One of the more intrigueing items on display at the recently closed Detroit auto show was the all-video dashboard for the upcoming Dodge Dart. If you've read my blog for any length of time you'll know I'm not particularly keen on touchscreen controls - stuff you should be able to do without taking your eyes off the road (like changing a/c or fan settings) that gets buried in a menu-driven interface. Dodge have taken this to its logical conclusion with their new dash. The dash itself is a video display - which is sort of neat - but it presents w-a-y the hell too much information - so much so that it's now distracting. Their in-car controls for everything else are now driven with a touch-screen interface, thus showing they've learned nothing from Ford's experience with the MyTouch interface (and it's appalling customer feedback). Dodge have made it so you don't have anything haptic any more - no knobs, no buttons, so you can't even guess where a menu item is. Now they've forced you to take your eyes off the road to look at a screen to do everything. And given how most shiny surfaces in a car react to driving in sunlight, my guess is that a full 50% of the time you won't be able to see what's on the screen meaning it won't just be a quick look-see but a full-fledged moving-the-head-around attempt to see the most basic display. Stupid. See for yourself: http://video.aol.com/aolvideo/aol-autos/autoblog-short-cuts-2013-dodge-dart-gauge-display/1381314592001
Also remember the competition to win a CarMD vehicle diagnostic system is still open : Win a CarMD
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Ban the 'check engine' light.
We all know the 'check engine' light. For car enthusiasts it's a slap in the face. For people who just view their vehicle as A-to-B transport, it's dangerous. It obscures all manner of problems, shrouding them in a fog of mystery and making it easier for dishonest mechanics to take advantage of unknowing customers. We have chimes and lights on the dash for seatbelts, lights, low tyre pressures and keys left in the ignition but that check engine light can be anything from a loose petrol cap to an engine on the verge of destroying itself. All modern cars are equipped with OBD-II onboard diagnostics - they have been since 1996. We have the ability to put LCD displays in just about everything now so why not replace the check engine light with an LCD display that tells the owner what's actually wrong? Instead we have to rely on nerds like me with handheld scanners and an internet connection, products like the excellent CarMD or sometimes less-than-scrupulous dealers and mechanics with their "special tool".
In the US at least, there are federal mandates for things like tyre pressure warning systems and airbag warning lights - isn't it about time we got them to ban the check engine light and force manufacturers to put something more useful in its place? It can't be a cost issue - look at all the funky new electronic gizmos that are being put in cars now from pointless touchscreen interfaces to even more pointless auto-lights. Is it perhaps some conspiracy theory to keep dealers and mechanics profitable by hiding what could be a very simple problem from largely ignorant owners?
If, like me, you think the check engine light has had its day and you think there's a better opportunity, then go and sign the petition: Ban the check engine light.
In the meantime I can make life a little easier for you as I have a CarMD to give away in a competition. Head on over and try your luck. At the very least you'll be able to go to the mechanic with some level of knowledge next time that little yellow light comes on.
In the US at least, there are federal mandates for things like tyre pressure warning systems and airbag warning lights - isn't it about time we got them to ban the check engine light and force manufacturers to put something more useful in its place? It can't be a cost issue - look at all the funky new electronic gizmos that are being put in cars now from pointless touchscreen interfaces to even more pointless auto-lights. Is it perhaps some conspiracy theory to keep dealers and mechanics profitable by hiding what could be a very simple problem from largely ignorant owners?
If, like me, you think the check engine light has had its day and you think there's a better opportunity, then go and sign the petition: Ban the check engine light.
In the meantime I can make life a little easier for you as I have a CarMD to give away in a competition. Head on over and try your luck. At the very least you'll be able to go to the mechanic with some level of knowledge next time that little yellow light comes on.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Versus' Dakar coverage 2012 and Robby Gordon
If you're a long-time reader of my blog you'll know that I have a very dim view of the coverage of the Dakar rally provided to us by Versus (TV channel) here in America. I complained bitterly to their programming department last year and I think I might not have been the only one. The three biggest problems I had were
- the presenter was useless and had no need of a studio or screen time.
- they kept doing idiotic "local interest" stories with a woman reporter who didn't know Nasser al-Attiyah from Marc Coma. Frankly I'm not sure she even knew where in the world she was.
- they spent ages on the cars and motorbikes but the trucks and quad-bikes were an afterthought to the point where on some days they were not even mentioned.
Fast forward to 2012. The presenter, studio, and camera time were gone. I think the voiceover was even someone different. The "local interest" bimbette was ditched. And shock, horror, they covered trucks, independents and quad-bikes this year too. It was even in proper HD instead of the upscaled-and-cropped nonsense they peddled last year. It's still not the best coverage there is but it can definitely be summed up thusly: it sucks a lot less than it has done in recent years. I wonder if this is because Versus is now part of NBC Universal?
