Return Of The Rotary?

Mazda recently killed off its consumer market rotary offering, the RX-8, but according to Motor Authority, Mazda may use a rotary engine as a range extender in a hybrid electric application.

The neat thing about using a rotary (or any other) engine as a range extender, is that you can optimize the engine for electricity generation duty, and run them at a more efficient operating point.

Myths and Truths about 55mpg CAFE

Ranting against the CAFE regulations is one of my favorite topics.

Here are some of my reactions to some of the myths that the Obama administration is promoting about the new 54mpg-by-2025 CAFE plan.

"Cars will still be affordable"--no, not exactly. The government's estimate on the average mark-up to meet CAFE was around $2,000/car. However, realize that this is based on various assumptions, which may not play out, and probably does not take unintended market consequences into account. If batteries continue to be very expensive; if there is a shortage of key materials because everyone is rushing to electrify; large vehicles may have to be over-priced to offset losses on small vehicles, and etc. The other unintended side effects: if cars are more expensive up front, financing will be harder to get for some customers, causing lost sales. People will hold on to used cars longer, making used cars more expensive, and ironically, reducing fleet fuel economy and safety.

"Consumers will be able to choose" -- Actually, I see consumers being pushed towards smaller, lighter vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles, giving up some utility and cargo capacity. I also larger vehicles like pickup trucks becoming more expensive. The wealthy will be able to buy whatever they want, even V8 powered muscle cars, but the average joe will be pushed towards small cars.

"This will create jobs" -- dubious. Yes, you may need more engineers to engineer the advanced fuel saving powertrains. However, that may be offset by losses in dealerships and other secondary jobs, if overall new car volume goes down. And if China starts importing cheap fuel efficient or battery electric cars down the road, undercutting the American makers, expect job losses. If new car volume is reduced, manufacturing jobs will suffer also.

"Energy Independence" -- sort of. Less oil use is good, for that goal. And so is electrification. However, the raw materials of electric vehicles--rare earth metals like neodymium, and battery components like lithium, are overwhelmingly supplied by countries like China and Russia. We will be at the mercy of a different sort of cartel.

"Good for the middle class" -- Higher cost vehicles, less choice in the market, older average age of vehicles on the road, possible job losses in dealerships and manufacturing plants. The only thing good here for the middle class is a smaller gas bill.

Coda Recall: All 78 Vehicles?

BEV maker Coda is recalling 78 vehicles due to improper installation of side curtain airbags.

Now, what is shocking here is not the reason for the recall (stuff happens) but the number.

Has Coda really only sold 78 vehicles since March? If so, that is a disaster for them. They're going nowhere fast.

Voice Search arrives in 13 new languages

�Norwegian restaurants in New York City.� I can type that phrase fast, but I can say it even faster�and when I�m on the go, speed is what I�m looking for. With Voice Search, you can speak into your phone to get search results quickly and easily. Voice Search is already available in 29 languages, and today, we're bringing support to 13 new languages for Android users�bringing the total to 42 languages and accents in 46 countries. In fact, 100 million new speakers can use Voice Search now, with the addition of:

Basque Bulgarian Catalan European Portuguese Finnish Galician Hungarian

Icelandic Norwegian Romanian Serbian Slovak Swedish

Each new language usually requires that we initially collect hundreds of thousands of utterances from volunteers and, although we�ve been working on speech recognition for several years, adding these new languages led our engineers and scientists to tackle some unique challenges. While languages like Romanian follow predictable pronunciation rules, others, like Swedish, required that we recruit native speakers to provide us with the pronunciations for thousands of words. Our scientists then built a machine learning system based on that data to predict how all other Swedish words would be pronounced.

This update has already started to roll out, and will continue to do so over the course of the next week. How you get started with Google Voice Search depends on what kind of phone you have. If your phone runs Android 2.2 or later, and you see the microphone icon on the Google Search widget on your homescreen, all you have to do is tap the icon to start a voice-powered search. Otherwise, you can install the Voice Search app from Google Play. Note that you can only speak one language into the app at a time, and you may need to change your language settings to use one of these new languages.

As with other languages we�ve added, one of the major benefits to Google�s cloud-based model is that the more people use Voice Search, the more accurate it becomes.

Posted by Bertrand Damiba, Product Manager

Tesla Model S Track Numbers

Edmunds was allowed to test a Tesla Model S with instrumentation, and it does put down some impressive numbers, particularly stopping distance, considering how heavy it is:

Acceleration
0-60 (sec): 4.3 (4.3 w/ TC on)
1/4-Mile (sec @ mph): 12.6 @ 108.3 (12.6 @ 108.2 w/ TC on)
Braking
60-0 (ft): 108
Handling
Slalom (mph): 66.8 (66.0 w/TC off)
Skid Pad Lateral Acceleration (g): 0.86 (0.86 w/TC on)

However, one grain of salt: this car was not purchased, it was loaned from Tesla, so it may not have production software. I'm not saying it is a magazine special, but it could be.

