Wired: Autopia

Engine Fire Emerges As Possible Cause of Spanair Crash

2008-08-20T15:01:18-07:00

A Spanair jet skidded off the runway in Madrid, killng 153 people in a crash some safety experts suspect was caused by a fire or explosion in the engine as the aircraft approached maximum take-off speed.

Witnesses say the left side engine on Flight 5022 caught fire as the plane made its second attempt to take off from Barajas airport, causing the MD 82 to veer off course. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is joining the investigation, said the plane "broke apart" on impact after skidding off the runway in a plume of thick smoke.

Arthur Alan Wolk, a lawyer who specializes in aviation safety, told us he suspects engine failure caused the crash, and the plane's speed contributed to the death toll. "Often times passengers end up walking off the plane after an engine failure," Wolk says. "But it seems as if (the Spanair flight) was moving too fast."

According to a report from Sky News, witnesses saw the plane's left engine catch fire just as the aircraft reached maximum runway speed and started to lift. The plane apparently broke in two on impact. "It's 150 feet long," Wolk says of the MD-82. "And when it hit the runway, it came down hard."

The plane, bound for the Canary Islands, carried 162 passengers, six crew members and four other airline employees. The airline hasn't released the death toll, but Spain's Development Minister, Magdalena Alvarez, said 19 people survived the mid-afternoon crash.

The Spanair plane was 15 years old, according to Bloomberg. The Associated Press reports that the pilot reported a problem with a gauge that measures the air temperature outside the plane, but it was repaired -- delaying the flight -- and the plane later took off. Alvarez said the cause of the accident "seemed to be an error during take-off," but Spanish media quoted unnamed sources saying the engine caught fire.

The aircraft was fitted with Pratt & Whitney JT8D-217c engines, and Wolk says it isn't the first time that model's had problems. A Delta Airlines MD-88 suffered an engine failure during takeoff in Pensacola in 1996, killing to passengers when pieces of the engine penetrated the cabin.

McConnell Douglas built more than 1,100 MD-80s between 1979 and 1999. Generally considered a safe and reliable workhorse, the planes have been plagued by a recent spate of problems including issues with the plane's wiring and horizontal stabilizer, and more than 400 people have died in MD-80 crashes during the past five years. Questions about the MD-80's hydraulic system wiring prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to ground hundreds of the planes earlier this year for mandatory inspections.

The plane that crashed Wednesday in Madrid was owned by Spanair, a financially troubled subsidiary of Scandinavian Air System. Aviation Week reported earlier this month that Spanair plans to reduce capacity and cut over 1,000 employees, a move that had the airline's pilots considering a strike. Standard & Poors said Spanair, which SAS had been trying to sell, probably now has "no future," according to Bloomberg.

Associated Press photo.

Two Wheels, Zero Emissions and Loads of Fun

2008-08-20T14:07:09-07:00

Ask Neil Saiki why he designed an all-electric motocross motorcycle and he'll tell you EVs are the future, dirt riders must be more environmentally responsible and the sport faces a shaky future because dirt bikes are so loud they'll make your ears ring. That's all true, but push him a little and he'll confess the truth.

"I love to ride. That's the real reason I did it," he told us with a laugh. "I wanted to make a product that's crazy fast and fun to ride."

The Zero X from Zero Motorcycles is an EV you can actually buy right now for $7,450, and it's a real motorcycle. It weighs a bantamweight 140 pounds with the lithium-ion battery, and with a 23-horsepower motor it'll hit 57 mph and leave a fat streak of rubber on the pavement getting there.

Saiki says the street version coming next year will be even quicker.

Saiki started developing the Zero X five years ago after participating in a NASA round table analyzing transportation technology. He became convinced electric drivetrains are the best way forward and motorcycles the logical place to develop them. They're smaller and less complex than cars, and the regulatory hurdles to getting them on the road aren't as high.

Off-road bikes lend themselves to electric power because they're typically ridden short distances, so range isn't that big an issue. Electric motors also provide gobs or torque, a big plus in motocross riding. The Zero X produces power instantaneously, and it'll catch you off guard because the bike is all but silent. Snap the throttle too hard and you'll lift the front wheel. "The throttle is like a light switch," Saiki says. "It's on or it's off."

A low-speed mode limits the bike to about 30 mph and is good for tooling around. Switch to high-speed mode and you get unfettered acceleration to about 57 mph. The Zero X will hit 30 mph in under two seconds and 57 in about twice that. Juice comes from a proprietary li-ion battery that weighs 40 pounds and provides about two hours of riding time. It recharges in about two hours using any household socket, and you can get a spare for $2,950.

The Zero X has hydraulic disc brakes and fully adjustable suspension with about 8 inches of travel. It looks a bit like a big mountain bike, which isn't a coincidence. Saiki, who holds a degree in aerospace engineering, has designed bicycles for Santa Cruz, Haro and Mountain Cycles.

