Two years ago, I wrote about electric cars questioning their validity. A lot has changed since that post. Electric cars are starting to get exciting! Tesla has done a lot to raise awareness for electric cars. They’ve made them cool. Continue reading…
If you are wondering why I haven’t gotten around to post this week, this is why. Throughout the week, I’ve been preoccupied with a number of things, including my job hunt and working on a few things for my car.
Lately I’ve been having somewhat of an obsession with LED. For a number of reasons. To name a few… they provide a sharper light that doesn’t look as dull as incandescent, they use up less energy, and you can get away with custom shapes. While my car and the LED obsession isn’t quite over, with the last being worked on later this week, thought I would post an update. That and for some reason I cannot sleep tonight.
Following up on my last post, which was more focused around Google and the driverless car comes this post. Tesla too, created by a very smart and ambitious Elon Musk. Not that I am harping on the accomplishments or the vision, however a lot of what comes out of Tesla in my opinion seem to be repeating the past. We all know about “Who Killed the Electric Car”. Has Tesla learned from that? Are they doing things differently?
In my opinion, of which has been formulated based on facts, is that Tesla is repeating some of the same mistakes as GM did in the 90s. Electric cars carry something called range anxiety. Replacement batteries are expensive. Charging your battery takes much longer than filling up your tank with gas. These aren’t easy problems to address, but ones that require a lot of money and effort to solve.
Technology blogs and journalists are praising the likes of Google, Tesla and many others. This is great, those companies are creating terrific products. They are innovating in a market that has been relatively slow to turn around and that has been plagued with various degrees of problems. So why you wonder am I writing this after the title I put up? The short answer… Google, Tesla, and others are NOT the solution or the disruptors of the auto industry.
I’ve gone off on several rants on Facebook, Google+ and in some cases on Twitter. I really do not want to discredit the advancements Google has made on self driving cars. I also am not looking to discredit Tesla for releasing an electric car. But those products are only scratching the surface of what a full car that can fully disrupt the industry should be. I know, you are probably saying “well Tesla is selling cars”. Yep, you are right. They are good cars. But let me ask you this, are they available to anyone? Is it an inconvenience for you to buy one?
While impressive, this makes me cringe just a little. The man is 53 and appears to be in better shape than most people in their 20s!
This is the Camaro — that somehow managed to lap the ‘Ring in 7 minutes and 37 seconds, which puts it ahead of both the 911, the 911 Carrera S, and the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640. And it did it in nasty weather, too.
Firstly, I have to say, as much as I love my Camaro, the one thing I wished Chevrolet would have done is get rid of all the plastic. However there are solutions in doing that, but will require you to look around or spend a few extra bucks.
In my case, I was really looking for ways to get rid of the flat black plastic bezels on my Camaro. At first I didn’t think they looked too bad, but it has become more and more of an annoyance to me since changing to chromed rims (which I love by the way!). I bought a set of chromed bezels from carid.com, supplied by Defender Worx.
A video of what goes on in the plant, this is clearly much better than the few pictures I’ve posted earlier!
I must say, I was shocked at the event’s first day. It was nothing short of amazing.
The event started at 9:00 am that morning, yet I was there at 9:05 am, thinking I was early. But, upon arriving at the event, I was in a line of about 20 Camaros, waiting to go through registration. As I got out and walked towards the registration tent, I noticed a few hundred more Camaros already parked in the mosaic formation. I rushed along to get my papers taken care of, went back to my car to get in line to park my car in the formation. As I was driving along, I was greeted by GM Employees, event organizers and police, all seeming to be thrilled to be a part of something so big and full of energy.
Upon placing my car (near the very back of the formation), I got out to great my fellow Camaro owners and ask about their drive. A few of them from Quebec, though a large portion of those around me were from the US, particularly Indiana. I then buffed my car a little, since it was quite dusty there and I had driven in a puddle along the way. It must be perfect you know. Continue reading…
I’ve been looking forward to this event quite some time. I have spent the better part of the past few days cleaning and polishing every inch of my car. Boy is it ever shiny! I can’t imagine what the event will be like, but coming home after work yesterday has basically left me in shock, driving by Camaros at nearly every intersection, some sounding so godly that makes mine sound like some mediocre4 banger.
Nonetheless, here is my car, ready to go out and meet hundreds more of its brothers and sisters, at the Camaro Homecoming, hosted across the street from where the Camaro is built.
