A poem for car folks! Happy Holidays!

From Britain:

May the open road caress you, may each mile bestow a curve,
May the pavement be unbroken, may you never need to swerve.

May your route be clear of snow and ice, may your traction be supreme,
May your ample arse not prove too sparse for that road trip of your dreams.

May your brake light blaze with brilliance, may you never need to pass
May your next trip be the best one yet, may your tank stay full of gas.

As you tour whichever route you wish, be it mountains, coast or canyons
May your quest be blessed with the very best of reliable companions.

So please accept this wish from me, with peace and health abiding
May happiness dwell in your home, may good fortune plague your driving.

Santa behind the Wheel

Anti-Theft Deterrents and the Big GM SUVs

FROM  The Detroit News:

The parking lot at Simi Valley Chevrolet north of Los Angeles, Calif., is well lit and fenced. But one night in September, thieves disconnected the lights and broke into the back windows of 16 Chevrolet Suburbans and Tahoes at the dealership.

No alarms sounded. When it was all over, dealership General Manager Steve Gaines said he was left with more than $3,000 in repairs to each SUV.

“They just unclamped the third row seat and pushed them out the back window and off they went,” Gaines said.

GM’s popular big SUVs, including the Suburban, Tahoe and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, control about three-quarters of the market, have high theft rates and are expensive to insure. Third-row seat and wheel thefts on the SUVs have become increasing problems across the country, from Texas to Detroit, as thieves take and sell parts.

To minimize the problem, the Detroit carmaker has added a suite of standard anti-theft features, and an enhanced optional security package for $395, to all its 2015 full-size utilities coming to showrooms early next year. New security features also are part of the 2015 Cadillac Escalade, also available in spring 2014.

“We’ve put a lot of technology into improving the security for our customers, everything from our glass breaking sensors in the quarter glass area to … interior movement sensors,” said Jeff Luke, GM executive chief engineer for GM’s global trucks.

Other automakers offer some anti-theft features, but GM’s Global Vehicle Security Lead, Bill Biondo, says GM’s package is the most “robust and significant theft deterrent package in the market.”

The 2015 Suburban and Tahoe will for the first time come equipped with a standard steering column lock, aimed to prevent a thief from being able to steer a vehicle out of a driveway without starting it, Biondo said. Steering column locks already come standard on the Yukon line.

A Smart Car Interior Motion Sensor

Better theft deterrents

Some changes are small, but will be big for customers such as better exterior lighting when customers approach the vehicle, enhanced theft deterrents in the navigation systems and bolted third-row seats that can’t easily be removed (second- and third-row seats will fold flat). The SUVs also have standard improvements to door locking systems, Biondo said, and for the first time will have side-milled keys that are a better deterrent to lock picking. Lock cylinders have been bolstered to make it harder to jimmy open a door.

GM also will offer a theft protection package that includes an interior motion sensor that sounds an alarm if movement is detected inside the vehicle. On GM’s current full-size SUVs, if someone breaks a window to steal a laptop, for example, the alarm doesn’t go off.

“Most alarms on 95 to 99 percent of the products in the U.S. today only sound based on the latches,” Biondo said. “You have to unlatch the door and the alarm will go off. If you break the window, the alarm will never go off.”

The new theft protection package also includes an inclination sensor that sounds an alarm if someone tries to tow the vehicle, Biondo said.

“Or, if they just wanted to jack up your car and steal your wheels and tires, it would go off also,” he said, adding the alarm sounds once the tire leaves the ground but can be disarmed by the owner for normal use or repair.

Rear glass breakage sensors that sound an alarm if broken on the rear quarter windows and lift gate window also are included in the special package. An enhanced lock cylinder and shields around the lock cylinder and lock rods to deter jimmying the lock, Biondo said.

“We talked to customers and they expressed a lot of interest in security,” he said. “And some customers perhaps based on where they live or where they frequent expressed the desire to be able to purchase additional security.”

