[opendtv] GM exec: Time to reinvent the automobile
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 16:48:26 -0400
When I hear "reinvent" or "take to the next level," my BS alarm goes
off.
I've always been a fan of fuel cell cars, because they take the battery
out of the electric car, and it's the battery that kills electric cars.
But betting on fuel cells hardly "take[s] the automobile totally out of
the environmental debate."
Fuel cells require H2. And H2 is either extracted from water with
electrolysis, or it could be extracted from hydrocarbon molecules.
Either process needs energy. Extracting and transporting H2 will somehow
or other have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions, or wildlife, or
nuclear waste, or the beauty of the landscape, or most likely all of the
above. And they all fall under "the environment."
The EV-1 was always a non-starter. It was PR, best used by Hollywood
actors in search of virtue. And the so-called "plug-in hybrids" are no
better. They simply place a greater load on the power grid than hybrids
do, while at the same time shortening battery life compared with
hybrids, by drawing the charge way down every time you leave the
driveway.
At best, all of these supposed solutions are just minor tweaks to the
bigger environmental picture. Hardly solutions. Some probabably create a
worse mess than we have now. Cold fusion might be a solution.
Bert
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GM exec: Time to reinvent the automobile
Brian Fuller
(06/05/2007 10:51 AM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199901250
SAN DIEGO - The man who runs R&D for General Motors said it's time to
reinvent the product that's made his company what it is today: the
automobile.
"We want to take the automobile totally out of the environmental
debate," Larry Burns, vice president of research and development and
strategic initiatives, said Monday (June 4). He delivered the first
keynote at this week's 44th annual Design Automation Conference here.
"We literally have an opportunity to reinvent the automobile around
these exciting technologies." Burns spoke a few feet from a Chevrolet
Sequel vehicle-one of two GM has manufactured-that runs entirely on
hydrogen fuel cell technology. GM officials recently drove it 300 miles
on a single fuel cell charge emitting only water vapor.
The next step for the technology is to move it into the Chevrolet
Equinox, where about more than 100 fuel-cell-only models will be
marketed in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. initially.
For some, GM's fuel-cell move is a bet-the-farm strategy that insiders
hope doesn't end up like the abortive EV-1 all-electric project that GM
killed after making and leasing about 800 vehicles.
"It's one basket we've put eggs into, but actually our strategy is to
displace petroleum," Burns said in an interview before the keynote. He
pointed to continuing work on all-electric vehicles (the Chevrolet Volt)
and other initiatives.
Burns also sketched out an automotive future in which cars begin to
communicate with each other in vehicle to vehicle networks to improve
safety and the driving experience.
"Beyond that it sets up a future in which vehicles can drive
themselves," he said.
Because GM engineers take a top-down view on design and must blend
mechanical and electrical systems at a high level of abstraction, Burns
said auto manufacturers are relying on the design automation industry to
continue to deliver tools to enable them to design at such levels.
"Math-based tools are very much at the heart of virtual engineering and
virtual vehicle development," he said, noting the Sequel was designed
from the ground up in 18 months. You truly are on the pathway to making
this future happen through the tools you're making."
All material on this site Copyright 2007 CMP Media LLC. All rights
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