Author Archives: bwinsberg

Tesla Model S, The most dangerous car in the world?

If you have ever driven an electric car you know that from 0-30 most if not all are faster that the average American car.

The average sedan or SUV takes about 6 – 8 seconds to go from 0 to 60 from a dead stop, like at a traffic light. But most people don’t accelerate from 0 to 60 from a red light. Most go from 0 to 30 or maybe 45 in the city, where you are likely to encounter pedestrians and vehicles blowing thru the red light because it was yellow and they thought they could make it. Look both ways and count to 2 before going thru.

The only time you go from 0 to 60 is maybe getting on an expressway entrance. Most expressway ramps, today, are designed so even a cheap 4 cylinder car can reach 60 by the time you have to merge on the highway. That’s why the performance given is 0 to 60. Back in the day you wanted to know you could get up to speed getting on the freeway without getting killed.

What 0 to 60 has become today is how cool or bad ass your car is. The faster the time the more street cred your car has. It’s the standard for penis measuring in the auto world. But here the smaller the number the better.

And Tesla actually has one of the lowest 0 to 60 numbers for the lowest price. The P100D with ludicrous mode can go from 0-60 in 2.28 seconds and you can buy it for the low price of about $150k nicely optioned.

The next closest car that can do that is the Porsche 918 Spyder at about $850k

But here is the problem. The Tesla travels at 76.2 feet per second at that rate of acceleration. And unlike a gas powered engine it does it instantly, the second you floor the pedal. The average  human reaction time to visual stimulus is .25 of a second. This car can travel 19 feet before anyone would even notice it moved.

So lets take an all to common scenario today. You have a kid texting on his iPhone while walking towards a street. You have another kid driving a Tesla who thinks it’s really cool to hit the gas (yeah, I know it’s not gas) and get to speed as fast as he can. Do you see where I’m going here?

How about another scenario. You are driving along at 40 MPH while the speed is 45 MPH. You want to change lanes. So you signal and look right to see if it’s safe. Well the Tesla to the right and two car lengths behind can’t see your turn signal, but sees an opportunity to get past you and the slower car ahead. He floors it and wham, right into you he goes.

All this because the Tesla has super powers that gas engine cars don’t have. They make their fastest acceleration on the beginning side of 0 to 60. Gas cars, even the fastest ones don’t hit their highest foot per second speed in a linear rate as they accelerate like a Tesla.

Even a Nissan Leaf goes from 0 to 30 much faster than it goes from 30 to 60. But the odds are someone who drives a Leaf isn’t measuring their Penis, if they have one.

So is the Tesla S the most dangerous car in the world? No, that was pretty much click bait. Just like any other car, it’s only as dangerous as the person behind the wheel. The problem with any car that has super powers, be it the Tesla, Ferrari, Corvette or even Chevette, if you drive like a moron you can do a lot of damage.

The one thing the Tesla has that most other cars don’t, even your standard Chevrolet Camaro or Ford Mustang is the Tesla has Automatic Emergency Braking. The odds are pretty good that the Tesla will actually stop you from killing yourself or someone else if you choose to do something stupid.

And best of all, you don’t have to buy the top of the line Tesla to get really great acceleration. The base Tesla does 0 to 60 in 6 seconds. While a BMW 3 series might do  0 to 60 in about 5 to 6 seconds it doesn’t go 0 to 30 as fast. That’s really where the fun is in city driving.

The Tesla 3 is supposed to do 0 to 60 in 6 seconds and for $35k. The best reason to buy the more expensive Tesla is to get the bigger battery and more range.

Something you might not know about the Tesla. Most of the cars they have to test drive are not the lowest or slowest 0 to 60 model. But, they have a hack where you can limit the performance. Well, why would you do that? Because you don’t want, your kid, neighbor or friend to rip around town in your $100k baby.

If you really want to get that felling of speed from your high performance car with out getting a ticket or getting charged with reckless driving, felony speeding or manslaughter do what most normal responsible drivers do. Go to the track on Track Day or the Drag Strip on Friday night when they let the average person take their cars to the limit. It’s a lot cheaper than a lawyer and doing jail time.

Just like most smart people by now have figured out that’s it’s cheaper to Uber than drink and drive, it’s far cheaper to take your car to the track than drive like your average teenager with a fast car.

Speaking of Uber.

If you have never used Uber. Use the code Z4JRI for $20 off your first ride.

If you are  like me have never used Lyft. Use the code DOGFOOD and get up to $20 off your first ride.

And if you still drive a car that has a Internal Combustion Engine make it more environmentally friendly by using Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants. For more information go to www.BDPSYN.com

Thanks for reading. Leave you comments below and make sure you share and like this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Plug-in Hybrids, Boon or Bane?