He worked through seven prototypes and designed most of the 300 or so components himself. The bikes are built in a factory near Santa Cruz, and Saiki hopes to turn out 300 a month by next summer. He's sold 127 since April (Google's Larry Page bought three) and has a waiting list of 77 people, including two guys who signed up after seeing the bike outside our office.

Saiki says about 75 percent of buyers are seasoned motocross riders, which speaks to the bike's dirt cred. Saiki had motocross hall-of-famer Jeff Emig flog a prototype at a track in Las Vegas last year, and Emig says it's the real deal. "I'm expecting the production version to have a huge impact on the motor sports industry," he says. We probably won't see James Stewart or Ryan Villopoto racing them anytime soon (although Saiki says the AMA is interested in racing e-bikes) but the guys at Dirt Rider (.pdf) called an early prototype of the Zero X "the inevitable sound of the future of off-road motorcycle riding."

As for Zero Motorcycle's future, it includes a street version good for 70 mph and a range of 60 miles. Look for it in January with a sticker price of $9,000.

Photos by Emily Lang / wired.com

Photo by Zero Motorcycles.

American Ushers in WiFi-Friendly Skies

2008-08-20T11:35:43-07:00

We warned you months ago that in-flight WiFi was coming, and now it's here. This morning American Airlines launched airborne broadband service on 15 nonstop transcontinental flights, allowing passengers to send e-mail, chat by IM and browse the Internet at 36,000 feet. For $12.95, you can spend six hours surfing the web instead of watching a lame romantic comedy.

American and AirCell, the company responsible for the technology behind the system called GoGo, hailed it as a Great Day In History, with AirCell chief executive Blemenstein proclaiming, "today the days of being cut off from the rest of the world while in the air become history."

Sounds to us like a nice way of saying the last refuge from your boss has been breached.

American isn't the only airline jumping on the in-flight Internet bandwagon, which could bring cash-strapped carriers as much as $1 billion by 2012. Of course, the industry's been promising us for four years that we'd be able to read Autopia from six miles up, and some doubters went so far as to call airplanes "the last, possibly unconquerable, Internet frontier." Looks like that frontier's finally been conquered.

JetBlue reminds everyone that it offers limited WiFi through its LiveTV set-up and hopes its purchase of Verizon's Airfone network will expand the system's capabilities, but American is the first to bring full-on broadband to the sky. Delta plans to offer essentially the same service American's using, and Southwest is testing a system developed by the California company Row 44. Just about everyone else with an airworthy plane is scrambling to catch up.

Two technologies are fighting for airborne WiFi supremacy in the skies. The AirCell system American went with is an air-to-ground system that transmits signals from ground stations to airborne aircraft. Because it uses cell towers that are already built, it's relatively cheap but also ... buffering ... buffering ... a bit slow.

Satellite systems use a data transceiver/router, a satellite antenna and 802.11b access points. It works anywhere, including over water, but it's more expensive. When airlines are chucking beverage carts, getting rid of glasses and pulling magazines out of their planes to save money, you've got to think spending big money on wireless systems isn't something they're in a position to do.

Although the industry is racing to bring the World Wide Web to seat 17D, not everyone thinks it's worth the trouble. John Jackson, head of North American sales and marketing for Korean Airlines says the airline's test of on-board WiFi was met by a collective yawn. He suspects passengers on trans-oceanic slogs would rather sleep, read or even take a shower than waste time checking e-mail or updating their Facebook page.

Of course, airlines aren't offering these services just to be nice. At $12.95 a pop, American Airlines could rake in some big cash if onboard Internet is a success. For an industry charging two bucks for a Coke, it's no surprise that there's a profit motive involved.

Photo by Flickr user B3CFT/Andy Brockhurst.

A Ford Tough Year for the F-150

2008-08-20T06:00:00-07:00

Pity the poor F-150, loyal workhorse of farmers, union laborers, and that half-in-the-bag handyman who rode your tail all the way home from work. As if it wasn't a grave enough indignation to lose best-seller status to the vegetarian Honda Civic, a car that never did a day's worth of manual labor in it's garage-kept high-falutin' city life, Motor Trend reports the F-150 has been ungraciously stripped of several million option configurations. Now, there only a measly ten million customized combinations of drivetrain, body, and electronic bells and whistles.

The move to cut option packages, Automotive News says, began when Ford CEO Alan Mulally had difficulty figuring out the option packages on an E-series van he was buying for his mother's senior center. While "CEO tries to buy own company's product, gets flummoxed at the dealership, vows to change things" makes a good story, we bet that the changes have something to do with the added cost of all those options.

Since all those electronic doo-dads require entirely different wiring harnesses, the F-150 assembly line looked like it was designed more by Xzibit than Henry Ford. Additionally, it was so easy for customers to have a truck custom built that dealer inventory sat stagnant. "Dealers would sit with items on the lot for six to 12 months if you ordered it the wrong way," dealer task force member Rich Savino told Automotive News. In addition to Ford's trucks, Ford promises that most car lines will have fewer than a thousand combinations, with the Focus only getting 150 flavors.

