… you will love The Lady and the Dale (HBO), a documentary regarding Elizabeth Carmichael, best-known for trying to bring Americans a lightweight three-wheeled automobile.
Ms. Carmichael was hugely successful from a biological/genetic point of view. From Wikipedia (10 kids total):
According to the FBI, Carmichael married four times while identifying as Jerry Dean Michael. She was charged with desertion for leaving her first wife, Marga, whom she met while stationed in Germany, and their two children. In 1954, she married a woman named Juanita, with whom she had two children before their relationship ended in 1956. In 1958, she married a woman named Betty Sweets after knowing her for four weeks. They conceived a daughter, but the marriage ended within a year. In 1959, she married Vivian Barrett Michael, her fourth wife, and together they had five children.
One aspect of the documentary is what happens to an opposite-sex marriage following a gender reassignment.
Americans are not as fascinated with engineering as with transgenderism and crime so the series does not explore what is most interesting to me: Why are cars so heavy?
Passenger rail turns out not to be fuel-efficient because railroad cars are so heavy, dwarfing the weight of even the most obese group of humans who might occupy a car.
The lightest cars on the market today weigh roughly 3,000 lbs. (Toyota Corolla, for example). Electric cars are heavier, e.g., a Tesla 3 is around 4,000 lbs. with a battery offering comparable range to a compact gasoline-driven car. The Chevy Bolt is around 3,600 lbs. Liz Carmichael’s Dale was 1,000 lbs.
It looks as though a prototype has been preserved in a Nebraska museum:
If we want to save our beloved planet, either by burning less gasoline or consuming less electricity, why don’t we slim down our vehicles to what is actually required to transport 500 lbs. of humans? Because we can’t make a car that rides comfortably at 70 mph unless it is heavy? First, with the U.S. population headed toward 500 million, it is unclear that anyone will be driving 70 mph. Second, could we improve the ride quality of lightweight vehicles with active suspensions?
Readers: Who has seen this show? What did you think?
Related: Can-Am Spyder, a modern 3-wheel vehicle made by a Bombardier subsidiary.
See also Facebook uses a Malibu-flying engineering manager to promote careers in engineering…
Speaking of trans engineers, did you know the ARM CPU architecture (that powers your smartphone, tablet, soon all Macs and is making inroads in data centers) was invented by one, Sophie Wilson (born Roger)?
Fazal: but the work that this individual did on the ARM instruction set (with Steve Furber and some other white males of no interest) was done prior to any transition. So it doesn’t make sense to say that the work was done by a “trans engineer”. Liz Carmichael transitioned BEFORE she started her car company.
https://www.eliomotors.com/ 84 MPG $7,450 sticker. They’ve been trying to get going for years. Weight is because of the safety requirements, safety requirements are to keep upstart and inexpensive manufacturers out of the game. If I can ride a motorcycle on the highway(or fly a 1940’s airplane), why can’t I buy a new car without traction control, airbags, etc?
Let me guess the cars safety bling is for other people… Where have we heard that before?
Elio does look like exactly the same engineering and business plan! Same evangelistic tone as well: “Elio is more than a car. It’s a mission.”
I don’t see how Elio can work, though. It is $7,450 in some ideal world. For that you get two seats and the smell of burning gasoline. The Chinese are making (and selling in massive quantities) a $4,230 all-electric four-seater (see https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/02/22/a-5000-electric-car/ ).
I would buy Elio if it could last 150,000 miles without major problems. 600 + mi range and convenience of quick refuel anywhere make it attractive.
Only Ford & Tesla ever stayed in business without government bailouts. It’s just as hard as making airplanes, even for guys who don’t have a criminal record.
I believe Tesla benefited from government subsidies for electric vehicles. That’s like a prophylactic bailout.
> Passenger rail turns out not to be fuel-efficient because railroad cars are so heavy
Thanks to the federal government.
Thanks for that article on why U.S. trains are so much heavier than European ones. It must be old: “Assuming California’s budget mess can be fixed, the California High Speed Rail Commission (CAHSR) will build a 224 mph Los Angeles-San Francisco rail service.”
Update: there is a date at the bottom of the article… 2007. Californians have been dreaming for a long time!
That’s out of date since 2018, when the FRA, in a very uncharacteristic act for any American regulator, copied Euro regulations.
See here for example:
https://pedestrianobservations.com/2018/11/20/fra-reform-is-here/
Or more explicitly here “U.S. Finally Legalizes Modern, European-Style Train Cars
“:
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/11/23/u-s-finally-legalizes-modern-european-style-train-cars
OC: Thanks for the update. It is interesting that the Feds couldn’t bring themselves to say “you don’t have to make any changes to what manifestly works every day in Europe”. And even more interesting that state agencies such as the MBTA here didn’t take advantage of the 2018 change. Maybe the only way to protect taxpayers is to outlaw passenger rail altogether in the U.S.!
I remember a 60 Minutes segment (or 202/20, etc) on a gender bending executive of a failed car company who was eventually arrested on fraud. I don’t remember enough details to know if it was the same person, but it has to be…doesn’t it?
Anyway, the segment made a big deal about her not having any engineering experience as well as ‘posing’ as a woman. The most interesting thing though was an interview with one of the engineers who lost his job and career by joining the new company. The reporters asked him what would he do if she walked in the door right now and asked him to do it again. He replied that he’s follow her in an instant.
I always wondered about the real details of that situation. Maybe I’ll finally find out.
Apparently cars used to be lightweight, and still are outside the US:
https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2021/03/14/how-you-can-tell-its-a-fraud-as-well-as-a-con/
The late 80’s early 90’s ‘all gas’ Honda CRXs got 50 mpg with the smallest motor option. They were light and wouldn’t pass today’s safety grabble.
The Slingshot three-wheeler is more like a car than the Can-Am Spyder (which is a wanna-be motorcycle).
https://slingshot.polaris.com/en-us/
I see a few of Slingshot tricycles around, way more frequently then Teslas. But they cost like Accord and are mostly for racing and performance driving. With 2-liter engine and weighing 3/4 ton they must be a fun to drive.
My 1991 Toyota Tercel was about 1450 lbs. (Manual Transmission).
Many of the small 80’s cars were about the same if not smaller.