There are still a lot of people that are afraid to buy an all electric car. It’s hard to blame them as most people think they need far more range than they actually do.

Sixty-one percent of drivers never drive more than 50 miles one way ever.  Twenty-one percent never drive more than 200 miles one way. (https://ark-invest.com/research/electric-vehicles).

“About 8% of workers in the USA have commutes of an hour or longer, and nearly 600,000 full-time workers endure “megacommutes” of at least an hour-and-a-half and 50 miles, according to new U.S. Census data on commuting.

The national average, one-way daily commute is 25.5 minutes, and 4.3% of the nation’s workers work from home. The data is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey for 2011.” (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/05/americans-commutes-not-getting-longer/1963409/)

If the average commute is 26 minutes and the average speed in 60 MPH then the average one way commute is 26 miles or less. And it’s probably a lot less as many people spend much of their commutes in rush hour traffic. The real average commute is probably 20 miles or less.

Other than having a fantasy in their mind about, how could you possibly live with a car that has less than a 200 mile range and that you can’t drive cross country, most people would be fine with a car with an 80-120 miles of range. That is until the rise of plugin hybrids.

All the car magazines and shows encourage this fantasy as well. Well, as long as people think they need to drive 200 miles a day then let’s give them 200 miles, or better yet, 400 miles on a tank of gas with 15-20 miles of plug in charge range. That way they can drive 95% of the time using battery power and maybe 5% of the time on gas power. And that one or two weekends a year where they actually make that 200 mile spur of the moment trip (sarcasm) they don’t have to go rent a car for the trip.

And that’s where the Plugin Hybrid is a boon. 99% of the folks who buy them will spend most of the time on battery power. And it doesn’t hurt that they will spend 100% of it in the HOV lane. Especially is cities like Phoenix where you can’t pay to use it.

They can also plug in to a 110 outlet and be fully charged by the end of a ball game. No need for expensive installs of 220 dedicated chargers. 3 hours and your good to go.

So why are they a bane?

They take much of the limited public chargers. Pure BEV’s can’t charge when they really need it. When I first bought my Ford Focus EV 2 years ago the plugin hybrid was a unicorn.

I could go to work where there were 6 spots with Level 2 chargers and you might find 2 or 3 cars there. A couple Leafs and maybe a Tesla very now and then. Now 2 years later and you will rarely find one open space. And most if not all of the spaces have Volts, maybe a CMAX or two and maybe a Fusion. And the biggest problem is that almost half the cars are there for 3-4 days as a majority are pilots or Flight Attendants. That’s a lot of wasted charge potential. A level 2 charger can charge a Volt 3-5 hours from empty. What are the odds it’s empty when it gets there? Many of the other hybrids that only have a 15 mile range will charge ion half that time. They need charge cords that plug in on the lights in the parking lot. Not level 2 chargers.

Another place I go often, although not more than 2-3 times a month is 40 miles one way. It’s the Hockey Stadium. There are 2 free chargers there. Once again you’ll usually find the hybrids plugged in there as most of the BEV’s can’t take a chance that they don’t get to plug in. I sure as heck can’t. 80 highway miles in a Focus or even a Leaf isn’t going to happen even if you get to start out with a full charge.

If you drive a pure BEV that’s not a Tesla you probably have less than 80 miles of range. And while this is generally enough to get home and back from work, it’s not always enough to get home and back and then run a few errands on top of it.

If you drive a plugin because you want to clean up the environment and want others to do the same you are going to need to stop using public chargers. Just because you can or want as much free electricity as you can mooch. I’m sure that dollar a day your getting is going to make or break you.

Instead if you to get more people to follow your example you are going to need to be good stewards and let the folks who actually made the ultimate sacrifice and didn’t buy an insurance engine use those level 2 chargers.

Until more pure BEVs are sold no one is going to put large amounts of chargers out there. Not everyone out there has the vision of Elon Musk. Even GM says that they are all in on BEV’s but don’t think they need to build a charger infrastructure. And since their only BEV’s are either hybrids or have a 200 mile range why should they?

The Volt is outselling the Tesla S. And the Bolt isn’t that far behind. Pretty soon if you own a BEV with less than 200 miles of range you better hope you don’t need to charge on the road or at work.

Even Tesla’s dirty secret is that many of their chargers are ICED out a lot of the time.

The good news is there should lots of really cheap BEV’s hitting the used market here in the next year or two.

If you are  like me have never used Lyft. Use the code DOGFOOD and get up to $20 off your first ride.

If you have never used Uber. Use the code Z4JRI for $20 off your first ride.

And if you still drive a car that has a Internal Combustion Engine make it more environmentally friendly by using Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants. For more information go to www.BDPSYN.com

Thanks for reading. Leave you comments below and make sure you share and like this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

The Chevrolet Bolt, Buy or Pass.

