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Best estimates are less than a tenth eh? The IBC number isn't an estimate it's a tally. It represents the absolute minimum number of deaths due to violence alone. Where do you find estimates (plural) below 100k? And what makes those estimates better than the other estimates?

Yes, I used the largest estimate. I did so because the larger number is less supportive of my assertion that war is not significantly decreasing global population.

If I had been trying to make some sort of anti-American statement I would have used the smaller numbers. No need to quote the larger estimates to call attention to the fact that your average American is more upset by the little more than 4,000 American casualties in Iraq than by the roughly 100,000 confirmed Iraqi casualties, caused by an unnecessary assault on a nation that posed absolutely no threat to national security, regardless of whether they have any personal connection to any of the soldiers killed in Iraq. Or the fact that most Americans have no perspective about the fact that the number of Americans killed in the World Trade Center in 2001 is less than a tenth of the number of Americans killed in traffic accidents each year.

Or banning black painted cars.

Tesla claim the battery replacements will "well under $5000", or so says Elon Musk.

Interesting thing, the car will only have 160 mi range on the base model. Getting 300 mi on a charge requires 2 battery upgrades.

What quality? Toyota has had to buy back cars because they were rusted beyond repair, and now they're covering up recalls. Hell, Chrysler actually has the fewest recalls out of all major manufacturers, not Toyota or Honda.

http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/home/traffic-light-cameras-bad-choice/

"House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) recently called for congressional hearings in the wake of a report that claims local governments have progressively shortened yellow-lights since 1985 to maximize fines, and have endangered motorists in the process. "

And then look here: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/14/six-ities-busted-for-shortening-yellow-light/

"Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; Springfield, Missouri; Lubbock, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Union City, California all cut the timing on their lights, and while some have paid back the fines, others have not. "

And for the international traveller: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/italian-red-light-cameras-rigged-with-shorter-yellow-lights.ars

"It turns out, however, that Arrighetti and a handful of public officials were allegedly a bit greedier than most. He's accused of conspiring with 63 municipal police, 39 local government officials, and the managers of seven different companies in order to rig the system so that it would turn from yellow to red quicker, therefore catching more motorists. "

(search on keyword "battery" if you don't want to read all the way through)

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200904/chinese-innovation/3

Some here may already have read about this, but it appears that China makes some very good batteries, mainly for the electronics industry. Now, it seems they had not long ago seen a company produce (ugly) electric cars, but batteries that rival the USA Big 3 (well, which of them's big anymore?) and even Tesla. Given that Tesla's demo/sports car ran over $100k, and despite their announced sedan:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/17/tesla-whitestar-electric-sedan-to-debut-this-year/

there is going to be some stiff global competition for such batteries, especially if what Chinese companies are working on can take off.

To recap the recent Detroit Show:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901u/detroit-auto-show

aww I wish I had seen this post, but you replied to the guy who replied to me.

I never said it was 100% feasible but the concept of sirius letting people tune in to any internet radio station of their choosing and taking some kind of small cut for themselves, or just plain giving internet on the move in the car, would be a step forward for them. Not to mention it's something that's already coming anyway. There are internet radio in-dash units on the way. Why not sirius step up on that? They wouldn't even need their own content, and plus they have satellite available to maybe beam to repeaters on the terrestrial side.

This is all speculation of course, but it seems like something that sirius would have the option of exploring more than most people.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/24/teens-copying-enemies-license-plates-to-get-revenge-via-speed-c/

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/04/458.asp

http://wcbstv.com/politics/congestion.pricing.london.2.597052.html

What, no love for the Big 3? Lemme see here. We've got the range-extended Town & Country EV from Chrysler that will do 40 miles on a single charge, plus another 360 miles using a mixed gasoline-electric propulsion. They're also working on Dodge and Jeep vehicles with similar designs.

Ford used to have the market in a bag with their Ford Ranger EV pickup. Of course, they discontinued it in 2002. Now they're playing catch-up with the rest of the market. They are promising an electric vehicle by 2011, so there should be plenty of competition in late 2010/early 2011.

Speaking of competition, what discussion is complete without mentioning the Chevy Volt? Still the gold standard for the emerging industry, it will be anyone's guess if it lives up to the hype.

