Archive - April 2011

Nissan Leaf: Culture Shock

08/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, General, World

At last, a real world EE Times review of the Nissan Leaf and an insight into what happens when you do anything other than read the manufacturer’s specification sheet and live in fantasy land.

Charging seems a little confusing, but this is an American review and they have a 110V electrical system over there. It appears that a UK charge cycle from a home mains outlet would take 13 hours (26 hours in the US, unless you buy a 220V adapter). Charging time also appears to be heavily influenced by the ambient temperature.

As the article says:

Most Leaf owners would not want to put up with such a long charging time, unless they could limit their driving so as not to go below about half a full charge.

Quite. So you can buy a 3.3kW charging dock which costs around $2,200 when “installed in a new construction” (i.e. a newly built house as part of the design, so it isn’t a simple affair). Using this, a full charge cycle takes 8 hours (that’s just from the literature though – the reviewer hasn’t actually tested one).

For an extra $700 you can have a cord supplied so you can use 50kW charger kiosks that are supposed to be appearing everywhere. And the Leaf also has a feature to limit charging to only 80% so the batteries last longer (I told you about the damage the 50kW chargers do in a previous article on this subject). Of course, in simple terms 80% charge means only 80% of the maximum range – so 100 miles becomes 80 miles. Or does it?

The reviewer says that on full charge the range display read “93 miles”, but on driving for only 2.7 miles with the heater and headlights on this fell to 77 miles. He also indicates that the maximum “93 miles” fell to 82 miles when the climate control was on…

But the car can run with outside air flowing through the cabin without the climate control on (much like back in the day when most cars did not have air conditioning).

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Still, Mark Goodier seems to have sufficiently low standards to still be gushing about it, whilst simultaneously ignoring the blindingly obvious limitations.

I still want to know how far it will actually go without a charge and with the climate control and lights on. Otherwise, a very good review.

Biofuels? You’re Killing Me!

08/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, General, World

This is an interesting little snippet from Aircargo Asia-Pacific:

Biofuels ‘driving third world death rates higher’

A report in the UK’s Times newspaper by author Matt Ridley says an Australian government official has claimed that if the world stopped emitting CO2 today, global temperatures would not drop “for hundreds of years”.

He also said that studies in the Journal of Coastal Research indicate that while sea levels are rising (presumably as a result of global warming), the rate is slowing.

He added that biofuel crops may have caused 192,000 additional deaths in 2010 due to their disproportionate impact on malnutrition rates in third world countries.

I hadn’t seen the Times article (and I can’t find it – but I haven’t tried that hard), so this was news to me. The author, Matt Ridley (link now dead), has a book recently published… I’m sure that this is purely coincidental.

Test Pass: 8/4/2011

08/04/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done Katie, who passed this morning first time with 5 driver faults.

A good driver and very confident person, who suddenly started shaking like a leaf before the test! But I told you that although I make you do things perfectly on the lessons, the examiners aren’t looking for absolute perfection, and they expect people to be nervous and will make allowances for it. Most will try to put you at ease – as you found out.

DSA Alert: No Maestro Cards Accepted After 14/4/2011

06/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, DSA

An email alert from the DSA:

DSA to stop accepting Maestro cards from 14 April 2011

From 14 April 2011, DSA will no longer be accepting Maestro cards for test bookings and other payments.

If you’re registered with DSA as a business or trainer booker and your nominated payment card is a Maestro, you’ll need to change it to another card either:

  • in writing to: DSA Business ID section, PO Box 280, Newcastle upon Tyne NE991FP
  • by fax: 0300 200 1155

Theory test trainer bookers must log onto the online booking service and either delete or amend their nominated payment card details saved within the ‘Favourite form of payment’ field.

DSA accepts the following cards:

  • MasterCard
  • Visa
  • Delta
  • Visa Electron

Test Pass: 6/4/2011

06/04/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done to Nick, who passed first time today with just 1 driver fault (you plonker – I nearly had another clean sheet!) And you did it in 22 hours from scratch, which just goes to show what quality private practice in between lessons can do.

You had me worried, though. You were the last one back out of the five who went out – I thought you’d got lost!

DSA Strikes Still Threatened

05/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, DSA

I mentioned recently that staff opposed to office closures at the DSA were threatening to strike.

Socialist Worker Online (SWO) is in absolute ecstasy over the latest developments. Apparently, DSA management has offered to defer any compulsory redundancies until 2012, but the stirrers have concluded this is proof that they were right and has said if management doesn’t come back with further “improvements” then they will strike.

