AD #1654 – See Beauty in Death, Achates’ OP Engine Update, ZF Develops Urban Cruiser
July 9th, 2015 at 11:48am
Runtime: 8:44
- Hyundai-Kia Develops Fast Wireless Charging
- VW Sets Fuel Consumption Record
- Concours Event Showcases Hearses
- Double Fuel Economy at No Extra Cost
- Supplier ZF Makes Own Urban Cruiser
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On today’s show… Supplier ZF jumps into semi-autonomous technology, an engine that can deliver twice the fuel efficiency at no extra cost, and what’s this? A concours event showcasing hearses? All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily for July 9th, 2015.
KIA PUTS ITS SOUL INTO WIRELESS CHARGING
Hyundai-Kia was just awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to create a wireless fast charging system for electric vehicles. And it teamed up with a company called Mojo Mobility to develop it. They are already in the final phase of the project. In the initial phase they developed a wireless power transfer system that has more than 85% grid-to-vehicle efficiency. In the second phase it was boosted to 92% efficiency. And to make it easier for everyday use, it’s been designed to work even if the energy transmitter on the ground and the receiver on the vehicle are misaligned. The system has been integrated into a fleet of five Soul EVs and now they plan to use it in the real world to test its durability and performance.
VW SIPS FUEL, WASHES DOWN WITH GUINNESS
Fuel economy is one of the hottest topics in the auto industry right now and Volkswagen is once again looking to highlight the superiority of diesel. The automaker enlisted the help of known hypermiler, Wayne Gerdes to set a Guinness World Record for lowest fuel consumption in a non-hybrid car. The lap of the lower-48 states took 16 days and over 8,200 miles to complete, but returned a whopping 81 miles-per-gallon and used less than $300 in fuel. That beat the previous record, also set by Gerdes, by more than 3MPG and beat the hybrid record by more than 6MPG. It just goes to show why we’re seeing more and more automakers offer diesels in the U.S. market.
And we’ll be back with more right after this.
THERE CAN BE BEAUTY IN DEATH
Most of us only see a hearse at a funeral or on reruns of the ‘60s TV show The Munsters. But in about two weeks time the Concours of America will be showcasing beauties like this 1937 LaSalle – which is still working mind you – along with 6 other hearses at the 37th edition of the Concoursd’Elegance in Plymouth, Michigan just outside of Detroit.
There will be over 300 classics on display including the likes of this 1947 Bentley MK 6 Convertible, reportedly the most expensive post-war Bentley built…
Along with this 1929 Duesenberg J Dual Cowl Phaeton, one of only three in existence…
And this 1934 Ford Pierson Brother’s Coupe — from the private collection of this year’s Enthusiast of the Year and friend to Autoline – Bruce Meyer from California.
All this is happening the weekend of July 24th. In fact, Larry Moss, the Chairman of the event will join us on Autoline AFTER HOURS the day before everything gets going — Thursday, July 23rd — where he’ll tell us, among other things, why they decided to spotlight the hearse for the first time this year.
DOUBLE FUEL ECONOMY AT NO EXTRA COST
Speaking of After Hours, many of you will remember when David Johnson, the CEO of Achates Power was a guest on the show. John just sat down with David to get an update of the Achates engine, which could turn out to be a breakthrough in powertrain technology.
(Clip from interview with David Johnson can only be viewed in the video version of today’s show.)
Think about it. Twice the fuel economy at no extra cost. Imagine running that engine on decarbonized gasoline. It could conceivably have a smaller carbon footprint than a battery electric vehicle. You can watch that entire interview on our website.
And don’t forget to to tune into After Hours later today when we will be taking a deep dive into the all-new Nissan Maxima. We’ll have Vishnu Jayamohan from Nissan’s Product Planning & Advanced Strategy operations in the studio with us.
Coming up next, ZF is the latest supplier to show off its technology for self-parking and remote control cars.
ZF DEVELOPS ITS OWN S.U.V.
When ZF, the German supplier company, bought TRW, the American supplier company, they wanted to demonstrate the kinds of technologies they could come up with when combining the companies together. So they developed this car, what they call their Smart Urban Vehicle. And it’s got a couple of capabilities that really point to the future of automotive technology.
