GENeco, an “organic waste solutions” specialist (AKA sewage treatment) company in the UK is bringing something new to the green table: a human-powered car.  The Bio-Bug is a VW Beetle converted to run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which is a lot like Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) only, well, less compressed as it remains in a harder-to-contain gaseous form rather than the denser and more commonly used liquid form.  Presumably the choice was made because the hardware to convert natural gas into LNG requires a cooling phase and more expensive equipment.  In any event, the Bio-Bug is essentially run on methane gas.  And where does that gas come from?  In this case it’s from cleaned-up leftovers from the Avonmouth sewage treatment plant of Wessex Water.

You see the Avonmouth plant normally produces CNG from sewage waste, which powers its “digesters” through a combination of electrical power and heat generated from, you guessed it, burning off the CNG surplus from the sewage.  It’s a brilliant idea as methane is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide so should not be released into the atmosphere.  Burning it, turning it into carbon gasses instead, is far less harmful to our environment.  So using it in any way is a big plus, and where can you get more methane than from organic waste?  It’s not a new concept and in fact it’s a new trend to convert livestock farms to methane power.  But it’s nice to see it in action wherever possible and a sewage treatment plant is certainly a good place to use the technology.  Especially when there’s enough produced to also generate electricity to sell back to the grid, as is the case in Avonmouth.

But the thing is, even with all of that, Avonmouth still has a surplus of methane biogas, which would normally just be burned off before releasing it into the atmosphere to break down the methane into less damaging carbon gasses.  And that’s where GENeco has stepped in with their Bio-Bug.  With a little cleaning up of the excess CO2 naturally found in the biogas, the methane is converted into a cleaner burning fuel fit for automotive use.  And the Volkswagon Beetle, converted to run on CNG, is just the kind of vehicle to use it.

GENeco Bio-Bug - a human-waste powered car

Which all sounds brilliant and green!  It’s a great way to convert waste into a renewable resource, right?

Well, with a few caveats.  The first being that this isn’t really a carbon-free system.  It’s a good use of carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, carbon-shifting I guess you could call it.  It is not however carbon free.

The second caveat, one could simply replace the CNG cleansing and distribution with more electricity production for recharging electric cars, or even used to generate hydrogen from hydrocarbons through steam reforming to power hydrogen cars.  There are green paths here that are more synergistic with the modern green automotive trends that can be done at a big facility where as the typical farm cannot.

And the third caveat, and perhaps one of significant note, is that this is a process that does not equate to one car per household.  No.  It takes approximately seventy households to produce the quantity of CNG needed for one Bio-Bug.  It won’t work for every household to run their daily automotive needs, but it could be used in the fleet vehicles needed in the running of any facility.

So clearly, this is not a magic pill that could solve all of the world’s problems.  It is however a very interesting and creative approach to better utilizing the resources available to us, even (if not especially) the ones that we consider to be useless waste.  The smarter that we can innovate with these under-utilized resources, the better off our planet will be.  And the more intriguing the solutions are now, the more advanced and opportunities to replicate or even improve upon them will be in our future.  Sometimes being green isn’t just about the perfect zero-sum product, but about more efficiency with what we have.  If there’s one thing that we have a lot of, it’s poo.  So brown is the new green, and innovatively trapping, collecting, and utilizing methane gas will make for a better tomorrow, no matter how silly it might seem to drive a poo-powered car.

Well I’m back from my sojourn to Illinois, and as I drove there and back on the lovely turnpikes through state after state, I am reminded of what I love, and what I hate, about my Toyota Prius.

When constantly reminded of the bad aspects of my ’06 Prius, like the way that Traction Control (TRAC) turns itself into a grave hazard instead of a driving safety feature by constantly flipping out over little things and killing power when no loss of traction is actually happening (like when hitting a bump in a road) to nearly cause accidents instead of prevent them, or like when the Prius is suddenly depending on only those teeny tiny wheel brakes (anti-lock no less) once TRAC has bumped the regenerative braking offline.  it’s easy to forget the good things about the Toyota Prius.

Like getting over 46MPG while roaring down the Indiana I-90 turnpike at 70MPH.  (Because that’s the legal speed limit and I don’t condone speeding, of course.)  And like while doing the above wonder, having plenty of power left to accelerate, if need be.  Or, in Chicago construction, having the ability to pull out on a dime to slip into traffic.

It’s really all quite impressive that a car that can get such good gas mileage can also perform so well when you need it.

When TRAC doesn’t kick in.

When you have aftermarket tires because you need even some pale imitation of traction to drive safely.

And when you’ve replaced the stock air filter with a K&N performance filter to prevent your Prius from stuttering when you push down the accelerator.

