Here are some recent news stories on the Automotive X Prize. I have yet to find a Bay Area reporter or news venue following the developments of this race.
If you know of one that would be interested please have them email me.
Thanks,
Greg
gbgoble@gmail.com
News: Automotive X Prize
111 Teams Get Green Light to Advance in Multimillion Dollar Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE Competition [Business Wire]
(07 Apr 2009 14:00:00 EDT)
Three firms progress in Auto X-Prize [Connecticut Post, Bridgeport]
(10 Apr 2009 10:29:00 EDT)
Napoleon inventor's 85-mpg ethanol car may miss $5M race [The Blade, Toledo, Ohio]
(08 Apr 2009 06:41:00 EDT)
100 MPG Equals $10 Million For X Prize Contestants [CommwebNews.com]
(07 Apr 2009 00:01:00 EDT)
CA XPRIZE competition [U.S. Newswire]
(07 Apr 2009 13:15:00 EDT)
BC-CA-XPRIZE-competition. To: ENERGY EDITORS. Contact: Carrie Fox for X PRIZE Foundation, +1-202-255-9214, Carrie.Fox@xprize.org. The Progressive Insurance. Automotive X PRIZE, a multimillion dollar competition designed to inspire a. new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles, today announced its. official list of 111 Registered Teams.
AMP Electric Car Accepted as a Registered Team in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE [Business Wire]
(17 Mar 2009 14:01:00 EDT)
Business Editors. Advanced Mechanical Products, Inc. today announced its acceptance into the multimillion dollar Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, a competition designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles to offer more consumer choices.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
S.F. as a Host City for a Progressive Automotive X Prize Race New announcement, “six U.S. cities, likely to include New York and SanFrancisco”
New announcement, “six U.S. cities, likely to include New York and SanFrancisco”
This article is an interview with the head of the Progressive Automotive XPrize, Peter Diamandis. Soon to announce the cities to host a race and SanFrancisco will likely be one.
Great news, GBGoble
Peter Diamandis on the Race to 100 Miles per Gallon (Part One)by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 03. 5.09, Tree Hugger Radio
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/th-radio-peter-diamandis-1.php
TreeHugger: In 2008, at the New York Auto Show, the Automotive X Prize was officially announced. Can you tell us what the competition’s about and what'sat stake?
Diamandis: What's at stake is the future of the cars that we drive. The basic message behind the Progressive Automotive X Prize is that you can have it all: you can have a car that's beautiful, safe, affordable, fast, and goes over ahundred miles per gallon or its energy equivalent. We've been driving the sameold cars for a hundred years and technology has changed tremendously.What we've done is put together a ten million dollar competition to attract entrepreneurs, designers, and engineers to bring a new generation of cars to the table. Not just one car, but we're hoping we'll see forty, fifty, or sixty cars that give people a choice and say, "Listen, if you can have a car that meets all your needs, why wouldn't you want to drive a car that gets over a hundred miles per gallon?"
Tree Hugger: Can you give us a teaser of the kinds of teams and the cars thathave entered up til now?
Diamandis: Sure. Maybe I'll go into a little more detail on the rules and then talk about the classes of cars that will be competing. We're going to be announcing six U.S. cities, likely to include New York and San Francisco, Detroit for obvious reasons, and Cleveland (because that's where our title sponsor, Progressive, is located), and two other cities. We've had over 120 teams from 20 countries around the world sign letters of intent to compete and bring their cars forward. That's the first stage.Of those, over 40 have fully registered and we expect that probably we'll have 50 or 60 vehicles actually come to the competition. As the teams go through the registration process they have to demonstrate a few fundamental things at the beginning. One is that their vehicle is manufacturable. That there's no exotic elements of it, that it can be manufactured at ten thousand vehicles a year or more. It has to go through a pricing model and be put at a price figure that historically would sell over ten thousand vehicles a year, which is pretty well understood. They need to demonstrate safety by going through the National Highway Standards in a computer model to show that the vehicle would pass at least crash testing in the computer model approach. Then they have to bring their vehicles to these six cities in a Tour de France type race. In each of these cities they're going to be racing against the clock to demonstrate long distance, hill climb, acceleration, inner city driving, and the car that gets the fastest overall time, while still doing over a hundred miles per gallon or its energy equivalent, will win. As humans, we love a race and we love speed; we're genetically programmed to
compete so the race element is important. And, people don't want a hundred mile per gallon car if it only goes twenty miles per hour. So it needs to have at least some good performance for people to enjoy it. There are three categories the cars are competing in. There's the mainstream class, which is a four seat, four wheel category; this is the average car on the road today. There will be an alternate class, which is nominally the three seats, two-wheel category or the inner city car. And then there will be a manufacturer’s class: for the Fords, GMs, Chryslers, and such, if they choose to enter. To date, the only real manufacturer who is registered to compete is Ratan Tata, the Indian manufacturer who recently bought Jaguar and Land Rover. Tata will be entering two cars. So that's the range of the competition and the classes of cars, and within those
classes there are some beautiful and exotic approaches.
TreeHugger: So they have to meet all these criteria for safety and manufacturability, but ultimately it comes down to a race, who actually crosses the finish line first?
