"Oh and by the way the far left greenies in Hollywood and in Washington, New York etc. will still be one of the most prevalent polluters as they are today. With private planes, jets etc, opulent homes in several places throughout the world
... Our gallivanting President flying around with wife and kids in toe at the cost of millions per and carbon credits out the butt. But hay its ok if the left dirties your precious earth but not our ((red neck)) pick up trucks for beer.
Very political with little reasoning. People with money consume more and pollute more whether liberal or not. That was the theory of trickle down economics remember. Wealthy consume more and trickle down to the rest.
One pick up truck is not the problem 50 years ago in the rual farm. Times that by billions today around the world, and you got major issues. Everyone need to sacrafice to save fuel. That is the cost of large population.
I worked for a manufacturer of nitrogen inflation systems. We were laughing all the way to the bank at the knuckleheads who thought it had any impact on anything other than our sales numbers.
A Toyota Prius is offered in low emissions diesel in the UK and gets 50% better gas mileage than in the US. The lowest emmision combustion engine in the world is an Audi diesel.
My 1987 Honda Accord got 33 mpg. a 2012 Honda Accord gets 33 mpg and is now referred to as fuel efficient 25 years later.
This whole CAFE standards thing is an absolute farce used only to promote auto sales and union votes.
I don't know what the huge difficulty is here. In 1981, I bought a Plymouth Horizon Miser. It had a 2L VW gasoline engine with a specially designed chrysler carb that allowed the vehicle to get 51MPG. It had a catalytic converter as well!
Cars are like computers. We make more complex programs that require more speed, more memory, and so new computers have to be designed. Why can't we just build simple, lightweight cars that don't need miles of wiring, 20 computers, auto-everything and don't need expensive specialty parts to repair? Cars are appearing on the roads at expoential rates and gas prices are rising at the same alarming rates. We need radical changes in the auto industry - this is not 1970 anymore. I don't want to sound like some freaky conspiracist, but it's too easy to program the fuel injector computer to lean on the rich side by a few percent and put billions of dollars in the oil cat's pockets. Can't do that with a carb. My $.02
The diesel rabbit fell victim to bad attitude of U.S. car industry. When a car performs better, it makes U.S. makers "look bad" for not achieving similar results. Send that car "somewhere else" until Detroit "catches up" technologically. Which can take a long time. Similar thing happened to the Dymaxion car. The documentary films, "Who Killed The Electric Car?" and "Revenge Of The Electric Car" shows a similar thing happening. Superior performance from "new" technology gets attacked by U.S. automakers made to "look bad".
The whole idea of 1 size fits all is the problem. My driving is local less than 50 miles per week unless traveling 4 to 5 times a year for 1000 mi R/t. Highway mileage applies to ong distance trips. But the main problem with fuel efficiency is local travel. Do w eneed to look at causes for traffic congestion? absolutely. Should we investigate engineering for in town driving? A must. do we need to improve the use of LNG to power vehicles at an affordable price? yes. Do we need to put more cross country freight on railroads? it is more effiicient. Do we need a world carbon tax? Not unless everyone is taxed equally, Third world and industrialied world. Shipping of third world goods. and world polution, wood fires, coal fires, trsh burning.
I relish outside of the box thinking. Anything is worth throwing into the mix. I always said I would absolutely love to drive a fully electric truck but we are also far away from that technology. It just sounds right and good but not practical, YET. Modular transportation may be an application at some point in the design of future transportation. I hope sooner then later we come up with power sources for electric or other engines. For right now and for the foreseeable future it is fossil fuel and we need to go after it, process it and remember that as a citizen of the United Sates it does belongs to all of us. Public and private lands are being leased for doing the business of oil producing. Let's not punish our citizens because we haven't devised the technology yet for alternative energy.
Already achieved years ago by Buckminster Fuller (geodesic dome inventor) Dymaxion car. Used 3 wheels instead of 4, aluminum chassis and body, vastly improved aerodynamic styling. Condemned as a "freak car". Attitudes have not changed much over the years. Look it up on the internet. Many great design ideas ahead of their time then, but very important now. Worth a look.
A poor reflection on car manufacturers then, and today to reject his design. Everyone is paying dearly now for this mistake in attitudes.
Wouldn't be nice if we can develop a car that can change its size? That way most of us will not driving a car that is capable of transporting four when we only need to transport one. If we need more transporting capacity, attach another powered module that will have its own motive power but will be controlled by driver module. We should measure MPG per person and just MPG. We already do it with motocycles and side cars though it not a good example because of the lack of streamling and the side car affects the performance.
OK if fatcat righties guzzle it up cuz they aren't hypocritical, right? Take it personal and let it blind your thinking - the problem will still be there. Good engineering analysis.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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