Cyrus Farivar

In digging through the coverage in the newspapers and blogs, and trying to make sense of this all — and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know jack about cars — here’s what I’ve come up with: This is a pretty rad car, but GM’s got a skeptic audience (myself included) to convince first.

From what I’ve seen thus far, there are two big criticisms about the Volt:

1) Lots of gearheads hate the design. I agree on this one. It’s just not distinctive enough. The EV1 was distinctive, as is the Prius. When I go visit my family in Southern California, I see such cars everywhere. GM, if you want to make people crave this vehicle, you have to make it obvious to recognize. Honestly, the Volt doesn’t look all that different from the Chevy Malibu. The Volt just looks sort of generic — like what I’d find at a rental car lot — kind of boxy and, generally, meh.

2) The Internets also tell me that the sticker price is going to be something in the neighborhood of $40,000. Again, for a mere-mortal car, that is pretty expensive. A 2009 Toyota Corolla (I drive a 2001) starts at $15,000, and a 2009 Prius starts $22,000. The Volt is nearly double that. Why? Is it twice-as-better technology? Again, as a non-gearhead, it’s not obvious to me why there’s such a big discrepancy.

Also, it’s not immediately obvious that the Volt is a better option overall when compared with a Prius. Remember GM, you have to convince American buyers that they should buy your green machine, and not another one from Toyota or Honda. With gas at $4 a gallon, you really don’t need to convince anyone that if they’re buying a new car, an electric/hybrid is the way to go.

Further, the Los Angeles Times isn’t convinced that the operational cost savings on the Volt compared with a Prius are as great as GM would have you believe.

To get a sense of what it would cost to operate the Volt on battery power, a little math is in order. The Volt battery has a 16 kilowatt/hour capacity, but to preserve battery life (think of a laptop battery), GM has tweaked it so that only half of that is drawn upon, for a total of 8 kilowatt/hours per charge. The average consumer price per kw/h in 2006 (the most recent data available) was 10.4 cents, according to the Energy Information Administration.That works out to 83.2 cents per charge, or 2.08 cents per mile.

By comparison, a Toyota Prius, which has a city/highway average fuel economy of 46 mpg, runs about 8.3 cents per mile (at today’s average gas price of $3.83 per gallon). On paper, the Volt costs only a quarter what it costs to operate a Prius.

But there are some big uncertainties in there. First, the average price of electricity has risen since 2006 and is certain to rise a bit more by the time the Volt comes out. And in some parts of the country, people pay as much as 33 cents per kw/h. At that rate, the Volt costs 6.6 cents per mile to operate.

The Detroit Free Press, however, claims that Volt drivers will be able to save $1,500 to $2,000 on fuel, compared with the $1,000 fuel savings on the Prius. But if the Volt costs nearly twice as much upfront, how is that worth it? (Toyota’s management apparently agrees, and has a Volt Death Watch going.)

For those of you who do know about cars and such, please tell me what’s an obvious difference that should immediately make me want to buy a Volt over a Prius (assuming I was in the market for a new car, which I’m not).

Nevertheless, the Free Press’ Mark Phelan calls the Volt “the 1984 Apple Macintosh on wheels, smashing an old paradigm and setting America free. It’s Mini Cooper compact cool mated to Prius environmental chic.” He adds, “Why did people stand in line all night to pay $400 for an Apple iPhone last year when other companies literally give mobile phones away? Because it was unique. Because it was the best.”

That’s true, but the iPhone wasn’t just unique — its design, great features and obvious usability superiority are what made the iPhone worth it. In a 30-second ad from 2007, Apple was easily able to show what made the iPhone different from all other smart phones that came before it. If GM can’t do the same (and it hasn’t in these ads), it’s going to have a hard time persuading people to throw down that much money for a new car.

Still, I’ve got two words that get my engine humming: photovoltaic roofs!

But there were also a few troubling episodes on the technological front, with text messages and e-mails being used as a way to perpetuate false information.

