Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

WB9MCW · 06-21-2009

Subject: Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole

(From a senior level Chrysler person)
Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was
David E. Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research (CAR and Professor
at the Univ. of Michigan . You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or
referred to in the auto industry news lately.

Mr. Cole, who is an engineer by training, told many stories of the
difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has
sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where a 30+
year experience automotive expert has to listen to a newcomer to the
industry, someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry
experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, and zero
engineering experience, tell them how to run their business.

Mr Cole's favorite story is as follows:

There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole (Engineer,
automotive experience 40+ years, Chairman of CAR). They were explaining to
Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric
and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles so
we wouldn't "need" so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were
quoting BTU's of LNG and battery life that they had looked up on some
website.

Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of
batteries and a LNG tank at big as a car to make that happen and that
there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them
from...

The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here) "These laws
of physics? Who's rules are those, we need to change that. (Some of the
others wrote down the law name so they could look it up) We have the
congress and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an
executive order to get rid of that problem. That's why we are here, to
fix these sort of issues".

XfireZ51 · 06-21-2009

Brian,

This sounds rather preposterous and it is.

From snipes.com

We asked Dr. Cole directly about this anecdote, and his response was that it had been garbled: He said that although he did once encounter, in a meeting with members of Congress, the suggestion that a "law of physics" should be legislatively amended, that meeting took place several years ago and did not involve representatives of the Obama administration (with whom Dr. Cole has never met):
I have not met personally with the Obama Auto Task Force. The comments related to the "laws of physics" came from a discussion I had a number of years ago with several congressmen who said that we should pass a new 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Last updated: * 9 June 2009

Lots of crap floating around out there. David Cole was a board director for the last company I worked for. I suspected the story you posted was a fabrication.

WB9MCW · 06-22-2009

Yep I guess it must be -- should have sniped it first!

You may be interested to read about my comments on this thread

http://www.zr1netregistry.com/forum/...4567#post64567

06-21-2009	#1
WB9MCW Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: McHenry, Il. Posts: 6,584	Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole Subject: Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole (From a senior level Chrysler person) Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was David E. Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research (CAR and Professor at the Univ. of Michigan . You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or referred to in the auto industry news lately. Mr. Cole, who is an engineer by training, told many stories of the difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where a 30+ year experience automotive expert has to listen to a newcomer to the industry, someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, and zero engineering experience, tell them how to run their business. Mr Cole's favorite story is as follows: There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole (Engineer, automotive experience 40+ years, Chairman of CAR). They were explaining to Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles so we wouldn't "need" so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were quoting BTU's of LNG and battery life that they had looked up on some website. Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of batteries and a LNG tank at big as a car to make that happen and that there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them from... The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here) "These laws of physics? Who's rules are those, we need to change that. (Some of the others wrote down the law name so they could look it up) We have the congress and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an executive order to get rid of that problem. That's why we are here, to fix these sort of issues".

06-21-2009	#2
XfireZ51 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Chicagoland, IL Posts: 9,685	Re: Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole Brian, This sounds rather preposterous and it is. From snipes.com We asked Dr. Cole directly about this anecdote, and his response was that it had been garbled: He said that although he did once encounter, in a meeting with members of Congress, the suggestion that a "law of physics" should be legislatively amended, that meeting took place several years ago and did not involve representatives of the Obama administration (with whom Dr. Cole has never met): I have not met personally with the Obama Auto Task Force. The comments related to the "laws of physics" came from a discussion I had a number of years ago with several congressmen who said that we should pass a new 2nd law of thermodynamics. Last updated: * 9 June 2009 Lots of crap floating around out there. David Cole was a board director for the last company I worked for. I suspected the story you posted was a fabrication.

06-22-2009	#3
WB9MCW Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: McHenry, Il. Posts: 6,584	Re: Automotive Industry Challenge... David Cole Yep I guess it must be -- should have sniped it first! You may be interested to read about my comments on this thread http://www.zr1netregistry.com/forum/...4567#post64567 Last edited by WB9MCW; 06-22-2009 at 01:19 AM.