Slashdot Mirror
Can the Auto Industry Retool Itself To Build Rails?
knapper_tech writes "The scope of the auto industry troubles continues to increase in magnitude. The call to retool and develop new vehicles has been made several times already, but with all of the challenges from labor prices and foreign competition, how exactly can the industry retool itself to be more competitive? In light of superior competition facing losses, there doesn't seem to be enough room in the industry moving forward. In the context of finding a new place in the auto industry, the future isn't bright. Calls for no disorderly collapse of the cash-strapped big three and a reluctant congress can only point to an underlying lack of direction. However, consider two other standing economic challenges. The airlines have continued to struggle due to fuel prices and heightened security. Consumers backed off of SUV's due to high fuel prices, and while those prices have eased in the face of global recession, the trend will pick up again with growth in China and India leading the fight for resources. In short, things are moving less, and the industries that support the movement are in need of developing new products while consumers are in need of a cheaper method of transportation."
Read on for the rest of knapper_tech's thoughts.
knapper_tech continues:
"Looking abroad, it's clear the US has far less invested in local and regional rail systems. With regard to high-speed rail systems, the US is conspicuously behind. France's TGV is moving people at 574km/h. China operates the world's first commercial maglev line while the famous Japanese Shinkasen goes without mentioning. In the US there is only one line in operation between DC and Boston with a few more planned as a result of the 2008 election in California.
The traditional barrier to implementation of rail systems is the initial investment costs, but in the context of economic stimulus, such investment sinks are actually desirable. The auto industry has clearly taken note with proposals from companies like Caterpillar for huge new infrastructure projects.
A friend who recently bought a house observed that real-estate prices are on the rise nearer to city centers, where the fallout of mortgage problems and expensive, time-consuming drives from the suburbs can be avoided. Recalling the huge number of urban revitalization plans and efforts to increase the viability of older city centers, it seems as though many municipal governments would also be in line to gain from the added density of rail systems and increased activity they can support in downtown areas.
Putting it all together, it seems like now would be a good time to direct the industrial capacity of the automotive and supporting industries to developing local and regional, high-speed rail systems to provide a more efficient and effective infrastructure basis for US cities while essentially creating a new market where competition from foreign car manufacturers will not be a problem. At the same time, a huge labor force would be required. The task would call for engineers for development, factory workers for manufacturing, operators, and maintenance workers. Caterpillar still gets to sell construction equipment. The inevitable stream of stores popping up around stations would provide new commercial areas. Last-mile bus and taxi services would also have a new place. The list goes on.
Besides the savings in fuel, the US could also gain international prestige and possibly help lead China and India away from our mistakes, helping to stem the rising demand for oil globally and avoiding the attendant international tension. Climate change is yet another win in this scenario.
It seems like we're not exactly headed in that direction, and I'm curious to see what Slashdot readers think of all this. What pieces need to be in place to make the investments pay off? What are additional resources that are required? Can the industries really make such a change of direction? Do we have everything we need in the US? How would such systems work out long term? Would the initial investments be able to pick up fast enough to stimulate the economy?"
"Looking abroad, it's clear the US has far less invested in local and regional rail systems. With regard to high-speed rail systems, the US is conspicuously behind. France's TGV is moving people at 574km/h. China operates the world's first commercial maglev line while the famous Japanese Shinkasen goes without mentioning. In the US there is only one line in operation between DC and Boston with a few more planned as a result of the 2008 election in California.
The traditional barrier to implementation of rail systems is the initial investment costs, but in the context of economic stimulus, such investment sinks are actually desirable. The auto industry has clearly taken note with proposals from companies like Caterpillar for huge new infrastructure projects.
A friend who recently bought a house observed that real-estate prices are on the rise nearer to city centers, where the fallout of mortgage problems and expensive, time-consuming drives from the suburbs can be avoided. Recalling the huge number of urban revitalization plans and efforts to increase the viability of older city centers, it seems as though many municipal governments would also be in line to gain from the added density of rail systems and increased activity they can support in downtown areas.
Putting it all together, it seems like now would be a good time to direct the industrial capacity of the automotive and supporting industries to developing local and regional, high-speed rail systems to provide a more efficient and effective infrastructure basis for US cities while essentially creating a new market where competition from foreign car manufacturers will not be a problem. At the same time, a huge labor force would be required. The task would call for engineers for development, factory workers for manufacturing, operators, and maintenance workers. Caterpillar still gets to sell construction equipment. The inevitable stream of stores popping up around stations would provide new commercial areas. Last-mile bus and taxi services would also have a new place. The list goes on.
Besides the savings in fuel, the US could also gain international prestige and possibly help lead China and India away from our mistakes, helping to stem the rising demand for oil globally and avoiding the attendant international tension. Climate change is yet another win in this scenario.
