HybridCars tells of continual problems with the hybrid Civic made by Honda. The latest issue has led to “Owners Disappointed with Battery Software Fix”

“My 2008 [Civic Hybrid] purchased new started having these problems about 6 months ago. Now Honda reprogrammed the software. Made it even worse.”

“I took my 2007 HCH with 38,000 miles to the dealer for the software update a week ago. Prior to the update, I had no problems or complaints with my car. I loved it. Just the right combination of mileage, 41 mpg average with adequate power. After this update my mileage has dropped to 35.5 average with a noticeable loss of power.”

Apparently, the software change does not directly address the battery problem–but instead reduces the vehicle’s reliance on the batteries and electric motor. Essentially, the “fix” extends the life of the battery, but turns a Civic Hybrid into a standard hybrid in the process.

Battery life forces reduced reliance on the electric motor. This is what I dislike about hybrids — hidden long-term battery issues. First you have reduced power. Second you have disposal and replacement costs. Third you have landfill and recycling issues…and so on.

It sounds great to talk about electric on the show-room floor, but you lose the benefits and face high costs just a few years later.

The software “patch” should be increasing use of electric motor not reducing it. This proves the backwards nature of the hybrid model today. Yet another example of diesel engines providing better long-term efficiencies.

I would really like to see manufacturers provide open data on engine efficiencies over a ten year period — or at least the average life of a car. Something like this might work:

1. Modern small diesel engines’ efficiency arrives to 0.40-0.41 and more, whilst the gasoline engines’ efficiency hardly go over 0.27-0.28 (based on fuel mass). So, their efficiencies based on fuel masses are related by the formula:
   Efficiency_mass_gasoline = 0.68 * Efficiency_mass_diesel
2. Gasoline’s and diesel’s densities are 0.74 kg/l and 0.84 kg/l, respectively. So their efficiencies based on fuel volume will be proportionally smaller:
   Efficiency_volume_gasoline = 0.62 * Efficiency_volume_diesel
3. Now, if you analyse the declared data for various diesel engines, you’ll find out that their approximate fuel consumption at max power can be calculated with the formula (in litres per hour):
   FC_diesel = 0.19 x HPmax
4. Knowing the relation between diesel and gasoline’s efficiencies (the formula n.2 above), the formula for gasoline engine fuel consumption will be, approximately:
   FC_gasoline = 0.30 x HPmax

Long term efficiency should be clear.

Honda has in the past has been sued for false advertising and has paid owners a rebate due to lowered MPG over time. That is not a good sign for hybrids. The article also points out that reducing time spent on electric has changed the car’s emissions profile, which also raises concerns by regulators such as the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Maybe MPG now will be from an average over years of driving?

Yahoo! News says a firm can’t fire a man charged with a 1.8 cent theft

A German company that fired a man for the theft of 1.8 euro cents (two U.S. cents) worth of electricity had no grounds for sacking him, a court ruled, dismissing the firm’s appeal against his reinstatement.

Network administrator Oliver Beel lost his job after charging his Segway, a two-wheeled electric vehicle, at work in May 2009. After he connected the vehicle to the firm’s power source for 1-1/2 hours, his boss asked him to remove it.

Twelve days later Beel found himself without a job.

They might have had a better chance if they had a policy specifically against charging vehicles. Then some kind of violation could have been claimed. Instead the court highlighted that employees charged cell phones and other devices without penalty.

Wired says the Two-Wheeled Zerotracer EV Is a Wild Ride

We’re jealous of the folks who get to drive the Zerotracer. It’s a sporty two-seat enclosed motorcycle that weighs less than 1,400 lbs, can do 0-100 km/hr (62 mph) in less than 4.5 seconds and has a top speed of 150 mph.

The first thing that comes to mind, if I remember correctly, is that this looks to be a very close copy of a vehicle in the 1991 movie “Until the End of the World” by Wim Wenders. Rent the movie and see how the landing wheels work; to be fair the concept was developed by a pilot and Wenders seemed to just throw it as a credibility prop.

The movie also had some amusing concepts of Internet search engines and computer navigation in cars. The search engine, for example, had a big Russian bear mascot that would say “I’m searching, I’m searching” while it generated results.

My first work with GPS navigation was in 1994, about the same time I saw the movie. It seemed back then uncanny how accurate Wenders was in his vision. The Wired article suggests to me it might be time to see it again and see what else was predicted or may still come true.

The Indybay says Protesters Halt Smart Meter Installation in Santa Cruz County

Heidi Bazzano, one of the protesters at 38th and Portola this morning, said, “there are so many problems with ‘smart’ meters. PG&E, the government, and any hacker worth his salt will know when you wake up, what appliances you use, when you go on vacation. The meters overcharge people, increase carbon emissions, expose us to EMF which is a confirmed carcinogen, and worst of all, we’re paying for them through hikes in our electric rates!”

“One of the protesters” is not exactly a qualified opinion. And their description of a hacker sounds a lot like the bogeyman or Santa Claus rather than a real threat. Watch out, he knows when you have been bad or good…this makes the protester sound uninformed. Confirmed carcinogen? Confirmed where?

Those who are electrically sensitive have reported that the intense bursts of radiation from ‘smart’ meters are amongst the worst they have ever experienced. People throughout the state have been reporting headaches, nausea, dizziness, sleep disruption and other health impacts after smart meters are installed. PG&E has declined to remove the new meters even though they are causing adverse health impacts, leading some local residents to flee the state and stay with relatives. Some have even been forced into homelessness, living in their cars with the hope that their smart meter will be removed.

The health risks still all sound theoretical. Some might correlate smart meters to general health issues but where are the audits, studies or tests that prove causation? A placebo test or control group study would be interesting. I can understand an opposition to meters after billing mistakes are caught by auditors. This problem was documented and proven. I do not understand the vague health argument.

Indybay does not offer insights. They link instead to StopSmartMeters, which gives only more vague references, laced with heavy-handed sarcasm.

PG&ESE: “A SmartMeter device transmits relatively weak radio signals, resembling those of many other devices we use every day, like cell phones and baby monitors. A major radio station, by contrast, usually transmits with 50,000 times as much power.”

English Translation: “A DumbMeter device transmits relatively weak radio signals compared with your microwave oven (which we initially asked the FCC for permission to install but we realized that humans who are cooked like hot dogs have trouble authorizing a debit account). We’ll conveniently neglect to mention that cell phone and baby monitor wireless technologies have been implicated in brain tumors and other nasty lethal ailments, trusting that the public’s ignorance of wireless impacts will hold out long enough for us to finish installation.”

First, this is a counter-point to the entire argument. It says the SmartMeter company is motivated to do no harm because they need consumers to be healthy enough to pay bills. That could be the end of their protest right there.

Second, the style reads to me like a story from The Onion. I might think the site is a hoax except for links to real news stories about City Councils considering whether to block installation.

Are Councils and local government driven by fear more than any evidence of risk? An article in SFGate says this is very likely.

Of all the complaints filed with PG&E, 16 percent came from customers who did not yet have a smart meter, Burt said. In other words, they couldn’t be reacting to a mechanical problem with the meter.

Another bit of evidence suggests that fears rather than malfunctions drive at least some of the complaints. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District gets more customer complaints about its own smart meters following newspaper or television stories about PG&E’s meters. That includes stories about the meters’ accuracy as well as complaints that the wireless devices could pose a health risk – an idea that PG&E strenuously rejects.

“Whenever we see a spike in stories about PG&E’s smart meters, we see a spike in complaints,” said SMUD spokesman Chris Capra.

What happens when there is a spike in stories about stories about PG&E smart meters?