When you read all the reviews about the Chevrolet Bolt it sounds like nothing we’ve ever seen before. An engineering marvel of the 21st century.

The Chevy Bolt is all of the following:

2017 MOTOR TREND CAR OF THE YEAR, 2017 NORTH AMERICAN CAR OF THE YEAR,

2017 GREEN CAR OF THE YEAR®, AWARDED BY GREEN CAR JOURNAL

But probably best of all as far as I am concerned it is,

2017 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK WHEN EQUIPPED WITH OPTIONAL DRIVER CONFIDENCE II PACKAGE.

Add to that it gets an EPA estimated 238 miles of range on a full charge. Only the Tesla gets as much or more. And the base price of the cheapest Tesla S is almost twice as much as a Chevrolet Bolt.

But it’s not really some engineering marvel or some great design.

As for the design it’s a lot like the Honda Fit. The battery technology is not very special either. It’s just a bigger battery pack (60 kWh) than has been put in any car that size to date.

There are also plenty of cars on the market with backup cameras, parking sensors and traffic alerts and adaptive cruise control. Today you can order them on many cars midrange trim packages.

So why don’t I love the Bolt. Like almost everyone else who finds the marriage of automotive technology and electricity a compelling proposition?  I love that cars are electrifying. I also love that they have cameras, cross traffic alert and a myriad of other features designed to make driving safer. These are now a must on any future vehicle I buy. As is keyless entry and starting. Try doing a car that needs a key to start after doing one that doesn’t.

On the Chevy Bolt you can get all the latest safety and convenience options for a price. You just can’t get comfortable if you are slightly wider than your average 30 year old.

And just like the Tesla there is a trade off between battery technology and fit and finish. You can buy a Porsche Panamera for the same price as a Tesla. The Panamera is far nicer inside and out.

Even at the Premier trim level the Bolt seats are small. The cabin trim is basic as well. But you do get a cheap leather instead of just plastic. I’d feel far more comfortable if they chose to use IKEA to design the interior, sort of like the BMW i3.

The Bolt is a very small car. They say it feels much bigger than it really is. It doesn’t, it looks much bigger than it really is. That’s a big difference. What they really mean is that there is a fair amount of legroom for the back seat compared to your average compact car. That is true. Since the roof doesn’t slope and there is little cargo space unless the seats are folded down it does have more room than the Focus but no more than a Honda Fit. I’d probably buy the Honda Fit.

Like the Chevy Volt, I don’t need to drive this car to know I don’t like it. All I had to do is sit in it. The difference is, in the Volt I like sitting in the drivers seat. If you are a driver it is comfortable. If you ever have to be a back seat passenger and you are over 5′ 6″ you’re probably not going to like it, at all, not even for a 10 minutes drive to get lunch. My 13 year old son was 5′ 6″ last year when I wrote about the Volt 2.0, today he is 6′ 1″ (1 inch taller than I am) and he didn’t like sitting in the back seat of the Volt, back then leg room was an issue. Today he would have the same issue I did as well. You needed to put your head back in the window so the headliner didn’t hit your head.

In the Bolt both of us can sit comfortably, in the back seat. He can sit comfortably in the front seat. His 32″ waist fits fine. My 40″ waist not so much. When I first get in the car and sit down about 2 inches of my butt is hanging off the seat. Then I have to slide right till my right hip hits the side of the seat. The front seat hip room is 2. 3 inches less than the Ford Focus Electric. If you fit in a Honda Fit you will be ok with that as front hip room is almost identical.

For $15k more than the Honda it would have been nice if they had just made the car just a couple of inches wider and a couple of inches longer. Would that have added that much more if anything to the price?

They should have made the car more the size of the Mercedes B250e and less like the Honda Fit or Nissan Leaf.

The Mercedes B250e is by far the nicest Compact BEV I have driven. It’s only drawbacks are the range and it’s only sold in Compliance States.

So should you buy a Chevrolet Bolt? If you want to pay about $44k (before tax incentives with the highest trim and almost every option) for a $20k economy car that has a (according to GM) $8.7k battery pack. No, not if that is the true cost of the battery. That means you are paying a lot for an economy car. Even after the government picks up another $7.5k.

That’s probably why a lot of people are waiting for the Tesla 3 or buying hybrids like the Hyundai Sonata.  O.K., they aren’t buying hybrids, or sedans for that matter. Gas is so cheap that people are once again going down that road to getting stuck with a vehicle that in the future is going to cost them a lot for gas.

The only thing less smart is paying $20k more up front for an electric car that fits in the back of most of the SUV’s or Pickup Trucks out there.

