Monthly Archives: September 2012


Back in 2010, +Audi International introduced a concept extended range electric vehicle…

Back in 2010, +Audi International introduced a concept extended range electric vehicle based on its then-new A1 minicar, dubbed the A1 e-tron http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/01/audi-a1-e-tron-geneva-2010/.  

Like other ER-EVs such as the +Chevrolet Volt and +Fisker Automotive Karma, the A1 was designed to be driven electrically by a moderately sized battery that would provide about 30 miles of range. When the battery was nearly depleted, the a small gas engine would fire up to drive a generator to sustain the charge of the battery and keep it going.

Unlike most of the other ER-EVs we've seen, the Audi engineering team led at the time by Michael Dick took a pass on using a conventional piston engine for the range-extender. Instead they opted to use a tiny 254cc Wankel rotary mounted under the rear cargo floor. 

Unfortunately, earlier this year, top management at the Volkswagen Group decided that they no longer wanted Audi going off on engineering tangents. Instead, they would be homogenized with the work going on in the rest of the group. Mr. Dick was retired and replaced by former Porsche R&D chief and then Bentley CEO Wolfgang Durheimer. 

This week Audi revealed a revamped version of the A1 e-tron, with what is now dubbed a Dual-Mode Hybrid system. This is effectively the same system that was originally shown in the VW Golf Twin-Drive back in 2008. The main difference is that the four cylinder diesel used in the Golf has been replaced with a shorter 3-cylinder gasoline TFSI engine for the smaller A1. 

When I went to Germany for a media drive of the MK VI Golf in 2009, VW brought out one of its prototype Twin-Drive units and I had a chance to drive it. I published my report on that for GreenFuelsForecast.com. In my short drive of the car it worked well with relatively seamless mode transitions.  

As a longtime fan of the Wankel, I'm sorry to see it de-emphasized for this project. I still think it could make a great range extender and look forward to seeing further efforts with it. 

Green Fuels Forecast
Green Fuels Forecast, web-based coverage of the alternative fuel automotive sector including batteries, electric and hybrid drive, diesel, hydrogen and biofuels

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I know this will sound callous, but there are times when I just can't help looking… 4

I know this will sound callous, but there are times when I just can't help looking at the world around me to see natural selection at work. Could a declining lifespan among less educated white Americans help to mitigate the growth of the Idiocracy? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

Life Expectancy for Less Educated Whites in U.S. Is Shrinking
A long rise in Americans’ life spans has reversed itself for white people who lack high school diplomas, an increasingly troubled group that has lost four years of life expectancy since 1990.

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It's been obvious for a long time that the US Patent and Trademark doesn't…

It's been obvious for a long time that the US Patent and Trademark doesn't have the resources or wherewithal to properly examine most patent applications. The result has been a deluge of patents being awarded for "ideas" that are overly broad, vague or just not novel. 

Worse still, third parties that were not directly involved in infringement cases were not legally allowed to challenge the validity of a patent. That has now changed and Google, Stack Exchange and the USPTO have teamed up to provide a platform for collaborative discussion and prior art submission to challenge patents. Let's hope that those with the necessary knowledge get involved and start bringing down some of these patents. 

If enough bad patents can get invalidated before they come to litigation, perhaps it will reduce the incentive for filing them in the first place. 

Open Season on Patents Starts Thursday, Thanks to Crowdsourced Platform | Threat Level | Wired.com
Thanks to a change in U.S. patent law, citizens can now help challenge patents before they are issued — and a collaboration between the Patent Office, Stack Exchange and Google hope to turn the power…

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+Felix Salmon gets it entirely right in this piece about how journalism is changing…

+Felix Salmon gets it entirely right in this piece about how journalism is changing and must change. It used to be that journalism was largely a one-way feed with the writers spewing forth their words and the occasional cranky reader writing back to the editor. 

Today's technology and means of distribution turns that on its head, because the scarcity imposed by the physical publishing platform has been supplanted by nearly free platforms that are accessible to all. That means that anyone with an opinion, knowledgable or otherwise can put it out there. 

The old-fashioned writers and frankly even a lot of bloggers just arrange and regurgitate the "facts" as they hear them. The most valuable journalists today spend as much or more time reading what others write and then provide analysis and context that helps their readers to understand what it all means. They also call BS when it's required.

That's what I've always tried to provide in my own writing. I'm not always correct and I admit it when I mess up but at least to try to provide some insight. 

Teaching journalists to read
I found myself at 7:45 this morning in a very posh Upper East Side club, being offered an array of ties to choose from before being allowed upstairs to take my seat between Nicholas Lemann and Victor …

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"Once the 2.0-liter fourcylinder engine kicks in, you have 188 horsepower at…

"Once the 2.0-liter fourcylinder engine kicks in, you have 188 horsepower at your disposal. It may weigh around 3,600 pounds, but the Hybrid is a bit like a puppy. It feels eager, which is something I've never really felt from a hybrid before."

High praise from +Jalopnik for the #2013FordFusion  

Ford Fusion Hybrid: Looks Like An Aston Martin And Isn’t Boring To Drive
A zoo in Russia recently had the pleasure of welcoming the first Liliger into the world. It’s a hybrid of a Lion and Liger, but it isn’t really either.

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Very nice collection of machines with Shelby DNA on +Jalopnik 

Very nice collection of machines with Shelby DNA on +Jalopnik 

Also a big thumbs up for changing the format of these daily "ten best" lists to a single page instead of the old click-through to artificially elevate the page count configuration. Hopefully other sites will start following +Nick Denton's lead on this.

Our Ten Favorite Shelbys of All Time
How did a lanky chicken farmer from Texas become the most recognizable speed merchant in America? By building some of the rawest performance machines ever made.

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