Since this car is for driving in urban situations, ZF wanted to give it incredible maneuverability and parking capabilities. So using TRW’s steering system, they modified the front suspension, kind of making it double-jointed. The front wheels can practically turn sideways to give a car a very short turning radius.
In fact, this car can practically turn within the length of its own wheelbase. They had to modify the front wheel wells to make room for the wheels to turn. But this kind of steering is a feature that could be added to many cars.
But sometimes a great turning radius is not enough to make it easy to maneuver a car. So ZF developed a parking feature that is controlled by a smart watch. All you have to do is hold your thumb down on the screen of the watch and the car moves into action. Once it finds a parking space it can fit into, the watch vibrates. Then the car backs into that space all on its own. In this demo, the driver has to stay close to the car.
A more practical aspect is that you can use the watch to call your car and have it pull out of its parking spot all on its own. Presumably in the future you will not have to stand next to the car to maintain the connection.
And if operating your car with a smartwatch isn’t enough, ZF also designed it so that you can control it with a tablet. The idea is to drive your car into tight parking spots or other situations where there isn’t enough room to open the doors.
You just hold your tablet in one hand and walk alongside the car. You steer it by running a finger on the screen of the tablet where an icon of the car is displayed. To turn to the right, you just drag your finger to the right. To turn to the left you drag it to the left. And to back it up all you do is drag your finger towards the bottom of the screen. It’s not as easy as it looks to control a car using an i-Pad, but remember, this technology is very much in its infancy and is only going to get better.
This car has some amazing capabilities. We’re not going to see this technology in showrooms in the next couple of years. But it does point to the future and what can be done. And it’s very interesting to see how ZF and TRW together have produced these technologies.
It’s impressive to see how much new technology is coming out of the automotive supplier community. And that wraps up today’s report, thanks for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.
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Comments (31)
July 9th, 2015 at 12:16 pm
ZF
Two questions
1 how do the half shafts make that angle?
2 Does the car communicate directly with the smartphone/tablet or must the link go through a remote datacenter?
July 9th, 2015 at 12:24 pm
So did the Lincoln MKT snag one of the coveted six pots at this years Concours D’Elegance hearse showing?
July 9th, 2015 at 12:27 pm
I watched the segment on the Achates engine…very impressive imho.
July 9th, 2015 at 1:54 pm
KIA’s getting 92% efficiency with cordless charging is impressive, but still, the 7-8% cost of laziness relative to the 99+% grid to car efficiency you get when plugging it in seems kind of high to me.
July 9th, 2015 at 2:23 pm
Just curious what happens when your cat decides to crawl under your cordless electric vehicle while it charging?
July 9th, 2015 at 2:41 pm
#4 the same people that can not or will not manually open a hatch or a trunk lid.
July 9th, 2015 at 2:45 pm
@4
Well Kit, I think most folk will live with that percentage of loss. In fact, if the iPhone had inductive charging built-in, I’ll bet no one would classify it as ‘laziness’.
I only bring the phone reference to bare because the Palm Pre (my personal favorite smart phone of all-time) was the first (and only for many years) to have built-in inductive charging. The only people who dismissed that feature as useless at the time (and there were many) were the ones who had never experienced the absolute freedom of being able to just set the device down on a surface to charge, or pick it up when ready to go – instead of all the gymnastics involved in using cords.
Did the Touchstone inductive cradle make for slightly slower charging? Yep. Did anyone who experienced the ease of using such a charging method mind? Not many.
My guess is not many people will mind the slight loss in efficiency here either. Too much convenience to be gained.
July 9th, 2015 at 2:54 pm
I wonder if the VW mileage record was set “legitimately”, or used tricks like an escort truck that Gerdes could draft behind the entire way. Regardless, 81 mpg on an 8200 mile loop is impressive.
With diesel prices recently favorable to gas, I had finally convince myself to order a redesigned 2016 Cruze with a diesel, only to find out GM is dropping the diesel for 2016. A new diesel is supposed to be available in 2017, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
July 9th, 2015 at 3:04 pm
I will probably continue to plug in my phone, even if/when inductive charging becomes more commonplace, unless they get to inductive or capacitive charging that is nearly the efficiency of plugging it in.