Right then.  So in theory, the Toyota Prius has really got potential.

Now if only Toyota would just get around to fixing those little niggling details, like TRAC…

Or give us an option for a driver’s seat that’s actually comfortable and adjustable for long hauls, like one would buy a gas-sipper like the Toyota Prius for.

And I wonder if aftermarket brakes for the Toyota Matrix can be fit onto a Prius…

But in the meantime, I’m back from my trip, home safe and sound, and blog entries should begin trickling in once more.  I hope you didn’t miss me too much. 

First, let me preface this blog entry with some pertinent background.  Yes, I do own an ’06 Toyota Prius.  Now, you can call me a Toyota Fanboy or whatever you like, but if you do any due diligence whatsoever, you’ll have noticed that I have expressed serious safety concerns with the Toyota Prius and especially its Traction Control and the way that it interacts interferes with the regenerative braking, especially in bad weather.  A problem further exacerbated by the incredibly tiny traditional wheel brakes, not to mention the Goodyear Integrity (What a joke!)  stock tires with their horrible traction.  A problem which Toyota has still not fixed in their latest Prius model, in spite of its threat to safety.  And only the most serious of many grievances with the poor design of the Toyota Prius in general, especially at extremes of heat and cold.  Probability is high that my next car will not be a Prius, or even a Toyota.  Not with the way that Toyota has not been addressing these issues.

Now, that said, is it me, or do we have an awful lot of Chicken Littles out there crying about how the sky is falling?

Yes, Toyota had some bad luck with parts.  Yes, there are some faulty gas pedals out there.

Is it a safety issue?  Only if you’re a f___ing moron.

Let’s step back in time a bit shall we…

My last car was a Mercury Sable.  I knew a lot of people who had Mercury Sables.  They were good cars.  Except for when they weren’t.  Each one was plagued by a minor demon.  Each and every person who I knew who drove one all had electrical issues of some kind.  From a windshield wiper that seemed to work in reverse (when it worked at all) to a dash lights that illuminated for no reason.  And hell, each and every one eventually had the same head gasket blow.  What was the special electrical quirk in mine?  Every once in a blue moon, when coming to a stop at speeds well under 10 miles an hour, the engine would suddenly take off like a bat out of hell.  Usually my foot was already on the brake, as I was slowing.  And usually it happened as I was pulling up to a gas pump.  The brakes weren’t strong enough to hold back all those ponies, and if I were a f___ing moron, the car would have gotten away from me and quite likely careened out of control, resulting in an accident.

But did I ever run my car into someone because it was accelerating out of control without my foot on the gas?

No!

And why not?  Because there’s this thing called an “ignition switch”.  Cut the power to the engine and low and behold, the vehicle stops revving like a maniac.  Gee.  Funny how that works.  And not only that, but I also know for a fact that if by some odd reason of monumental stupidity you can’t seem to figure out how to kill the ignition, there’s also a neutral gear, which while not stopping the engine from flooring it does stop the vehicle from accelerating, allowing the brakes to get it back under control, and giving you all of the time in the world to, yes, you guessed it, kill the ignition.  But what if your ignition is a button and not a key to turn?  Simple!  RTFM.  Read The F___ing Manual.  Because even the push-button ignitions can be turned off, and yes, at the simple push of a button.  Some manufacturers prefer the OMG approach where any repeated pressing will disengage the ignition.  Others, like Toyota, take the methodical approach (to avoid accidental killings) of holding the button down for a mere three seconds to kill the ignition.  It’s just that simple.  It intentionally leaves power to your steering and braking for safety purposes.  And I can guarantee that it’s right in your owner’s manual.

Wow.

Really?

Yeah.

And I know for a fact that my ’98 Mercury Sable was hardly the first car to ever have issues either.  Why the number of stories I know of people from the generation before me who had their engines catch fire is a fascinating study alone!

Let’s face a little something called reality, shall we?  Cars have always had mechanical and/or electrical problems.  Just like every other piece of machinery ever made.  That’s why they also have off buttons.  That’s why there are always safety features and sanity checks.

It happens.  And there’s pretty much always a way to avoid these failures from becoming life threatening.

So back to the present.  The problem here is not that Toyota has some cars out there with theoretically faulty parts.  I can guarantee you that every single car manufacturer that ever was has or has had cars out there with faulty parts.  (In fact, though rarely reported, Honda is actually involved in their own recall on the Jazz/Fit right now!)  And yet, we as a species have survived.