One option that DPW employees will be glad to see axed is "air conditioning delete." Even if there are tight times at City Hall, Ford won't build an F-150 with just a fan. In fact, the guys who paint the fire hydrants might get some more options, as Ford plans to bundle the most popular options into packages that cost lest than the sum of their parts. Those seat heaters would sure be nice on a plow...

Already, one option delete that's put a hitch in the giddy-up of would-be truck buyers is the lack of a manual transmission. Neither Ford nor Chevy (not to mention Toyota and Nissan) offers a stick instead of a slush-box. Those looking to carry the do-it-yourself ethic into the driver's seat will be pleased to note that Dodge still puts a five-speed in the Ram. We hear that these days, you can get a pretty good deal on any truck with horns on the hood. So far, there has been no petition drive to reinstate factory-installed DVD players in the headrests, which are still available as a dealer-installed option.

Ford also promised not to cut any of their "special edition" trim levels, and reiterated their commitment to the ultra high end Platinum Edition. We hope the Platinum will be good enough for the homeowners' associations of suburban Dallas, who famously banned an F-150 from a resident's driveway while allowing a gawdawful Avalanche up the street. Sadly, there will be no Toby Keith Edition, nor a W Crawford Ranch Edition.

Artificial Intelligence Gives Gliders a Lift

2008-08-20T04:03:01-07:00

A British company is working on an artificial intelligence system that examines clouds to find areas in the sky where rising air creates the lift that allows gliders to sustain flight and powered aircraft to prolong their journeys.

The on-board system being developed by Roke Manor Research uses video feeds to collect information about clouds, ground surface conditions and other elements, then crunches the data to develop flight paths that steer gliders toward rising air.

To understand how it works, it helps to know a little about the atmospheric occurrence known as thermals. In a nutshell, a thermal is a column of rising air in the lower altitudes of the earth's atmosphere. The sun warms the ground and the air directly above it, causing it to rise until it reaches the temperature of the surrounding air, while colder air at the top of the column is displaced and pushed downward. Rising air allows gliders and soaring birds to gain and maintain altitude without expending much energy, while the downward air has the opposite affect.

By examining the temperature of ground surfaces, the Roke software can anticipate and identify thermals. It simultaneously measures wind speed and other factors and processes the data to create a flight plan that directs aircraft toward rising air and away from downward drafts. The flight plans could be integrated into on-board flight navigation systems and eventually shared with other area aircraft.

Roke believes that its AI system has applications that go beyond leisure aircraft, including extending the flight range of powered military and communications aircraft, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles.

Photo: chrisaut/Flickr

Take the A(ero)Train at Dulles

2008-08-19T15:20:18-07:00

After nearly a decade of planning, officials at Washington's Dulles International Airport unveiled the AeroTrain automated people mover (APM) system, making one more airport feel like Disney World without the singing archetypal ethnic children. Starting in 2009, the AeroTrain will serve the dual purpose of replacing the anachronistic "mobile lounges" that currently transport passengers to their planes and, according to Eric Weiss of the Washington Post, entice federal transit officials to expedite the extension of the Metrorail to Dulles.

While the mobile lounges are certainly space-age retro (even after the removal of the onboard bars) and occasionally efficient, they don't have the right of way when crossing taxiways and therefore end up delaying passengers. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) engineer Frank Holly told D.C.'s NBC4 that the longest AeroTrain trip would be less than a minute and a half, with waiting times for trains slightly longer than that amount of time. When the AeroTrain is officially put into service next year, travelers could go from the main terminal to any gate in less than three minutes, albeit without any Mobile Lounge Operators.

The $1.4 billion AeroTrain project is the centerpiece of Dulles Development, or D2, which also involves the building of a new runway and expansion of the B Concourse. The entire people mover system includes 5 miles of track, four stations, a maintenance facility, and a fleet of 29 shiny blue and white cars built by Sumitomo in Japan. The trains themselves appear to have been borrowed from a 1950s sci-fi flick and are anything but "mobile lounges": To maximize efficiency the trains are designed to carry up to 90 passengers with only eight seats, which will promptly be taken up by one jerk and his eight bags. We hope the automation system ensures smooth stops and starts, as the trains will run up to 45 miles an hour between stations.

According to the Post, the AeroTrain will also help the Saarinen-designed terminal "regain the airiness and dignity of the original design," shown above, by eliminating long security lines at the main terminal. Airport history buffs need not despair about the loss of the mobile lounges, as they will still service international flights.

Photo by flickr user zappowbang

Are Australian Travel Junkies Destroying the Planet?

2008-08-19T06:22:10-07:00

If you live on an isolated island and want to see the world, you're going to need to fly to get there. No one knows this better than Australians, who are considered some of the most well-traveled people on the planet. But there's one Australian who says her fellow citizens must squash their travel bug for the sake of the environment.

