An American Problem

At the time of the auto industry bailout, it sure sounded encouraging when President Obama announced that we were ushering in an era of "creating new jobs, unleashing new prosperity and manufacturing the fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will carry us toward an energy-independent future.”

So, how's that working out, Mr. President?

Oh, of course.

But at least something is being sold, right?

In particular, what Mr. Obama called his “one goal” — having Detroit “lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars” — is nowhere near being achieved. While the idea of improving G.M.’s and Chrysler’s fuel efficiency was doubtless a politically popular justification for the bailout, American consumers have not embraced the goal with equal fervor. Sales of fuel-sipping compact and subcompact cars have actually dropped this year, while pickup and sport utility vehicle sales grew by double-digit percentages.

Woooo hoooo! It may not be green, and it may not be next-generation as promised, but at least sales are up! That has to be a good omen. But... who is buying?

Another troubling trend is an increase in fleet sales — the delivery of huge numbers of units to corporations and government agencies. While fleet sales improve short-term volume, the profit margins are slim and the practice can hurt long-term sales as consumers come to view the models as unsexy “fleet queens.” And Detroit has gorged on such sales in 2010, with some 32 percent of all vehicles from the Big Three sold through October going to fleet operators. Furthermore, a quarter of all the hybrids built by Detroit since President Obama took office have been bought by federal agencies, showing that enthusiasm for Detroit’s hybrids is limited somewhat to government fleet buyers.

In addition, even when it comes to the trucks and S.U.V.’s that Americans actually do want to buy, the bailed-out automakers are building vehicles faster than they can be bought. Inventory levels at both companies have ballooned this year, to the point where G.M. now has nearly three months’ worth of sales sitting on its lots...

Feeling better yet about the success of these bailouts?

Allowing new cars to pile up on lots may well be the most deadly of Detroit’s new-old bad habits, as the practice not only artificially inflates sales numbers (which, ridiculously, are booked upon production, not when a vehicle is driven off the lot), but also lead to yet more incentives, fleet sales, subsidized leases and subprime lending.

Sigh. I keep looking for a silver lining in this piece, but I'm not seeing it.

I know, I know, we can't expect a 180° turnaround in two years after decades of behavior, but overall this does not look at all like any lessons have been learned. In fact, it reminds me of the state we're in politically: a lot of promises about change, efficiency, and a brighter future while bending over backwards to maintain the status quo.

Good Riddance, Hummer

I shall not mourn the Hummer crash.

General Motors said on Wednesday that it would shut down Hummer, the brand of big sport utility vehicles that became synonymous with the term gas guzzler, after a deal to sell it to a Chinese manufacturer fell apart.

Up to 3,000 jobs could be lost if GM follows through with the shutdown. But honestly, we could, and should, be creating better jobs out there, manufacturing products which don't contribute to our downfall.

Count Me As a Dismayed Safety Advocate

Honestly, people! Have we taken leave of our senses? It's bad enough that only 90+ percent of people think texting while driving is a bad idea. Do you really feel safe on the roads at 50, 60, or 75 MPH knowing that every tenth car you encounter has a driver who feels that texting while driving is a good idea?

Apparently, that activity doesn't provide ample entertainment and distraction, so next up to the plate is full-frontal internet access.

To the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat.

Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car. They see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices.

This week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the neon-drenched annual trade show here, these companies are demonstrating the breadth of their ambitions, like 10-inch screens above the gearshift showing high-definition videos, 3-D maps and Web pages.

I have no problem with internet access in cars. Hell, I'd love to have it just to listen to Austin radio while I'm in southeast Arkansas, or 93XRT Chicago, or the great jazz station in Long Beach. But it doesn't belong in front of the driver! Hell, why not just pop a 25-inch HD monitor on the dash! Sure beats having to look at the boring world around you.

Not once have I ever been driving and wished I could be reading Pam's House Blend or Crooks and Liars while cruising down the Interstate at 85 MPH. I've got other things on my mind like deer crossing the road. And cops needing to meet a revenue quota. And people reading web pages instead of driving! I know I'm stretching things a bit for humor.

They prevent drivers from watching video and using some other functions while the car is moving, but they can still pull up content as varied as restaurant reviews and the covers of music albums with the tap of a finger.

OK, not once have I ever been driving and wished I could read a restaurant review and catch a glance of Sticky Fingers.

