Thursday, May 10, 2007

Alternative fuels: just the beginning

Why would I read about a revolutionary new technology, said to be every bit as good as hybrids, and lament, "You know the oil industry is behind this?"

Because, quite simply, the "intelligent" (telematic) car is based on conventional fuel.

[Sure enough, I revisit the article for more details, and am delayed by a Shell banner ad!]

The way telematics work: they "look ahead" to predict and avoid traffic slow-downs and restarts. And of course, the more of these telematic cars are on the road doing this, according to Their calculations, the better they will work, until they've actually surpassed hybrids, although they look ahead only a few seconds.

It just goes to show you, They produce the bare minimum to consumers, until a competetive alternative comes up.

Again, more on this to come.

-Zed

QWTOFDY
“I like men who have a future and women who have a past.”
-Oscar Wilde

1 comment:

Arman P. Medina said...

While I agree with you that there is a ton of money to be lost by oil tycoons, like the Bush family. There are some people that are concerned about the environment and putting their money where their pie hole is. Virgin owner Richard Branson hopes to have a test run of a bio-fuel 747 by the end of the 2008 and have commercial bio-fuel flights in 2009. http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/05/richard_branson.html

Crazy fact: Electric vehicles first made their appearance as early as 1832. http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/electric-car-timeline.html

I compare the Earth to a middle aged, overweight person with signs of lung cancer, who chain smokes and eats only fast food. (May I suggest dump the fast food and cigarettes then jump on a bike with me). Can this person be saved by cutting back by one cigarette a day? That is what kind of progress we are making to save the Earth. While any move to save our Earth is a good one, is it a mute point? I guess the question of the day is: Is this too little too late? We are making strives to be green in the US and some of the European countries but the third world countries are not. They are busy trying to find their next meal.
"We do not inherit the Earth from our parents. We borrow it from our grandchildren."
-Credited to both Chief Seattle and Antoine de Saint Expéry.