Adele Horin, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, says her countrymen (and women) are addicted to travel and that all the thermostat adjusting in the world won't mean anything if they continue hopping flights to visit family, attend conferences and explore the world. It's a assessment that's not likely to be well received.

For decades, travel has been a major part of life in Oz. After college, young Aussies take a year off to wait tables in London or backpack through South America. Stop at any youth hostel in Europe and you're bound to find at least one person from Down Under. Retirees flush with retirement cash hop a plane to visit the children and grandchildren spread out around the world. Executives and entrepreneurs travel frequently to stay connected in an interconnected global economy. No wonder some of the best guidebooks in the world -- the Lonely Planet series -- are cranked out in Melbourne.

Horin says it all has to stop. Every time an Australian boards one of those big Qantas 747s (she calls them "toxic flying machines"), she argues, they're doing enormous damage to the environment. She estimates that a round trip from Sydney to London emits the equivalent of nine tons of CO2 per passengers, twice as much as each person on the planet generates annually through eating, driving, and heating or cooling their homes. Yikes.

But does she, or anyone else, have the right to lecture Australians about their travel habits? It's not that easy, Adele.

First off, Australia is not only an island, it's an island in the middle of nowhere. London is 10,000 miles away from Sydney. Tokyo and Shanghai are 5,000 miles away. Singapore, an important financial hub for Australia, is 4,000 miles away. And the country is not exactly a Martha's Vineyard-size island -- a coast to coast drive, much of it through the desert, takes days.

All that air travel accounts for just 1 percent of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions. Compare that to 1.5 percent worldwide and 3.5 percent in the U.S. and you wonder if Aussies are doing that much damage. And flying is still less polluting, overall, than driving - 10 percent of Australia's GHG emissions come from cars; that figure is 14 percent worldwide.

Australians are some of the most environmentally conscious people I've met (not surprising, considering that the Great Barrier Reef is dying and part of the country is suffering through a massive drought), but Horin suggests their propensity for travel make them hypocrites.

In much of the world, cities, forests, beaches and mountains can be reached by train or car. Is it fair to punish Australians because they don't have this luxury? Yes, emissions are a huge concern, and if travel-junkie Australians are contributing disproportionately, then this needs to be taken into account. But is it fair to ask residents of an isolated island nation to suck it up while the rest of us travel freely?

Post updated 11:30 a.m. PDT.

Photo by Qantas.

It's Car Vs. Rickshaw on the Mean Streets of Delhi

2008-08-18T15:41:41-07:00

City officials in Delhi are sparring with activists and transportation policy wonks over a ubiquitous site on the streets of India -- cycle rickshaws. The city banned the three-wheelers from many areas three years ago, and though the ban was recently overturned, everyone says the fight is far from over.

Bureaucrats can tick off a long list of reasons for banning rickshaws. They're annoying and dangerous. They impede traffic, clog roads, cause pile-ups and occasionally nail pedestrians. City officials say there are 300,000 to 400,000 rickshaws on the streets of Delhi -- triple what is allowed -- and because they're considered an "ethnic mode of transportation" they can't be cited for violating traffic laws, which they do all the time. Officials also play the organized crime card, saying the rickshaw business is run by a shadowy rickshaw mafia that preys on the poor.

Rickshaw mafia?

Activists in India and beyond are fighting back hard. To give rickshaw drivers a voice, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy convened the Rickshaw Advocacy Group. the lobbying and support network offers several good reasons why banning rickshaws is a bad idea.

First off, yanking rickshaws off the street could throw tens of thousands of residents out of work -- many of them migrants with few possibilities for alternate employment. The Institute also points out something that should be painfully obvious: rickshaws work. They carry 100,000 people through Delhi each day, and they do it cheaply, quietly and with zero pollution. Thanks to the Institute, the rickshaw debate now includes phrases like global warming and clean transport. As it should be.

In a country with so explosive an economy as India, anything that increases mobility while minimizing pollution should be embraced, not banned. But then, it might be India's economic ascendancy that is at least partially motivating the ban. India wants to be seen as a vibrant, modern country, and there may be concern that rickshaw-clogged streets paint the wrong picture. If that is the case, someone should remind Delhi's leaders there are rickshaws rolling down the streets of Paris, London, and Singapore.

Thanks to the Institute's efforts, India's Supreme Court recently tossed out Delhi's ban, but no one thinks the city is ready to give up the fight. Should the city get its way, it might not matter anyway. One rickshaw driver told a newspaper in India that when the last ban was in place, he and his fellow drivers simply ignored it.

Photo by Flickr user Yodod.

Re-enact Bullitt With GPS Maps

2008-08-18T13:42:47-07:00

So you've driven to San Francisco in your 2008 Bullitt Edition Mustang. You have the Garmin plugged into the cigarette lighter, an iPod full of Lalo Schifrin and you're not leaving until you've blown out your shocks on that street where Steve McQueen caught air again and again. You know, the really hilly one? Wait, there's more than one really hilly street in San Francisco?