Wired reported late last night that voters in Florida and New Mexico received a fake text message from 505-507-6041 that says things like: “Due to long lines if you are voting for Barack Obama you can vote tomorrow,” or “Due to the long lines today, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday.”

The AP adds that there have been reports of similar “robo-calls” and fake texts in Missouri and that the Missouri secretary of state and U.S. Attorney’s Office have been notified. I’m glad that this wasn’t widespread enough to have made a difference, but it’s still a troubling development.

But that’s not all. Thousands of students at George Mason University received an e-mail spoofed to look like it was from Provost Peter N. Stearns saying that “election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.” Apparently the FBI is on the case.

And finally, while the outcome of the election was by a pretty overwhelming margin, there were still problems with electronic voting in numerous states, although not enough to have any sort of real impact.

Still,  we as a country really need to have a single standard for federal elections, get rid of these awful e-voting machines, and streamline this whole process so we don’t have to deal with this kind of crap anymore.

On a more personal and professional note, I share with you the news that this is my last post in Machinist, which is going on hiatus beginning tomorrow.

I thank all of you for reading and for your thoughtful and critical comments. If you’d like to follow me and/or any of my other work on public radio or elsewhere, you can do so on my blog: cyrusfarivar.com (where I’ll be announcing the result of our little trial voter-verified election), and/or you can email me at cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org.

Cheers!

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There’ll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

Jessica Yellin was the first CNN reporter to be “beamed” to the New York newsroom, where Wolf Blitzer interviewed her — and she reported that there were only 35 cameras pointed at her, and that “talk to the cameras in New York.” Apparently representatives in the Obama campaign in Chicago and the McCain campaign in Phoenix will be interviewed as holograms later in the evening.

It’s still unclear who makes this hologram technology, nor how much it costs, nor how exactly it works — nor when I’m going to get it in my house. Man, and I was just getting used to Skype video chat. Still, scope out the video below.

This is without a doubt the best Obama song that I’ve seen so far. It’s got catchy lyrics — Viva Obama! — snappy outfits, a line about healthcare, and that female violin player? Muy caliente!

2) Extra Golden – Obama

This half Kenyan band (just like Obama!) rock out on this chillaxed benga track. Great guitar riffs.

3) Cocoa Tea – Barack Obama

Jamaican reggae star Coco Tea recorded this tune earlier this year, earning a small writeup in the Jamaica Observer at the time.

As he told the newspaper:

“If you notice, Obama is getting a lot of support from the young people, and when the younger generation begin to call for change, it usually comes, as they and the future, and Obama’s future is in their hands. Support for Obama is also coming from other quarters including the Kennedy family, as he is seen as the man with a plan, therefore I was guided by Jah on this one.”

How can you argue with Jah?

4) Docta Musica WashiWara – Barack Obama

This tune comes to us from Cameroon, and if you believe what the Docta says on his Web site: “The video has quickly becomed a big hit on Youtube.” Indeed.

5) crbballgal – BARACK THE VOTE!

How can I deny two fly girls, an ’80s-style synth, and rapping in front of a bathroom mirror? Well done, ladies.

6) Mighty Sparrow – Barack the Magnificent

Mighty Sparrow is the world’s leading calypso singer, hailing from the island of Grenada. Cop a read on the lyrics over here — I’m sure this is the first time that the phrase “Foreign Relations Committee” has worked its way into a calypso song.

7) Obama Song Spanish Reggaeton

I’m not sure who wrote this song, but nothing makes me want to sing “Si se puede!” louder than this reggaeton tune.

Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream

This song debuted just two days ago at a rally in Cleveland, so if you drop this joint at your fiesta, you’ll definitely be about 75 percent as cool as the Boss himself.

9) Barackapella – Yes We Can

Although college a capella may get mocked on Stuff White People Like, this cover of the famed will.i.am song is perfectly pulled off by Barackapella, a group from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. (Also, don’t forget the parody, by john.he.is!)

10) Guru – Obama dance mix

I really, really hope that this is the first song that the Obamas dance to at the inagural ball. Or at least at the party in Chicago tonight.