Hold button hack?

[Bob_Livonia]

And if you are please go here: http://careers.gm.com/job-search-apply.html

We are usually looking for controls engineers.

No thanks, been there, done that, and retired from GM. Even got the T- shirt.

[petefoss]

Where did you work Bob?

[tboult]

It's beyond me why anyone would try such foolishness, particularly messing with sensors, unless they are intent on messing up their car.

SNIP

I prefer to just go with the flow. Use the battery first as intended, then the ICE gets me along nicely and more efficiently than any other car I've ever had. Keep it simple. If so many of you think you are top-notch automotive engineers, then why aren't you in that profession?

From the thread title you've obviously wandered into a thread of people talking about hacking.
Hackers, like to hack, and research engineers like to make things better. I'm both. Just like some people like to watch sports, drink beer, some watch FNN, while others like to lie on a beach (none of which I understand).


I can only imagine the GM folks reading this thread, with Dr. Foss doing Palm->Face thinking about the risks and like you, saying can't we just use what they gave us. I've already been properly chastised for abusing the car by shutting it off to kill an ICE cycle for temp. Yes I use my volt and love it. I also use my jail-broken iphone and work on apps. I don't recommend jail-breaking for the average user either. Don't recommend snowboarding off-piste trees or big-air jumps to others either. I don't recommend hacking systems to people uncomfortable with it. To each their own.


I cannot speak to why others are not in the field, but since you questioned our(my) abilities here a bit of background. I'm a highly-published/funded professor (and entrepreneur). I train students to be engineers including a few working in the electric vehicle field, and others working for an engine controller company. My school just launched a new graduate program in electric drive trains. While vehicle work is more recent, I also do vision systems, identity systems, UAV and lots of other fun stuff. So while working for GM on a R&D project might be fun, working on just one project for one company is not for me. I just finished a DOD proposal for next generation machine-learning enhanced hybrid-vehicle and robotic controllers. There is a lot of diverse talent here on gm-volt.com so I would not surprised if some of the others also have deeper skills.

Dr. Foss, thanks for the job link, I'll pass on to students but unless GM is looking for engineers in Colorado, I'm not sure our students will be interested.. Quality of life here is too good to want to leave. However, PM me if you are interested in exploring joint projects for intelligent vehicle controllers with a university partner. We already have a faculty doing battery control work on a GM project, as well. If you ever have need to visit CO maybe we can get together.

Edited to correct typos in Dr. Foss's name..

[Bzzzt]

What I want to know, is who's gonna be the first hot-rodder to get ahold of a wadded up Volt, and try to do an entire organ transplant into another chassis, something crazy, say a Fiero or a DeLorean.

You'd pretty much have to transplant EVERYTHING, but wouldn't a Delorean be super cool with the twin LCD's?

The Volt drivetrain has to be great compared to the old 4-banger Iron Duke in the Fiero. Battery probably wouldn't fit.

[frankydude]

If you fool the battery coolant temp sensor, then the system might (should) react to furnish heat to the battery.
If you get the battery to be heated above it's programmed ideal temperature range, you will degrade it. There are a few threads that explains this, and this is why the battery gets A/C cooled in hot climates.

IMHO, fooling around the battery coolant temp is certainly a no win.

[silvercorvette]

And what's so bad about DRL that you've resorted to ugly stickers? Folks can't hear you, and now they wont notice you are moving and think you are parked. I've once we witnessed 2 kids get run over and killed by a car with no lights in a twilight rainy morning, and I never want to see that again.

I am not sure if it was you that I had the conversation with a couple months ago. If we have been through this before I recall that the last time you got a little nasty.

I had mentioned that I had owned two silent hybrid vehicles that had the DRLs disabled and I posted pictures of my two hybrids to prove that I really did own hybrids and wasn't just BSing and really did own hybrids. You or the person I had the last conversation with accused me of showing off

Unfortunately I can't post anything to prove this statement but I have been driving for almost 50 years and only had one accident when I was 16 years old and had been driving for less than a year. Two of the other accidents I had I was stopped at a light and got hit, another I was in a mall parking lot stopped waiting for a spot to open when someone hit me. I spent 20 years as a cop driving a car 8 hours a day and doing pursuit driving when necessary and never had an accident.