The company hopes the new systems and technology will help lower insurance costs for owners of the SUVs as theft rates decline.

Kay Jarboe, product manager for GM’s full-size SUVs, said a GM engineer spent eight minutes trying to break into one of the new SUVs and couldn’t. She called the new SUVs “almost impossible to steal.”

Insurance premiums cut

Insurance companies typically provide Michigan drivers with discounts ranging between 15 percent and 20 percent off their comprehensive insurance coverage if the vehicles are equipped with anti-theft devices, said Lori Conarton, communications director of the Insurance Institute of Michigan.

Theft rates are just one factor that determines insurance rates. Conarton said drivers’ insurance premiums are impacted by the likelihood of a vehicle being stolen or damaged, plus the vehicle’s value at the time of a loss. She said insurers tend to look at trends ranging out three to five years such as losses from from vehicle thefts.

“If that trends down, then your rates will trend down,” she said.

And as theft rates fall, Biondo said it will provide value for customers.

On the Escalade, GM in 2010 added a standard steering column lock and theft rates on the Escalade have fallen by more than 50 percent over the past couple years, Biondo said.

IHS Automotive senior analyst Stephanie Brinley said GM’s SUVs have been stolen frequently because there are so many of them on the roads She said adding the new technologies should reduce theft rates over time.

“There’s a lot of them out there,” she said. “There’s a big market for spare parts. I think that’s why they tend to get targeted.”

GM says some of the anti-theft features it is adding to the SUVs have been available on cars in Europe since the mid- to-late 1990s. Biondo said it’s possible anti-theft packages will be included on more GM vehicles; The company has offered an optional security package on the Cadillac ATS since 2013 and added them for the 2014 Cadillac CTS and 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray models.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131219/AUTO01/312190024#ixzz2o9mukVYy

Where Auto Technology is Going -- the Connected Automobile and the use of Apps -- Mercedes and Pebble Technology

Seamless Integration of Wearable Devices: Pebble Smartwatch

Comment -- what a funky looking watch! -- only a true nerd would be seen wearing this! Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Tag-Heuer, has nothing to worry about.

Intelligent connectivity: At CES Mercedes-Benz gives a glimpse of the future

• Mercedes-Benz announces strategic partnership with Pebble Technology
• Wearable device integration: enhanced vehicle diagnostic awareness and multisensory notifications

Stuttgart, Germany. Mercedes-Benz has announced a strategic partnership with Pebble Technology in the run-up to the 2014 International CES, the largest consumer electronics show in the world. These invaluable partnership gives Mercedes-Benz early access to some of the newest hardware and early releases of application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by the Silicon Valley-based company, allowing it to develop innovative integrated applications that pave the way for the future of in-vehicle use cases.

At its CES booth, Mercedes-Benz will demonstrate how an intelligently networked vehicle becomes a part of the "internet of things" - and what benefits this can have for the customer. For this proof of concept, the developers at Mercedes have reinvented the Digital DriveStyle app in order to allow it to communicate with Pebble smart watches.

Pebble: connect yourself to your car and never miss a beat

Pebble's smart watch acts as a "second screen" for your smartphone. This revolutionary wearable device unlocks some interesting features for the connected car. For example, when away from their vehicle, Mercedes-Benz drivers can review important vehicle information at a glance like fuel level, door-lock status, and vehicle location using their Pebble smart watch, even when they are outside the vehicle. When hopping into their car, the companion Pebble smart watch app magically transforms, alerting its driver to real-time hazards through V2V technology like accidents, road construction, or stalled vehicles by vibrating the watch.  On top of this, users pairing their Pebble smart watch can customize the three watch buttons to activate their favourite Digital DriveStyle features like reporting hazards, auto-routing, Siri activation, remote-controlling media, or quickly showing nearby traffic conditions.