Aptera, again?

According to this piece in the Press Democrat, the assets of Aptera were purchased by Jonway Group, a Chinese carmaker who also is tied up with Zap Motors (Zap Jonway). Jonway plans to build the composite shells for the Aptera trike and ship them to Santa Rosa, where they will be assembled into vehicles and sold by a new company, Aptera USA.

Me, I'll believe it when I see it.

Condolences To The Sikhs

I wish to extend my condolences to the Sikh community for their tragic loss.

No religious community should be attacked with violence. In the United States, we are historically tolerant and welcoming of minority religious sects. I work with several Sikhs, and they are to a man generous, kind, hard working, cheerful people. I have never been approached by a Sikh with the intent of converting me to their faith.

Anyone who feels threatened by Sikhs is an ignorant jerk.

Use any credit or debit card with Google Wallet

(cross-posted from the Google Commerce Blog)

Since we released the first version of Google Wallet, the app that makes your phone your wallet, we�ve made it available on six phones from Sprint and Virgin Mobile, as well as the new Nexus 7 tablet. We�ve also partnered with more than 25 national retailers, and thanks to MasterCard PayPass, you can pay with your phone at more than 200,000 retail locations across the U.S.

Today we�re releasing a new, cloud-based version of the Google Wallet app that supports all credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Now, you can use any card when you shop in-store or online with Google Wallet. With the new version, you can also remotely disable your mobile wallet app from your Google Wallet account on the web.

 


A wallet with all your credit and debit cards
To save a card to Google Wallet, just enter the number into the mobile app, online wallet, or Google Play when making purchases. When you shop in-store, you can use Google Wallet in conjunction with your selected credit or debit card for purchases (more info here). Shortly after making a payment, you�ll see a transaction record on the phone with the merchant name and dollar amount. You can now view a history of all your in-store and online purchases from the online wallet.

To support all credit and debit cards, we changed our technical approach to storing payment cards. The Google Wallet app now stores your payment cards on highly secure Google servers, instead of in the secure storage area on your phone. A wallet ID (virtual card number) is stored in the secure storage area of the phone, and this is used to facilitate transactions at the point of sale. Google instantly charges your selected credit or debit card. This new approach speeds up the integration process for banks so they can add their cards to the Wallet app in just a few weeks. Banks that want to help their customers save cards to Google Wallet, including their custom card art, can apply here � there is no cost.

A wallet you can lock � and remotely disableWe take security very seriously and have always had a dedicated Google Wallet PIN to prevent others from making payments with your Google Wallet. And as always, we encourage Google Wallet customers to set up the phone�s screen lock -- as an extra layer of protection.

Today, we�re adding a Google Wallet security feature that makes it possible for you to remotely disable your mobile wallet on a lost phone. It�s easy. If you lose your phone, just visit the �Devices� section in the online wallet and select the phone with the mobile wallet you wish to disable. When you successfully disable your wallet on a device, Google Wallet will not authorize any transactions attempted with that device*. If the Google Wallet online service can establish a connection to your device, it will remotely reset your mobile wallet, clearing it of card and transaction data. There is no way you can do that with your leather wallet.

The new Google Wallet app is available now on Google Play, and if you have a supported NFC device and are in the United States, we encourage you to give it a try.

Posted by Robin Dua, Head of Product Management, Google Wallet

* For now, Google Prepaid Cards and some Citi MasterCard cards will remain active until Google Wallet can remotely connect and reset your mobile wallet.

Right To Repair Compromise

Where I stand on "Right-To-Repair". Right-to-repair is a requirement that automakers allow independent repair shops (outside of franchised dealers) access to their proprietary diagnostic tools and information. There is a big battle brewing in Massachusetts over RTR.

There are already generic diagnostic interfaces (OBD-II, SAE J1979) mandated by law which all automakers must support. However, they are also allowed to keep proprietary DTCs and diagnostic routines, which may require proprietary tools or information use. This hinders independent repairers from doing many procedures, for example, reprogramming a vehicle with modern encrypted anti-theft keys to accept a new key.

I do not think that automakers should be required to divulge proprietary information which could be used by competitors to reverse engineer some of their technology, or by thieves or amateur modders to easily hack into cars. However, independent mechanics should be be able to do most repairs on a vehicle, at least as far as being able to accurately diagnose a problem by pulling information from the on-board diagnostics.

Perhaps the right way to go is to enlarge the industry standards for diagnostics, so that more specific failure codes are publicly known. That way, generic tools would have access to more details. Sensitive functions, like re-flashing modules, should remain proprietary, to prevent easy tampering with the software or disabling of important functions.