In my opinion if a person drives like an idiot you can hang lights all over his car like it was a Christmas tree and he will still have accidents.

I don't know if you have read my entire statement but I did say that there are time when I would like to turn on my lights and that is why I decided to not disable them premaritally. In the two months I have owned the car I have made a choice to turn on the DRL 5 or ten times and that is my whole point I want to have that choice.

My stickers are not ugly I used a label making machine to make them but if you consider them ugly I have the right to paint my car purple with pink Polka dots if I want to.

Finally if you want to discuss facts instead of discussing one isolated insident then read the facts and got to THIS LINK FOR MORE INFORMATION


Increase in traffic collisions in Poland after 2007 introduction of mandatory DRLs

DRLs do nothing to help road fatalities (up 31%) and pedestrian fatalities (up 83.7%) in Poland.

Increasing Death Toll in Bulgaria After Mandatory DRLs

GM has greatly revised its estimate of DRL effectiveness

DADRL comment: According to GM DRLs have saved 423 lives over the past 10 years. Given that there are around 40,000-45,000 traffic fatalities in the United States each year [NHTSA], GM's new statement acknowledges that the effectiveness of DRLs in saving lives is about 0.1%. This is far lower than previous claims from GM and NHTSA. Furthermore, to make such a claim is to be completely ignorant of statistical significance. Assigning a 0.1% factor to a single safety device is simply not possible. GM also claims they "can reference more than 85,000 crashes of all types that never happened." Can the claims get anymore senseless? I can reference two crashes that didn't occur yesterday: my commute to and from work. It's pretty clear that GM is really grasping to try to keep DRLs alive. DRL effectiveness has not been proven and GM knows it!

[petefoss]

I can only imagine the GM folks reading this thread, with Dr. Floss doing Palm->Face thinking about the risks and like you, saying can't we just use what they gave us.

Definitely for customers. As far as universities go, just look at the Darpa Urban Challenge. All bets are off in that world. http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...adgets/4229973

PS. It's Foss not Floss although it was a favorite insult in grade school <grin>. Is this you tboult? http://vast.uccs.edu/~tboult/

[ronr64]

It's beyond me why anyone would try such foolishness, particularly messing with sensors, unless they are intent on messing up their car. Hold mode - so what?? Europe requires it because many cities to not allow ICE vehicles in the city center, or they tax them heavily if they do go there. Luckily, we are not there yet in the good old U.S. of A.

I prefer to just go with the flow. Use the battery first as intended, then the ICE gets me along nicely and more efficiently than any other car I've ever had. Keep it simple. If so many of you think you are top-notch automotive engineers, then why aren't you in that profession?

Gee, I don't know. Why put on different wheels on? The GM ones do the job. Why put on performance exhaust on a Corvette, or a different cam? Why a blower? Why did the first two guys ever race the first two things with wheels on them? Why are women so difficult to understand?

You get back to me Bob when you have the answers to any or all of these questions.

[silvercorvette]

And what's so bad about DRL that you've resorted to ugly stickers? Folks can't hear you, and now they wont notice you are moving and think you are parked. I've once we witnessed 2 kids get run over and killed by a car with no lights in a twilight rainy morning, and I never want to see that again.

Here is another link that explains why DRL are a bad idea

CLICK HERE

[tboult]

Definitely for customers. As far as universities go, just look at the Darpa Urban Challenge. All bets are off in that world. http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...adgets/4229973

PS. It's Foss not Floss although it was a favorite insult in grade school <grin>. Is this you tboult?

Sorry Dr. Foss.. I'm dyslexic so read your name wrong once and it stuck that way.
Yep that's me.

I'm familiar with the Darpa Challenges. I was part of an earlier Darpa grand challenge team lead by Axion, but since I was funded by darpa at the time could not put our tech (360 cameras) on the car so was mostly a infrequent advisor. I moved into mostly biometrics/security (My 3rd company is in that space. But I'm selling that, hopefully soon, and started thinking about what is next. I like to at least slightly refocus every 5-7 years to keep my research fresh and new, With the launch of the Volt and some local EV and other engine companies I''ve been helping on SBIRs I've been getting more interested in doing vehicle efficiency. So EV control could be my next area (or maybe more medical stuff, depends on funding ;-)