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there is one purpose to charging a higher fine to a very wealthy person than a poor person: incentives.

a 200 dollar fine is more than enough to convince a poor person to drive safe. It is hardly a blip on the radar for a rich person. The purpose of a punishment is to try and induce a change in behavior. You would probably do a lot better if when caught, the driver is forced to walk to his destination (without a cell phone or any such electronics to help pass the time or do work) and his car would be towed there (at his expense). But in a world where creative and highly embarrassing punishments are not allowed, and the only choice is fines, this is the best way to fine someone so it can be felt. That is the only point, a punishment that induces a change in behavior.

There is the other option of suspending licenses, and maybe a choice of "6 month suspension or 50k fine" would be better. Hiring a driver for 6 months would still be a significant cost.

Even switzerland, a country that loves rich people (if you have ever been there, you would understand just how much, including negotiating different income tax rates to induce wealthy people to come) uses this system:
http://www.worldcarfans.com/11...

" Google didn't mention Linux because they know it will scare buyers away."

Or possibly, they know that 99% of non-techies have no idea what Linux is, and these non-techies are their target, and mentioning Linux will do nothing except confuse their potential customers. People don't care what's under the hood, as long as it works.

Here, let me give you a car analogy

the chinese will pirate anything.

They've been cloning electronics, toys, and even whole vehicles for years now. So why not clone whole cities and towns?

This is not the first time it has been proposed either.

The sound of tires on the road is *FAR* louder than the engine, in general... unless the car's muffler is bad, or unless the car is simply very old.

WTF type of giant knobby off-road truck tires do you put on your effing honda civic anyway? This statement is hyperbolic to say the least.

Yeah, but just wait. Apple will ignore this as hard as they can, claiming it's not important for their market. Then, next year when the iPhone x+1 comes out, they'll innovate it into the phone and the media will declare them geniuses.

Seems inevitable that all phones will eventually move to some sort of inductive charging. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

And you're right it would be all over the media, but only because it's new to the iPhone. It's like when the Mustang and Camaro reached 400+ hp, exotic cars may have been there for years, doesn't make the news any less important.

``If you use a commonly used metric to describe an attribute of your car and that commonly used metric doesn't mean anything close to what you're using it for, you're being deceitful.''

Problem is, they couldn't have. The EPA had not established a standard test cycle for the kind of car that the Volt is. So as far as using the commonly used metric the way it's commonly used (i.e. reporting performance on the EPA test cycles), it could not have been done. This has been known pretty much from the beginning. Now, they could have done any number of things. They could have tested their car on one of the already established EPA test cycles. They could have claimed "MPG? For most city driving, you won't be using any gasoline at all!" They could have cooked up some kind of equivalence formula. Or they could have waited for the EPA to come up with a test cycle for their kind of car, and gone with that.

According to many sources on the web, the 230 miles per gallon figure was based on preliminary/draft specifications for a new EPA city test cycle developed specifically for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, with final ratings to be determined by testing after the EPA test cycles for PHEVs would be determined. Does that strike you as GM being deceitful?

The United States Treasury currently owns 61% of GM. "Government Motors" is a reference to the government takeover of GM in 2009 when Obama fired then current CEO Frederick Hendersen. http://www.worldcarfans.com/110092228542/gm-may-pay-back-taxpayers-after-ipo

According to TFA, this electric mini does not seem to be related to the one built by PML 3 years ago. The four in-wheel motors was an interesting approach. 640 bhp (477 kW), 60mph in 4.5s. With an integrated 250cc 2-cylinder four-stroke gas engine for long trips. (charging the batteries as you go).

It wouldn't surprise me if Bugatti make a big move into a (obviously lower) luxury market very soon, cashing in on the recognition they've earned.

They wouldn't be the first.

The Bugatti brand has historically been known for exclusive and mostly very high performance automobiles in relatively the same market as other boutique Italian manufacturers such as Ferrari and Lamborghini or the British Aston Martin. The halo effect is well known in mass market brands, but Bugatti and other boutiques like it are NOT mass market brands and cannot be made into mass market brands without losing their boutique pedigree and exclusivity.

Aston Martin's halo might be about to slip, although the Cygnet will only be available to existing A-M owners.

Well, if a Porsche can do 35 miles per US gal. (or 42 imp. gal):
http://www.worldcarfans.com/9081217.019/porsche-911-carrera-achieves-42-mpg-with-pdk-trans
Then I think, some companies have to stop being little crybabies, and start to innovate.

Hey, I know a whole kind of cars, that gets unlimited miles per gallon: Cars that use abundant resources, like the sun!
Now if they would only look half as good. ^^

The cost may be a bit more but super capacitors solve several of those problems. See the PML electric Mini.

To reply to some of my questions about it: "The special fabric is supported by a metal wire structure. At specific points, the high-strength metal is enhanced by carbon struts with a higher flexibility. They are used predominantly for round, moving contours with a particularly narrow radius."

Taken from the press release found here

Considering that it's easier to build/retrofit "Carbon Capture and Processing" to large exhausts (Like, say, power plants) than it is to add to small exhausts (Like, for example, cars), even coal-fired powerplants are more efficient than petrol-based ones.

And given that generating electricity from coal is around 30-50% efficient (More with gassification) and electric motors are 80-95% efficient (Compared to 25% or less for petrol-based engines), it means a net win for electric vehicles.

Add to that technologies like PML's "Pancake" motors (see here for details, and here for a practical solution, a true "Hybrid" that weighs 20kg more (in total, batteries, motors and all) than it's ICE counterpart) and the Electric Car (or the Electric hybrid (Why has no-one come up with an Electric/BioDiesel hybrid yet? Aren't Diesel generators the best for efficiency, as they run constantly at their (narrow) highest efficiency band?) in the "Need more range" area) has a great future.

And let's not talk about Hydrogen. It's more expensive (both monetarily and environmentally) to produce, more expensive to transport, takes more space to store, has considerably less energy density, and is not likely to improve any faster than other systems already around (EV, PHEV, BioDiesel etc), which makes Hydrogen more of a damp squib than the "Next Big Thing", no matter how the car companies (GM, Toyota) and the oil companies (Shell, BP, Exxon/Texaco/Esso) would like us to think so.

Meh.

It still fails in the same way the Prius does. It has a central power plant. One electric motor turns a crank shaft (and loses power) that goes through a transmission (that loses power) that turns a drive shaft (that loses power) that turns a transaxle (that loses power) that turns the wheels. All of those moving parts can break, too.

If you use wheel hub motors (like this Mini Cooper), you end up with fewer moving (and breaking) parts, less weight, and more space for amenities, more batteries, or cargo.

To my knowledge, there are already LTFC (Low-temperature fuel cells), like PEM, which are already working for years in 50-100 deg C range, but the problem is keeping them below the 100 degrees.
Two years ago, Georgia Tech has announced, that they were capable of pushing it up to 120 deg (source)
and last year, Volkswagen announced the development of a fuel cell working at 160 deg (source).

just look at http://www.leftlanenews.com/bmws-clever-concept-co mpleted.html or http://www.worldcarfans.com/news.cfm/newsID/206050 5.005/country/gcf/bmw/clever-research-vehicle Maneuverbility of bike with full body protection of a car. I'd rather have one of these.