In the list of bad ideas, this has got to be near the top. Fine if used responsibly. I remember when cars started getting outfitted with those head rests and some people surely thought they were meant to be used as a head rest, literally. How convenient! On a long 600 mile trip, I can put on the cruise control and catch a quick nap. What will they think of next?

A Post-Bailout Revamped GM

Yesterday I got a credit card statement with a few extra fliers in it, one of which was this little piece from GM promoting their all new fuel-efficient green technological marvel .... Hummer!

I mean, seriously, what the flying fuck? I don't know how else to respond.

Because the vast majority of Americans need this vehicle since we are constantly like, you know, driving in the woods and over huge boulders and shit.

Fine, Let Toyota & Honda Conquer the World

Jeeez!

Right now, carmakers say they would be able to sell only their smallest, most fuel-efficient cars — models like the Toyota Prius, a hybrid whose sales have fallen sharply since gas prices began dropping last fall — because once-popular vehicles like pickup trucks made by Ford and G.M. are not efficient enough.

“I want clean air and clean water just like the next guy,” said Erich Merkle, an independent automotive analyst in Grand Rapids, Mich. “But in the real world, there would be consumer outrage with the fact that they’re limited to maybe two vehicles and there’s nothing there that would meet their family’s needs.”

You want to see "consumer outrage?" I'm outraged that these asswipes are getting billions in bailout money and don't seem to be willing to stretch an inch. These low fuel prices aren't going to hang around indefinitely. Eventually we'll be right back where we were in the summer of 2008. But whatever. I've completely lost my sympathy.

Just yesterday, another 75,000 people probably aren't going to buy a Tahoe, Suburban, Escalade, or Prius. So, chew on that, Detroit.

Marijuana Is Deadly

The New York Times was full of interesting stuff today.
Gang Fights in Prison Injure 22 and Kill One

That's right here in the lovely state of Texas. Something seems horribly wrong if you can't control gang activity IN a prison.

A federal prison in Texas erupted in violence early Friday when two gang-related fights broke out almost simultaneously in facing housing units. One inmate was killed, and 22 were injured, officials said.

It was the second outbreak of fighting in a federal lockup in Texas in three weeks.

[...]

The dead inmate was identified as Servando Rodríguez, 38, an illegal immigrant serving 54 months for marijuana and parole violations.

That's 4 1/2 years for marijuana and whatever the parole violations where. Probably marijuana-related. I guess he won't have to finish his sentence. Now there's an open bunk for the next marijuana conviction.

In other news, keep an eye on your automotive underbelly, especially if you drive a large SUV. Catalytic converters are becoming hot items in our new economic reality, thanks to trace amounts of platinum.

Inside the lobby of the New Windy City Mufflers and Brakes shop, Mr. Fernandez said he had heard a rumor that catalytic converters had suddenly become the rage on the black market here, but he did not believe it until his went missing on a well-lighted North Side street.

Theft of scrap metals like copper and aluminum has been common here and across the country for years, fueled by rising construction costs and the building boom in China. But now thieves have found an easy payday from the upper echelon of the periodic table. It seems there may not be an easier place to score some platinum than under the hood of a car.

[...]

People who may have thought their lives had nothing to do with the booming commodities market are finding out the hard way where their connection is — in their car’s exhaust system.

The catalytic converter is made with trace amounts of platinum, palladium and rhodium, which speed chemical reactions and help clean emissions at very high temperatures. Selling stolen converters to scrap yards or recyclers, a thief can net a couple of hundred dollars apiece.

None of this may matter in the long run though. When a giant particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland starts smashing protons this summer, some scientists fear the earth may be sucked into a black hole.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

That would certainly take care of my daily frustrations: the lawn mower maintenance, the roof replacement, garden pests intent on destroying our tomato crop, and of course the credit card bills and other financial woes would get sucked into the hole along with everything else. And an early end to a nasty presidential campaign with no winners needed.

Fire this baby up!

In a worst case scenario, it wouldn't even be important that I give a photo credit to Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times. When we're all possibly getting a free ride to the other end of the universe, who cares?

Crossposted at Big Brass Blog

Pedestrians in India: Beware

As much as I used to complain about my stop-and-go 30 minute commute to downtown Austin, I'm thankful I don't have to deal with traffic in New Delhi.

Aside from the obvious problems such as increased congestion on already crowded roads, there are the minor details such as driver education and training, and perhaps trying to implement some organization to the chaos. Oh, and law enforcement. That might be helpful.