Diamandis: It does, and in that fashion we keep the public engaged. What we've learned at the X Prize is that the competitions need to not only bring about new technology, but they have to bring about change in what people think is possible.So at the end of this competition, I'm not interested in having a single winner. We do want a winner, absolutely, but it's more important that it be demonstrated through this competition, "through television, through webcasts, podcasts, and radio" and "that the world knows there's a new generation of cars". That there's literally a line in sand and you say, "After this date, there's no reason you should not be driving a car that gets over a hundred miles per gallon." There's no excuse. The cars are there. They're beautiful, affordable, manufacturable, and get over a hundred miles per gallon. To see the rest of this interview go to:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/th-radio-peter-diamandis-1.php
Thanks,
Greg
PS I was happy to find this article, from Tennessee no less. I want to see somepress coverage here in the Bay Area. Who can help?
(415) 724-4772 gbgoble@yahoo.com or gbgoble@gmail.com
"SAN FRANCISCO AUTOMOTIVE X PRIZE FAN CLUB" @YAHOO GROUPS
groups@yahoo.com/group/sanfranciscoautomotivexprizefanclub/
This article is an interview with the head of the Progressive Automotive XPrize, Peter Diamandis. Soon to announce the cities to host a race and SanFrancisco will likely be one.
Great news, GBGoble
Peter Diamandis on the Race to 100 Miles per Gallon (Part One)by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 03. 5.09, Tree Hugger Radio
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/th-radio-peter-diamandis-1.php
TreeHugger: In 2008, at the New York Auto Show, the Automotive X Prize was officially announced. Can you tell us what the competition’s about and what'sat stake?
Diamandis: What's at stake is the future of the cars that we drive. The basic message behind the Progressive Automotive X Prize is that you can have it all: you can have a car that's beautiful, safe, affordable, fast, and goes over ahundred miles per gallon or its energy equivalent. We've been driving the sameold cars for a hundred years and technology has changed tremendously.What we've done is put together a ten million dollar competition to attract entrepreneurs, designers, and engineers to bring a new generation of cars to the table. Not just one car, but we're hoping we'll see forty, fifty, or sixty cars that give people a choice and say, "Listen, if you can have a car that meets all your needs, why wouldn't you want to drive a car that gets over a hundred miles per gallon?"
Tree Hugger: Can you give us a teaser of the kinds of teams and the cars thathave entered up til now?
Diamandis: Sure. Maybe I'll go into a little more detail on the rules and then talk about the classes of cars that will be competing. We're going to be announcing six U.S. cities, likely to include New York and San Francisco, Detroit for obvious reasons, and Cleveland (because that's where our title sponsor, Progressive, is located), and two other cities. We've had over 120 teams from 20 countries around the world sign letters of intent to compete and bring their cars forward. That's the first stage.Of those, over 40 have fully registered and we expect that probably we'll have 50 or 60 vehicles actually come to the competition. As the teams go through the registration process they have to demonstrate a few fundamental things at the beginning. One is that their vehicle is manufacturable. That there's no exotic elements of it, that it can be manufactured at ten thousand vehicles a year or more. It has to go through a pricing model and be put at a price figure that historically would sell over ten thousand vehicles a year, which is pretty well understood. They need to demonstrate safety by going through the National Highway Standards in a computer model to show that the vehicle would pass at least crash testing in the computer model approach. Then they have to bring their vehicles to these six cities in a Tour de France type race. In each of these cities they're going to be racing against the clock to demonstrate long distance, hill climb, acceleration, inner city driving, and the car that gets the fastest overall time, while still doing over a hundred miles per gallon or its energy equivalent, will win. As humans, we love a race and we love speed; we're genetically programmed to
compete so the race element is important. And, people don't want a hundred mile per gallon car if it only goes twenty miles per hour. So it needs to have at least some good performance for people to enjoy it. There are three categories the cars are competing in. There's the mainstream class, which is a four seat, four wheel category; this is the average car on the road today. There will be an alternate class, which is nominally the three seats, two-wheel category or the inner city car. And then there will be a manufacturer’s class: for the Fords, GMs, Chryslers, and such, if they choose to enter. To date, the only real manufacturer who is registered to compete is Ratan Tata, the Indian manufacturer who recently bought Jaguar and Land Rover. Tata will be entering two cars. So that's the range of the competition and the classes of cars, and within those
classes there are some beautiful and exotic approaches.
TreeHugger: So they have to meet all these criteria for safety and manufacturability, but ultimately it comes down to a race, who actually crosses the finish line first?
Diamandis: It does, and in that fashion we keep the public engaged. What we've learned at the X Prize is that the competitions need to not only bring about new technology, but they have to bring about change in what people think is possible.So at the end of this competition, I'm not interested in having a single winner. We do want a winner, absolutely, but it's more important that it be demonstrated through this competition, "through television, through webcasts, podcasts, and radio" and "that the world knows there's a new generation of cars". That there's literally a line in sand and you say, "After this date, there's no reason you should not be driving a car that gets over a hundred miles per gallon." There's no excuse. The cars are there. They're beautiful, affordable, manufacturable, and get over a hundred miles per gallon. To see the rest of this interview go to:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/th-radio-peter-diamandis-1.php
Thanks,
Greg
PS I was happy to find this article, from Tennessee no less. I want to see somepress coverage here in the Bay Area. Who can help?
(415) 724-4772 gbgoble@yahoo.com or gbgoble@gmail.com
"SAN FRANCISCO AUTOMOTIVE X PRIZE FAN CLUB" @YAHOO GROUPS
groups@yahoo.com/group/sanfranciscoautomotivexprizefanclub/
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