There is a much bigger difference with cars, though. We are talking about charge rates of thousands of watts, and more than a killowatt hour of power a day per vehicle being thrown away. with cordless charging. Yes, there are so many phones that, for now, if all of them used cordless charging, the total power wasted would probably be greater, even at a few watt hours a day. I’d guess that cordless charging efficiency of phones could be better than with cars, though, because the charging dock could accurately position the phone for best efficiency.
July 9th, 2015 at 3:17 pm
8 The TDI would get over 50 mpg just driving at a steady speed of 60 mpg, but as the article said, they used a noted “hypermiler” to get the 80+ mpg.
I suspect he would have used all of the known tricks, including accelerate-and-coasting, tailgating 18 wheelers, and just holding the speed down. I suspect they had a number of obscene gestures displayed to them during the run.
July 9th, 2015 at 5:04 pm
if achates engines are production ready and are twice as fuel efficient as normal gasoline engines, dont know why boating industry isnt beating path to their door. seems like they`d benefit most.
July 9th, 2015 at 5:21 pm
A Kia Soul has a 30 kWh battery. If it was quite low, say needs 24 kWh of recharging, an 8% efficiency drop translates to less than 2 kWh loss or about 20 cents. I think the convenience is worth the cost.
#5 Unless the cat has a bunch of wire inside it, I don’t think it would be harmed.
I think this kind of technology will help make EVs more popular.
July 9th, 2015 at 5:24 pm
I bet they did not drive through any urban areas, otherwise shooting a middle finger would have been the least of their problems.
July 9th, 2015 at 5:30 pm
12 To me, it’s not the money, but the idea of burning that many more tons of coal, or million cubic feet of natural gas, whatever, a year for a little convenience. Yeah, I’m probably in the minority of Americans regarding such things.
July 9th, 2015 at 5:43 pm
13 Too true in many urban areas.
July 9th, 2015 at 5:46 pm
Kit, do you recycle a lot? I do recycle as much as possible even though I know a few people are getting rich on recycling stuff, but I care more about saving the environment than that, IMO it was a big mistake eliminating deposits for returned bottles and such so many years ago.
July 9th, 2015 at 6:18 pm
Bottle deposits were a good idea, pedro. I think ALL beverage bottles should be in glass because plastics are polluting land and sea. Betcha you didn’t see many pop bottles along the road when a deposit was in place. Heck, when a kid, I collected enough bottles in an afternoon to buy a case of pop and beer for dad when visiting the tobacco fields in S. Carolina.
July 9th, 2015 at 6:29 pm
Were I ever to have a plug in car,which I will never own,but just sayin’ I would have no problem actually plugging it in.What’s it take,30 seconds or less?
July 9th, 2015 at 6:39 pm
We still have bottle deposits here in Oregon,wow….what a surprise,lol.
July 9th, 2015 at 6:53 pm
I recycle what I can, or at least I intend to. In both FL and IN, they say to put aluminum, steel, glass, paper, and most plastics together. Sometimes I wonder if all of this stuff really gets separated and recycled, but if not, I can’t do much about it.
Something that bugs me is the bottled water fad, with hundreds of millions of plastic bottles made each year, for nothing. Some of these bottles get recycled, but many do not. Even if all of them were recycled, it takes a lot of energy to re-make bottles and truck water around. People don’t seem to realize that their own tap water is probably safer than someone elses tap water from a plastic bottle that may be outgassing carcinogens. Sorry about the rant.
July 9th, 2015 at 7:03 pm
I don’t know if it is still this way, but when I was in Czechoslovakia in 1992, all of the beer was sold in thick, heavy, returnable bottles. The bottles were interchangable among brands, and varied in color from brown, to various shades of green, with a few clear ones. I found that re-use of bottles refreshing, even then.
July 9th, 2015 at 7:13 pm
We recycle here too.Separate dumpsters for cardboard,co mingle,plastic and packing peanuts and the like,then just plain ol garbage.easy setup,no muss no fuss.We keep three small trash cans in the house to keep things separated.We’ve been doing this for so long it’s pretty much an automatic thing.We don’t mind it at all.
July 9th, 2015 at 7:21 pm
@ #5 I think the charging system efficiency goes down about 10%,depending on the size of the cat, the cat’s efficiency will likely suffer over 50% reduction.
