I've been a Toyota and Honda owner for 20 years and never thought I would buy a GM car. Bought the Volt and absolutely love it. I have to agree with DCFusor that the Volt is a game-changing vehicle. Of course everyone's driving patterns are different but we commute, haul kids around to soccer, go to the airport, etc and unless we're taking a longer trip, the daily 40 miles per charge has been more than enough. So much of the PR spin has to be coming from the oil companies who are threatened by this disruptive technology. When more and more people start to drive most of their daily miles with no gas, the oil demand picture starts to change very quickly. This technology has the ability to liberate us from foreign oil imports (doesn't matter if it's Canada, Mexico or the middle east the dollars are still flowing out) and the dependency associated with keeping world oil markets open. If anyone bothers to count the US military presence in the middle east as a subsidy to oil, we could practically give away Volts and still save money overall.
This is not an environmental purist car, it's a car about independence from oil, American technology leadership and American jobs. Great article about the history of the Volt http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/electro-shock-therapy/306871/ I think we should be celebrating the accomplishments GM has made with this car, it's definitely a game-changer.
The USPTO examiners have only a few hours to research prior art and make a decision to grant a patent. The backlog of applications is years long currently so the rush to review and grant will let a lot of low quality patents through.
Article One Partners is a company working to improve patent validity for granted patents. Peer 2 Patent is another project to help improve the information available to examiners. Both are great projects to get involved with if you're interested in the current patent mess.
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I've been a Toyota and Honda owner for 20 years and never thought I would buy a GM car. Bought the Volt and absolutely love it. I have to agree with DCFusor that the Volt is a game-changing vehicle. Of course everyone's driving patterns are different but we commute, haul kids around to soccer, go to the airport, etc and unless we're taking a longer trip, the daily 40 miles per charge has been more than enough. So much of the PR spin has to be coming from the oil companies who are threatened by this disruptive technology. When more and more people start to drive most of their daily miles with no gas, the oil demand picture starts to change very quickly. This technology has the ability to liberate us from foreign oil imports (doesn't matter if it's Canada, Mexico or the middle east the dollars are still flowing out) and the dependency associated with keeping world oil markets open. If anyone bothers to count the US military presence in the middle east as a subsidy to oil, we could practically give away Volts and still save money overall. This is not an environmental purist car, it's a car about independence from oil, American technology leadership and American jobs. Great article about the history of the Volt http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/electro-shock-therapy/306871/ I think we should be celebrating the accomplishments GM has made with this car, it's definitely a game-changer.
The USPTO examiners have only a few hours to research prior art and make a decision to grant a patent. The backlog of applications is years long currently so the rush to review and grant will let a lot of low quality patents through. Article One Partners is a company working to improve patent validity for granted patents. Peer 2 Patent is another project to help improve the information available to examiners. Both are great projects to get involved with if you're interested in the current patent mess.