Only 3145 MPG … Doesn’t Your Escalade Get That?

A team of engineering students from The University of British Columbia has built a vehicle so efficient that it could travel from Vancouver to Halifax on a gallon of gasoline.  Full Article Here:

Those who have read probably even one of my posts know that I frequent babble on about GPS and fuel economy.  Well, it’s true.  It’s easy to save 10 or 15% on fleet usage with a properly implemented and managed program that includes two key ingredients:  GPS tracking and a manager who isn’t afraid to earn the money he’s getting paid to manage. (the latter is much harder to find these days than the former, but I digress)

Here’s the team from the University of British Columbia who recently turned in a pretty astounding 3145 mpg.  Now the car obviously is tiny and isn’t about to replace your F-350 smoke-belcher any time soon … but don’t count this out.  The Wright Brothers only flew 120 feet on their first flight, remember. Compared with the mileage improvements Detroit has been able to show in the past 100 tears, this is amazing stuff.

A side note that comes to mind on this whole project though makes me wonder … where are today’s Wright Brothers?  They surer as heck don’t seem to be coming out of US engineering schools, that’s for sure.  The US excels at producing MBAs to spend other people’s money, AdWords/AdSense arbiters who make money by buying ads to send clicks to ads that pay to send clicks to ads to buy that send clicks to ads that pay .. whew, I’m dizzy … and business planners who figure out how to move the company call center to Hyderbad and eliminate their own their own job with everyone else’s.

Most of you know I sell GPS tracking for a living.  Where do you suppose my product comes from .. who designed it an who builds it?  Hint?  It’s sure not US minds.  Comes from Canada, just like the car does.  Oh, and most of my major competitive products come from Canada too … as does a tracking system the FBI (and perhaps other secretive government agencies use), the system that President Bush uses to video teleconference on his flights in Air Force One.  A close friend with a company I used to consult for just won a great contract to help build a really nice adaptation of a GPS tracking system for a huge military operation.  What country is providing all the hardware?  If you said Canada, you’d be right again.

US business planners and particularly the leadership in engineering schools need to wake up.  US students don’t go into near enough hardware-associated careers.  Software is great, business skills are great, but if someone doesn’t build the machines to control with the software or market with the business plans, we just won’t sell stuff.

Tags: gps, engineering, technical schools, innovation

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Man Jailed, Suspected Of Stealing Semi

POSTED: 2:57 pm EDT June 22, 2006

UPDATED: 5:09 pm EDT June 22, 2006

RIVERSIDE, Ohio – A man is behind bars Thursday, accused by police of stealing an 18-wheeler loaded with auto parts from General Motors.Police said the truck was stolen from a trucking company in Harrison Township. Investigators said a satellite tracking system gave dispatchers a minute-by-minute account of the alleged truck thief’s travels. Rest of Story Here:

The short story on this theft is pretty complete, except that it doesn’t explain why the thief was so downright stupid. I’m kinda like Jay Leno and his “headlines” feature, I just can’t resist a “Stupid Criminals” story.

When you’re driving down the interstate and bored, just look up at the back of the top of the cab of every 18-wheeler you pass … or that passes you. On probably 80% of them you’ll see a Qualcomm Omnitracs unit.

I’m not trying to say Qualcomm is successful, but they have on the order of 400,000 of these puppies in use. And they surely aren’t the only frog in the puddle.

If you have larceny in your heart then think of something else to do aside from stealing someone’s semi. The chances that it has satellite tracking grow higher every month … the higher fuel costs the more money a company can save with GPS tracking and the faster their GPS ROI. So hold up the neighborhood ice cream man, or steal library books and re-sell them on eBay .. 18 wheeler’s are a bad bet, especially if you’re drunk … or dumb … or both.

Tags: gps tracking, stupid criminals, gps roi

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Here’s some more eye candy that can’t wait until until the weekend.  Whenever I talk to state, county or municipal managers the desire for GPS tracking is almost universal, but the cry of "We can’t afford any monthly fees" come through loud and clear.