Then there's the announcement by Aptera of the first pre-production model of the Aptera 2e

I rather like the look of this car, but I am concerned by a couple of issues. First up is the single back wheel. Won't that make the vehicle a rollover hazard? I presume the front wheels are extended to help mitigate this issue, but one good blowout looks like it could send that sucker fishtailing right into roll. (And for that matter, how servicable is that tire?)

My second issue is the power-train. Generally you want as much weight sprung as possible, and electric motors are heavy. Aptera seems to understand that as it appears there is an axel linkage on the front wheels. Presumably this is how power is transmitted. Is having that axel exposed going to cause any safety and reliability issues? I'm just imagining something flying off the road and getting wrapped around the the axel. Or in an accident, a pedestrian getting an appendage caught in there.

Or is this a rear-wheel drive vehicle? In which case, is that axel really necessary? Could'nt the steering be accomplished by swiveling independent pods rather than linking them?

Just my 0.005 cents worth after accounting for inflation. :-P

P.S. The Shelby looks pretty darn sweet! I'd never spend money to purchase a vehicle like that*, but I wouldn't mind taking her for a spin.

* Unless I had way too much!

Deathtrap? I think after watching these videos, most people will agree you are being a bit generous.

http://www.break.com/index/failed-chinese-crash-test.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZWy_fASSiQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVwmuQqN46g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEeqxq7EtQU
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/22/brilliance-bs6s-adac-crash-test-is-anything-but/
http://www.leftlanenews.com/chinese-sedan-flunks-german-crash-test-with-video.html

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/30/telsa-confirms-model-s-sedan-225-mile-range-and-60k/

Hey, why let facts get in the way of a good troll?

The price will continue to come down as battery tech improves.

In the mean time Tesla is building their production facility right here in the USA -- which of course is good for the economy.

Jobs.

Green Cars.

Better Economy.

All for the cost of a LOAN.

Come to think of it that wasn't a good piece of trolling. Actually you suck at it.

Why bother? There are already simple covers that effectively prevent the red light cameras as it is. Granted a bit of DSP could also eliminate those being effective, so maybe a retractable cover is the right solution.

They tried a number of these on Myth Busters and none of them could effectively obscure the license plate numbers from the camera.

Here is a tiny article about it: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/08/mythbusters-fail-to-foil-the-speedcamera/

It's a fascinating story: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/04/25/toyota-engineers-convicted-of-stealing-secrets-from-ferrari/

OK, the VW taureg V10 TDI has 310bhp, and a torque peak of more than 550lb/ft torque. As a marketing stunt they pulled a 747 aeroplane.

VW Golf TDI Hybrid (from May '08)

More info:

69 MPG Golf TDI Hybrid

Though it will probably only be available in Europe for a while, it's still a step forward.

I'm very glad for China, but at the same time depressed. When I was younger, I used to think of the US as being a place that made THE FUTURE happen. I wanted the Internet come into being and if that wasn't THE FUTURE I didn't know what was. Now it seems feels like the US it focused on stasis. I can only hope now that the Chinese let us have some table scraps from their engineering marvels.

-Grey

Engineering marvels?

You mean this engineering marvel?

Or how about this one?

Though, I'll give them credit where it's due, the Olympic venues of the birds nest and water cube were pretty awesome.

It's true that GPS devices are radio receivers, not transmitters. But receivers emit signals too, and these are detectable. In countries where you have to pay license fees to operate a TV or radio, they send out detector vans to nab scoflaws. I also recall reading in Spycatcher that MI-5 used them to detect secret shortwave receivers; don't recall how they distinguished KGB agents listening for instructions from Moscow Center from innocent Lawrence Welk fans.

If Coca-Cola accidentally created 100 million cans of faulty Coke, you know for sure the entire 100 million cans would be dropped in the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, without a second thought and irrespective of what that did to the year's profits.

Case in point with Mazda.

You wrote that the Volt would be "a couple grand more" when the reality is that it'll be at least $8k more than the Prius' starting cost (at which it's well equipped, BTW). And that's assuming that it comes in at under $30k as initially announced... for reference, last month Lutz said that closer to $40k is more realistic, which would put it at ~$18k more than the Prius' starting price.

