Russell buys a used Prius from Paul and explains why he flew 1200 and drove for 17 hours to do it, GM and Nikola decide to make trucks, the Las Vegas CC buys a monorail, Puerto Rico plans out a better future, new ways to make energy and more.
Here’s awesome Google Doc Paul mentioned: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1HflVng6sYIb6Gs4pOKiDGtqU5YJ2-hgdM4pRNaT62gs/htmlview?fbclid=IwAR3Xzeh-U5AVI_bcfcSAqx_PIBAVAoka3CYSkpaLZ1xKs_x2dqy8KU05NZA#
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audio only,What Drives Us episode
1) Russell teases that he’s been invited to a Toyota AWD event. More details in a future show.
2) Simon Wecker, a guy in Berlin, Germany, pulled 90 cell phones – all with Google Maps active – through empty streets. Why? Because Google interpreted all that data to mean that the streets were congested with 90 cars, all barely moving along. The result was empty streets thanks to Google routing everyone around Wecker and his wagon of phones.
3) Hyundai is doubling their Kona EV production be adding a second factory. This is in response to the Kona’s massive demand, which Hyundai is not able to keep up with.
4) The new US Building Codes will call for new homes in the US to be manufactured “EV Ready”.
5) Rivian and Amazon are designing and building a custom EV Amazon delivery van. It’s kind of cute.
6) We’re relatively excited to see that there are EV trucks coming to market. Americans love their trucks so if we want to win them over we’re going to need electric trucks.
7) Toyota is introducing new technology to safe stupid people from themselves. This new software will detect when someone mashes the accelerator rather than the brake and make sure the car doesn’t surge forward. Because, let’s face it, unexpected acceleration was really human error all along.
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Car, Eco, electric, EV, future, german, google, Hyundai, LE, LED, Software, Technology, Toyota, truck, van
audio and video,What Drives Us episode
This week’s news and reviews…
Mark –
Mark goes into detail on his week driving the Chevy Bolt EV
Paul –
Russell –
Uber news round-up: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Android Auto whips ass on Apple Car Play
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2017, android, android auto, apple, autonomous, Bolt, Charging, Chevrolet, Chevy, chevy bolt, china, EV, feature, featured, funding, gm, google, law, laws, LE, regulations, review, self-driving, shell, tax, tencent, Tesla, uber
audio and video,Featured,Features,What Drives Us episode
This week’s show starts with a fiery debate between Evan and Russell over Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Come for the excitement and stick around for the excellent news coverage this week.
Russell Rant/s…
You can’t have it both ways, Elon Musk is normalizing trumps craziness
Thanks Igor
For posting info on the prime availability in NY state via twitter
And so begins the walkback of shame
Mark
VW tells us how they will spend the $2B Dieselgate Fine
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2017, Bolt, Charging, Chevrolet, Diesel, dieselgate, electric, elon musk, EV, faraday future, feature, featured, future, gm, google, LE, prime, reveal, Tesla, trump, van, VW
audio and video,Featured,Features,What Drives Us episode
Russell
-additionally, is this the beginning of the end for hybrid cars?
Russell
a mistake tesla (hopefully) won’t make again
Tony
Mercedes-Benz Unveils All-Electric Urban eTruck At IAA
Russell
This smells like some sweet, sweet bullshit to me
Mark
More Chevy Bolt News – Pricing
-$37,495 US
-$42,795 CND
Russell
And finally, thanks to Faraday Future. The depth of your marketing team is evident here.
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2016, apple, Bolt, Canada, Charging, Chevrolet, Chevy, electric, EV, faraday future, featured, future, google, hybrid, LE, Prius, Tesla, truck
I’m in the process of recording these articles in a series of videos. Click the image to the left to watch them. While there, be sure to subscribe to the channel.
-Tony Schaefer
A lot of people are seemingly (or actually) addicted to Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, InstaGram, and/or whatever new social media app / website just went online while I was writing this sentence. So much time is spent (some would say ‘wasted’) electronically interacting with people, the whole concept of social media has gotten a really bad reputation. However, it can be argued that there are beneficial facets to social media interactions and the ability to instantly engage with multiple people regardless of time and distance.
This article will discuss ways in which you can use social media and internet communities to improve your fuel economy. When possible, links are provided to online sources; this is not a promotion of one site over another. If one of your favorite online resources is missing, let us know so we can include it.
Join a Hybrid / Car / Hypermiling Community
Have you ever heard of those car clubs or motorcycle clubs who just get together once and a while to talk about their cars or motorcycles. All they do is get together, hang out, talk car, and perhaps drive around. Sounds really silly, doesn’t it? Well, congratulations: now you can do all those things online!!
Thanks to Google, online car forums are really easy to find. In the forums, you can find information about driving techniques, how to perform regular (or not-so-regular) maintenance, or speculation about upcoming models and features. Some forums are broad in their scope while others are relatively granular. But they all have one thing in common: they are all sustained by a group of individuals with mostly the same interests and concerns as you. Because of that, it is usually pretty easy to be welcomed into the community and easy to form friendships with other forum members.
Here is a list of some online forums and communities. This is clearly just a partial list:
Send us links for your favorite online community or any other community you know of.
Create / Join a Fuel Consumption Challenge
A few years ago, a couple coworkers were curious about this whole hypermiling thing. The best way to get them personally invested was to set up a competition between them. Using a relatively simple spreadsheet, we used their car’s EPA numbers to gauge how their MPG improved by implementing some basic hypermiling techniques. The entire thing was based on the honor system so there’s really no way to vouch for its accuracy, but according to their self-reporting, each were able to achieve more than 10% above their EPA ratings. It’s hard to say whether they would have achieved these results had they not been competing.
