Vincent's adventurous ride

December 15, 2009

Porsche? No: TATA NANO!

If you think that hybrid or electric cars only have been made for rich people you definitely think wrong!

In this post I would like to present to you an article written by Daniel Albert that is dealing with the cheapest hybrid car on earth: the Tata Nano.

(http://www.nplusonemag.com/tata-nano-people-s-prius)

I will then show you my point of view and really would like to discuss it with you.

From the first sentence on, Daniel shows us the mistakes of the American way of life: he claims that his US-compatriots always seeked to reach the most incredible, i.e. to buy the biggest houses (even if not affordable) and especially to build the biggest cars (Hummer, SUVs).

Daniel admits that the trend has turned. High Net Worth Individuals now buy cars that seem to be environmentally responsible, but on what price? Those cars currently are much more expensive than the same model without “hybrid” motors.

But now the Indian carmaker Tata Motors is ready to create a car that is at the same time environmentally responsible and cheap! To back up this fact he gives examples and compares the Tata Nano to other cars that are or hybrid or cheap. He acknowledges that the skills of the Tata Nano are limited (vs. the Toyota Prius) but counter attacks with the very, very low price.

The author continues by giving the details of a car of the future. Oppositely to my thinking, cars that are to be driven in the future need to look old fashioned and, I need to say it, “ugly”! But why? Accordingly to Daniel, this is because drivers of hybrid cars want to show that the exterior appearance is unimportant! What’s important are the interior values of the car. The Toyota Prius and the Tata Nano both include these values, i.e. they have both not an up to date look, but very up to date entrails. The author goes as far as he compares the Tata Nano to the revolutionary Ford Model T. Is there a new car revolution boiling up from India?

In my point of view, the Tata Nano is one of the best car creations of the last years, as it’s counter attacking the American and European way of life, by producing a very cheap car that is small and environmentally responsible. But nevertheless, I am exciting to see if the car meets required security issues and if it is possible to be sold at the same price in Europe or in the US than it is in India (i.e. more or less $2500) (also see: http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1039296_tata-nano-hybrid-headed-for-the-u-s).

Now that I showed you Daniels and my point of view I would like to know what you think about the Tata Nano. I think it’s important to find a peer group for that car, to compare advantages and disadvantages. Do you think, that as a student, this car could be a good alternative to SUVs or Hummers? Could this really be a revolution as the Ford Model T was?

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December 8, 2009

The importance of reporting verbs

Below I will explain why I made the usage of reporting verbs in my blog post and the caracteristics of those reporting verbs.

1. to refer: is a very neutral reporting verb. I used this verb because the author is stating the aricle to back his opinion up. To refer means that the author has facts in his hands to prove his opinions.

2. to direct: this reporting verb is very strong. The bill absolutely wants the Secretary of Transportation to do something. I've used this verb because it illustrates the sitaution between the bill and the secretary.

3. to be concerned: this verb is passive because it is the result of an action of something else, in this case the approval of the bill. The verb is also personal because it states a point of view, in this case of the author of the blog.

4. to describe: it is a neutral verb. The sentence following this reporting verb only states facts. In this case the author states solutions to the problem.

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December 8, 2009

My favourite tools

LessonsBruce

I've chosen 2 very interesting tools, that i've learned to use during my work:

- Posterous: Well, this is a very easy way to create blogs and to have very interesting discussions with various people! I've explained in my slideshow how to create your own posterous blog and then how to follow discussions. I have also explained how you can yourself add your own thoughts on the discussion.

- FreeMind: is a software you need to download. First positive point: it is for free. But the best skill of this software is that you can create a mind map that make very unclear articles very clear. I've taken the example of a blog I was reading that seemed unclear in the first point of view. With the use of FreeMind, I've created a mind map that underlined the main arguments I could have find in the article. I've also pointed out my personal viewpoint about this topic. This made the whole blogpost very clear to me and to other readers.

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November 30, 2009

My first Target Language blog post

1. Artificial sound: In my point of view "artificial sound" is the key word in this blog post. In fact, the whole discussion of the blog post is about: could artificial sound be the optimal solution to react against the problem caused by the missing noise of hybrid or electric cars? The words artificial and sound may not fit together because sound is something that comes out of the nature. But in this case it is excatly the right constellation that was needed to create a discussion around the topic.

2. Quiet: Everything in this blog post is definitely not quiet at all. First of all we are talking about a solution that would require cars to become artificially more loud. This would go aigainst the trend of the last decades in which cars needed to be as quiet as possible. The other point is that the blog poster, Robert Charette, isn't quiet at all. By talking about this topic he involves a lot of irony and this enables the reader to figure out his point of view.

3. Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act: This is the source of the blog and also the source of the blogwriter's opinion. This bill requires the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a study on what effects of hybrid, electric and other silent engine vehicles are having on pedestrian injuries and deaths in the US. The bill specifically focuses on the perils of quiet engines to blind pedestrians, but notes that the dangers are likely wider spread than that.

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November 29, 2009

My first Mind Map

Following were the main points why I choosed the freeware FreeMind to create Mind Maps:
- It permitted me to have an overview of the main points of the authors blog
- Through this software I may present the subject with ease to my colleagues
- It is an optimal tool to take quick notes and to make connections between them
Nevertheless, I think that if I want to use this kind of software more often, I would chose a more professional tool, in which I would find even more options for how to create Mind Maps (for example easily inserting videos or pictures to be part of the Mind Map).

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November 26, 2009

Should hybrid and electric cars issue artificial noise?

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Here you’ll find a very interesting discussion I found on www.sepctrum.ieee.org. This discussion is mainly dealing with the topic “making electric and hybrid cars audible”. (http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/computing/it/riskfactor/making-electric-and-hybrid-cars-audible)

In the following statement I will first describe the post and analyze the author’s point of view. In the final part I will give my personal viewpoint on this topic.

The author is referring to a large number of articles that came out the last days and more specifically to “a bill making its way through the US Congress, called H.R.5734 - Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2008”. This bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to study and report to Congress on the minimum level of sound that is necessary to be emitted from a motor vehicle.

This is a very current topic. Because of environmental issues, more and more hybrid and electric cars are sold in the US, in Europe, and in Japan. The problem is that these cars are not issuing any noise when they’re running at a low speed. Especially blind persons, pedestrians, and bicyclers can’t hear electric or hybrid cars approaching at low speeds. This caused a higher rate of collisions between hybrid or electric cars and pedestrians.

The author is concerned by the potential approval of the bill making it’s way through the US congress. He is first of all describing potential solutions that are discussed in the articles: mainly artificial sounds for hybrid cars running at a low speed. He doesn’t think that it could be a good solution to the problem because different carmakers would use the artificial sound differently. According to the author, all these different sounds would make it even harder for pedestrians to quickly analyze where the car is located and how fast it is running.

In my point of view, it is also not going to be a good solution to create artificial sounds especially now that carmakers have found out how to produce silent cars. In fact besides lower CO2 emissions a side benefit of hybrid and electrical cars is the lower noise pollution. I think that pedestrians and bicyclers need to adapt to the lower noise of new cars. As for blind people it could be a niche for carmakers to identify and produce traffic awareness devices.

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