I dunno why you don't want to compare the size of the 2010 Volt to the 2010 Prius, but it isn't especially relevant since (as I noted) the interior volume of the 2010 Prius > current Prius > 2010 Volt. At least that's true for legroom, shoulder room, and headroom. I'm not interested in spin... if the Volt has more cargo area or other space, then that's obviously important. But you wrote simply that it's larger without quantifying or supporting your statement. What is its interior volume? (the Prius has 110 ft^3)

It was widely reported when GM revised its realistic highway electric range from 40 miles to 32 miles (city range will obviously still be higher). My point about your use of the phrase "infinite MPG" is that it's misleading. Even if you never use any gasoline, you're still using energy, and most plug-in hybrids or electric cars provide a "MPG equivalent". For example, in the case of the all-electric Tesla, different numbers have been thrown around but for highway driving 135 MPG is commonly used.

I am curious about something else you wrote, which was that the Volt would take 3 minutes to charge. GM said:

"at 220 volts we will be in a position where within an hour you might be already have half of your range pumped into the battery".."those batteries have this behavior where the first half is faster than the second.".

At 110V, it'll take even longer. Where's your 3 minute charge time from?

For the record, I'm not anti-Volt or pro-Prius. Every car is a compromise. But you yelled at jonnythan for using FUD and not researching when you yourself seem to be guilty of it.

Must be different brands for different markets then - they're M-B in at least some of Europe. Try Googling for "actros":

http://www.mercedes-benz.de/content/germany/mpc/mpc_germany_website/de/home_mpc/trucks/home/products/new_trucks/actros.html

Historically M-B didn't own the "Daimler" name in all markets - in the UK Daimler was an independent company unrelated to Daimler-Benz, then part of Jaguar, which got bought by Ford, and then sold back before Tata bought Jaguar:

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/08/22/daimler-deals-with-ford-to-get-its-name-back/

Obligatory Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_Motor_Company

I have seen dozens of fuel efficient concepts from VW in the past couple of years but so far I haven't seen anything hit the showroom floor, at least not in the states. Flipping through my DasAuto marketing bullshit magazine, I see an SUV and a Minivan. Not exactly a fuel efficient line-up for 2010, if you ask me. The Diesel Jetta is a step in the right direction, but again, it's not on the lots yet.

That being said, I saw this interesting little car floating around the blogohedron a couple weeks ago. I'll let you rtfa, but if this hits the US showrooms in 2010, I suspect it will be a Volt killer. Also, it's not hideously ugly.

Long story short, I am so fucking tired of waiting on this shit. At least in the Golf Twin Drive, Germany is putting some money behind it. As much as I hate corporate subsidies, governments need to make some incentives for getting SUVs and Minivans off the roads, and fuel efficient compacts on the roads because consumers apparently aren't interested, or if they are, the car makers aren't hearing them or don't care.

"maybe piss does too" ------------ Nah, that is good for cleaning up diesel exhausts http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/13/mercedes-benz-launching-urea-injected-diesel-suvs-this-fall/ http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=urea+diesel&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

And is the only car ever to be driven away from a MIRA crash test.
Do it right and light can be strong, too.

What you want is the Tata Nano. $2500 http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/10/what-2-500-buys-in-india-tata-nano-unveiled/

I'm not surprised. For the month of May '08, the Honda Civic dethroned the Ford F-150 as the best selling U.S. vehicle. The F-150 was the best selling vehicle in the U.S. for the past 17 years.

Ford saw it's SUV and truck sales drop a whopping 44% last month. That's huge.

Don't forget BMW. The Quandt family, who owns 47% of the corporation (which includes BMW, Rolls-Royce, and Mini) hasn't even apologized. Volkswagen Group (VW, Audi, SEAT, Åkoda, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, VW Commercial Vehicles, and Scania) and Daimler (Mercedes-Benz, Smart, Maybach, and Freightliner) have both apologized and issued reparations (most of Israel's taxi fleet is Benzes and Åkodas) http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/25/documentary-implicates-bmws-controlling-shareholders-in-war-cri/

and if you fill the tank, take off and drive full throttle, you'll run out of gas in 12 minutes. Twelve. That's 720 seconds. I've waited longer than that for a Big Mac at the drive through. And you'll only go 50 miles. Maybe.

Is there a drivable prototype of this thing? Has anyone from Motor Trend or Auto Week ever had a good look at it? For any real car, the prototypes precede volume production by several years.