But on to the talk of the rally, the irrepressibly vulgar Robby Gordon. Following a ban because of technical irregularities with his engine, he won Saturday's stage and then told all the other teams to kiss his ass. He went to the MINI team and told them MINIs were for girls, and then told them to kiss his ass too. Unsportsmanlike? Absolutely. Showing some humility? No. He's made even more enemies this year. Go home Robby. You're an arrogant, unpleasant and you don't bring anything to the game. We don't want you in the Dakar rally - we prefer true sportsmen who help others out, play by the rules and show humility where it's due. Dakar doesn't need your boorish petulant childlike character.
- the presenter was useless and had no need of a studio or screen time.
- they kept doing idiotic "local interest" stories with a woman reporter who didn't know Nasser al-Attiyah from Marc Coma. Frankly I'm not sure she even knew where in the world she was.
- they spent ages on the cars and motorbikes but the trucks and quad-bikes were an afterthought to the point where on some days they were not even mentioned.
Fast forward to 2012. The presenter, studio, and camera time were gone. I think the voiceover was even someone different. The "local interest" bimbette was ditched. And shock, horror, they covered trucks, independents and quad-bikes this year too. It was even in proper HD instead of the upscaled-and-cropped nonsense they peddled last year. It's still not the best coverage there is but it can definitely be summed up thusly: it sucks a lot less than it has done in recent years. I wonder if this is because Versus is now part of NBC Universal?
But on to the talk of the rally, the irrepressibly vulgar Robby Gordon. Following a ban because of technical irregularities with his engine, he won Saturday's stage and then told all the other teams to kiss his ass. He went to the MINI team and told them MINIs were for girls, and then told them to kiss his ass too. Unsportsmanlike? Absolutely. Showing some humility? No. He's made even more enemies this year. Go home Robby. You're an arrogant, unpleasant and you don't bring anything to the game. We don't want you in the Dakar rally - we prefer true sportsmen who help others out, play by the rules and show humility where it's due. Dakar doesn't need your boorish petulant childlike character.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Guest post: Saving money on gas.
How to Save Money on Gas
Though gas prices are always fluctuating, they always seem to rise over time, representing a significant expense for those of us who commute to work, who have to travel a lot, or who don’t have the benefit of convenient mass transportation. Of course, driving a hybrid or an electric vehicle and finding ways to reduce your need to travel are some of the best ways to reduce gas costs. However, if you are stuck with your old gas guzzler to drive to a job that isn’t likely to change in the near future, there are some other easy ways that you can conserve gas and cut your overall expense:
Fuel Choice
Most vehicles can operate just as well on the lowest grade of octane as they can on the "super" grade – and you’ll save a lot of money in the process. Very few cars require mid- or premium-grade fuel. If yours doesn’t, don’t waste your money on the pricier gas. You won’t get better performance; you’ll only pay more. The exception here is if you have a high compression engine (or a turbo), premium does make a different because it allows the engine management system to run at the recommended ignition timing which allows the engine to run closer to its advertised power. Lower grade gas is lower octane and the engines have to retard their ignition timing to compensate for this. In doing so, you lose horsepower and torque.
Tire Maintenance
Tires that are not properly inflated will cause your vehicle to consume more gas. Check your tires weekly to ensure that they have enough air and that they are at the appropriate pressure. Also be sure to check for signs of wear or stripping, as this can lead to less-efficient tires and greater gas consumption.
Engine Maintenance
Making sure that your engine is well-maintained is also critical to ensuring fuel efficiency. In particular, be sure that your filters – air, oil, gas – are clean and well-maintained. Other items of note include spark plugs and belts. When these items become worn or clogged, they can contribute to extra fuel consumption by forcing the engine to work harder.
Monitor Speed
Accelerating and driving your car at high speeds contributes to greater gas consumption. If you don’t like to drive slowly, you can conserve gas by maintaining a steady speed. This means being mindful not to quickly start and stop in congested traffic and to use cruise control when travelling at normal speeds. Both practices will minimize the amount that you have to accelerate and will reduce your overall gas consumption.
Temperature Control
If you live in a relatively mild climate, this one may be a bit easier for you: Whenever you can, avoid using your air conditioning and roll down your windows or use your fan instead. Air conditioning will significantly increase your gas usage. In the hot summer months, you can also park your car in the shade to minimize the power needed to cool down the interior. In the winter, you can park your car inside a garage or in the direct sunlight in the morning to reduce the time needed to defrost and warm up the car (which runs the engine idly, using gas).