It seems like we're not exactly headed in that direction, and I'm curious to see what Slashdot readers think of all this. What pieces need to be in place to make the investments pay off? What are additional resources that are required? Can the industries really make such a change of direction? Do we have everything we need in the US? How would such systems work out long term? Would the initial investments be able to pick up fast enough to stimulate the economy?"
Remember boys and girls - it wasn't the market crash that caused the great depression - it was the governments reaction to it (closing borders to imports and creating make work projects with the huge public work projects of the 30's) that created the great depression.
What do you want to happen. A short deep recession - or the lost decade of the 2010's (see Japan in the 90's or the USA of the 1930's). Lets see the most optimal use of resources - if it isn't, it won't help.
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Steve Jobs would disagree with you and he has the sucess to prove it.
I would as well. When making a breakthrough product, don't rely on too much market research. People tend to limit themselves to what they already know. Lots of people who crapped on the iPhone when it first appeared now own one. Market research is great for refining an existing product, but not for breakthrough product DESIGN.
By it's nature, breakthrough products are a gamble and not a science.
I can see that. That wouldn't be a problem for me to accept. It's just that I also happen to see trucks as being much better built and ultimately safer to drive. You can have what you want. But, I doubt I will ever own another front wheel drive again (only having bought one in my life but driven and worked on hundreds).
Shut the fuck up...I am sick of all of these right wing talking points about the UAW. Get your lazy ass up and work a 40 hour week with your hands on an assembly line and come back here bitching about the UAW... you sorry motherfucker. It is all about living wages.. You cant have an ecaonomy that is total sevice based...cry cleaning...yard and IT just wont cut it..you have to have a heavy industrial base... Would you like some fries with that? Bitch
So you name a couple of random defects like GM and Chrysler are the only companies with problems like this?
First hit on google for Toyota recalls: http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2007/toyota/sequoia/recalls/index.html
Oh and there are tons of those.
The fact of the matter is: American made automobiles implement a wider range of technologies and vehicle types than most foreign companies. And they still manage similar quality rankings.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
You were doing good until the end where you make fun of Barack Obama, then I realized that everything you said before was pretty much irrelevant. Was that the effect you were going for?
I post this only to enlighten slashdotters of other perspectives on the matter of these gas guzzlers, which, in principle I am completely against, but in my own reality I love and cherish. And in order to comprehend the mirth brought into life by such environmentally unfriendly modes of transportation one must grasp how ones native geography influentially sculpts its residences life perspectives.
I am a Montanan (burn slowly in hell Miley Cyrus! (youtube Montana if you want to feel my pain)), which means I come from a state about equal in size to Germany or Japan. For some reason, unlike these other two states, no one lives in MT, maybe its the -20 weather weve been having or the foot of snow we got lost night. None the less, with a population under one million you can imagine how sparsely populated the state is. For me to travel to the next town of more than 10,000 inhabitants involves at least an hour and a half journey, and any others requires at least 3 hours.
So what vehicle to use to traverse the tundra? 4 wheel drive isnt a must, but youre crazy to elect a vehicle without it. There are a handful of great 4x4 sedans that can get me from G-Funk to Boozeman, but the real question is what do I enjoy the most?
SUVs and trucks enable the ability to haul your entertainment with you. Whether it be 10 of you in a suburban drinking and cruising on the back roads or hooking up your snowmobiles for a weekend in the Little Belts with your half ton, you know you can bring enjoyment to nature where you go. Theres nothing I love more in the summer than loading my truck up with a raft, inner tubes, beer, people and tunes chilling on the river for a day. Or bringing my dirt bike up to abandoned logging roads and just cruising through the mountains without another soul on the road.
City dwellers find it illogical and impractical to own these un-economical autos, and I agree, they exemplify, nay, promote American greed and squalor. But I look past this and use them to indulge in, surprisingly, a lifestyle where I take full advantage of nature; even though by doing I help destroy what I love. And in America, I am glad I have the choice to drive what provides me with the most personal satisfaction.
Im sad to see these manufacturers go down
One man with a gun can control 100 without one
The first half of you post had merit, but you lost it (and my interest) from then on. The following quotes are the problem:
- British/American enlightenment devotion to the Rights of Man
- inflicts Hell on Earth on its own citizens because they might think there is a mystical element to some forms of exercise
- hardcore socialist (chortle) Barack Obama(snicker)
- Second Coming of Karl Marx
Each of those statements is factually wrong and would be misleading even if intended as hyperbole. You were doing well until then, stick with what you know.
What an enlightening comment. Are you from Kentucky, Alaska, or Russia? It's hard to tell given your tone.
Raise your hand if your country, marred with the same history of racism and slavery as the United State, has evolved to the point where it can vote the son of a Kenyan goat herder to the highest office of the land. Anybody? Anybody? ... didn't think so.
What were you saying again?