Since the SF Convention and Visitors Bureau is highly unlikely to provide a map of historical sites where you can burn out your tires and terrify pedestrians, the kind folks at Seero.com have a solution: a GPS overlay of the entire chase, mapping out every fender-smashing second. Seero calls it "geo-broadcasting," and the same technology can be used with live or pre-recorded videos. For example, in your Bullitt reenactment, you can send out a live geo-broadcast to let the folks back home see where you bottomed out your Mustang, the very streets you marked with a trail of oil and the exact spot you were taken into police custody.

Seero is the brainchild of Justin Cutillo, David Rothschild, and Dan Rummel who started the site to let us poor slobs stuck behind computer screens see the world through someone else's eyes -- or at least through someone else's Flip. Rothschild said technology has "just gotten up to speed within the past year or so" to enable such live GPS-linked video shenanigans as Alex Roy's insane Cannonball Run record. Unlike other video sites, Seero uploads the exact coordinates of where a video took place from a GPX file collected by a GPS device, and lets the user pair the GPS data with the video file. "If you knew you were taking a turn, you could pause the video and line it up. It's as simple as that," Cutillo said.

According to Rothschild, interest in the site grew from fans of geocaching expeditions and "outdoorsy adventures" to a dedicated "niche market of gearheads and bikers" who want to record their travels and remember exactly where that awesome pie stand was, or to chronicle just how lost they got in the far reaches of Quebec. One user hooked up a video camera to a remote-control plane and showed off films of the French countryside, while another walked across the Pacific Crest Trail. Needless to say, Cutillo and Rothschild admit they're jealous of some of the trips Seero users submit to the site.

For those of us who thought GPX was a company who makes those boomboxes they sell in drugstores, the Seero interface is also cool for creating mashups like the McQueen video, to show exactly where a chase scene took place or even to overlay GPS coordinates to an old family road trip Super 8 movie. Home users will even be able to follow along the exact route of car chases, as Seero is planning to link up local news choppers with GPS and video technology that will be broadcast live. We're anxiously awaiting the O.J. Simpson white Bronco mashup.

By the way, the jump shown above was filmed on Filbert Street.

Photo courtesy Seero.

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Helicopter Pilots Break Round-the-World Speed Record

2008-08-18T13:18:52-07:00

Two pilots have flown a helicopter around the world in a record 13 days, breaking the previous record by four days during a trip that took them through 15 countries, 24 time zones and 30 states.

Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik landed at LaGuardia Airport at 10:15 a.m. today, ending a whirlwind global journey that started with a record-setting jaunt across the Atlantic but nearly fell apart in Russia when lousy airports and an engine problem threatened to sideline them. But they kept at it, pushing themselves and their aircraft to the limits in pursuit of a dream.

"Both Steve and I love a challenge," Kasprowicz told us. "We figured flying around the world was pretty big."

Kasprowicz is an aircraft junkie with 30 years of experience who knows his way around a chopper. Earlier this year, he and Sheik flew from New York to Los Angeles in 15 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds to set a new transcontinental helicopter-speed record.

He got the idea for a round-the-world helicopter run two years ago when he first saw the AgustaWestland Grand and its two Pratt & Whitney PW207C Turboshaft engines. With a range of 575 miles and a maximum cruising speed of 175 mph, it is, Kasporwicz says, unparalleled in sophistication and performance. "I knew that if there was a rotorcraft that could help me break some records, it would be the Grand," he told us.

But he and Sheik didn't want to just break the record, they wanted to obliterate it and do it in a bone-stock chopper. The record they were gunning for -- 17 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes and 25 seconds -- was set 12 years ago in a Bell 430 outfitted with an extra fuel tank, a bunk and other mods.

The Grand Adventure 2008 started August 7 in New York and followed a carefully plotted course that took them 20,000 nautical miles -- roughly the circumference of Earth at the Tropic of Cancer -- around the world to the east. They steered clear of the polar regions and avoided commercial airports to avoid landing and refueling delays.

The first week went off without a hitch. Kasprowicz and Sheik made it from New York to London in a stunning 40 hours and 41 minutes, shattering the previous record by a whopping 35 hours. Europe was a piece of cake, but Russia -- as they expected -- was a bear.

They arrived on the 13th, but construction at one airport and a fuel shortage at another cost them almost a full day. Things went from bad to worse after taking off from the Siberian city of Magadan -- the oil temperature in one of the copter's two engines rose so high Kasprowicz had to shut it down to avert crippling damage. They finally sorted things out with some help from local mechanics, but they lost still more precious time.

"Russia was probably the most stressful part of the trip," Kasprowicz says. "If I had to pick the biggest challenge, that would probably be it."

They made up for it after crossing the Bering Sea and reaching North America, pulling out all the stops on a mad dash across North America and handily beating the record Ron Bower and John Williams set in 1996. We still don't have an official time -- the folks organizing the Grand Adventure say it's got to be confirmed and won't be available until tonight.