Reduce Drag
The harder your engine has to work to power your car, the more gas you will use. To make it easier for your engine, reduce the amount of drag on your car. You can do this by eliminating weight (clean out your trunk and don’t pile up luggage on the roof), keeping your windows rolled up (to eliminate air turbulence), and drafting behind large trucks on the highway.
It is small steps like these that can help you save a significant amount of money by reducing gas consumption. If you want to make a really big cut in your gas budget, find ways to carpool, bike to work, or take public transportation. You’ll save money and help the environment!
About the author:
Amanda Tradwick is a grant researcher and writer for CollegeGrants.org. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware, and has recently finished research on low income college grants and student grants in new york.
Though gas prices are always fluctuating, they always seem to rise over time, representing a significant expense for those of us who commute to work, who have to travel a lot, or who don’t have the benefit of convenient mass transportation. Of course, driving a hybrid or an electric vehicle and finding ways to reduce your need to travel are some of the best ways to reduce gas costs. However, if you are stuck with your old gas guzzler to drive to a job that isn’t likely to change in the near future, there are some other easy ways that you can conserve gas and cut your overall expense:
Fuel Choice
Most vehicles can operate just as well on the lowest grade of octane as they can on the "super" grade – and you’ll save a lot of money in the process. Very few cars require mid- or premium-grade fuel. If yours doesn’t, don’t waste your money on the pricier gas. You won’t get better performance; you’ll only pay more. The exception here is if you have a high compression engine (or a turbo), premium does make a different because it allows the engine management system to run at the recommended ignition timing which allows the engine to run closer to its advertised power. Lower grade gas is lower octane and the engines have to retard their ignition timing to compensate for this. In doing so, you lose horsepower and torque.
Tire Maintenance
Tires that are not properly inflated will cause your vehicle to consume more gas. Check your tires weekly to ensure that they have enough air and that they are at the appropriate pressure. Also be sure to check for signs of wear or stripping, as this can lead to less-efficient tires and greater gas consumption.
Engine Maintenance
Making sure that your engine is well-maintained is also critical to ensuring fuel efficiency. In particular, be sure that your filters – air, oil, gas – are clean and well-maintained. Other items of note include spark plugs and belts. When these items become worn or clogged, they can contribute to extra fuel consumption by forcing the engine to work harder.
Monitor Speed
Accelerating and driving your car at high speeds contributes to greater gas consumption. If you don’t like to drive slowly, you can conserve gas by maintaining a steady speed. This means being mindful not to quickly start and stop in congested traffic and to use cruise control when travelling at normal speeds. Both practices will minimize the amount that you have to accelerate and will reduce your overall gas consumption.
Temperature Control
If you live in a relatively mild climate, this one may be a bit easier for you: Whenever you can, avoid using your air conditioning and roll down your windows or use your fan instead. Air conditioning will significantly increase your gas usage. In the hot summer months, you can also park your car in the shade to minimize the power needed to cool down the interior. In the winter, you can park your car inside a garage or in the direct sunlight in the morning to reduce the time needed to defrost and warm up the car (which runs the engine idly, using gas).
Reduce Drag
The harder your engine has to work to power your car, the more gas you will use. To make it easier for your engine, reduce the amount of drag on your car. You can do this by eliminating weight (clean out your trunk and don’t pile up luggage on the roof), keeping your windows rolled up (to eliminate air turbulence), and drafting behind large trucks on the highway.
It is small steps like these that can help you save a significant amount of money by reducing gas consumption. If you want to make a really big cut in your gas budget, find ways to carpool, bike to work, or take public transportation. You’ll save money and help the environment!
About the author:
Amanda Tradwick is a grant researcher and writer for CollegeGrants.org. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware, and has recently finished research on low income college grants and student grants in new york.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Happy New Year. Now get out of that handicap space.
If you're one of those perfectly healthy, able-bodied drivers who has a relative with a handicap parking permit, I'm talking to you. You know who you are - the ones who take advantage of the permit to park in handicap spaces because you're too bloody lazy to walk from the regular parking spots. I don't know why these people think that somehow being in a car with a displayed permit entitles them to park there. The permit does not apply to the car - it applies to the handicap person who applied for the permit. But there's a percentage of the population who think that it's just fine and dandy to borrow a car with a handicap permit and abuse that permit to park where they want. These are the same people who have entitlement issues - people who believe wholeheartedly that everyone else owes them something.
You know what? There's no difference between you abusing your relative's handicap permit, and just parking there in your normal car. It's callous and uncaring, and if I was the mayor of a town where I saw this happening, you'd be fined and spend a night in jail. This is yet another barometer of the continuing fall of society. You should be ashamed of yourselves, but of course, you don't think there's anything wrong and you certainly don't care what anyone else thinks.