Here’s a showcase for the Coast Guard’s AIS system.  Ship after ship in San Francisco Bay.  Monthly cost?  A big fat zero.  Instead of listening to the pundits who tell you what you can’t do with low speed. short haul radio, the Coast Guard has just gone forth to do it.

Refresh the page from time to time and you’ll see the historic tracks of the ships.  Read the excellent write ups on the technical aspects of the system, and the consumer product information.  A very useful tool, and like many of the GPS tools I sell and consult on … no monthly cost.

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I usually try to save some nice eye candy — online examples of GPS tracking for the weekend visitors, but I’ve been a bit empty the past few weeks. here’s one that needs to go up today becuase it’s tracking a special purpose convoy across the US. Enjoy.

Tags: gps tracking, Interstate highways

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Will China compel the development of GPS 4?

by Taylor Dinerman
Monday, June 19, 2006

According to an article in last week’s Space News, the Europeans and the US are disturbed by China’s planned Compass military satellite navigation system. The Chinese are going to try to do to both America’s GPS 3 and Europe’s Galileo systems what the Europeans, under French leadership, tried to do to the US. Europe originally planned to neutralize the military advantage of the US system by putting their signal on a frequency so close to the US M-code one that any attempt to jam their signal would interfere with the US system’s operation: a neat trick that was aimed at giving France a de facto veto over all US military operations. The rest of Europe didn’t care to follow France into a conflict of this kind with the US so they forced France to swallow an agreement on this (See “What’s the frequency, Jacques?”, The Space Review, March 1, 2004)

The Chinese are not part of anything like ESA or the EU and are thus not subject to any of the pressures that led France to “be reasonable”. It will be quite a while before the Europeans fully sort out the implications of this for their system, but it is obvious that China has used its role in Galileo to gain both knowledge and expertise in military satellite navigation technology from Europe and is now going to make good use of those lessons. The Europeans, who claimed that they could separate the civil from the military aspects of this technology and only share the non-offensive parts with China, are left with egg on their face. Full Article Here:

Does all this tech talk on issues that everyday users have no direct knowledge of mean anything? Well I think it does, especially when decision makers ask the question, “How sure are we that there will BE a GPS five years from now … or 10 or 20.? (more…)

Only about 15% of the energy from the fuel you put in your tank gets used to move your car down the road or run useful accessories, such as air conditioning. The rest of the energy is lost to engine and driveline inefficiencies and idling. Therefore, the potential to improve fuel efficiency with advanced technologies is enormous. … If You want to end the month with more money left over, you should go and do some browsing and learning at the US Department of Energy’s excellent site: www.fueleconomy.gov

I’m going to save you money today, even if you don’t use GPS technology. As I review and reflect upon many of my posts I realize I am often way too far a field in the technicalities. Schools don’t teach the basics. Television and print media seldom have a clue (I often feel there is an entrance exam for TV personalities, if they know how to do anything more technically complex than to press the flush handle on a toilet they don’t get hired). But the truth is, many simple machines we use every day can work a heck of a lot better with just a little modification of technique. We just have to learn. (more…)

Google targets GPS-based in-car personalized advertising

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 5:22 pm
Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, believes that when he is listening to the radio in his car, radio ads should personally address him about his needs. For example, while driving past a clothing store, a radio ad should remind Eric that he needs a pair of pants and instruct him to turn left at the upcoming clothing store… Read it all Here:

OK, I blogged about this several times recently. I even found something good that could come out of what’s commonly called Location Based Advertising (LBS) here. But even though Google’s motto is “Do No Evil” I sense the forces of evil massing in the background here, for sure.

About the only thing I can think of to combat the problem … strike that, to at least benefit from a problem that won’t go away … is to invest heavily in ad agencies and hardware manufacturers who are heading into this market (if you are a competent investor, that is).

When someone makes an advertising product that Eric’s wife can use that not only reminds him to bring home milk and bread, but monitors his route home and tells him to swing into the convenience store that handles the lottery tickets that Mrs. Schmidt likes, the force may well be unstoppable.

Not only location based advertising but location based nagging. Electronic nannyism at it’s finest, with a nice profit margin. Orwell had nearly no imagination at all.

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