said to him?”
Oh an interesting question indeed.
Which brings me back to autonomous cars. In the middle of what was painted as a discussion about electric cars, I heard the following (it is paraphrased because I didn’t save the content): cars are like guns in the U.S., its freedom, don’t try and take them away.
This left me scratching my head until I realized that electric propulsion had been confused or paired with autonomous technology! The electric car, regardless of make and model, is still just a car. Just as the comparison of electric cars on range alone is a massive mistake, merging the rise of autonomous technology with electric propulsion also misses the mark.
Any move to force autonomous driving is decades off, assuming it ever occurs. But perhaps by then, jumping into the car to take a weekend drive without actually having to do any work at all will seem very, very appealing.
——————————————————————-
Remember that only proper service and repair procedures will ensure the safe and reliable operation of your car. In addition, proper safety procedures and precautions, such as the use of safety goggles, the right tools and the equipment should be followed at all times to eliminate the possibility of personal injury or improper service which could damage the vehicle or compromise its safety.
These posts are for information sharing purposes only, and should not be used in lieu of an OEM service manual or factory authorized service procedure. We are not in the auto repair business nor do we publish automotive service manuals. Nothing we include on these pages and posts has been reviewed, approved or authorized by any vehicle manufacturer.
Technology is always changing and what is current and accurate today may be literally out-of-date and inaccurate tomorrow. And when it comes to the current state of flux in the auto industry, nothing is more true.
The author has 25 years of automotive experience and has assembled the most extensive collection of symbols and warning lights anywhere (over 1,000!) and can help you open and start any keyless start car with a dead key fob battery. BA, St. Joseph’s College, ME: MS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY