Cool PBS Volt Interview!

[EZ Volt]

Miles O'Brien Driving Volt.jpg

Wow, Miles O'Brien conducts this entire 6-minute interview about a really neat smart-grid project in Austin while driving a Volt! Of course it's very quiet, and Miles has a smile on his face almost the whole time. In the last 30 seconds, Hari Sreenivasan asks him what he thinks of the car. Very positive review from Miles, mentioning the quiet ride, "scary amount of torque," and the cool technology inside. Oh, and the story about the Pecan Street Project in Austin is pretty cool, too. Link below:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...a-derecho.html

The above online interview is related to the story Miles did that aired on PBS Newshour this evening. It is more focused on the Pecan St grid project, but also features the Volt a number of times. With 59 electric vehicles in the neighborhood ("most of them Volts" according to the story), it claims to be the largest collection of plug-in cars in one U.S. neighborhood. At around 4min 30sec, they go for a ride (Miles in the passenger seat, kid in carseat), and the homeowner replies that the Volt is "the nicest car she's ever driven." Link to the story that aired below:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/scien...rid_07-13.html

Good stuff. And important work going on there and at UT-Austin.

[Voltastic]

Interesting! Thanks for the links

[Room_A113]

My wife and I were watching the News Hour last night, and started laughing when they started talking about the Volt in this piece. She's always saying to me, "It always comes back to the Volt, doesn't it?"

Thanks for the link to Miles driving the Volt. I couldn't believe how many time he has both hands off the wheel while still driving around the neighborhood.

[solar_dave]

Lots of Arizona public service customers have smart meters and underground wiring, the data is not real time but it solves the meter reading issues. Those with solar need to have a real time monitoring system to understand loads and load shifting. For a couple hundred bucks anyone can have a TED monitoring system to get real time data.

[Mike McG]

I wish their was a neighborhood project similar to this in FL (with a home already built lol) This is absolutely awesome.

[bonaire]

There are a lot of good and factual stories on the air now about the Volt (take that Eric Boling!)

And, every other commercial on TV appears to be a Volt commercial too. None with Aliens either

I'd love to go back in time to 2000 and move to Austin and see all the progress in action. Great city. One visit there for me in late 2009 for a few days was a great experience (and it was a work contract).

[jbfalaska]

Eric Bolling is a Faux News, paid for opinion trying to slam Obama. Too dumb to realize Bush had the same idea about electric cars - incentivize. Get this nation moving away from oil.

[jbfalaska]

Very cool reminder that knowledge is power. Power to make better decisions.

[DonC]

Very interesting. The idea of having the solar panels face west so as to better match production with consumption was something new I hadn't thought about before. And was the Volt quiet or what?????? LOL

[Steverino]

Notice who he mentioned are protesting against smart meters?

Seems like the same groups that are anti-solar and anti-Volt. Anti-efficiency—whether it be light bulbs, cars, or power distribution—seems something odd to champion under the umbrella of "freedom".

As a registered but fallen-away Republican, I wish the new GOP would simply change the party name to antiCONSERVatives, or perhaps "Ludditecans". So many seem to reject progress and yearn to live in an idealized 1950's museum, plastic slip covers and all.