A Cross Between Youtube and Karaoke

I think this is gonna be huge...

Domain Value

Can you recover your old silicon valley domain?

Marshall Brain On Buying A $300 Electric Moped

The $300 electric moped is already a reality at Pep Boys in the United States, according to this Marshall Brain piece:

Friday, September 02, 2005

Buying an electric scooter

I have a friend who filled up his gas tank yesterday. Because of the supply disruptions caused by Hurricane Katrina, he paid $3.20 a gallon and it ended up costing about $60. His reaction to that was, "I'm not going to take it anymore!"

What he decided to do is interesting. He decided to go to Pep Boys and buy an Electric Scooter. Since I have a truck, I helped him out by driving him down to pick it up.

This scooter is fascinating. It is made in China, and with a rebate it is currently priced at $299. I had a moped in college, and this scooter is exactly like the moped. It has a 750 watt (about 1 HP) motor that gives it a top speed on level ground of 30 MPH. It has a four 12-volt batteries that give it a range of about 25 miles. It has everything you would expect it to have from a moped standpoint -- head light and tail light, turn signals, horn, rear view mirrors, storage under the seat, etc.

It has two things that you do not get with a moped. First, it is completely silent. It's almost spooky how quiet it is. Going 30 MPH with zero noise is a new experience. It's a lot of fun to ride it. Second, it costs basically zero to operate. Perhaps a penny per mile. With gas at $3.20 a gallon, his car is costing 16 cents a mile just for the gas.

His wife sent him to the grocery store last night for a gallon of milk. The store is two miles away. He found that taking the scooter was quicker than driving because you can park the scooter right next to the store's door, walk in, walk out and you are done.

Here's the funny thing about this scooter. By the time you add in tires, oil changes, gasoline and per-mile depreciation on the car, the average car costs about 30 cents a mile to operate. That means that if he uses this scooter for 1,000 miles, the scooter is free.

Obviously he won't be riding a scooter like this in the winter when it is 20 degrees F outside. He won't be riding it in the rain. He won't use it for any journey longer than about 15 miles round trip. But his office is only 6 miles away so he can ride the scooter to work on nice days. He can use it to go to the store and so on. Let's say it takes him a year to put 2,000 miles on the scooter. And let's say that at the end of the year he throws the scooter away, so he has zero maintenance costs. He has saved 100 gallons of gasoline and he has put $280 in his pocket compared to the cost of driving his car (2,000 miles would cost $600 in the car, while the scooter cost $299 and he spent $20 on electricity for it).

There are 235 million cars in America -- about 1 for every adult. If 235 million people bought a scooter and used it 2,000 miles per year, it would save the nation about 1.25 million barrels of oil per day. That is nearly equivalent to all the oil pumped out of the Gulf of Mexico every day. And the nation would save $280 * 235,000,000 = $65 billion.

Not quite the scooter I have in mind, but I'll take it.

RU Sirius interviews Joe Quirk

This is REALLY fun! Except they have not a clue regarding Evolutionary Enlightenment, just don't get that there is a science of consciousness.

God knows they seem to have done enough drugs. Maybe I'm missing something here.

Let's see, they FEAR a unitive consciousness, where the individual ego goes to die. Oh, ok, I get it.

Thank you.

Wikipedia - The Singularity

This is fun!

Well, I'd certainly like to be a voice of reason to this place. So, here goes:

Check it out...


dwc

Now If We Can Only Get Him To Do An EScooter Followup Ad

GM Introduces Plug-In Electric Car

Of course this is promising, but I still hold that we'll see the EScooter gain mass acceptance before the ECar.

By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 8, 2007; A07

DETROIT, Jan. 7 -- General Motors Chairman G. Richard Wagoner Jr. on Sunday unveiled an innovative prototype, the Chevrolet Volt -- a plug-in vehicle that derives its power primarily from electricity rather than gasoline -- as the world's automakers take on global warming and U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Wagoner's announcement underscores the depth of GM's previous miscalculation on alternative vehicles and the degree to which the U.S. automotive landscape is changing. In 1990, GM introduced the concept of an all-electric car, the EV1. The vehicle made it to U.S. consumers but didn't survive through the decade.

GM hasn't given a date when consumers can buy the Volt because the advanced lithium-ion batteries needed to power the vehicle -- similar to technology used in cellphones -- are still years from widespread use in automobiles.

Still, Wagoner and other GM executives have pledged to give the electric-car technology high priority within the company's massive product development operation.

"In the end, this is all going to be about delivering on these products," Wagoner said.

The world's auto executives meeting here at the Detroit auto show say that any big push into alternative vehicles will have to come from the automakers themselves. The executives said it isn't clear yet what role Washington will play under the new Democratic-controlled Congress. Some Democrats have proposed higher federal fuel economy standards. Wagoner reacted strongly to calls from Washington lawmakers for government-mandated increases to as high as 40 miles per gallon from the current level of 27.5 mpg for passenger cars, with a lower level for trucks.

"That's simply impossible," he said.

Wagoner, and other executives, said the industry is doing its part to confront the nation's energy problems through bigger investments in advanced technology.

Analysts in Detroit say any moves in Washington could come to a standstill, given the auto industry's unified lobbying position against major increases in fuel efficiency.

"The new Democratic Congress does not weaken the lobbying ability of U.S. automakers," said Sean McAlinden, an economist with the Center for Automotive Studies in Ann Arbor, Mich. "With new plants in Mississippi and Texas, they gain a couple of new senators. With the push for ethanol, you gain a couple of ag-state senators, in places like Iowa and Nebraska."

GM put its electric-car plans back on track after being stung by the rising gas prices after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Higher gas prices ended the boom in sales of large SUVs, which have supported the Detroit automakers. They've also watched from the sidelines as the Prius gas-electric hybrid has brought a windfall of positive attention for the Toyota brand.

"The domestic industry spends hundreds of millions to cultivate image," said Harley Shaiken, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "What they've been slow to realize is that fuel efficiency is increasingly sexy to many Americans. Even if you don't buy a Prius, you have the sense that Toyota is with the program."

GM killed off its previous electric vehicle after corporate officials balked at more than $300 million for further development. At the time, GM nearly had the alternative-car market to itself. GM has played catch-up to Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda, which seized the advantage, turning their electric-car know-how into today's hybrid cars.

GM's Volt would use its battery pack and electric motor as the primary source of power. The small three-cylinder engine, serving as a generator, kicks in to recharge the battery when power starts to fade. As envisioned, the Volt would have a top speed of 100 miles per hour. It would have an all-electric range of 40 miles, more than what many Americans typically drive in a day, making it possible for some people to commute to and from work without using a drop of gasoline.

Though the battery technology is still early in development, GM officials say they are pushing ahead. "We are taking a calculated gamble on this," said Robert A. Lutz, GM's vice chairman of global product development. "We are making the bet that the batteries will be available."