As for Kasprowicz, he says he's never been so exhausted and ready for some serious sack time. Then he'll figure out what's next. "Round the world is pretty big," he says. "I've got some ideas, but for now I just want to go home."

Photos by Grand Adventure 2008.

Getting Audiophile Sound in the Worst Place for It

2008-08-18T02:00:00-07:00

Getting audiophile sound out of your car often means a trip to a stereo shop, where some kid with no musical taste fills your ride with gear that strains your alternator, drains your wallet and invariably sound better in the showroom than behind the wheel.

Automakers have figured out there's a lot of money to be made offering truly high-end audiophile stereos and are starting to respond. Lacking the expertise to do it themselves, many are enlisting some of the biggest names in home audio to turn their vehicles in to rolling concert halls. Lexus started things off by tapping renowned audio geek Mark Levinson to design a system for the SC430. Audi offers an award-winning $6,300 Bang & Olufsen stereo with 13 speakers and a subwoofer in the A8 and S8. Jaguar recently invited British speaker specialists Bowers & Wilkins to give the XF sedan a top-shelf system. Many expect the industry mashups to continue as other premium automakers jump on the bandwagon.

"We are seeing a bit of a paradigm shift," says Martin Lindsay of Bowers & Wilkins. "Levinson was just the beginning. The luxury car market was under-served when it came to audio. You had good, better and best when it came to auto choices but car audio seemed to stop at better. There was nothing for those who wanted the best."

Bentley is the latest to join the party, inviting their countrymen at Naim to develop an audio system befitting automobiles with six-figure prices. The system they've come up with is the result of two years spent trying to get audiophile sound into one of the worst possible environments for it.

ICar interiors are lousy places for hi-fi audio systems. They're full of complex shapes, reflective surfaces and electrical interference. They've got to overcome the sound of the engine and drone of the road, not to mention absorb axle-snapping potholes without skipping. Even a car like the Bentley, with its double-paned glass, whisper-quiet interior and superplush suspension, poses some serious challenges.

"Strict automotive testing was a major requirement," says Paul Stephenson, managing director of Naim -- which, by the way, he says is Arabic for "sweet and pleasant sounding" and was picked after a night of drinking. "Designing the speaker drive units from scratch allowed us to maximize the performance of every unit for every position in the car, which is some cases were not ideal. Fortunately our mindset for designing engineering solutions to operate to extreme levels, but always within known parameters, is one we were used to."

To overcome the challenges, Naim chose class D amplification so it could achieve high power from a relatively small package. The 15-channel amplifier pumps 1,100 watts into as many as 15 speakers, depending on the model. Eight digital-signal processing modes allow listeners to tailor the sound to their taste. Dynamic equalization provides more than 300 EQ levels for each mode to keep the sound spot-on even as the car speed and road noise increases. The system automatically corrects those settings when you drop the top on convertible models.

We've heard the system, and it's impressive. It offers the kind of performance that raises the hair on the back of your neck and makes you think you're right there in the studio. We could even hear Jacko snapping his fingers in the background to the opening of "Thriller." Naim says CDs often contain a world of data cheap, or even mid-range, systems simply can't pick up.

"Many hi-fi systems sound different and therefore something is going on which interferes with the end result of the musician’s art," Stephenson says. "We only aim to reproduce the musician’s art the way he or she intended."

Stephenson says automakers like Bentley could develop their own systems and make them sound pretty good, but it's faster, easier and cheaper to bring in the experts. "We will see more and more joint projects/branding happening in the industry," he says. "Many will be ‘pimp-my-ride’ type systems, quick and dirty low-cost add-ons. The true in-depth projects, such as ours, will be less common."

Photos courtesy Naim and Bentley

The 15-channel class D amplifier Naim developed for Bentley cranks out 1,100 watts and features a fanless design to ensure there's no audio interference from moving parts. Still, it has no trouble performing in temperatures as low as -40 Fahrenheit or as high as 158.

The system includes digital signal processing with eight modes ranging from "audiophile" to "digital media," which makes even the compressed sound of MP3s sound decent. A variable dynamic equalization system adjusts the sound for every 1 km/hour increase in speed, meaning there are more than 300 unique EQ settings for each of the eight processing modes.

Each of the 15 speakers in Bentley's cars (14 in the Continental GTC) was designed specifically for its location in the vehicle.

With China Rising, Detroit Needs Engineers ASAP

2008-08-15T06:22:57-07:00

Suggesting that a domestic industry is about to be eclipsed by foreign competitors is always risky, but that's just the brave card Dr. Leo Hanifin played when he told Detroit that the best automotive innovations will be stamped "Made in China" if we don't soon see a fresh crop of talented American engineers.