You know what? There's no difference between you abusing your relative's handicap permit, and just parking there in your normal car. It's callous and uncaring, and if I was the mayor of a town where I saw this happening, you'd be fined and spend a night in jail. This is yet another barometer of the continuing fall of society. You should be ashamed of yourselves, but of course, you don't think there's anything wrong and you certainly don't care what anyone else thinks.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Auto Drive Cars - why they'll never happen
A few weeks ago at lunch, one of my colleagues made a remark that sparked off a heated conversation. He said "I can't wait for auto drive cars to get here". Another colleague backed up this sentiment so I waded in with my big wooden oar and asked what possible benefit they could see from a car that drives itself. They gave me the usual answer most people come up with - they want to get from A to B but they find driving a chore. I pointed out that they could take a taxi, or public transport right now and it would give them exactly what they wanted. They could sit there sending twits or facespace updates and not have to worry about the act of driving. Now one interesting part of this debate came about when we got to the area of responsibility. The two in question are both tea-party supporters and have opined regularly about how personal responsibility seems to be a thing of the past, how people seem to ready to blame and place their own responsibilities in the hands of others (by which they mean the government). So I pointed out that auto-drive cars are the pinnacle of abandoning personal responsibility. By wanting an auto-drive car, you effectively want a computer to take responsibility for the two ton weapon you're sitting in. And this is why auto-drive cars will never happen. Our society is too litigious for this to ever come true. People will place too much faith in technology and the first time an auto-drive car mows down a child in the street, or causes a multi-car pile-up, the lawyers will get involved because the owners (you can't call them drivers at this point) will simply say "but the car should have stopped itself!"
At this point in the debate, my two colleagues, knowing I'm also an aircraft nerd, decided to try to be clever by pointing out that every time we fly, we're quite happy to let the aircraft fly on autopilot. Didn't work, obviously, because first of all, I don't own the aircraft and I'm not a pilot so I have no responsibility for the aircraft or where it goes. Being a passenger on an aircraft is akin to being a passenger in a bus or a taxi. But secondly, look up - do you see commercial airlines packed 10ft apart, nose-to-tail, wingtip to wingtip in the sky? No you don't.
For auto-drive to even be vaguely feasible, the various manufacturers must first agree on a common system whereby all the cars can talk to each other and thus communicate their intentions (in the same way that collision-avoidance systems work in aircraft). That system also needs to be ultra-secure to avoid remote tampering. History has proven that competing manufacturers can almost never agree on something like this, and coupled with the lawyer issue, auto-drive cars will never happen.
Anyway - I can't imagine a more joyless world for motorists than cars that drive themselves.
At this point in the debate, my two colleagues, knowing I'm also an aircraft nerd, decided to try to be clever by pointing out that every time we fly, we're quite happy to let the aircraft fly on autopilot. Didn't work, obviously, because first of all, I don't own the aircraft and I'm not a pilot so I have no responsibility for the aircraft or where it goes. Being a passenger on an aircraft is akin to being a passenger in a bus or a taxi. But secondly, look up - do you see commercial airlines packed 10ft apart, nose-to-tail, wingtip to wingtip in the sky? No you don't.
For auto-drive to even be vaguely feasible, the various manufacturers must first agree on a common system whereby all the cars can talk to each other and thus communicate their intentions (in the same way that collision-avoidance systems work in aircraft). That system also needs to be ultra-secure to avoid remote tampering. History has proven that competing manufacturers can almost never agree on something like this, and coupled with the lawyer issue, auto-drive cars will never happen.
Anyway - I can't imagine a more joyless world for motorists than cars that drive themselves.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Don't claim glass chips on your insurance.
A lot of car dealers and glass chip repair shops will claim that they do free repairs as long as they can bill your insurance. Don't do it. Ask them how much it would be for you out-of-pocket first. Typically it will be something like $20 or £15 for the repair but if you let them do it 'free' and charge your insurance, guess how much the bill is? Most US shops will bill your insurance $120 for a $20 repair. Whilst its filed as a no-fault claim, it is still a claim and it can and will be factored in to your premium at the next renewal. If you have any morale fibre, you'll also realise that that is insurance fraud, although most people choose not to think of it like that. Apart from that, glass chips is not what insurance is for. You should always cover small things like that yourself. It's why you have a deductible on the policy.
One other point - now it's properly winter, if you do have a decent sized chip in your windscreen, do go and get it fixed. Winter is the best time for cracked windscreens. Water gets into the chips and then freezes, expanding, and stressing the windscreen.
Well - have a Merry Christmas at the end of the week. Next week's entry will probably be automated as I'll still be in a turkey-induced torpor.
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