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Subject: Discrediting hybrid
technology
by Jimmy the Marin County Shark
I fully agree with you regarding Toyota, and I think I know what may be the problem.
US car companies and the US oil companies have
long been in bed together. They've done business
with each other in the past (proven in court),
like conspiring to dismantle one of the best commuter rail
systems in the country in Los Angeles and replace
it with inefficient busses so that Hollywood would
become the automobile show place of the world.
I'm certain it was that the oil companies who
encouraged GM to disappear the first incarnation
of the all electric automobile.
One of the things I've repeatedly heard from the
media, especially on ABC, is that Toyota's problems
will certainly prove to discredit hybrid technology.
Well, whatever this problem is, if it is a problem
(because I know a lot people who have Priuses
and none of them have had any problem at all), it has
NOTHING to do with hybrid technology. The computerization
of car functions has been around since
way before hybrid technology. The key to hybrid
technology is simply the battery. Everything else is
just channeling other systems to charge the battery
and then regulate whether the car is running on battery or gas.
But that seems to be the overall message they want to get out there - "Stay away from gas saving cars!"
I recently bought a Ford hybrid. It has a "black
box" as well, as I believe all hybrids do. They merely
record what was happening with the car over a
certain time period before a crash. The customer is told
that it's there and that it can be used to supply
evidence in case of accident liability. It is not mysteriously
spirited away by the manufacturer the moment
after a collision. Now, Toyota may have a system for
collecting them from wreckers, when they haven't
already been removed, so that they can study them
and improve the technology and the safety of
the vehicle - but it seems to me that would be a good thing.
Not a basis for another conspiracy theory.
Jim H.
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