Some will scoff at the suggestion Hanifin, dean of the College of Engineering and Science at the University of Detroit, made during a seminar hosted by the Center for Automotive Research. After all, Chinese cars tend to be licensed copies of more established brands (China made 1980s-vintage Audi 100s until 2006), cheap unlicensed knockoffs of popular cars or truly odd vehicles like the "Book of Songs" EV (pictured) that one manufacturer brought to the Detroit auto show this year. Many of these doubting Thomases undoubtedly had parents who felt the same way when a little company called Toyota brought the Toyopet to America in 1957.

Hanifin says it's best to head these international engineering challenges off at the pass, especially when Michigan's seen a double-digit decline in engineering students. "More and better-educated engineers are needed if our nation and its auto industry are to thrive or even survive," he says.

Hanifin says there are 10 times as many budding engineers in China, where 45 percent or more of university students pursue degrees in that field. Perhaps nowhere is the deficit more noticeable than in Michigan, where enrollment in university engineering programs fell 13.4 percent in seven years. The decline has come even as schools nationwide saw enrollments climb 9 percent. "This precipitous drop is clearly linked to layoffs and poor performance within the domestic auto industry," he says.

But in car-crazy China, an engineering job in the auto industry is pretty desirable, so the country's emerging auto industry is getting some of the best new talent.

Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung is a good paradigm for the Chinese auto industry. Once relegated to the clearance aisles at Bradlees and Montgomery Ward, Samsung was known for cheap imitations of superior Japanese and American products. But after extensive investment in research and development and a thorough rebranding, Samsung became an industry leader and usurped Sony as the innovative manufacturer of choice in flat-panel televisions and cell phones.

Landwind, Brilliance and Chery are a few years away from Samsung status, but American engineers must keep Chinese manufacturers in their sights. Hanifin suggests an automotive equivalent of Silicon Valley where innovators gather to develop and test their best ideas. CAR's own Program for Automotive Labor and Education is a good example of collaboration among automakers, universities and training grounds for younger car enthusiasts. With auto-industry financed scholarships and guaranteed job placement, programs such as PALE hope to encourage car-loving teens to stop gluing spoilers on Civics and think about careers in automotive engineering and design.

Post updated 10:45 a.m. PDT.

Photo: Chuck Squatriglia/Wired.com

Every New Car Will Be a Hybrid by 2020

2008-08-14T14:15:38-07:00

All new cars will have some degree of hybridization by 2020, by which point battery technology will be ubiquitous and vehicles will communicate with one another and the road to make driving safer and easier.

That vision of the future is laid out in "Automotive 2020: Clarity Beyond the Chaos," (.pdf) by the IBM Institute for Business Value. The report, based on interviews with 125 auto industry executives in 15 countries, says the industry is on the cusp of revolutionary changes that will see environmental sustainability and technological innovation become top priorities as automakers respond to consumer demands for more efficient cars that don't sacrifice performance, comfort or reliability.

"In the next 10 years, we will experience more change than in the 50 years before," says an executive with a European automaker who, like all of those quoted in the report, was not named.

The revolution already has begun.

There is mounting agreement among automakers, policymakers and environmentalists that the electrification of the automobile is inevitable and most of the major automakers are developing hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Although such vehicles currently make up less than 3 percent of the market, the report finds "some degree of hybridization will be evident in all vehicles produced in 2020 and beyond." That may seem ambitious, but other studies say interest in gas-electric vehicles is exploding and sales could hit 2 million a year by 2013, when there could be 89 different models on the market.

Battery technology will be ubiquitous within 12 years, the report states, and automakers and their suppliers will focus much of their R&D on the software and electronics needed to integrate them into vehicles. "Energy storage is in the heart of the next generation of efforts for fuel economy," the report quotes one American executive saying. Several automakers plan to offer electric vehicles in America beginning in 2010, and Mitsubishi will begin testing one in California later this year. Still, battery costs -- which the report estimates at 10 to 15 percent of the cost of the cars that use them -- will remain a significant barrier to rapid market penetration.

Investment in biofuels will continue, although the technology "must undergo rapid evolution for global application and proliferation," the report states, noting that ethanol from corn and other food crops is a dead end but cellulosic ethanol "has the potential to see widespread acceptance." Traditional fossil fuels will comprise just 65 percent of the market by 2020, by which point average vehicle CO2 emissions will fall to 97 grams per kilometer -- seven grams less than the Toyota Prius emits today.

As for hydrogen, keep waiting. Although the report finds "hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will remain a viable alternative," even the optimists don't see them comprising more than a small fraction of vehicles by 2020. Few expect the infrastructure needed to generate, transport and distribute hydrogen to be in place anytime soon.

We'll see just as much innovation in vehicle electronics as our cars get smarter and do more in the years to come. We're already seeing the dawn of the .car era as BMW, Chrysler and other automakers rush to bring internet connectivity to your dashboard and companies like Volvo develop systems to make cars virtually crash-proof. By 2020, the report states, cars will communicate with one another to prevent accidents, communicate with the road to respond to changing traffic conditions and use telemetrics to diagnose and repair problems.