When you know your results are going to be seen by others, you will try harder. This is why a little friendly competition might give you the push to kick your efforts up a notch or two. It’s not only competition that provides the incentive to improve; sometimes simply knowing others are watching is enough.
If you join one of the online communities mentioned above, see if they have a place where people can post their fuel economy averages. Many do. If you are using a spreadsheet to monitor your mileage, consider making it available online via Google Docs, DropBox, or any other online storage service. If that’s not possible, consider creating an account at Fuelly where you can enter your tank-by-tank averages. Then you can distribute the hyperlink to your Fuelly account.
Participate in Ride Sharing Programs
While this might not improve your individual fuel economy, it will reduce your overall fuel consumption.
Check around to see if there are any local web resources where neighbors can set up a ride-sharing program. You know, a good old-fashioned carpool. For example, check out NextDoor.com to find neighbors and start a chat. Find out if anyone works near you. The best-case scenario would be if someone lives and works near you.
If you like your coworkers, at least a few of them, find out if they live near you or between you and your job. Some days, you can pick them up; other days you can park at their place and they drive. Either way, that leg of the trip is done with one car rather than two. Word to the wise: you have to really like that person because if it gets to the point that you can no longer stand riding them or if one of you gets a promotion and now it’s awkward, you will need to cancel the carpool. Of course, you’ll still see that person at work every day.
Use Waze
Waze is a free, real-time traffic service owned by Google (or Alphabet, whatever). It is primarily used via the phone app. As people drive, Waze uses geotracking to monitor their speed to provide everyone else real-time traffic information. Drivers can also manually provide information to the system such as backed-up traffic, a traffic accident, car stopped on the road, or even where the police are hiding today.
Once the user enters their destination, Waze evaluates all its information to determine the fastest and most trouble-free route. Unfortunately, Waze cannot apply hypermiling logic to calculate the most fuel-efficient route. But by directing you around stopped traffic, the amount of time you spend idling is greatly reduced. This will save gasoline and/or battery charge.
One note about Waze: you are providing your real-time location to the Waze application. As the adage goes: if the product is free then you are the product. If this makes you a little uneasy, just skip this suggestion.
Attend Driving Clinics or Seek Help from a Hypermiling Expert
In addition to the first suggestion promoting online communities, you might want to also look into local, real life groups. As a side note, it’s funny how we now have to distinguish things as being in real life (IRL).
These groups are usually formed and populated by like-minded people. Some of the events I’ve attended have been held in parks, parking lots, even car dealerships. In some states, it’s not legal to sell cars on Sunday but it is legal to have the service center open. This means a friendly dealership might welcome a group for a meeting.
At these meetings, technical car reviews might be provided, maintenance information, and tips from other drivers. It’s usually pretty easy to find someone who is achieving really good gas mileage and who is more than willing to talk with you about improving yours. Many of the meetings I’ve attended have include “ride alongs” in which the ‘expert’ hypermiler will ride with the learner, providing advice for improvement. I’ve performed several ride-alongs; trust me: people are happy to do it. Just ask.
Search your local area for car groups. Here are two groups on MeetUp.com that might help get you started:
Conclusion
In this day and age, it should be easy to find like-minded people which whom you can discuss fuel efficiency. Whether online or in real life, working with others – and maybe even competing – will certainly give you that extra boost to improve your overall mileage.
articles, battery, concept, Eco, electric, epa, EV, Feat, feature, features, first, gasoline, google, hybrid, LE, motorcycle, MPG, oeva, Prius, priuschat, review, rv, tony schaefer, trip
audio and video,What Drives Us episode
California adjusts some incentives, when the music stops, who will be left standing?
Mitsubishi confirms 100k outlander PHEV sales
Exodus at Tesla or just growing up?
Saving pedestrian lives via old school technology
Is the EPA rating now a guarantee?
Another story of interest with the outlander, 20,000 Bees chase the Mitsubishi for 2 days!
New Colorado green car instant rebate
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2016, articles, Eco, electric, epa, EV, featured, future, gm, google, LE, patents, Tesla
audio and video,What Drives Us episode
This week our panel take on:
You Say Autonomous Cars Will Encourage More People to have sex in cars Like that’s a bad thing
Volvo pisses on Tesla’s autopilot functionality
H/T Cooper: RAV4 Hybrid has made the Prius V irrelevant and redundant…already
Salient numbers:
RAV4 Hybrid sales for April 2016-3,807. YTD 2015-8,741 2016-4,970
Prius v sales for April 2015-1,322 and for April 2015-2,462
Bye bye Prius v
Mark Coughlan talks about how Awesome the new 2G Chevy Volt is (and how awesome In-N-Out is).
The Chevy Jolt may be a dumb name but it’s a great idea, even if it is bogus
Japan has more charging spots than gas stations?
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2016, autonomous, autopilot, Charging, Chevy, Chrysler, electric, EV, featured, fiat, google, hybrid, in-n-out, LE, mark coughlan, minivan, pacifica, Prius, sex, Tesla, toronto, Toyota, Volt, Volvo
audio and video,What Drives Us episode
This week Evan, Paul and Russell go over…
A new autonomous driving coalition begins operations
Hybrid and EV owners are buying switching to gas cars more than they used to says Edmunds
Mitsubishi has been cheating the EPA MPG tests for 25 years
VW and the EPA finally at a settlement but it’s not complete…yet
Honda to expand Clarity line to include EV and PHEV
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2016, autonomous, bus, cheating, clarity, emissions, epa, EV, featured, Ford, google, Honda, hybrid, LE, MPG, Plug-in, self-driving, Tesla, update, volkswagen, Volvo, VW