No, the problem here is two-fold.  The first is that Toyota is actually being honest for a change.  It’s a new concept in automobile manufacturers.  Usually recall notices would be kept on the down-low, only affected people knowing, if even that many.  Usually recalls wouldn’t even be considered until at least a dozen incidents because they cost money and businesses are not always exactly honest and forthcoming.  And it was hardly ever newsworthy because that’s just how it always is.  But this time, Toyota jumped the gun.  They saw a possible problem and they immediately acted upon it.  And more than that, they threw out great blanket recalls on cars that we all know, for a fact, are fine.  There are cars being identified for recall for these faulty gas pedals that we know for a fact actually have gas pedal assemblies made by another manufacturer and aren’t faulty.  But Toyota is playing it safe for consumers and being up front.  And there are all manner of cars being identified for recall citing that the mats might get stuck under the gas pedal, that if you look at them, already are clearly cut out around the gas pedal to avoid just that very problem and tie down to the floor so that they can’t possibly shift up into the gas pedal.  (Unless you, the consumer, does something stupid like unclip them from the floor of course.)  Yet these are listed for recall anyway, because, again, Toyota is doing a big blanket safety process, costing them tons of money, all for you, the consumer.

The second problem is society.  We’ve forgotten that we also have responsibility.  We’ve reached a point where all we ever do is blame someone else for our own stupidity.  It doesn’t matter that we’re f___ing morons, because we have fingers and we can point, so it’s not our fault.  We refuse to even remotely share any shred of culpability, regardless of the reality.  We have lawyers set to sue and that’s that.  And if there’s money to be made, all the better.  And what an easy target Toyota has made of itself by being so honest and up front.  So we blame and we blame and we blame and make it the absolute end of the world.

Meanwhile, Toyota has not only confirmed two possible causes, identified their fixes, but has even tested and has had independently tested a simple little postage-stamp sized metal shim that can fix the fault in the gas pedals.  It’s easy to produce in quantity, and can correct all of the woes in record time for a minimal monetary loss to the company but with absolute surety and safety for the lifetime of the car.

But we don’t care.  Because fixing the problem isn’t what we want.  We want blame.  We want blood.

Also in the meanwhile an incredibly simple test for a fault in the gas pedal has been identified.  It is a part that wears over time.  Simply depressing the gas pedal while the vehicle is safely in park, feeling for if there is any kind of grinding, seeing if there is any kind of hesitation for it to pop back up when you release it, will tell you with absolute surety whether or not your gas pedal is presently faulty.  A test that can easily be done with no risk, by the simplest of simpletons, can guarantee you of safe driving before you get on the road.

And we don’t care.  Because identifying whether or not our car is safe isn’t what we want.  We want blame.  We want blood.

So we blame Toyota.  We demand blood.  We turn common sense off.  We claim that if not the sky, Toyota at least is falling.  Because really, what fun would common sense and a little responsibility be?

When Volvo decided to build excitement for their new S60 sedan, they went with a slightly different tact:  They hired a blind artist to paint it.

Enter Esref Armagan, a painter from Turkey who “sees” life in a very different way than most of us, as he’s been blind since birth.

And in its own right it’s a lovely story, documented well in this advertisement:

But if no one else is going to say it, I just have to.  Come on.  It’s a Prius!

Esref Armagan and his painting of the new Volvo S60.

A red Toyota Prius for comparison.

Honestly, I’m not quite sure just what message this really leaves us with.  That, you’ll have to decide for yourself.  But I’m thinking, as beautiful of a story as it should be, it’s the ending that has that fated twist.  Is that what Volvo really intended?  I wonder…

Tesla Motors has issued a statement Tesla To Do House Calls in which it “recalls” some of their Tesla Roadsters.  But rest assured, it’s not for any reason you’d have thought of.  It doesn’t speak badly of Tesla’s electrical drive systems, batteries, or anything of the like.

No.

The problem, it would seem, is that chasis, assembled by Lotus, has been found to occasionally have some “improperly torqued” bolts.  This causes looser handling than was expected.  It’s an entirely Lotus problem, and is even causing Lotus to perform similar recalls on some Lotus Elise and Exige vehicles.

Oops!

Not good for Lotus.

But Tesla is handling it quite well.  They’re actually going door to door to visit each affected customer to inspect the vehicles, only taking the vehicles to a facility to fix if the bolts are found to be “improperly torqued”.  Tesla is also taking the opportunity on these visits to also provide a complimentary full vehicle inspection and perform a software upgrade.  All at no cost to the owner.  Tesla doesn’t have any responsibility to be this nice about things, but apparently they want to keep their customers quite happy.  With service like that, who can complain?

As for Lotus?  Naughty on them.  Wouldn’t you expect a company like that to have better quality control than that?