Some amazing developments are happening in the world of automobile engineering. First, have a peek at the armored Ford Syn. No need to worry about leaving your laptop in your urban assault armored car vault. It’s a safe on wheels, but what’s the fuel/price tag for this level of protection?

The design of the Ford SYNUS concept was inspired by bank vaults and armored cars. The vehicle is designed for a population moving out of the suburbs and back into big cities.

What does that say about the current feelings in corporate America? Don’t make the cities safer, make the boxes we live in stronger? Ugh. There has to be a more reasonable balance of resources, one that recognizes the inherent flaw in trying to apply a financial data risk model to a daily commute vehicle.

Let me try to put that a different way: urban spaces are broken down into natural security zones that we often refer to as “neighborhoods”, with many overlapping groups with common goals. It’s not always roses, but compare this to suburban areas that often lack layers of protection and end up leaving families with the self-imposed responsibility of defending themselves from outsiders. Rural dwellers are thus the most extreme in the spectrum as they often are literally on their own when it comes to security. So, if you were to design an urban vehicle for future security needs, would it be for those from outside the city coming to visit and believing they need all the robustness of a moon-landing vehicle, or for people who want to re-assimilate into a truly “developed” urban area and to extend a shared support structure…if you get my drift.

Now contemplate the open airy look of the Peugeot Moovie. Amazing to see something like this. It just seems so right, although the idea of a stable smooth surface and consistent power grid or alternative fuel source (e.g. well-engineered public infrastructure) means…well, you probably know where I’m going with this. Nothing like seeing the pictures of the Moovie to put a little hope back in your saddle, even if it means moving to somewhere other than a barren wasteland of armored SUVs.

And finally, a dose of reality. Michellin has announced the Tweel and suggested that pneumatics are finally going to be a thing of the past. I’m looking forward to the motorcycle version of this technology.

The problem with the centuries-old air-filled design was that air, just like information, always wants to be free. Hmmm, can we envision a world of tweel-like data security?

That’s the author’s description. Actually it’s not that funny, but still and interesting approach to helping inform consumers on how find and reduce poor quality (energy waste) in electronic devices. SFGate reports:

Levine’s bill, which now goes to the Senate after its 44-33 vote in the Assembly, would require electronic devices be labeled to tell consumers how much energy is used when the device is in standby mode. Although the amount of energy consumed by the devices can be small, cumulatively it can ratchet up household energy bills.

At a press conference before the Assembly vote, Levine had a large table festooned with electronic devices — cell phones, Play Station controls, a toothbrush, Tivo, a stereo system. Cloves of garlic were scattered among the devices.

The stereo system consumed 46 watts just plugged in but the amount of energy electronic devices use in standby varies sharply.

[…]

Supporters of his bill, AB1970, say that vampire appliances cost the average household about $200 annually and consumers should make an informed choice when they purchase one.

Opponents, led by the Consumer Electronics Association, the American Electronic Association and the Electronic Industries Alliance counter that the labels would confuse consumers and stigmatize popular high tech products.

Audi has announced that it is starting to use four valves per cylinder in its newest diesel powerplant, available in the sporty A3 and A4 models…except in the United States. Alas, Americans still have no Audi diesels and will have to settle with VW and Daimler-Chrysler for the time being if they want modern diesel engineering. Remember when little gas engines with 16-valve cylinder heads were all the rage in the early 1990s? Diesel is finally getting some of the same engineering attention. Tiscali has a nice blurb about the engines that will ship next month in the UK:

Pump-injector fuel injection and piezo technology combine for the first time in the new 170PS 2.0 TDI engine for A3 and A4. The new four-cylinder, 2.0-litre TDI unit is the first in the Audi range to combine ‘pumpe-duse’ or ‘pump jet’ direct diesel injection with the piezo crystal injector technology from the 2.7-litre V6, 3.0-litre V6 and 4.2-litre V8 TDI engines. It is said to deliver power, torque and acceleration to rival a six-cylinder TDI but with four-cylinder fuel economy.

Awesome. Audi scores again. This company is definitely making some of the best cars in the world right now. Tiscali makes an interesting comparison in another article about the A3:

The Audi is licked by the BMW on performance but has the edge on economy and emissions.

Economy and emissions ARE performance! I know, this still is not the common view, but look what happened to Intel when the market shifted to efficiency as a primary measure of CPU performance. AMD walked away with the market and now Intel is soon to be talking about huge layoffs and reorganization (mark my words) to figure out how to figure out where to get their mojo back. They hired a marketing exec as new CEO to help, yet it’s not a failure of marketing that did them in, it was a failure to add a measure of efficiency to their product metrics. Engineers understand this, but the marketing culture did them in. Ironic, no? Raw power without factoring input was the problem, so marketing power differently is not going to help any more than, say, marketing an SUV to people who care about mileage. But I digress…

So sad that the American market is closed to the pumpe-duse. Maybe things will change this October 15th (September 1st for California because they refused to grant an extension to the petroleum companies) when the ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) EPA regulation goes into effect. Rediculous that the US is still adding sulfur when biodiesel does a better job and is less toxic to humans and the environment.

I am not a doctor but even I knew by 1994 (after diesel trucks in Europe nearly killed me with their exhaust) that the cases of respiratory damage (e.g. asthma) in proximity to roads with diesel traffic would decline significantly if the sulfer additive was banned altogether!!!

The EPA has some rather shocking data that supports my personal experience:

The Agency will require a 97 percent reduction in the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel from its current level of 500 parts per million to 15 parts per million.

[…]

Once this action is fully implemented, 2.6 million tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions will be reduced each year. Soot or particulate matter will be reduced by 110,000 tons a year. An estimated 8,300 premature deaths, 5,500 cases of chronic bronchitis and 17,600 cases of acute bronchitis in children will also be prevented annually. It is also estimated to help avoid more than 360,000 asthma attacks and 386,000 cases of respiratory symptoms in asthmatic children every year. In addition, 1.5 million lost work days, 7,100 hospital visits and 2,400 emergency room visits for asthma will be prevented.

If you dig around in the details you might also find that delay of implementation of the new standard is was allowed by the Bush Administration to help US petroleum and engine companies off-set the cost of moving away from a fuel additive found damaging to human health. There is also the particulate matter issue, but good luck trying to figure out which of the handful of mostly academic studies is worth citing and who was behind them. I personally know of a construction crew that started running biodiesel and their worker sick leave almost completely evaporated.

Strange twist, no? Biodiesel could easily replace sulfur now, just like it has in Europe (e.g. B5 is the standard in France and VW specifically mentions that it does not void their engine warranty) and would be a boon to jobs, especially in rural areas, and health/productivity in urban areas.

Interesting security and economic trade-offs, especially if you try and calculate the cost of externalities to the petroleum industry.

Now, how do I import one of those AMDs, I mean Audis?