Why Silicon Valley Won't Be the Green Car Detroit 329
thecarchik writes "NPR boldly pronounced, 'The new automobile of the 21st century is likely to benefit from the culture of Silicon Valley, where people are used to taking a chip, a cell or an idea and working on it until it becomes something big.' We've thought about it for a year, and discussed it with many people. And we don't believe it. Silicon Valley is the wrong place to build an auto industry, for three main reasons."
the three reasons (Score:4, Informative)
From the article:
Long cycles, faraway profits
Wrong kind of engineers
Painful place to build things
Re:Only one real reason (Score:1, Informative)
Yes, we need more of those forward-leaning, innovative conservatives. In fact, it's well known that most innovation and ideas come not from NY, LA, Boston and San Francisco, but from the red states. And academia, the locus of much of the research and innovation in our world, is overwhelmingly conservative.
Seriously, what have conservatives contributed, other than complaints and obstruction? They are always on the wrong side of history. Their track record is a running joke.
Apparently it will by Lynchburg, VA (Score:2, Informative)
The 100 MPG X-Prize winner is in Lynchburg, VA. So no, not Silicon Valley.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/09/16/1811257/Meet-the-Virginia-Built-110MPG-X-Prize-Car [slashdot.org]
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/09/ultra-light-cars-reap-rewards-of-x-prize.html [pbs.org]
Re:Only one real reason (Score:1, Informative)
Uh... The only rich liberals are those that founded media empires. Few of those are liberals. I just don't know how to respond to such a dumb comment... Rich people (outside of media) got rich by inventing or recognizing and stealing ideas and carrying through on them to make a business. Almost all were/are conservatives and many from the dreaded red states where we did and still make things. Yes we don't make shit in CA nor NY, those are dead states and other blue states are going that way. This must be a troll so I'll shut up.
Re:Are they kidding? (Score:3, Informative)
I partially agree. The silicon valley was good at making tech, but it's definitely not an industry town.
Detroit is still heavily populated by good hard working people, that will work long hard hours for good pay. Unfortunately, the unions made a mess of things. It was advantageous for workers, but not good for the company. Workers received exceedingly high wages, and great benefits. This, along with the corporate greed raised the prices of the product. It became more cost effective to to move production away, which killed Detroit.
Manufacturing could move back to Detroit and be very successful, but only if payroll was not artificially inflated. Artificially inflated payroll is just as bad as artificially inflated real estate and artificially inflated stocks. We've seen them all fail with tragic results.
With the various national economies in the situation they are in, mass production will likely be offshored to a cheaper nation, than to the most tax advantageous city or state. It would be nice to think it will grow in the location it was innovated in. As we've seen with various auto manufacturers, and other industries.
Here's the lists of the "Big 3" auto companies. See how many are still in Detroit.
GM manufacturing plants [wikipedia.org]
Ford manufacturing plants [wikipedia.org]
Chrysler manufacturing plants [wikipedia.org]
Our cars will continue to be built in the locations that have the cheapest labor, the cheapest materials, and the cheapest way to get them to the customers.
Re:Only one real reason (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Only one real reason (Score:5, Informative)
yes
Re:Only one real reason (Score:1, Informative)
It's not really a partisan issue. He clearly violated their policy.
Not too long ago, NPR was in the news because they instructed their employees not to attend Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity. Their response can be found here [npr.org].
One of the reasons given in the article states "You must not advocate for political or other polarizing issues online". It would seem to apply in this case.
Re:Only one real reason (Score:3, Informative)
Have you visited or seen pictures [bouncingredball.com] of the inside of a factory? If we were to measure energy consumption in BTU/ft2, how many square feet of residential buildings are equal to one square foot of factories? And how do factories compare with offices? California is of course not yet completely devoid of private industry, but if the stat you give is correct, that 75% of the state's energy goes to companies (of course completely impossible given that the state's largest employer is, well, the state, and their offices use electricity), that doesn't mean that the energy is going to manufacturing. It is manufacturing that provides the real economic growth engine of an economy, and we have none, which makes us more 'energy efficient', as well as unemployed.