So my recommendation is to take a pass, even though there needs to be people buying these things so that automakers not only continue to build BEV’s but also improve BEVs.

Buying this car for me would be like buying a pair of shoes that is a half size to small. They may not bother you that much at first but give it a few minutes.

Maybe the GM/Lyft partnership will buy lots of them. Although I doubt that’s going to work well. Right now when you call Uber or Lyft you usually get a pretty nice car. Some of the time you get picked up in a compact car. At least right now the odds are I will get picked up in a bigger car. Add lots of Bolts to Lyft and Uber will be my first choice. Actually that’s not fair, I have never used Lyft. I always use Uber.

If you are  like me have never used Lyft. Use the code DOGFOOD and get up to $20 off your first ride.

If you have never used Uber. Use the code Z4JRI for $20 off your first ride.

And if you still drive a car that has a Internal Combustion Engine make it more environmentally friendly by using Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants. For more information go to www.BDPSYN.com

Thanks for reading. Leave you comments below and make sure you share and like this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Trump, Reagan, Alternative Energy.

Back in Junior High I was a bit of an Alex Keaton (Michael J. Fox) from Family Ties. I wrote a report on how to invest in stock and why Tyco Labs was the place to invest. They had this great technology called a photovoltaic cell. Solar Energy was an idea whose time had finally arrived.

We had just been held hostage by OPEC and people had to wait in lines to buy gas, at was then, record prices of over a dollar a gallon.

Jimmy Carter had put solar panels on the White House to set an example of how we could start on our way to energy independence.

Then Ronald Reagan got elected. There was no way that in his America we were going to conserve. We drive big cars, heat and cool our houses to whatever extreme we want. We are a big and powerful nation and can afford to waste as much as we want. And for the next 30 plus years that’s exactly what we did. Only communists suffer shortages.

Bush gave tax breaks to people who bought Hummers. And lots of people did. You still see a few of them around today. But they don’t make them anymore. They went by the wayside when many American Automakers went bankrupt.

American Automakers also gave up a lot of marketshare to Japanese automakers in the 80’s. Because like most commodities that don’t have competition the price of gas just kept going up. And that drove people to buy the smaller, better built more fuel efficient imports.

But for those who study history we can often find examples of history repeating itself.

So lets go back just a few years. After a major recession the US elected one of those un-American leaders. The kind that doesn’t believe in American Supremacy and actually promoted the notion that once again Americans should conserve energy, invest in alternative energy and have a lofty goal of getting 1 million electric cars on the road in just a few years.

But the first order of business was bailing out American Automakers. Something Reagan did with Chrysler back in the 1980’s now had to be done again 30 years later. Because we forgot that gas can get pretty expensive and building lots of big cars that get crappy gas milage hurts the economy when gas hit’s $3 a gallon. And when the only cars on your lot don’t sell anymore bankruptcy is a given.

Well, the economy recovered because we have cheap gas once again. Or at least we perceive it as cheap because once you hit $3 a gallon $2 looks really cheap. Almost as cheap as $1 where gas hit at the height of the recession. I’ll bet if gas hits $3 now people will still perceive it as being pretty cheap.

So now after 8 years of that commie socialist we have once again elected a President who acknowledges the Supremacy of the United States of America.

His first order of business is to incentivize 19th century technology. Make coal great again. His second order of business was to make sure we can burn lots of fossil fuel. Keep it cheap so people can burn lots of it. There can’t be an iceberg hiding below the surface using that strategy. No,literally. All the icebergs are melting. Deny that this strategy has environmental consequences at all costs. Science is suspect. What do scientists know anyway.

And worst of all spreading the myth that restrictions on environmental pollution makes us uncompetitive in the world.

Trump is Reagan revisited. And I don’t mean that in a positive way.

This time the world is no longer looking for Americans to lead the way. We are way behind the power curve on implementing alternative energy.

Unlike the United States or China most of Europe and the UK does not have vast areas of unpopulated land mass. Most of France, Italy, Germany and the U.K.  have lots of people in very small areas. Their pollution problems are like ours of California prior to Nixon and The EPA or those pesky California Emission Standards.

Other countries are actually investing in technology to get off of fossil fuels. German automakers that were first pushed by Tesla and further pushed by their own greed and cheating emission rules with their diesel cars are now going all out on developing Electric Vehicles. Add that to their growing supply of solar power and other countries are leading the way into the 21st Century. Not the U.S.A.

What are American Automakers doing? Building as many SUV’s and Pickup Trucks they can churn out. And that is pretty much a sign that although many Americans feel that the economy still sucks that it really doesn’t. Poor people don’t buy $70k Automobiles, or do they? Well poor people don’t, but having a $1k a month payment and another $150 or more a month going to Mobil or BP can sure as heck make you feel like your broke. Especially if you have 2 of these in your driveway. Let gas hit $3 or $4 a gallon again and it won’t take long before another recession hits.

