Environmentalist Whackjob Academics Recommend Speed Limiters (Duh)

A crew of academics from the University of Leeds just released a study entitled Speed Limit Adherence and its Effect on Road Safety and Climate Change: Final Report (PDF).  This is, in fact, the report that's spurred the recent news on the subject (BBC, Autoblog, The Register). 

As suspected, the Climate Change in the title tells us the real motivation behind the study. I guess the whackjobs behind this amusing study didn't get the memo (read their bios!). Of course, one does wonder when the Institude for Transport Studies at Leeds is under the Faculty of Environment (WTF?).  

Let's look into their study a bit, shall we? Their proposed technology, dubbed Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA), is basically a speed limiter installed in your car based on GPS-mapped speed limits for all roads you may drive on. Here's an article from 2005 discussing the beginning of this study. 

Seeing as this is a Final Report on a road safety device, I eagerly opened it up and searched for crash statistics with and without the device enabled. Page down... Page down... Page down... Page down... Umm... Page down?? End of document reached. Hmm. Crap ok let's start over from the beginning. What is in there?  Let's see...  A ton of tables on fuel savings from driving slower and CO2 reduction. I didn't verify them but they might be accurate.

And then we arrive at Section 4. The Predicted Impact of ISA on Accidents. Wait. Did that say Predicted? In a Final Report? The Final Report that is being sent to the government to recommend six billion pounds be spent to map out the speed limits on all roads onto GPS systems in digital stone and attempt to restrict all drivers to speeds only the government and your your friendly local hacker can set? The Predicted Impact of ISA on Accidents?! 

Reading on... Section 4.1: "The initial assumption is that ISA changes the distribution of speeds for those vehicles eqiupped with ISA by reducing the propensity to exceed the limit...From those observed or calculated changes in speed distribution, resulting changes in the propensity of ISA-equipped vehicles to be involved in crashed can be calculated using empirically derived models of the speed-safety relationsihp from a large body of literature on the subject."  

I.e. these academians used fancy jargon to say "we all know speed kills so we didn't actually do any testing to back that up." In section 4.2 they do go into some wacky predictive models of safety enhancements of speed reduction vs. crash reduction. My interpretation: Yes, if we all went exactly the same speed, there might be less crashes. And if that speed was zero, there might be zero crashes. And zero emissions! Wow, y'all are geniuses. 

The study posits a few conclusions:

• A bunch of wacky BS predictions on accident reduction (necessary foundation for their argument).
• A bunch of fuel would be saved by going slower.
• A bunch less CO2 would be emitted by going slower.
• Some people want to adopt the technology. Some people dont. The authors scoff at those that don't, comparing this technology to seat belts and recommending it be mandatory.  (In case you haven't guessed, I'm not a fan of being forced to wear a seat belt, or a helmet either. I'll choose how to protect myself thank you..)

What the authors miss:

• Passing situations
• Emergencies (road rage? hospital? etc.)
• Speed limit gets hacked (somebody will set it to 2mph to shutdown a city; fun)
• Lift throttle oversteer can kill
• People that will zone out and leave it "floored"
• And of course, this will kill the UK's speeding tax camera revenue, so it will never happen. It's just verbal masturbation so another student can get a Ph.D and/or resume piece.

Speedlimit.org.uk explains the problems with speed limiters with aplomb. MAG UK also has a great article on how this sort of thinking goes against the basic fabric of personal freedoms. Per their Mulhouse Declaration: 

We the undersigned utterly oppose the compulsory fitment to privately owned vehicles of any device designed to arbitrarily remove control from the driver to remote operation. 

We note with extreme concern the tendency of governments to impose ever more intrusive and restrictive regulations upon the citizen. 

We caution governments to remember that they are permitted to govern only by the consent of the people and that such consent when given through an election does not grant unlimited licence to interfere in the daily life of the citizen. 

We further caution all governments that to impose unduly on popular freedom is to imperil the respect in which government and the rule of law is held.

Who gave people the right to impose speed limits on us in the first place? Remember: it was never a safety thing: it was an environmental agenda cloaked under the guise of safety to get the soccer moms onboard. The real agenda is total control. And it's the only reason I can't do a brisk one-day drive from Dallas to LA through the desert in my Corvette Z06. 

