innovation | Transfercar Blog

AAA picks 10 best new vehicle technologies, thinks green

It’s no secret that automobiles get more technologically advanced every passing year. A good deal of these vehicular innovations have a lot to do with saving gas, reducing emissions, and, more recently, teaching the driver to pilot the vehicle in a more efficient manner. If you feel like you need help in choosing which bits of techno-geekery are the best, AAA has just created a list specifically for you.

Included in AAA’s top 10 tech picks are solar roof panels and “green” driving assistance aids. Rooftop solar panels are pretty self-explanatory and can help keep an vehicle’s battery charged up or help keep the cabin cool in the hot sun. The 2010 Toyota Prius is probably the best-known example of this technology. So, what’s a green driving aid?

Honda’s new 2010 Insight hybrid uses what the automaker calls an Eco Assist dashboard that changes colors from green to blue to teach the driver to be more efficient. Ford uses something similar in the 2010 Fusion Hybrid called the SmartGauge cluster, which uses dual 4.3-inch LCDs and a graphic that shows leaves growing on a tree when you are driving efficiently. We tend to like them, but whether or not these are desirable features is definitely up to each individual driver.

Read the full article thanks to greenautoblog.com

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Hertz considering a green future

The Hertz Corporation has its eyes set on a greener future for the rental car industry, but has admitted that there is no magic bullet to achieve this.

“There is not a single solution to the green issue,” Hertz International president Michel Taride told e-Travel Blackboard.

In Sydney for the announcement of Hertz’s acquisition of Ace Rental cars and alliance with Apollo Motorhomes, Mr Taride said “the move to electric cars is not a simple process”, but added that the elements required for its success “are all converging”.

Read the full article at Travel Blackboard

Get your hands dirty!!!!

I had the plessure today to be invited by Dr Shuyuan Wu as a guest lecture for a undergrad paper at AUT in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. One of the objectives of the paper was for students to generate a business idea and present it in front of a panel – just like Dragons Den. I used my own company, Transfercar, as a case study to demonstrate how an idea was turned into a new venture.

I was amazed with the quality and diversity of the ideas that these students have generated – but gee – what happend to good old fashioned market research? Not that the student have not done any market research – they had been told to identify their competitors and estimate the market potential – simple Google research – but none have actually been out getting their hands dirty. None have actually been out talking to real people – real customers – real suppliers.

I guess it is not the students fault – but maybe academics should spend less time teaching students how to do regression and Porter’s 5 forces – and spend more time teaching them how to use their network and communicate with people – because at the end of the day – isnt that what entrepreneurs do.