I have lived in California for most of my 35 years of life, 8 of which were in Modesto. I'm not sure what you consider 'mild', but regular stretches of 100+ highs is not mild. California has some of the hottest regions in North America, even the hottest of course in Death Valley. I'm not sure where you live, but I have observed the urban heat island effect to keep evenings in the urban areas plenty warm enough to justify keeping the A/C running all night.
I don't know if you've read any of the posts above mine, but the whole point of this thread is that there are no factories in California because of the tax and regulatory infrastructure.
Re:Only one real reason (Score:3, Informative)
It's the delta, not the heat pump, that makes A/C generally cheaper to run than electric heat. Cooling a CA house from 90 down to 70 is a lot easier than heating an upstate NY house from -15 to 60.
Re:Ignorant Comment (Score:4, Informative)
Huh? Leads the world in manufacture of what? Go talk to the few Bay Area machine shops still left standing and ask them about manufacturing of high tech equipment. Go talk to a chip maker like Parallax and ask them their opinion on setting up fab in California. Wasn't there just an article on /. about how movies are being made anywhere except California? Heck, they're moving completely out of the U.S. altogether. You really think New Zealand is home to so many huge-budget films just because Peter Jackson was born there? You really think a movie exec signing a $100 million check cares where some dude was born? There are very few companies actually coding software here in the U.S., even California. My landlord got let go from his 20+ years at the IBM Almaden research center to get replaced by Indians, in India.
I am doing things for California. I own a small business and I'm not giving up on it. I help out when I can with candidates I feel are genuine, like John Dennis [johndennis2010.com] up in San Francisco. I am hoping to be working with several volunteer groups on real reforms for the state's utterly failed legislature. But I have to admit, the state is only worth so much money to me. If things keep going the way they are going, I will move elsewhere, probably Austin.
It is my opinion that your ignorance and holding on to victories of the past and refusing to face the brutal facts of reality are more damaging to this state than almost anything else. We are in crisis, and the worst is yet to come.
Re:Only one real reason (Score:4, Informative)
You're just proving your ignorance. Look up SEER or COP (coefficient of performance). A heatpump can commonly move 3X as much heat as energy is put into it. Eg. for every 1KW of electricity, it can output 3KW equivalent of heat. It gets better if you tie geothermal into that.
Re:Only one real reason (Score:4, Informative)
Btw I doubt there is a clear cut policy that makes what Williams said a terminable offense.
Enjoy:
http://www.npr.org/about/aboutnpr/ethics/ethics_code.html [npr.org]
Aircraft are harder than cars (Score:4, Informative)
East Bay:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - Livermore, CA
Aero Precision Industries - Livermore, CA
Peregrine Falcon Corporation - Pleasanton, CA
Alameda Aerospace - Alameda, CA
Erg Materials & Aerospace Corporation - Berkeley, CA
Ocellus Inc - Livermore, CA
Inspace Systems - Oakland, CA
Braxton Technologies - Pleasanton, CA
General Dynamics Corporation - San Leandro, CA
Pennisula:
L 3 Communications - San Carlos, CA
Peninsula Avionics, LLC - Mountain View, CA
Northrop Grumman - Oakland & San Francisco, CA
Ideal Aerosmith, Inc - Menlo Park, CA
South Bay:
Space Systems/Loral - Palo Alta, CA
Honeywell International - Fremont, CA
Santa Cruz:
Lockheed Martin Space Systems - Boulder Creek, CA
Re:Only one real reason (Score:3, Informative)
A heat pump cannot approach 100% efficiency. Indeed, a heat pump does work, which makes it subject to the laws of thermodynamics, whereas a resistive heater does no work at all. It merely increases the average energy in a region.
On the contrary. A Heat Pump can be, according to its definition, MORE than 100% efficient. Where efficiency is defined as (heat pumped)/(energy spent). So you can pump 500W of heat with 100W of electricity (non real values)
So you can have more heating for the same electricity then with an electrical heater.
Look up the tech data for an air conditioning unit.
Re:Only one real reason (Score:1, Informative)
Strange how conservatives love trumpeting "you are free to speak but not free from the consequences of speech" when the Dixie Chicks are getting steamrolled. But a pundit loses his job, or Dr. Laura gets bounced, and suddenly "freedom of speech" means "you can't feel the consequences of what you say."
Unless you want to defend the other side...