The other question is if the floor / charging system is wet and you are wet from the rain, how much will your efficiency be reduced?
July 9th, 2015 at 8:20 pm
You can also think about the efficiency a convenience charger has in enticing more people to get an electric car. If you compare the lower efficiency against increased adoption, maybe that’s a good trade off. And it isn’t as if cars aren’t filled with convenience features already; somebody’s buying that stuff.
July 9th, 2015 at 10:00 pm
30 seconds under heavy rain to plug your car in would be a big inconvenience, yes. At the same time, having to stop at a gas station and (omg) pump your own gas will seem so last century.
Plus inductive charging would be easier to spread around in normal parking, fewer obstructions in public sidewalks and less visible to everyone. The losses are significant, but personally I wouldn’t be afraid of frying my cat, but I would be afraid to be microwaving my pants, no matter what experts say. That in my opinion is a solid bias against this electrified mat.
July 10th, 2015 at 8:12 am
Why limit inductive charging to your garage? Just energize the pavement and forget battery’s all together. Can be like the slot cars I had as a kid.
July 10th, 2015 at 8:51 am
@18
I’m telling you, G.A., (I think) you’re saying that because you haven’t experienced the ease-of-use that inductive charging affords.
A lot of folk (mostly iPhone fanboys) poo-poo’d Palm’s Touchstone inductive charging dock for the Pre back in 2009 citing the exact same argument you’re making. But once you use the technology, you realize how nice it can be NOT to have to “take the extra 30 seconds” to plug/unplug. Especially when you have one mounted in your car (like I did) and it has a magnetic base that holds the phone snugly to the dock even when cornering and braking hard.
It’s all about one word today: Convenience.
July 10th, 2015 at 9:20 am
To me, convenience things can be nice, if they come at little cost, and no recurring cost. I like the keyless entry/starting of my Prius, but if it caused me to use an extra 500 pounds of coal a year, as cordless charging of an EV would in an area using coal fired power plants, I would’t like the idea.
I use a phone using micro usb for charging, and with the battery losing capacity, I need to plug it in twice or more often a day. I have the “top” of the connectors marked to make it easy, and it doesn’t bother me. My phone stays in my cup holders, even when cornering vigorously.
Yeah, I guess I don’t value convenience as much as many people. Heck, I even drive manual transmission cars about half the time.
July 10th, 2015 at 11:21 am
I’d say the main danger to cats and induction charging is when the cat gets run over by the owner because the cat was napping under the car on the floor charger pad, warmed from the efficiency loss.
July 10th, 2015 at 11:53 am
I have a charger on the powerstrip on the side of my desk,plugging in my phone to charge it is an almost automatic thing for me.I’m not one to go and buy a new technology for the ‘latest and greatest’.What I have works,and works very well.The rare times I need to put my phone on charge in the car is when I’m using the gps feature,and when I use that,I have it in the docking thing that keeps it charged up.I guess I’m not an ‘up to date’ kinda guy.
July 10th, 2015 at 2:22 pm
I hate stunts because they give a false impression that ordinary driving will ‘be like this.’ It is like advertising ‘highway mileage’ so no one notices the car is an urban gas/diesel hog. Still, I did a driving stunt in July 2013 (see web link.)
Using just cruise control over a three week period, I burned 10.9 gallons, ~$35, to drive 1000.8 miles. My average speed, 22 mph done on cruise control set to 25 mph in town.
The Prius trick was: (1) always drove 2 hours on every trip; (2) drove on less-traveled, 4 lane streets so people could easily pass; (3) drove outside of ordinary commuting hours, and; (4) hit ‘flashers’ when overtaking traffic was not in the passing lane so they could easily change lanes.
Nobody noticed; nobody flashed lights or showed the finger; and I was able to confirm that ‘warm-up costs’ are the greatest MPG penalty.
This driving stunt had a technical purpose, to confirm the ‘warm-up’ hypothesis. It also let me verify a simple control law change that would give everyone an improved MPG.
I don’t like ‘driving stunts’ used to mislead potential customers . . . called lying or some call salesmanship. However, I do like testing to find ‘low hanging fruit’.
Bob Wilson, Huntsville, AL