Another fallacy is that regulations make products cost more. Well let’s go back to the 1980’s. Factories used to just dispose of certain waste from production, much of it in small particles like the sawdust from mills.

Well there was this company called Torrit Donaldson. You might know who they are. They make filters for your car among other things.

They would also design collection systems that collect sawdust among other things. Now instead of these particulates being dumped in the air and garbage they make particle board and other products from them.

Both the mill and the filter maker, make money. Long term results are better. That’s how jobs and new technologies get created. Not by doubling down on burning toxins. Too bad Wall Street doesn’t care beyond the next quarter

So is their a silver lining in this Trump cloud?

Well just like the 1980’s businesses will continue to look for ways to make more money and people will continue to ask for innovation.

Tesla proved that you can make a compelling Electric Car. Germany and the U.K. have proven that solar and wind are competitive with nuclear and coal when you factor in the external costs that we in the U.S. don’t account for.

The only real question is will politics get in the way of the U.S.A. becoming a leader or will be relegated to the position of follower?

Will American Car Makers once again, for the third time misjudge where the market is headed. Maybe that’s why Tesla has a higher market cap than Ford or G.M.

One that it really doesn’t deserve as Tesla makes less cars in a year than the other automakers make in a week.

If only there was a military reason to develop alternative energy. When the Russians were beating us in space we moved heaven and earth to get their first.

And much of the technology that got us into space is driving most of the technology we have today. It’s not like we hadn’t given the Germans the lead in technology before. It took a World War to give us the drive to outsmart them as well.

I doubt beating ISIS will require a new modern energy that was easy to deploy almost anywhere.

Actually now that I think about it. What if we dropped a few solar panels connected to a battery that could power a radio or two and maybe some type of modern convenience that we could broadcast the truth to every village or town where the electricity infrastructure has been bombed out?

 

 

2017 Audi A3 e-tron, I love it, maybe.

You can’t make a sound financial argument for buying this car. It’s a $48k car before tax incentives. And since EV’s, especially plugin hybrids are finally becoming popular dealers aren’t even offering much in the way of discounts anymore.

So far the only EV I have been able to make a financial argument for is the Ford Focus EV. It’s also hard to make an environmental argument for a hybrid. Maybe in Europe it would be easier but not in the U.S.

Gas is still pretty cheap and we don’t have an excessive problem with pollution in our city centers. You don’t have to pay a pollution tax here and you aren’t going to see an EV only zone anytime soon like you will in the EU in the near future.

Now some more reasons you might not want a hybrid, plugin or not.

You still have an Internal Combustion Engine with all its required maintenance. Oil changes, spark plugs, belts, hoses and fuel tanks, gauges and pumps. What a hassle. . Then you have the electric motor. The most efficient part of the system. Then you have a transmission and all the controllers that tie the two motors together, It’s amazing they are as reliable as they are. It’s like a twin engine airplane. Way more expensive than it has to be and when one engine system fails it won’t necessarily save you. At least in the case of the hybrid you get better gas mileage, not worse.

Let’s compare it to a turboprop  airplane. A jet engine that turns a propeller. More efficient than a jet for shorter trips at lower altitudes.  Hybrids are more efficient in the city than on the highway. If most of your driving is on the highway you should either drive a diesel (this was written before VW Dieselgate), a high mileage ICE car or a pure EV with a range you can live with.

So now that I’ve told you what I don’t like about this car and  hybrids in general why would I want to buy this car?  Lets start with I hate my Prius V. Driving it is about as much fun as doing laundry. Is that reason enough? No, maybe not.

Back to the A3 eTron. It’s cute, it’s fun to drive and most of the time you drive it you won’t be using any gas. That is if your daily commute is less than 20 miles a day or you can plug in at work. My drive to work. 20.2 miles. I can charge at work. Did I say I only drive to work 1 or 2 days a week. The rest of the week I’m driving about 15-20 miles a day running errands and driving my son to and from school.

So what’s holding me back. The $50k price tag for a hybrid. Why wouldn’t I just buy a Chevy Bolt? I haven’t driven a Bolt yet but $40k for a Top of the line Bolt that has little if any of the comforts of a German car. That’s what. Even a Basic VW Golf has more style.

And there is one other really big thing holding me back from buying any current EV. The Tesla 3. Just the threat of the Tesla 3 has many automakers promising pure BEV’s that will have 200 miles of range and come in around $35k.

Tesla Autopilot kills driver? No, it didn’t.