Just in passing, SWO says that “62 percent of workers voted for strikes”. A more accurate statement would be that 62% of union members voted for strikes. So even then, only slightly more than half want strike action – but I bet when you add all the non-union members the number prepared to strike is somewhat less than 50%.

Yeovil Test Centre

05/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

I mentioned in passing that Yeovil Test Centre was moving. I was speculating on what might happen amongst instructors down that way.

According to The West Country, the DSA has confirmed a new test centre location (though it can’t reveal where just yet).The whole thing seems to be a molehill that’s been deliberately turned into a mountain.

The DSA did not appear to be proposing to cease operations in Yeovil at any time, and yet that is how the local MP is describing it. He talks of the “considerable” distance to the nearest alternative (about 20 miles, though he leads with one that is 28 miles away).

It really bugs me when someone makes an assumption, has that assumption dismissed by facts, and then goes on and on and on about the assumption as if it ever had any validity – when all it was was a misguided opinion.

EDIT 22/6/2011: And here’s the final outcome.

Let me just summarise this whole affair for those out their with lead between their ears, and who have trouble thinking straight:

  • the DSA said all along it was keeping the practical testing facility in Yeovil
  • the DSA said it had found alternative premises
  • the DSA has confirmed – absolutely and finally – that it has found alternative premises

This seems to be a bit complicated for some people, who were rattling on about losing the practical test facility in spite of a crystal clear statement to the contrary.

They’ll have to moan about something else now.

Easiest Driving Test Manoeuvre?

04/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests

This is an old, old, OLD article from 2011! The test no longer involves turn in the road and reversing around a corner.

That’s the search term someone used to find the blog!

Since the introduction of the Independent Driving section on the test late last year, candidates only have to do one of the basic manoeuvres now instead of the two that used to be required. The basic manoeuvres are [edit: were – this is an old, old article]:

  • turn in the road
  • reverse around a corner
  • reverse park

The reverse around a corner can be either to the left or the right – and in spite of the nonsense you hear from some quarters, the right reverse IS a possibility because it IS on the syllabus. It can also involve normal or very sharp corners depending on the area the test centre operates in.

The reverse parking exercise can involve either the parallel park or the bay park.

So that gives 7 distinct possibilities, though it has to be admitted that the right corner reverse is unlikely.

The Emergency Stop exercise isn’t classed as a manoeuvre, and one in three tests will have that as well as the randomly chosen basic manoeuvre.

Russian Roulette

So which one is easiest? The answer is: none of them.

I’ve had pupils who simply cannot get comfortable with the turn in the road, whereas others pray that that’s the one they get on their tests. I’ve got one at the moment who hates the bay parking exercise. Some of them see the parallel park as the most difficult because it involves more stages, and others struggle with reversing around a corner – and yet others just sail through them.

If I was going to identify the hardest one to master then I’d go for the corner reverse, because it involves constant control rather than extremes – i.e. you have to control the car’s position relative to the kerb, whereas the other manoeuvres are usually based on full-lock and straight steering. But just because something is technically the most difficult doesn’t mean that every learner who tries it automatically can’t do it.

That’s because everyone is different. What one person finds easy another will find hard, and vice versa.

I always explain to my pupils that the test lasts for 30-40 minutes. The manoeuvre will take a maximum of 3-4 minutes, so the rest of the time will be spent driving. However, the manoeuvre is “sudden death” inasmuch as you will fail if you can’t do it – and you don’t know which one it will be. But you’ll also fail if you can’t drive properly. Therefore, it’s important to develop all of these skills to an acceptable level and not play Russian Roulette by neglecting any.

Electric Cars: Salvation?

04/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, General

Not missing a chance to push the hype to ever higher limits, the Conservative-controlled Lincoln City Council has been boasting how it is using an electric car to ferry staff to and from meetings. The story has escaped captivity and is also meandering through the (local) media.

The car in question is the Smart Fortwo (electric version).

They must have very long meetings in the Lincoln Council (and all in the morning), because the electric Fortwo has a quoted range of only 84 miles (which means more like 50 miles in reality). It takes the standard 8 hours to recharge fully, although you can charge it to 80% in “only” 3 hours.

Rob Smith from the City of Lincoln Council said: “This will give our staff an insight into the benefits of driving an electric car and as an organisation, it will give us an idea of whether or not an electric fleet would be beneficial for the council.”