Accusations of fraud are flying between the Air Car people.. Apparently there are two Air Car groups, and they don't get along.

Tata Motors has nothing on their web site about the "air car". They do have a page of their concept cars, and the Air Car isn't on there. They're coming out with the Tata Nano, at $2500. The Tata Nano is conventionally powered. There's an electric version of the Tata Ace mini-truck, and those should be coming to the US this year. But there is no Air Car or "City Cat" from Tata that I can find.

This looks like vaporware.

No, we will not get fooled again, the next generation will. (Unless you mean "You", as in, society.) Really all we can do is try. Try to set a good example for the next generation. Bending over with no lube for Real ID and other national identification cards is not a good example. May I present you with something. I made the post by James Noble, I am James Noble, that is my name. Many people agreed with me. My post was ranked highly. Many of the vocal however thought that these surveillance devices were acceptable. Later someone (porker) in the comment says that he is from the area and that his local government was mis-using this devices in question:

Every time I've been in LA, I was lucky to go over 10 mph. Seems like however passed that law was a real joker!

Driver less car ... going in circles?
Did you hear about the couple driving in an early Mercedes-Benz with GPS in heavy fog? It is believed the GPS map showed a bridge as complete. It wasn't.

This isn't related, but it was all I could find quickly. http://www.autoblog.com/2005/12/02/video-of-mercedes-benz-three-car-s-class-pile-up/

In other news, a $13000 Hyundai gets me from point A to point B just as well as a $43000 BMW. Why on Earth are people buying those BMW's???! It's craziness!

TATA may be a relatively unknown name outside India but have a look at where they're generally headed : They just bought Jaguar and Land Rover

This article was on digg a few days ago. I never thought it would have any sort of use, but it's the perfect answer to what you want: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/01/in-the-autoblog-garage-2007-rolls-royce-phantom/#comments

Of course, it's in a car that costs more than my house...several times over.

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/01/craigslist-find-of-the-decade-930-000-mile-95-honda-civic/

"Free speech" only applies to the government; ie: the government is not able to restrict what you say, how you say it, or whom you say it to. That being said, the government is able to hold you responsible for the consequences of whatever speech you do make. The government can't make a law against shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater, but they can hold you accountable for the injuries that result from such an action.

"Free speech" also does not mean citizens must listen to or promote whatever crap another citizen spews. It also does not mean that people have to sit there and "take it" as you insult them, which is something you should probably keep in mind before driving around Alabama in a car spraypainted with "Nascar sucks" along the side...

safety is never dropped to cut costs or size. a single lawsuit showing otherwise and the company is ruined.

At the Frankfurt Motor Show Peugeot will showcase its new 308 Hybrid HDi, which emits just 90g/km of CO2 and reduces fuel consumption by 38% in the Combined Cycle compared to a standard 308 HDi.

In addition, the engine has been designed to meet the future Euro V directive which comes into force in 2009 and offers the possibility of driving exclusively in electric or "ZEV" (Zero Emission Vehicle) mode for journeys in regulated urban centres.

Here goes another article about it. Apparently it gets 69MPG (US gallons) or 78MPG for urban driving.

Unfortunately, the FAQ the vw.com used to have up regarding biodiesel and B5 is gone. Essentially it said, for the purposes of the engine and emissions warranty (IIRC), you may not use any more than 5% biodiesel from approved sources and that it must meet petroleum industry standards. Fuel where the source is unknown doesn't qualify.

VW reliability is far below average and many of their vehicles are the least reliable in their classes.

See http://www.autoblog.com/2006/11/10/domestic-models -gain-major-ground-in-consumer-reports/ and http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pre ssrelease.asp?ID=2006133 for example.

That's total BS to claim that you're CLEANING the environment by driving any car. I guess you've never bothered to look up actual emissions nor the meanings of air pollution scores. Per http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/sbs.htm, the 07 Mercedes E320 Bluetec emits 8.1 tons/year of greenhouse gases. It's greater than 0 or negative. FWIW, the Prius is estimated to emit 4 tons/year.

The air pollution score for the Merc for some reason is unavailable, but http://www.trucks.autoblog.com/2006/08/29/bluetec- diesel-fails-to-meet-50-state-emissions-requiremen t/ mentions it failed to meet Tier 2 Bin 5. You can lookup the meaning of that on page 1 of http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/detailedchart.pdf vs. the PZEV (9.5 score that CARB spec Priuses get) on page 3. You'll see that for Tier 2 Bin 5, the allowed emission limits for all pollutants except one are MANY times higher than that of a PZEV car. Again, both of these are non-zero values.