The big debate going on lately is should Tesla have told investors Tesla might be subject to a lawsuit from the death of a driver while driving a Tesla X using the “Autopilot” function.

If you read this reddit thread started by the author of the controversial Fortune article you would think that it does. But if you read down the author talks about how he owns a Prius V with adaptive cruise control (ADC). He loves it and would gladly buy a self driving car. Well, the Tesla is not a self driving car. I seriously doubt that Toyota is telling shareholders anytime a Prius with ADC has an accident. And having a Prius V with ADC my self,f if anyone actually believes that you can let the car always keep a safe distance, you learn very quickly, just like the folks driving Tesla’s you can’t.

First of all “autopilot” on Tesla cars is no more than a really great adaptive cruise control with lane keeping ability. They do a far far better job than my Prius does at not hitting cars ahead of you and can actually bring the car to a full stop unlike the Prius. But neither one will keep you safe. You still have to pay attention. If not, at best you’ll wreck a car or two. At worst you’ll kill someone.

Of the 20k plus miles I have put on the Prius, many using cruise control the car has accelerated towards stopped cars or failed to slow down before I thought it would be prudent to intervene many, many times. So many in fact that I only use it on the highway or city streets with light traffic.

Today I was in a situation where a driver decided he was in the wrong lane abruptly pulled out in front of me. He was slowed on the beginning of an exit ramp doing about 35 MPH. I was on the highway doing 65. He cut out in front of me causing me (not the car) to slam on the brakes nearly avoiding his back bumper.

He politely waved sorry to me with cellphone in hand. Maybe he had to go left instead of right to get Pokemon. All I could think is what an asshole and I was glad that the truck behind me was keeping a safe distance. Something that most people don’t do as the Prius will keep about 6 car lengths from the car ahead of you at highway speeds.

Now up until this point I have put autopilot in quotes. That sort of implies that autopilot as Tesla bills it is not really an autopilot. The problem here is most people don’t really understand what an autopilot is. I do. I use one every day I get in an Airbus 320 and fly across the country. My day job is as a pilot for a major airline. I am a Captain with Type Ratings in both Airbus and Boeing airplanes. Specifically the A320 and Boeing 737 families.

The Tesla is not a self driving car and airplanes do not fly themselves. Autopilots are used to reduce workloads. They do not allow you the luxury of not paying attention.

There are several levels of automation in an airplane just like in a car. In their simplest form they might just hold the airplanes heading and altitude. This is what’s known as a two axis autopilot. That’s what we had on the 737. The A320 has a three axis autopilot. That adds Yaw control. This function moves the rudder. Those are the basics.

Now lets add on the Flight Management and Guidance Computer (FMGC). This does much more. This is the system that allows you to program in a course and follow it. This interfaces with the autopilot. Think of it as adding GPS to lane keeping or steering.

We haven’t even gotten to the cruise control system or what’s known as auto throttle or auto thrust. . This function allows you the set a fixed (not distance from a plane in front of you) speed and keep it.

All these things combined are what most people think of as autopilot. Yet as a pilot we don’t really need any of these things to fly airplanes. They just make it a heck of a lot easier or safer.

But there are several things that all of these tools cant’t do. They won’t keep you from hitting a mountain, flying off the end of the runway, hitting another airplane in mid-flight or flying through a thunderstorm. All of those things require somethings that computers, at least today, can’t do, Make complex decisions that require human intervention.

There are warning system on airplanes that let the pilots know if they are about to hit a mountain or another airplane. There is weather radar. But none of these interact with the auto flight systems. So when you hear people say that modern airplanes pretty much fly themselves, they don’t. They still need pilots. At least two of them. If one dies or becomes incapacitated they aren’t going to drop in another pilot or a passenger isn’t going to land the plane. For that would require a lot more knowledge than you can learn in a couple of hours.

I’m not sure if you will see an airplane without pilots or a self driving car first but don’t make the mistake of thinking an “autopilot” will allow the operator to totally give up control of the vehicle.

You don’t want your pilot to be asleep at the wheel and you don’t want your driver to be asleep at the wheel either. That’s another reason there are two pilots on commercial airliners. It’s always ones job to FLY THE AIRPLANE. Autopilot on or not.

But I will tell you one thing. An airplane in flight is far more forgiving if the pilots are not paying attention than a driver on a road.

In cruise (at altitude) the closest airplane is going to be at least 5 miles away and 1000 feet above or below you. On the road you have cars within a few feet of each other going 70 MPH. In most big jets you have at least 2 pilots at the controls most of the time.

In an airplane I will get about 20-30 seconds to react if someone comes closer than they should. In a car you might have a few seconds if you’re lucky. Today if I hadn’t reacted immediately, I would have been in that guys back seat. I didn’t even hear the collision warning indicator go off. It felt like the car was never going to stop or slow down quick enough to not hit him. Braking distance in a Prius isn’t all that great.