If anyone is so dim as to still be in doubt about the drawbacks of a sub-100 mile range per charge, and the necessary wait until it is charged (just imagine sitting on a garage forecourt for 3 hours next time you fill up – that should help), then I’m sure this trial will enlighten them. Mind you, I expect the behind-the-scenes charging will be kept away from them while they are “busy” in their meetings.

When I looked it up in Car magazine I saw the first mention of what happens when you do anything other than drive the things under perfect test conditions (or if anthing other than a Cray supercomputer is operating the controls). You see, the Fortwo electric also boasts a 0-37mph time which can be measured using an hourglass rather than a stopwatch:

The go-slower gibe isn’t entirely genuine, since electric motors develop maximum torque from 0rpm and this thing leaves the line like a stabbed rat, thereafter smearing slightly more languidly to 37mph in a quoted 6.5 seconds and on to a governed 62mph. Only thing is, such performance requires the use of a kickdown function which boosts maximum power from 20 to 30 kW for up to two minutes, sending the power reserve meter into a rate of decline on a par with pushing an anvil off a cliff.

So basically, what this is saying is that if you want to go a bit faster the quoted maximum range is likely to fall substantially. This leaves you with the choice of forcing other motorists to wait for another traffic light change (and letting them pump out more greenhouse gases), or run the risk of the power giving out in the middle of a junction if you’re a bit low on juice – and you will be even when it is fully charged.

All this is is a pointless (and expensive) publicity-generating stunt involving the Lincoln Council, Lincoln University, and Cenex (“the UK’s Centre of Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technology”).

All the higher primates can already see that this is not going to replace petrol- and diesel-driven vehicles – and particularly not with a Fortwo, which is slower and more restricted than just about every other electric car out there.

And it’s also only a two-seater.

Sat Navs “Not Trusted”, Says Swinton

04/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Computers & Tech, General

Tell me about it! Swinton Insurance reckons people are increasingly not trusting their sat navs to get them around.

I’ve mentioned before about my negative experiences of Orange Maps – and how the damned system has TWICE decided that it is “unable to connect to the server right now” right when I need to know which way to go (and in the latter case, when it had taken me 300 miles towards my destination, and flaked out within a dozen miles of the important bit of most journeys – the end).

Google MapsThe report says that those in the East Midlands are most likely to ignore what the sat nav is telling them. I wonder if that has anything to do with the A46. Or the Colwick Loop Road?

You see, I couldn’t resist the temptation to buy a Tom Tom a few years ago. I played with it a few times, but the hassle setting it up (and the mess it always made on the windscreen when I took the sucker off) meant I never really bothered. Oh, I used it to get to Wembley Arena, Glasgow SECC, and Newcastle Metro Arena a few years ago (and a few other places), but then I had to carry the bloody thing around with me because I didn’t dare leave it in the car. It was a right pain making sure it didn’t get swiped out of your coat pocket either when you were trying to enjoy a gig.

But the most irritating feature was navigation of the Colwick Loop Road/Gedling Bypass. My Tom Tom was brand new, but its map database predated the Bypass - officially opened in 2007. So the Tom Tom tells you you’re driving across a field when, in fact, you’re on the Bypass heading to or from Burton Joyce and Southwell. I resented paying another £80 for an updated map, so I didn’t.

At the moment, a similar thing happens for most of the A46 and part of the A6097 between Widmerpool and Gunthorpe (my car has built-in sat nav now, and I sometimes use it to find new pupils’ houses – especially in rural areas). Since they’re converting this road stretch into a dual carriageway (and numerous bypasses), you spend most of your time on new sections of road – occasionally dipping back on to old sections – and the sat nav doesn’t like it one bit. It’s especially bad when you get near Bingham, because they have built a series of new roundabouts and unless you know where you are going, you will come to those that the sat nav doesn’t know about. Conversely, you’ll be told to leave at a certain exit when you’re not actually on a roundabout – the sat nav is making a best guess.

These days I put my faith in Google Maps. Until I got built-in sat nav, I always used Google to locate my new pupils anyway - just the last section of the journey. But that experience with Orange Maps resulted in the discovery of the Android App for Google – and that is the best system I’ve found. It is free, and it is likely to be updated more regularly than all the other systems put together.

Another advantage of Google on Android is that the phone is small and you can clip it over an air vent in the car. That way, you just need to take a quick glance instead of climbing into the footwell to see it (admittedly, the central instrument console gives cut-down directions from the main sat nav in my car, so I’m exaggerating a bit there).

Of course, I could also stick it right in the middle of my windscreen like the chavs do these days.