Which brings me to my closing thought. Fuck fuel conservation. Fuck C02.  Fuck the planet.  And money and all that other shit too. The single most valuable natural resource we have on this earth is time. Use it while it's here, as quickly as you fucking can, because once it's gone, you're gone, and somebody else is gonna be burning your dirt nappng ass to get where they need to go. And they'll be speeding.

Happy new year,
Your friendly local Crazy Romanian who can't stand self-righteous environmentalists.

PS: Obligatory George Carlin on The Environment:

Quick! Hide the Test Mules! The Google Streetview Car is Coming!

Google Streetview catches Porsche engineers doing high-altitude testing with pre-production test mules.  I can see it now...  

What's with the Beetle coming down the road?

It's Google! Get ze tarps! Cover ze cars!!

Scheiße!!

View Larger Map

[Garage419 via Jalopnik]

Touchscreen Watch Phone, Gunpowder, and the TSA

• LG introduces new touchscreen watchphone. Finally, a curveball for those air waitresses/waiters that keep bugging me to turn off my iPhone for the safety of us all.
• Gunpowder is okay to bring onboard an airplane. As long as you label it properly.  So is one lighter.

More on (Moron?) Gas Taxes

• Ward's columnist wonders if Americans can handle the truth about gas taxes
• The New York Times chimes in: time for a gas tax
• It's not just California: Michican wants to raise the gas tax too
• Cheap gas saves Americans $1B per day
• Six states testing pay-as-you-drive system

Merry Christmas!

Crăciun fericit! La mulţi ani!

Atlanta Road Trip, Viper ACR and Lexus ISF Reviews

Note: The following is, of course, all fiction. ;-)

I drove out to Atlanta this past weekend instead of flying Air Greyhound like I've been doing so much lately. I think the Z06 is the best road trip car I've ever driven. Effortless triple-digit cruising is accomplished while the seat-heaters coddle my derriere, the sat-nav keeps me en-route, the XM radio keeps me entertained, five hundred horses dart me around LLBs, the trunk hauls a surprising amount of stuff (22 cu-ft), and all the while fuel is sipped at a miserly 21 MPG. That's with my driving. Miss Daisy's chauffeur has reported upwards of 30 on the highway.

My first test drive on my visit was Lance's Lexus ISF. What a sweet sounding ride! It makes my Z06 sound like a Lexus. No, really. It's got a louder V8 burble and a louder intake snarl than my LS7. That little Lex defintely has some roar. The 8-speed automatic (yes, I said eight) has about three too many gears for me. The short, tight gearing ensures no matter what you're trying to do, you'll need to shift in the middle of it. The brakes are superb, albeit drilled. The engine note is magnificent, as I said earlier, with a surprising exhaust rumble (drone?) between 1200-1800RPM and a loud intake roar that's electronically activated at 3500RPM (think VTEC). One thing I don't like is the software simulated limited slip differential (e-diff or whatever you want to call it). Not only will it eat through rear brake pads, it also doesn't behave like a true LSD in all situations. If you're already cornering and you apply WOT, it will allow you to powerslide. From a stop, it will just spin the inside wheel instead of allowing you to pitch the car and start a donut. Finally, a kickdown switch at the bottom of the accelerator pedal conspires to sabotage your ability to modulate power with your right foot. (Did I mention I hate autos, and especially those with kickdown switches?). When driven in manual mode with the paddles, the slushbox does to a remarkable job of rev matching and behaving like a true manual - you'd never guess there was a torque converter in the mix. Since the TC stays locked in all gears except first, you actually hear the drive-by-wire momentarily lift on upshifts (weird for an auto) as the transmission shifts (in either mode). It's pretty cool. And pretty fast. I need to drive a new CTS-V for comparison's sake...

Grant also drove his Viper ACR up from Florida so this ended up being a mini car meet over at Lance's house. Mad props to Grant for making an interestate drive in a new ACR, on Sport Cups, in the rain, for dinner. I have been outdone in a very big way. Heh.

Fist we did a few pulls to 160 on the test track to compare the acceleration between the two cars. Either car that got the jump kept its lead. The Viper was slightly faster but less than I expected: on the one good race we had (60-160), Grant was ahead by a fender (which on the Viper is half a car length). Good thing we had that test track handy.