At the heart of innovation: Mercedes-Benz in Silicon Valley

Mercedes-Benz recognized 20 years ago that not just IT history but also the future of the automobile was being written in Silicon Valley, and was the first ever automobile manufacturer to open its own research facility at the home of innovation. In addition to creativity and invention, Silicon Valley mainly stands out on account of its unique culture of collaboration, involving short distances, networking, innovation and informal meetings. The physical proximity to companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook, as well as small, creative start-ups, allows Mercedes-Benz to integrate innovations into its vehicles quickly and in close cooperation with its partners, as well as to keep pace with the world of consumer electronics in terms of development cycles. The newly announced strategic partnership with Pebble Technology is further example of this culture of collaboration.

The Mystique of the Automobile

Hi folks -- I am currently reading over a number of articles for inclusion in the syllabus for my spring, 2014 senior history seminar. I was reading over Rudi Volti's "A Century of Automobility," Technology & Culture, 37 (October, 1996), p.667, where I found this provocative paragraph:

"The early history of the automobile shows that its overwhelming commercial success was not exclusively due to the mobility it offered. Then, as now, cars provided privacy and a sense of power, two things that always have been in short supply in human societies. This trend was reinforced by subsequent technological developments, such as closed bodies and more powerful engines. Much of the appeal of the automobile stems from its ability to confer a measure of insulation from the outside world while providing at least the illusion of power.  The private automobile is a greedy creature that makes vast claims on space, resources, and the budgets of its owners; only a device that promised more than transportation could have been so successful."

The underlining is mine.

Do we want large vehicles that take up space and reflect power because we are large people here in the U.S.? For a time it was good nutrition -- now it is simply obesity!

The Maligned 1958 Packard -- or is it a Catfish? A contribution from Ed Garten

GONE FISHIN' -- PACKARD OR CATFISH?

1958 saw the Packard line reduced to two models and four body styles; a 4-door sedan, a 2-door hardtop coupe (sometimes referred to as the "Starlight", (a name used by Studebaker with the earlier classic Lowy Starlight Coupe), a 4-door station wagon which simply bore the Packard name, and the Packard Hawk, a modification of Studebaker's Golden Hawk with a “catfish-like” Packard grille.

Restyled by Duncan McRae, Studebaker-Packard's finances dictated that the changes for 1958 be made as cheaply as possible. Quad headlights were achieved by affixing fiberglass pods to the previous year's front fenders designed for two headlights. In the rear, McRae attempted to follow the tailfin craze established by Chrysler's 1957 "Forward Look" by crafting outward canted fiberglass fin extensions that were mounted to the tops of the existing vertical rear fenders. 1956 Clipper taillight units continued to be used. Packards also adopted a low, wide "fishmouth" grille to further distinguish them from their Studebaker cousins.

Despite McRae's efforts, the car that emerged appeared cobbled together, rather than as a cohesive design. Famed auto critic "Uncle" Tom McCahill remarked that from the rear it looked as if the cars had been left in the sun too long and the canted fiberglass fins had started to melt down the straight rear fender sides.

Perhaps the 58 Packard would have given the more recent Pontiac Aztek a run for its money as world's ugliest car.

The forgotten History of Lucille Pieti, "Chrysler's Most Beautiful Engineer" -- A contribution from Ed Garten

Last week's promotion of Mary Bara to CEO of General Motors marked a major milestone of the first female CEO of a global automaker. What may be just as remarkable was how Barra made the climb: As a mechanical engineer, a field once all but closed to women in Detroit.

Sixty years ago, the Motor City's most well-known female engineer was promoted for her looks into a television model rather than allowed to work in the field she'd chosen - and the forgotten history of Lucille Pieti, once dubbed "Chrysler's Most Beautiful Engineer," demonstrates what's changed, and what hasn't.

Pieti was a Detroit native who showed a flair for math and science in high school, and after graduating high school in 1944 signed up for engineering at nearby Wayne University (now Wayne State.) Pieti was popular - she was named Miss Wayne U her last year - but also harassed; male students would play pranks like painting her drill press pink, and engineering professors would suggest that "girls" who graduated would have promising careers as secretaries, if they didn't get hitched first. At 18, Pieti also began a co-op program with Chrysler, the traditional route for engineers to join the automaker which was poised to rebound in the years after World War II.