Never mind that none of the six adult members of the household knew how to drive. No sooner had the car arrived than Mr. Sharma, 34, took it for a spin and knocked over a friend. His brother slammed into a motorcyclist, injuring no one but damaging the bumper. The brother was so scared that he no longer gets behind the wheel, except on Sundays, when the roads are empty.

“We bought it first, and then we thought about driving,” Mr. Sharma confessed.

This situation will undoubtedly get worse now that Tata Motors has introduced a $2,500 car -- the world's cheapest -- which will pave the road to first-time car ownership for countless new Indian families.

Indians are rushing headlong to get behind the wheel, as incomes rise, car loans proliferate, and the auto industry churns out low-cost cars to nudge them off their motorcycles. They bought 1.5 million cars last year. By some estimates India is expected to soar past China this year as the fastest-growing car market.

[...]

In his first driving lesson, Mr. Sharma had more immediate worries in mind. Sharing the road with him were a bicyclist with three cooking-gas cylinders strapped to the back of his bike, a pushcart vendor plying guavas, a cycle rickshaw loaded with a photocopy machine (rickshaws often being the preferred mode of delivery for modern appliances).

There were also a great many pedestrians, either leaping into traffic in the absence of crosswalks or marching in thick rows on the sides of the road in the absence of sidewalks. At one point, a car careered down the wrong side of the road. Then a three-wheeled scooter-rickshaw came straight at Mr. Sharma, only to duck swiftly down a side street. At least this morning there was no elephant chewing bamboo in the fast lane, as there sometimes is.

Somehow the idea of a "fast lane" in the midst of all this chaos is amusing. And this situation has nowhere to go but from bad to worse.

With a population of nearly 16.5 million, New Delhi now adds 650 vehicles to its roads each day. At last count, there were 5.4 million vehicles in all, a more than fivefold increase in 20 years; scooters and motorbikes still outnumber cars two to one.

Not surprisingly, pedestrians aren't faring so well in the mayhem.

Pity the walker in the city. Half of all fatal road accident victims are pedestrians, according to the police. Every now and then, a homeless person sleeping on the street is run over. Last week, a speeding car banged into a policeman standing at a traffic checkpoint and didn’t bother to stop; the officer was critically injured.

New Delhi issued more than 300,000 driver’s licenses last year, which could be seen as either a feat of bureaucratic efficiency or Indian ingenuity. At one city licensing office this week, the test, which took about a minute, consisted of turning on the ignition and driving in a wide circle.

Also, it's relatively easy to get a license on the black market, which is convenient for people who can't read, as the article goes on to cite one such example.

I guess they'll figure it out eventually. Meanwhile I'm happy to be watching it from afar.

Take the Fun Out of Driving

One of the things I enjoy about driving is the fact that I'm driving. I'm not sure why but there's just something inherently satisfying about the experience. Much of it has to do with the make and model I selected. After all, their entire marketing campaign emphasizes the pleasure of driving it in a simple four word slogan.

It wouldn't matter a whole lot if I was driving something less fun. I enjoyed driving my 1964 MGB and my beat-up Toyota Corolla for which I paid about $550 back in the 80s.

But leave it to General Motors to come up with an idea to toss all my pleasure aside. If this comes to fruition, and I could see benefits of it in certain areas, the joy of motoring will be equal to driving those amusement park cars that were guided by a track. It was fun to steer them but there was no point.

Within a decade, General Motors thinks it will have the ultimate solution to the growing problem of distracted drivers: a car that can do the driving itself.

G.M.’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, plans to unveil a prototype of a self-driving Chevrolet Tahoe sport-utility vehicle developed with the help of Carnegie Mellon University on Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show. The vehicle, nicknamed “Boss,” is capable of handling itself in a controlled setting like the parking lot at the Las Vegas Convention Center where G.M. is showing it off this week, but not on a regular street with obstacles like pedestrians.

The automaker expects driverless vehicle technology to be ready for testing by 2015 and in vehicles that it sells by 2018, a G.M. spokesman, Scott Fosgard, said on Sunday.

[...]

G.M. hopes that the prospect of a driverless car will make the company, which has struggled to shed its image as a lumbering industrial-age behemoth, appear more cutting-edge.

Emphasis on the word appear. Using a Tahoe to demonstrate this probably blows away the notion of "cutting-edge" right there. This is one major reason why GM is having problems.

The Orgasmatron was a cutting-edge idea but that doesn't mean I want to use it in lieu of actual sex.