Then the next evening I drove the Viper. Picture this: it's 35 degrees and pitch black outside. You're piloting a Viper ACR for the first time through high end Atlanta residential suburbia. You're lost, can't find a good open road anywhere, there's curbs and cars and million dollar houses all around you, and all the passenger (owner) can say is "go ahead and slide it and tell me what you think of the handling." Grant: you really are as crazy as me. Werd.

So I did slide it a few times. In cold weather it wheel-hops mid-drift. Actually it wheel hops all the time everywhere. They built it to take the abuse though, unlike the Z06. Grant mentioned he likes that it understeers a bit on corner entry so he can gauge the level of grip (the Z never understeers anywhere). The seats are incredible; so are the brakes. The power is strong, and all top end! But the diff. Ugh, that diff. They said they fixed it for 08. From driving it, it seems like it's the same weird diff as the 06, just with a shorter delay to lock-up. This may be acceptable for some, but for me it's way too unpredictable. Which is why I pussied out and said to Grant okay, here, you slide it and pulled over to switch drivers in a quiet Atlanta neighborhood that would soon be terrorized by a Viper attempting donut after cul-de-sac donut.

A New Defense for Automated Tickets

My Google Reader is lit up with stories about Maryland college kids copying enemies' license plates to get revenge via speed cameras. The bigger story everybody's missing is the security vulnerability this exposes: it just proves again once and for all that you really can just say it wasn't me!

Related: Schneier on Security: SQL Injection Attacks Against Automatic License Plate Scanners

[The Newspaper via The Sentinel, Gizmodo, Autoblog]

Technology Helps You Drive Stick: 370Z SynchroRev

Never miss a rev match again: Nissan's new SynchroRev blips the throttle for you when you downshift. Sounds wicked cool. 

[Jalopnik]

Remeber When the Boosted E55 AMG Debuted for $80K?

You can now steal a nice one used for $35K. Wow.

It's Time to Raise Gas Taxes? Really?

Wired.com blog: It's Time to Raise the Gas Tax. Excerpt:

Even at its highest, the price of gas in America hasn't come close to European prices. Governments there have made taxes the keystone of their campaign to cut consumption, promote alternative transportation and go green. It's time for the United States to do the same.

Typical hippie socialist idiot.

If you want to go green, go right ahead. Nobody is forcing you to pollute or to consume anything. By the same token, you have no right to force me to cut my pollution or consumption for your tree-hugging warm fuzzies.

Keep my damned freedoms out of your green jihad.

(edit) Obligatory George Carlin link.

Why You Shouldn't Spin Your AMG Black Series into the Ditch

Before	After

It's a pretty small world... (read at least through page 2).

ZR1 in the Snow

[Jalopnik]

Are Airport Security Checkpoints Optional?

Interesting Read.

Bogus Engineer Worked at Airline for Almost a Year

Interesting story: Bogus Quantas engineer is jailed. 

Another example that shows the biggest security hole in any company is the people. Why break in when you can walk right through the front door every day?

A Bad Year for Racing

(...and everything else).

• Honda quits F1 and AMA Superbike.
• Audi and Porsche exit ALMS.
• Suzuki and Subaru exit WRC.

Tragic.  The only questin is... who's next?

More Detailed Viper ACR Review by Owner

Grant just chimed in with a more detailed review of his new Viper ACR after some track days.  (Read his first mini-review here).  

God those tires are expensive.

More detailed review?

Lets see, two days at Roebling Road, 2 days at Gainesville Raceway, 1 day at PBIR, 1 day at EMP in Starke (that crappy vid you saw a while ago), and 3800 total miles equals a corded tire. Mostly I wasn't paying attention to wear on the last track day, was pushing very hard, and forgot to swap the tires. I could have probably gotten another weekend out of them. The outside edge of the right-front got corded... 1.8 degrees of camber isn't enough. SRT recommends -2.0 to 2.4 (though 0.8 is alright for the rear, which is nice for straight-line purposes).

Here is a better video of that first event at EMP, showing how terribly I missed the apexes. I've also got one at PBIR, though I was being lazy and leaving the car in 3rd everywhere (except the back straight, of course).

Its hard to really get many hot laps in the thing, because you're always coming up on traffic. I was driving better at PBIR, but there was definitely a good amount of time left if I'd gotten more than a few free laps. Still, the car was less than 2 seconds off what GT3 cup cars were running in a race the weekend before (on Yoko slicks). Everyone was new to the track though (PBIR = recently re-done Moroso).