How rare was Pieti? When she graduated in 1950 with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering, she was not just the only woman in a class of about 300 engineers, but perhaps the first woman to get that degree from the school. Two years later, a national survey found that 0.17 percent of the nation's engineering graduates were women; Pieti was literally one in a thousand. She told Parade magazine in 1954 that getting hired by her Chrysler boss even after six years of co-op work was a challenge, despite a labor shortage: "The toughest part was convincing him to see me and then to give me the job. The rest of the work was nothing that any woman couldn't handle as easily as a man."

But Chrysler, like most industrial companies of that era, had no plan to give Pieti or any other woman the same career opportunities as her male coworkers. Instead of traditional engineering assignments, Pieti was sent to the technical writing department, a ghetto for the few women in the field with no chance of advancement beyond marriage. And it was while doing internal presentations that her bosses came up with the idea of capitalizing on Pieti's beauty.

"If you think of a mechanical engineer as someone who sports greasy overalls and a colorful vocabulary, Lucille would be an educational experience for you. Modish and slender, she has a soft voice, come-hither hazel eyes and dainty white paws tipped with rosy nail polish." That was the women's editor of the Miami Daily News in 1953 ahead of Pieti coming to town with Chrysler's "New Worlds In Motion," a mini-auto show that Chrysler barnstormed around the country. Pieti was often a star attraction, tasked with explaining tech advancements in layman's terms while Chrysler touted the beauty of its single, twentysomething engineer to the press. (Among the cars she promoted: the Dodge LaFemme, a model the company said was made "By Special Appointment to Her Majesty... the American Woman.)


Pieti proved adept enough at working the crowds that Chrysler decided to raise her exposure further. In Apri 1954, Chrysler's Plymouth division signed on as sole sponsor of a new CBS sitcom, "That's My Boy." For commercials, the company moved Pieti to Hollywood, and had her perform live, televised versions of the talks she gave on the road to actors. As Edward Malone noted in his 2010 history, she stood in a garage set, wearing tailored white overalls, occasionally with grease streaked on her face for emphasis. Pieti's fame soared, and she made an impression in Hollywood: "If you're an example of what's being turned out in Detroit, I'm going back working on the assembly line," Groucho Marx said.

And while there's no records she ever turned down a Chrysler assignment, she rejected all offers to dump the engineering career she'd now been chasing for nearly a decade in return for a shot at stardom. "I'm just the slide rule type," she told a Detroit newspaper while staying at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. "Without the micrometers and the calipers and the tools of my trade I'd be a pretty lost girl."

Here's where Hollywood would rewrite Pieti's narrative with her using her fame to make her dreams come true and stump the old-boy network. But Pieti's story was written by Detroit instead; when"That's My Boy" was cancelled in January 1955, Chrysler simply moved Pieti back to her writing job, with the additional tasks of answering customer complaint letters - work that she increasingly saw as a waste of her engineering talents. After getting engaged to her husband, petroleum engineer Jim Milne, Pieti quit Chrysler in September 1955. She got married, raised two children, and returned to engineering in 1977, this time for an oil company in Saudi Arabia. She died in 2011 at the age of 84.

Today, women make up a quarter of engineering, science and technology graduates, and Mary Barra joins a growing list of women who've used their technical degrees as a stepping stone into the executive suites. Yet among automakers, Barra remains an exception; there's few other women in line for roles such as CEO; there's no other woman at another automaker who oversees vehicle development as Barra did for GM. The path ahead may not be as clear as it should be, but for today's young Lucille Pietis crafting a career in engineering, they have far more examples of how to avoid getting lost along the way.
see.

Ed's final comment:  But it's okay to take Danica Patrick out of the driver's seat and put her in skimpy clothing and a bikini, right?  Think about it.