As cars increasingly rely on batteries and advanced electronic systems, automakers will have to ally themselves with the consumer electronics, telecommunications and energy industries, the report states. This, too, already is beginning to happen. Several automakers are working with Microsoft to develop their own versions of Sync. Nissan and NEC, like Toyota and Panasonic, are working together on batteries. General Motors has joined 34 utilities to prepare the nation's electrical grid for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Such collaborations will only grow more common.

"The era when all work could be done within the industry is over," one Japanese executive says. "Now we need to interface with several external entities to get work done."

Photo by Nissan

Don't Drive Like a Meatball: Sweden Teaches Hypermiling

2008-08-14T12:59:00-07:00

From the country that brought us pickled herring, particleboard furniture and the funniest Muppet comes the latest advance in eco-driving: compulsory driver's ed courses in hypermiling.

The eco-friendlier driving classes arise from a conundrum familiar to some Americans: Swedes want to be green, but they also love their turbocharged Saabs and full-size Volvos. While Swedish cars aren't especially large to those of us in the land of Town Cars and Escalades, they're gargantuan gas-guzzlers by European standards. That created a problem when members of the European Union agreed to significantly lower carbon emissions, so the wily and unpronounceable Naturvårdsverket (Sweden's EPA) decreed that all new drivers learn how to maximize fuel economy.

This isn't Sweden's first attempt at increasing fuel efficiency. Five weeks of vacation certainly saves commuters some gas, and we suspect the only reason Saabs occasionally die in the driveway is to encourage carpooling.

Though many will poke fun at Sweden's top-down attempt to teach environmentally friendly driving, there isn't much difference between the eco driving skills they're taught and the defensive driving skills we're taught. Anticipate stops, don't back up when you can pull forward and don't accelerate when you can coast is sound advice for saving gas and saving lives. Throw in the lessons on minimizing braking and driving in the highest gear possible and it starts to sound a lot like hypermiling without the controversial techniques like tailgating 18-wheelers or rolling through stop signs.

While eco-driving might only improve fuel economy by 10 percent, Swedes seem willing to embrace it -- at least until Swedish hybrids like the Volvo ReCharge concept hit the road.

Alison Hawkes of NPR took a try at övningskörning (driver's ed) with a Swedish driving instructor that sounded thoroughly uneventful with the exception of the fuel economy meter on the dash and occasional instructions to upshift and coast issued by a gorgeous driving instructor. It looked and sounded a lot more fun than sitting in a filthy '91 Ford Tempo next to a chain-smoking former shop teacher with arms like sausages, which may have been how one Autopia writer learned to drive.

NPR says this particular instructor gained such renown for her hypermiling skills that several U.S. firms have invited her to instruct their delivery drivers. That would make hypermiling lessons a Swedish export at least as popular as lingonberry juice.

Photo by Flickr user Vilseskogen.

Half of aL yung drivRs txt Bhind d Wheel

2008-08-14T12:57:33-07:00

U hav got 2 b kidding me! A survey of 1,000 drivers' texting habits by the legal eagles at FindLaw.com finds the incidence of texting while driving (maybe that should be driving while texting) increases as age decreases. No big surprise there, but what's stunning is 48 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds admit to speeding through traffic while letting friends know theyre runN L8.

What we find more interesting -- especially those of us who are occasionally guilty of the aforementioned bad habit -- is just how much legal trouble you can get into if you cause an accident while messaging behind the wheel.

"The potential legal implications of texting while driving go far beyond the possibility of a mere traffic violation," says FindLaw.com attorney Stephanie Rahlfs, presumably from the safety of her own desk. Since every text message is time-stamped and usually saved on the handset, police have no problem proving a driver was texting at the time of an accident.

And that can result in a suspended license and prob8n. OMG.

Even if you're in one of four states that ban texting while driving (or one of the 33 trying to), drivers who were distracted by phone messaging when they plowed into the back of the car in front of them can be nailed for negligent or reckless conduct, and that can be enough to get your license pulled.

The demographic breakdown of the survey isn't particularly surprising, considering it mirrors the adoption of texting in general. A study last year by the Automobile Association of America found 46 percent of kids aged 16 and 17 text behind the wheel. Combine those stats with the invincibility complex every kid has and it's a wonder more states haven't taken action. Luckily, texting while driving in the AARP crowd is nearly nonexistent: We'd be terrified to get a text from grandma asking, "whch 1 iz D br8k?"

FindLaw's stats probably understate the scope of the problem because any survey that tracks socially undesirable behavior will suffer from some bias. We can't imagine a teenager answering a telephone survey with his mom in the next room is going to say, "Yeah, I text all the time when I'm driving -- especially when I've got a Bud Light in the cup holder and I'm watching a DVD on my hacked AVIC-N3." Let's just hope that Barack Obama isn't behind the wheel when he texts supporters the name of his running m8.

Photo by flickr user Tim Caynes. SMS translations by transl8tit.com.