Missed one:
Ariel Atom: 0-60 2.6-2.9 seconds (depends how fast your feet are when shifting) Prices starting at $40k US.

BTW, the Bugatti seems to be closer to 2.8 http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/29/bugatti-veyron- 0-100-0-in-9-9-sec/ Still freaking fast.

Kind of messes up your money=speed trend though. Sorry.

Correct. Also, in CA and a few northeastern states, the hybrid battery warranty is 10 year/150K miles on the Prius and Civic Hybrid.

On related news, the 10 Ford Escape hybrids (they use a battery pack from Sanyo instead of Matsushita/Panasonic on Toyota hybrids) used as NYC taxis have all passed 175K miles in less than 2 years per http://www.autoblog.com/2007/04/04/ford-escape-hyb rid-taxis-demonstrate-durability-on-new-york-stre/ .

http://www.hybridcars.com/blogs/taxi logged 200K miles in 25 months on a previous gen Prius. http://john1701a.com/prius/owners/jesse3.htm is at 280K miles on his previous gen Prius.

> In fact Porsche does this. I have a few buddys that over reved on the track and blew the engine

BMW, too:

Autoblog

Yeah, but the Chinese market is still pretty closed off, so there is potential, but it has a long way to go yet. Right now a company that releases a product in China has a very good chance of competing against that same product at a much lower price point in a few months after a chinese company copies it. Cars being the most obvious example right now. Just search for chinese car copies on google for more examples.

I have high hopes for the offspring of Subaru's B5-TPH (turbo parallel hybrid).

I don't think these special vehicles like TFA car will achieve any real commercial success. Most people want a safe, comfortable and practical car. And you most certainly don't want anybody to laugh at you while riding it...

No, I believe the future (until fuel cells are available) lays in hybrids, like the Toyota Prius, even though they're still not completely environmental friendly - fuel consumption is not better than most diesel powered cars. But battery powered only cars have their problems as well, darn expensive, well you have to plan your trips carefully, batteries have a limited life span and probably more important batteries are not environmental friendly.

Here is an interesting hybrid from Saab, running on 100% ethanol and batteries. It's a good looking convertible, and runs 0-100 km/h in just 6.9 seconds, not very bad from a fossil fuel-free car. Only problem is that 1) you can't buy the car yet 2) you can't buy 100% ethanol (and producing large amounts of ethanol is also a problem).

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/03/03/chevy-tahoe-tak es-off-while-full-size-suv-sales-fall-in-february/

So how are dropping SUV sales the thing that is killing GM again?

Just for the record again, I don't like SUVs. I'm not trying to say I like what GM is doing here, but it isn't hurting them nearly as badly as you make out. The real problem isn't the number of vehicles sold, but the profit per-vehicle.

I want to make an unbiased call for people to stop flaming fires. Apple makes good products. Some people don't like them and think they are too pricy. Others like the polish, that they work well, and don't mind paying more since they see compensation in other areas. Can we just give up on all this. It has been going on for about 6 years now, and it's just time to stop. Yea linux is great, yea OS X is great; yea there's substatial differences but all of us are smart enough to investigate those and make an educated decision.

anyways i'm out, maybe i'll stop reading slashdot now, i don't know.

The car is based on a kit car from: http://www.k-1attack.com/
The car uses a 200 VW 1.9L TDi engine powering the rear wheels.
It also has an unknown (to me, anyway) electric motor for the front wheels.

Here are some links for it:
The school's "photo blog" http://evteam.gambitdesign.com/gallery/albums.php
A write-up from last fall: http://www.autoblog.com/2005/08/15/hybrid-attack/

Ridiculous indeed, imagine a Swedish car manufacturer making a car that doesn't use fossil fuel.
That could never happen !

There are few automobiles out there (mainly SUVs) that now have systems installed to let you know if you are leaving the lane via a photo-sensor connected to an alarm inside the vehicle. After all, why should we expect drivers to keep their *!@?% car in their own lane without the aid of a computer? Here's an article that goes perfectly with the theme of this post.