Back to the Tesla accident. Maybe since the same guy who died had previously made a video of the car saving him he got far to comfortable with the technology. Maybe it works so well that people think it can do far more than it can.

Autopilot isn’t set it and forget it. And if you remember that you will be safer than any other driver on the road who doesn’t understand what autopilot can and can’t do.

Tesla’s stock might have taken a hit but their bottom line won’t. At least not because of this.

I’m all for more safety features in cars. I love backup cameras and sensors. I love blind spot warnings and many things available in the newest cars. I think all cars should have them. But none of these things should let the driver think they don’t have the responsibility to look.

Tesla may not have invented any of these things but they are making people aware of them and other manufactures have taken notice. Let’s not let this accident or any other accident hamper the advance of safety because some people are too complacent to use them properly.

These things will save lives. Look at how few planes crash now days.

 

Prius, what’s not to like about it?

2015 Prius VSince their really aren’t a lot of EV’s to choose from I’ve turned to writing about hybrid vehicles. Usually plug in hybrids, but, now I am going to talk about a pure hybrid. I know, there is no such thing as a pure hybrid.

I have been the owner of a Prius V for about a year now. My 84 year old mother needed a new car. Her 20 year old Toyota 4Runner had pretty much had been riddled by rust. Had it not been for the rust it probably would have been a great SUV for 20 more years. That’s if you don’t consider the 16 MPG a bad thing.

So we went out looking for a reliable car or SUV that would get good gas mileage and be as reliable as a Toyota with great cargo capacity. The Prius V fit that bill. It might be one of the most practical cars I have ever driven. Great gas milage (42 MPG average), holds 5 people comfortably or 2-3 people and a lot of camping gear and has that Toyota reliability.

My mother loved this car. Sadly within days of buying it she contracted a rare skin cancer and died barely 6 months later.

My mother had given the car to my sister. My sister had been driving the car while taking care of her during her last few months. She didn’t want the car and with less than 7k miles and little more than 6 months of purchase the dealers best offer was $21k. This was a $35k car new with the tax. It’s the top of the line Prius V. Today with about 22k miles on it and a year later the cars trade in value is more than it was within 6 months of purchase. Dealers figure if you want to sell a car early you must really hate it or are desperate for cash.

My mother had figured it would most likely be the last car she ever owned so she wanted everything on it. Mayor Daley of Chicago fame wanted to go out in a Cadillac Ambulance, my mother chose the top of the line Prius.

This is probably one of the most functional cars I have ever driven. Like I said earlier, 42 MPG average. My Mazda 6 gets 28 MPG average. It can carry 5 people very comfortably. As long as it’s not 122 degrees outside since it has no rear seat air vents.

So why do I hate this car? Why did my sister hate this car? Why would my wife rather drive our other cars first? It’s about as fun to drive a a Uhaul. The engine always sounds like it’s struggling unless it’s in pure electric mode. Something that is only at really low speeds. The CVT is very unsatisfying. I hate CVT’s.

A couple of things you might like. It has adaptive cruise control. When there isn’t a lot of traffic it works great. When there is a lot of other cars around you it wants to keep a distance that invites everybody to pull in front of you causing the person behind you to hate you. Whenever someone pulls in front of you it slows down to keep a safe distance. About 4 car lengths at 65 MPH. You can reduce that distance but it’s not a distance I trust I can stop it if the car doesn’t. There have been times I’ve put the brakes on because the car didn’t. And when it’s raining it doesn’t work at all.

Auto on and off high beams. Great until you want them on when you want them on. Then you have to hold the control switch manually.

Because I hate the practical Prius so much and don’t really want a Ford C-max or Fusion Plugin hybrid that like it’s siblings uses most of the trunk to house the batteries I have tested the Audi A3 e-tron and for giggles if the Porsche dealer lets me I’m going to test the Panamera Plugin. I know I would never buy the Panamera as I could use that kind of money to pay off my mortgage. And I have already posted why I would never buy a Chevy Volt.

Be on the lookout for a craigslist add for a 2015 Prius V.

 

The 2017 Chevy Volt. Useful or not?

2017 Chevy Volt

The following are my opinions. If you own a Volt feel free to comment on what you like about the Volt and why.

I should have really posted a review of my 2015 Prius V before I wrote this one because I am basing this review on my likes and dislikes of that car. But here goes anyway.

I went to the Chevy dealer with the intention of looking at the new 2017 Chevy Volt. I have read many reviews and watched a lot of YouTube video on why people love the Volt. The reason you might not find many people who don’t like it online is because the people are either owners of the car or people who can’t not like it because they have money and ego on the line, or, people who count on dealers and manufactures to give them access to the car and need more cars for future reviews.

