Huge Electric Semi Would Transform Trucking

When you think about the fuel-efficient vehicles we’ll need as we descend the other side of Hubberts Peak you think of an electric car, right? You just don’t think of a hybrid diesel electric Semi Truck, do you?

In January 2005, legendary car designer Henrik Fisker founded a company to bring innovative new thinking to the automobile industry.
Between that date and today, Fisker Automotive would create perhaps the most beautiful car ever made, raise almost $1.4 billion dollars from investors as diverse as Leonardo di Caprio and Kleiner Perkins, obtain a $528 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, balloon to 600+ employees, default on loans or investment conditions at least four separate times, spend $535,000 on a website, get sued by its own employees, get evicted from its primary business location, and be investigated by the government — apparently for its incredible ability to burn a billion dollars while delivering only a few thousand actual completed cars.

Auto - Report writing

Introduction

As technicians you may be called on to produce a report for a customer. Also, if you are involved in research of some kind it is important to be able to present results in a professional way. The following sections describe the main headings that a report will often need to contain together with an example report based on the performance testing of a vehicle alternator. Laying out results in a standard format is the best way to ensure that all the important and required aspects of the test have been covered. Keep in mind that the report should convey clearly to another person what has been done. Further, a ‘qualified’ person should be able to extract enough information to be able to repeat the test – and check your findings! Use clear simple language remembering that in some cases the intended audience may not be as technically competent as you are.

Auto Terminology

The terminology included in the following tables is provided to ensure that we are talking the same language. These tables are provided just as a simple reference source.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

What is needed to find faults?
Finding the problem when complex automotive systems go wrong is easy, if you have the necessary knowledge. This knowledge is in two parts:
● understanding of the system in which the problem exists;
● the ability to apply a logical diagnostic routine. It is also important to be clear about two definitions:
● symptom(s) what the user/operator/repairer of the system (vehicle or whatever) notices;
● fault the error in the system that causes the symptom(s).