NOVA Car of the future show--looking for ideas
#1
01-18-2007, 09:17 PM
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 609
NOVA Car of the future show--looking for ideas
http://www.pbs.org/nova/car/
My wife is a science teacher and got this from her NOVA mailing list. They're putting together a show on the car of the future, hosted by the Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the "Car Talk" brothers, and much of it relates to energy issues with automobiles. The site has a feedback section where they're asking for ideas and suggestions for the show. Check it out.
My wife is a science teacher and got this from her NOVA mailing list. They're putting together a show on the car of the future, hosted by the Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the "Car Talk" brothers, and much of it relates to energy issues with automobiles. The site has a feedback section where they're asking for ideas and suggestions for the show. Check it out.
#4
01-19-2007, 06:06 AM
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 609
Re: NOVA Car of the future show--looking for ideas
Here's what I told them, basically my two energy soap boxes:
I have two important suggesitons for the show.
1. Please talk about hybrid cars, but please don't fall into the same trap that everyone else does about judging it by its "payback potential". No other car upgrade even has the capability to pay for itself, so using this unique feature of hybrids against them is preposturous. In fact the hybrid upgrade to my Honda Civic will pay for itself over time in gas savings, but it will take 90k miles. However, on any other non-hybrid car there aren't any options with that potential. The cd player? The V-8 upgrade? Those fancy wheels? What everyone else spends money on to upgrade their car never get questioned by that criteria, so why should the hybrids alone be judged by it?
2. Please talk about biodiesel, but again, please don't fall into the same trap everyone else has so far. Yeah it's fun to talk about the "veggie van" people who convert their car to run on free McDonald's fry oil. But that's not biodiesel, it's vegetable oil. There is a difference. Biodiesel is a commercially produced, readily available fuel that works in all diesel engines and requires absolutely no modification to the vehicle. Yes the veggie oil stories are cute and it's a neat way to get free fuel if you convert your vehicle, but because everyone talks about biodiesel (incorrectly) in that context, there's a really prevalent misconception out there that using biodiesel requires a conversion to the vehicle. Real biodiesel and veggie oil conversions are two completely different concepts, and when they're talked about together they confuse people into thinking that biodiesel is not accessible to them when really it is. Every modern diesel engine can support biodiesel but hardly anyone understands that.
Thank you for listening, but moreso thanks for doing this show. Cheers.
I have two important suggesitons for the show.
1. Please talk about hybrid cars, but please don't fall into the same trap that everyone else does about judging it by its "payback potential". No other car upgrade even has the capability to pay for itself, so using this unique feature of hybrids against them is preposturous. In fact the hybrid upgrade to my Honda Civic will pay for itself over time in gas savings, but it will take 90k miles. However, on any other non-hybrid car there aren't any options with that potential. The cd player? The V-8 upgrade? Those fancy wheels? What everyone else spends money on to upgrade their car never get questioned by that criteria, so why should the hybrids alone be judged by it?
2. Please talk about biodiesel, but again, please don't fall into the same trap everyone else has so far. Yeah it's fun to talk about the "veggie van" people who convert their car to run on free McDonald's fry oil. But that's not biodiesel, it's vegetable oil. There is a difference. Biodiesel is a commercially produced, readily available fuel that works in all diesel engines and requires absolutely no modification to the vehicle. Yes the veggie oil stories are cute and it's a neat way to get free fuel if you convert your vehicle, but because everyone talks about biodiesel (incorrectly) in that context, there's a really prevalent misconception out there that using biodiesel requires a conversion to the vehicle. Real biodiesel and veggie oil conversions are two completely different concepts, and when they're talked about together they confuse people into thinking that biodiesel is not accessible to them when really it is. Every modern diesel engine can support biodiesel but hardly anyone understands that.
Thank you for listening, but moreso thanks for doing this show. Cheers.
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