When I got to the dealership I turned in the first entrance. It turned out that was the service entrance. Instead of driving around I parked there and walked around to where an open Volt was sitting. After just sitting in it I had no desire to drive it. Why?

I guess I will start out with what I like since that’s a pretty short list. It gets about 50 miles of electric driving on a full charge. More than most people will need in a day. I actually like the way it looks. It make a very small car look very big. OK, not very big but far bigger that it actually is inside. It does have some very cool tech in it. Neat gauges and many advanced safety features if you choose the high end model. That’s the good. Now the reasons I chose not to drive it.

It has interior dimensions that are very close to a Honda Fit or Toyota Prius C. Both of which can hold more cargo. The second row headroom is almost 2 inches less than the Honda and the second row legroom is 4.6 inches less than the Honda. Yet, the car is 20 inches longer that the Honda. So it has more cargo space, right? No, it has 6 CUft less. Fold the back seats down in both and that difference is, not even listed for the Volt.

I am 6 feet tall. Not to tall to fit in the drivers seat. But if I can’t uncomfortably fit in the back seat of a car behind myself. It has little use to me. I might as well be buying a two seat car.

When I scrunched myself into the backseat by contorting to get through the door and turning my feet (size 13 shoes) sideways and then turning them forward I made the mistake of rising my head. I hid the headliner. I didn’t immediately lean my head backward so it was where the window comes up over my head. To sit n the most comfortable position possible I have to lean my head back.

Now I would probably never have to ride in the backseat but my 12 year old son would. He’s already 5′ 8″ and has a size 11 foot.

Could you use one if you have a baby? Um, maybe not. My wife drives our granddaughter around a lot. She has this massive baby seat that barely fits in a midsize car let alone a car with a back seat as small as a Volt.

When you watch all the youtube reviews I have no idea how small these guys have to be to sit in the back seat.

I hope the Chevrolet Bolt is way better than the Volt. Maybe they stole the design from the Honda Fit for the Bolt. I sure hope so.

 

Are car makers taking the EV market seriously?

So far other than Tesla and maybe Chevrolet I’m not really sure automakers are taking pure EV propulsion seriously. I say maybe Chevrolet because they have no intention of building a charger network like Tesla. We don’t even know if they will aggressively try to sell the Bolt when it comes out. Maybe just to Lyft Drivers, who knows?

I say this because Tesla is the only carmaker to not only build a fully electric car that has a range that is useful 99.999% of the time but is supporting an infrastructure to allow that car to travel more than 75 miles without stopping for hours.

While Nissan was a leader in EV’s with the Leaf they have sadly fallen behind is sales, support and infrastructure. At least in the U.S.A.

The Leaf was goofy looking when it came out and still is today. While they do have a battery that can get slightly over 100 miles on a single charge in temperate weather it is still only available in the higher price models and finding a fast charger if you need it is few and far between unless you are in a CARB state.  At least Nissan committed to sell their EV in all 50 states.

Unlike Ford whose only EV offering is the Focus Electric. Another car that is a CARB state afterthought. While it is my favorite of the current EV’s due to it’s great looks and great price after rebates and tax incentives it is still a car that is hard to find and was never meant to run on batteries.

And that seems to be where most car makers are headed. They are dipping their toes in the water with plug in hybrids. And I really don’t want a plug in hybrid. I don’t want a hybrid at all.

I want access to the HOV lane. To make an EV an only car it should have a useful range of about 150 miles and then use a fast charger to get another 150 miles. I don’t do much over 100 miles in a day often but that would get me from charger to charger if I wanted to drive from Phoenix to Los Angeles or Tucson that is what you would need.

I highly doubt I would ever drive a sedan cross country like many have done in a Tesla just to prove it can be done. Unless you are moving why would you want to take anything except an airplane or Uhaul?

And since that doesn’t exist right now I’m test driving plug in hybrids to pass the time.

I looked at two cars today and only drove one. Read reviews if you want to know why?

Please leave comments in the comment section.

Tesla Gigafactory about to open.

Tesla is about to open the new gigafactory. The date right now for the grand opening is July 29, 2016. I put the year because who knows if it will really open on that date or if they will have two hobbits and elf producing a battery or two a week.

According to the Reno Gazette – Journal the number of actual jobs has so far been far lower than projected. http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2016/01/17/tesla-gigafactory-ahead-schedule-but-off-track-job-investment-projections/78689874/

If Tesla is going to produce the Model 3 they are going to need a lot of batteries. So far it looks like they have started building the PowerWall in Reno.

I hope the Tesla 3 starts production soon as most other car makers are falling far short with their current offerings.