30 electric cars available now or soon...

I was talking about electric cars just yesterday. They still have many limitations, cost, range and charging times. But they are getting close. I could see my wife and I sharing an electric car and a conventional car or hybrid. Use the electric for much of the day to day stuff, the hybrid or conventional for longer trips. If there was an electric car with the room and drivability of our Honda Fit, for less than 20K, I'd strongly consider it. Venture Beat blog has a seemingly comprehensive list of electric car manufactures:
30 electric cars companies ready to take over the road » VentureBeat

VW finishes development of BlueTDI; 60 mpg Jetta coming to U.S. this summer - AutoblogGreen

Diesel cars are on the rise. A 60 MPG Jetta Wagon could be my next car...

VW finishes development of BlueTDI; 60 mpg Jetta coming to U.S. this summer - AutoblogGreen

Using the power of crowds for bicycling and commuting

No hybrid will ever match the efficiency of a bike for getting around, I've been an avid cyclist since I was 13 or so. But finding good routes can be difficult. Bikely uses the power of crowds to develop a database of bicycle routes, with descriptions, that are mapped on Google maps. Pretty sweet.

Bikely

No lefts? This could be an awesome Google Maps or GPS feature...

UPS has gotten significant press for their use of software to maximise efficiency in their route planning. (See this New York Times article) The article claims that through efficient route planning, including the elimination or minimization of left hand turns, they have had some astonishing results.

the software helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons.

At $3 a gallon for fuel, that's $9 million in savings. I wonder what it cost to implement?

How cool would it be if this was a feature in Google Maps or a GPS unit? You enter all the errands you need to do in a day, in any order, and it spits out the most fuel efficient and time efficient options, especially if it took traffic data into account.

Networked GPS units. So cool. And good for the planet?

Real time traffic data is pretty neat. I call my wife sometimes and have her check Google Traffic before deciding which way to drive. That system relies on a very expensive system of embedded sensors, and as such, only has data for a limited amount of area. I also use a GPS frequently, an inexpensive Garmin I bought for my wife 2 years ago but now rely heavily upon. As I navigate the San Francisco bay area, I've often wondered about having real time data available on the GPS, and it looks like that is becoming a reality. Very cool.

TomTom is releasing next month a new unit that will record average speed from other TomTom units, and use that to calculate average speeds on roads at various times of the day or week. That is, it will learn that the 405 on a monday at 8 am is a parking lot, but at 4 am on Sunday, it's smooth sailing. And it will use real data, from real drivers and real cars, to learn this. With that knowledge, it can better calculate your best options.

The Dash Express appears to take this one step further. It not only uses the information collected to better determine averages, it operates in near real time. So if the Dash connected drivers ahead of you are are stuck in traffic, and the data gets sent to the server, that server will send the data to your Dash, and it will reroute you accordingly. If it works, you can imagine this having huge impacts. If everyone had this, it could make our entire highway system more efficient. That could have positive environmental benefits.

As a side note, I could imagine this becoming a business school example of the success or failure of a product dependent on the "Network Effect". Imagine being the first person to buy a fax machine. It doesn't become useful until several or many others have it. I wonder how many Dash users are needed before it becomes truly effective?

Texas - An emerging wind superpower?

I live in California, but grew up and went to undergrad school in Texas. It's funny how people out here perceive Texas as being redneck and backwards.

Texas is a big state, about the size of France. It has nearly every type of ecosystem imaginable, and people as varied as any. It's interesting to note that Texas is one of the biggest producers of wind power in the country. I like the idea of wind power a lot, though I'm not without reservation.

But if people begin to see that Texas is more than oil wells and cattle, then that makes me pleased.
http://earth2tech.com/2008/02/25/texas-and-wind-wildcatting/

70+ MPG Volkswagon Diesel Hybrid

A few years back, a friend of mine had a VW Jetta Wagon, with a diesel engine. We used it for several kayaking trips, and I was impressed. Nice to drive, and 40+ MPG with kayaks on the roof rack. Of course, those diesels polluted, and you couldn't buy a new one in California.

Now, VW is promising a hybrid diesel Golf that gets 70+ MPG, and meets even california's strict emissions standards. Simply put, I want one. Maybe a Jetta version, I'd give up a few MPG for the added space.

Read More:
dailytech.com