11-13-08 - Is Thomas Friedman On Crack? - jalopnik.com

[Matthijs]

http://jalopnik.com/5085637/is-thomas-friedman-on-crack

We like what Aptera (http://jalopnik.com/cars/future-cars/300-mpg-electric-vehicle--plug+in-hybrid-for-under-30k-324491.php) is trying, but it isn't a solution for most commuters.

Yeah and then see how many commuters are sitting alone in their cars doing their daily commute in rushhour. :fighting0030:

[APTERA 2356]

Who ever ends up with our tax dollers should have to produce a vehicle that will move us in the direction of being green.

Whether it's a more efficient ICE or all electric we need to get our use of fosil fuel under control and we can't do that without options.

We don't really need another malibu, we need more options like the Aptera and volt.

[n_dawg]

Typical windbag industry reaction from Jalopnik. Move along.

EDIT: Also, what do people not get about design at Apple?

While we agree an "iCar" could look pretty slick, it again shows Friedman's grasp of cars as existing in exterior design alone, with the inner workings something anyone with Lego blocks can engineer.

While their glib remarks sound substantial, it again shows Jalopnik's grasp of the concept of design as existing in appearance alone, rather than holistic and functional. This is the problem with giving the name "designer" to what can only be describes as "car stylists." Detroit doesn't have designers anymore, just stylists and engineers.

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." -- Steven Paul Jobs

[speednut]

I hate to be the contrarian here, but Jalopnik is mostly spot on about a guy I respect a lot. I agree with Friedman and read his publications, but he is clearly on crack talking about something he knows nothing about. I do disagree with Jalopnik because the Aptera as we know it right now will make an outstanding commuter car for most of the public. The majority of drivers I see around me on the road are driving solo, including the slow pokey ones in Piouses clogging our commuter lanes.

But Jobs doing car design? Come on, it's 1000x more complex and regulated 100000x more than the simple CE industry. I may be an Apple fan boy, but the Jobs reality distortion field isn't as effective on me. Just try and imagine what an iCar interior would be like... It would be gorgeous inside, with smooth transitions and glossy everywhere. Yet there would only be one button on the dash and a touch screen. *cough*i-Drive*cough* You could only run one application at a time except for music. No menu button and absolutely no consistency for how to change an app's settings. Want to put a new destination in the nav system, first you have to exit the engine run app, then you can go to the nav screen. Once you go back to the engine run app, the nav app stops. Plus you can't copy and paste the address emailed to you into the nav app. Yeah, I'm being obnoxiously cheeky here, but my point is design is not the most important thing, just as Jobs can make products with fantastic design, functionality can still be impacted.

Grab a seat in a Ford Flex or CLS Cadillac, design is far from dead in Detroit. They may not be what you need in a car, but they are still compelling. For the Flex, it's one of the best high capacity people haulers to come from Detroit in a long time with good gas (87 octane) mileage (in its class). Nonetheless, I can't ever see Detroit truly changing their ways (egregious exec comp, UAW, bean-counters interfering with design, etc) until they implode. Bailout money only prolongs this necessary transition.

Regarding the funding electric car companies in CA, have we really heard that Aptera wants this? While Tesla is the local company for me, they are the last company that is deserving of funding, especially with their bungee senior executive staffing issues. I've found the Tesla roadster to be very underwhelming, especially for $110k. Until Aptera asks for federal funding to manufacture 3k Typ2e/week, I can't support any "bailout" funding to any automaker and Friedman is still on crack about the Job's iCar.

[Carbon Saver II]

Prius's are not always driven slowly. Last year in "the Valley" on the 101 I was in the fast lane running about 80-85 mph. There was a Maserati Quatroport closing. We/I cranked it up to about 85-95 mph as my wife was occupied with her sister in the car. The other driver was not making good decisions on how to get around me, and while he got over to other lanes he got pinned down in traffic a few times. You really need to drive far in front of a vehicle if you are going to successful drive fast, and anticipate. (It always amazes me in the morning compute how many people jump on the brakes because the sun got in their eyes, like it wasn't in the same place the day before and the sunvisor should have been dropped to account for that a couple hundred feet ago.)

This started in Westlake. By the time we got to the Sherman Oaks he had been behind me about 3 times. Not hard on my bumper, because if he had, I believe in catch and release.... having fun and road rage are two different things. Then he took the exit. It was Tom Hanks behind the wheel, who looked over and wondered how a Prius had managed to stay ahead.....

Its not the vehicle, its the driver.