At our crappy Gainesville Raceway track, the best we can figure is that it set a record for a production-based car out there (though with the exception of a rare race-prepped GT3, most cars taken out there are mostly street-driven).

It can pull 1.1 lateral gees while being WOT in 3rd, which is about 0.35 gee of forward acceleration. At PBIR it was averaging 1.19 gee around the first carousel, and 1.25 around the second, which I think is pretty indicative of static grip. Exit speed is where the car really shines, look at this graph of the ACR (red, on its maybe-record-setting lap) vs. my ~3000lb C5 on 275/315 NT-01s with basically the same power-to-weight ratio (blue).

It really rewards smooth driving. You don't have to wrangle it around the track like I do my C5, which IMO makes it easier to drive. Couple this with how incredibly straight it tracks under wheelspin, and the car is very easy to drive fast. When the rear does come loose its easy to correct, though its not a drift machine like a front-heavy Supra or Cobra. Overall I don't think its any more difficult to deal with oversteer than my C5.

Also, the stuff you hear about the top speed being 175-177 is BS... I hit 180 (GPS/PBox verified) with the stock wing position (2) and the splitter in place, and definitely had at least 5 mph left in it. Hell, it even did 171 with the wing in the maximum downforce position (which may not have been the smartest thing to do) and was still pulling about 1 mph every 2 seconds. The gearing in 5th really sucks and kills the acceleration.

The downsides are annoying little QC issues which are probably to be expected on a low-pruduction hand-built car. Sometimes my speakers make weird noises, and the trunk latch release decided not to work for about a week. The driver's side cat also smoked a lot after its first hard pull... I think they left a sticker on it.

Oh, and wheelhop. Lots of wheelhop. PS Cups don't like to do ANYTHING when cold, and hop terribly. I've even experienced hop when the ABS engages in the rear... its that bad. When cold, you sometimes feel the inside-rear tire hop when oversteering! I have the Woodhouse motor/transmission mounts which are supposed to (but I suspect do not) help this.

No mechanical issues. The engine stays nice and cool; oil temps didn't get over 225 after a 25 minute session at PBIR.

The only thing non-stock about mine is the alignment and ride height.

Still... I've never seen one driven hard, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could get similar performance out of a "BPU" GT-R with some bigger tires stuffed under it and maybe some weight removed.

-Grant

Thanks to Grant for the detailed review. Maybe he'll let me drive it this weekend in Atlanta. Although I just may not give him back the keys. ;)

BTW... I'm still waiting for in-car video that shows the steering wheel, bro...

Going Nuclear - Cyber-threats for Nuclear Power Plants

Interesting article by a colleague of mine: Going Nuclear - Cyber-threats for Nuclear Power Plants.

Know Your Rights: Talking to The Police

Thanks to Rob for sending me this one...

Eco-Driving: The Next Wave of Distracted Driving

They want us not to speed. And not to yap while driving. Gotta pay attention, ya know. 

So what's up with the new eco-dashboards that promise to reward you for beeing a traffic encumbrance and scold you for moving efficiently with distracting disco graphics? Nissan goes a step further with a gas pedal that actually provides eco-feedback.

I'm still waiting for the auto-snap-reclining driver's seat that forces you to release the accelerator pedal just to maintain your upright posture.

Jay Leno Drives His New Corvette ZR1

Did Uncle Sam Just Buy Two Thirds of GM?

• CNN Money: GM and Chrysler could get total of $15 billion in loans. 
• WSJ: US Culd Take Stakes in Big 3.

I can't find specifics on how much of the loan each manufacturer will get, but if I were to SWAG it I'd guess GM's getting $10 billion. Accoring to the loan agreement, the borrowers must issue stock warrants to the government equalling 20% of the amount borrowed. That's $2 Billion of GM stock. 

GM is worth $3 billion today.  

Not being an economist I don't fully understand what this means; Señor Google tells me it's basically a stock option grant at today's strike price. $2 Billion of GM stock options is two thirds of the whole company.  Hostile takeover / nationalization down the road? 

Am I understanding this right?

Obama: Your Money Will Stimulate The Environment

IHT: Obama's stimulus package seeks to save jobs and energy.

I get extra warm fuzzies from the part about installation of "smart meters" to monitor and reduce home energy use. How delightfully Orwellian.

Obligatory George Carlin link.

Simpsons: MApple

[Gizmodo]