News From Shreveport

[Ty]

What are you referring to as "active braking"? The kind where the vehicle uses radar to determine if there is an obstacle ahead and brakes for you? If so, pretty sure the Elio does not do that.

Or are you referring to brake based traction control, where brakes are used to adjust wheel speed instead of cutting engine power? I would not be shocked if the Elio uses the brakes for traction/stability control.

They will. They've already said the Elio will have stability control.

https://www.eliomotors.com/features/

 

[Maurtis]

They will. They've already said the Elio will have stability control.

https://www.eliomotors.com/features/

They will have the feature where the vehicle brakes for you automatically when traffic stops or an obstacle is in the way? That is not a standard feature of traction or stability control.

 

[raptor213]

I emailed Elio Motors even before the iScout HUD made its debut on the Configurator that I was interested in whether Continental was in talks to integrate their brand new Augmented Reality Head-Up Display into the Elio as an option. See: http://continental-head-up-display.com/

Part of the selling point is Adaptive Cruise Control and visual feedback on the system's activity status that is thus far unprecedented in the industry. You can visually see which object (read: rear bumper) the RADAR/LIDAR system is pinging and basing following distance upon, greatly improving user trust in the system's capabilities and removing all doubt as to what the system is tracking and monitoring, if anything, at all times.

Whether automatic emergency braking as an autonomous driving feature would be a part of that equation is yet to be seen, since a computer automatically adjusting electronic inputs to a cruise control system - which largely entails engine RPM and speed, or basic throttle position movements (actual or simulated) - is a far cry from a computer activating maximum braking without driver input, especially in a manual transmission setup.

 

[booboo]

If I was in a RV, an autonomous driver at the wheel, would give me a break to go make a sandwich and watch from the back.
I do not see any reason why I would want to give up any control, as long as I am in the driver's seat, that is how I'll roll.

 

[outsydthebox]

Or are you referring to brake based traction control, where brakes are used to adjust wheel speed instead of cutting engine power? I would not be shocked if the Elio uses the brakes for traction/stability control.

YES! that IS what I was referring to...."stability control". Thank you

 

[Ty]

They will have the feature where the vehicle brakes for you automatically when traffic stops or an obstacle is in the way? That is not a standard feature of traction or stability control.

Oops. Sorry. You are right. I had to go back and read your post. Yes, the Elio will use brakes to remain stable. No, it doesn't have adaptive cruise... yet.

 

[Lynn D]

Thanks Booboo for the post: http://www.ktbs.com/story/33449462/...heduled-for-officials-to-tour-former-gm-plant

 

[Lynn D]

This was the highlights from previous meeting just to refresh: http://www.ktbs.com/video?clipId=12712538&autostart=true

 

[TheAsterisk!]

Thanks Booboo for the post: http://www.ktbs.com/story/33449462/...heduled-for-officials-to-tour-former-gm-plant

Thanks for both of those links.

Let me preface this by emphasizing that I'm all fired up about the typical readers' comments on these sort of local news pieces, and not nearly so bothered by the pieces themselves.

Also, I think I'll place my thoughts within spoiler tags, as it's kind of long and approaches (but hopefully doesn't quite reach) rant territory.

Spoiler

Frankly, I find myself reliably annoyed with the panic and outraged responses I see in news story comments (on their sites, not so much talking about here) all the time on this topic. I'm not from their area, but I am in Normal, IL (though from the adjacent Bloomington) where Mitsubishi slowly killed their North American plant over more than a decade and a half of financial and managerial idiocy, then left and let it all sit. Don't know what the obstacles would be, but I know if there were a business- pretty much any business- that wanted that space and showed progress, even slow progress, I wouldn't be terrifically inclined to constantly badger them about not being fast enough, and how we were all promised good-paying jobs yesterday. (It's also not just a matter of jobs; property taxes on a properly assessed idle facility are likely to be much lower than on an occupied space, even prior to active production. I assume Caddo Parish wouldn't simply turn down the revenue?)

It's not like there's a tremendous shortage in auto manufacturing plants- even just old GM plants- nor is there some great unmet demand for them or their capacity. There's another idled GM plant for sale in Janesville, WI, too- also a right-to-work state, like LA and unlike IL. (I don't know if the Janesville plant had stamping capability, but it was at least an assembly plant.)

Was the Shreveport GM plant shut down suddenly, or something? Nobody was too surprised about MMMA closing shop, local press notwithstanding, but they'd been slowing down obviously for some time. (The plant actually had a peak capacity of about 240K units per year, but was running anywhere from 20K-70K for the last few years, if memory serves.) Maybe if their plant's closure came as a surprise, I could understand this attitude a bit better, but still...

Have they done much else to court other lessees? Did they sit on their hands after they got one startup? Is it just that no one else really needs that sort of facility or space? Those are as valuable questions to ask of any commission or trust as those they've already implied will be asked, if the average "Where's mah job?!" commenter is actually actively thinking.

I'd say that's just my two cents, but if we're being honest it's probably worth somewhat less and took up well more than a pittance in screen space, if you were bold enough to expand it, so...

 

[Elio Amazed]

I have an interesting question. Why don't more Elio enthusiasts speak their minds in the comment sections of articles like these? Instead of ONLY doing that in relative safety here? It lets the armchair poofbag trolls rule the day. Consequently, a whole lot of people see almost nothing but 100% negative comments about the Elio and they leave with the impression that it's all crap and a scam. Because there's no-one around who is willing to give the opposite viewpoint. I've seen a lot of positive, neutral and negative Elio web articles and I've never seen but one staunch Elio supporter consistantly defend the car and the company on facebook and in articles. But I've not even seen that individual here in the last few months. His name is John Painter and he used to roam the web righting injustices to the Elio name. BTW, Kuddos to our Lilly for commenting.

The comments on that particlular story are mild compared to most that follow some of the articles that are linked here at EO. The pompous poison that is spewed and goes completely unchallenged in some of those comment sections boggles the mind.