Word of the day: Electrification

At this week’s Convergence in Detroit, Mark Reuss, NA president of GM, told a crowd at Tuesday’s keynote, “Hybridization is no longer enough; electrification is the future.”

What struck me most about this statement was the word, electrification; I had yet to hear it in the automotive context. So I did what anyone with a rocket stick would do, I googled it on my way home. The trail led back to GM’s blue paper on sustainable urban mobility, Roadmap to 2030.

For some time now I’ve been thinking about getting an electric or hybrid car but have been bemoaning the lack of choice. Apparently, the fact that a new ground-transportation paradigm requires wide-spread societal alignment hadn’t occurred to me. You just put up a few recharging stations, right?

GM EN-V electric concept car
Source Wikipedia

GM makes eight recommendations in their blue paper, two of which I find to be particularly interesting:

• Integrate electrically powered, connected vehicles into a multi-modal transport system that incorporates sophisticated inter-city transport, comprehensive subway systems, traditional vehicle movement, and specialized smaller urban vehicles
   
• Identify a series of “lighthouse” projects to demonstrate the potential and viability of connected electrically driven vehicles in a controlled environment such as an eco-city or small town

It is nice to see a company taking such a definitive stand and boldly painting a vision for the future; this kind of creative thinking is what we need.

I was surprised to discover the blue paper is from 2010; still if you haven’t already read it, it is worth a look. You can download the paper from the GM web site.

QNX CAR goes to school

A while back, my good friends at Freescale approached me about sponsoring a program called EcoCAR 2. Established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors, EcoCAR 2 challenges 15 North American universities to create a greener vehicle without compromising performance, safety, and consumer acceptability.

This initiative isn't really new as it builds on a 23-year history of DOE advanced vehicle technology competitions. What is new is that, for the first time, students are being asked to include an infotainment system in the vehicle.

This is an exciting opportunity for QNX. Being able to work with young minds and supporting university research has always been a priority, but this is the first time we've been able to engage so directly with the next generation of automotive engineers. We are enabling them in much the same way that we enable our customers, with full access to the QNX CAR application platform as the baseline for their systems.

This is year one of a three-year program. Given the innovation that has gone into the QNX CAR platform by QNX and its ecosystem in the last year alone, I cannot imagine what the bright young minds will come up with for 2014. Looking forward to it...

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Resources

• Learn more about EcoCAR 2
  
• Follow EcoCAR 2 on Facebook
  
• Check out the EcoCAR 2 blog
  
• Tune in to the EcoCAR 2 YouTube channel