"The Volt" May BE SCRAPPED!- NEVER BUILT!!

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...the VOLT as I see it needs to "shrink" the exterior and "expand" the interior.

...and the "old" AMERICAN REVOLUTION needs to shed it's "old" way of thinking and become the "new" AMERICAN EVOLUTION.

...and, lastly, maybe the USGovt/taxpayers should hire some of the people from this website as "technical ombudsman" consultants!

...what we need is a "...car designed by a TEAM..." not the typically proverbial government "...car designed by a COMMITEE..."!!!

At first I did not understand your POV. But then I got to thinking about those INSIDE VOLT pics, and how it has that wide space between the seats, and only seats 4 adults etc...

I can see what you mean now. From the outside it almost appears as if their would be more space inside than the pictures show us. Hmm....

[Frank Lee]

That's why, last time I came up with something patentable for the company, I didn't do a thing to pursue it. Wouldn't have done me any good.

Heh heh, wasn't long before knock-offs were being made! LOL

[gone-ot]

...one story goes that a disgruntled inventive engineer simply "side-stepped" the legality and had his not-employed-there brother file the patent.

...just makes you wonder "HOW" the brother learned/knew SO much about a process used at the company HA,HA! Maybe a benefit from the annual "open house" tour???

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...one story goes that a disgruntled inventive engineer simply "side-stepped" the legality and had his not-employed-there brother file the patent.

...just makes you wonder "HOW" the brother learned/knew SO much about a process used at the company HA,HA! Maybe a benefit from the annual "open house" tour???

Guilty... I never filed a patent, but I did disclose things not covered by the legal NDA required at time of hiring, including chemical compositions, rough sketches, and everything short of images, which would violate another company contractual agreement.

I made sure I was within the bounds of contractual agreement and literally gave away uncounted "secrets" about the processes therein. Whether anyone takes the information is up to them, though.

As a plus, I did get to laugh at a US Marshal, and an Army Official, because they didn't have proper ID, and it's a company requirement that anyone who can't show proper ID and a visitor's acknowledgement be escorted off the property, or reported to security.

They refused ID, I showed them to the door and flipped the alarms.

When my boss found out, He tried to get me fired. I pointed out the "rules" to his boss.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...one story goes that a disgruntled inventive engineer simply "side-stepped" the legality and had his not-employed-there brother file the patent.

...just makes you wonder "HOW" the brother learned/knew SO much about a process used at the company HA,HA! Maybe a benefit from the annual "open house" tour???

Oh, say, that reminds me: I have heard RUMORS for decades now that some of the car review magazines that mostly side with the import cars (the majority of the time) are somewhat staffed by FIRED Engineers from GM, Ford and/or Chrysler. In one case I was shown the name of an engineer that compared a GM car with a car made in Japan (a review in a popular mag) and, indeed the name matched the name of a certain engineer that was in high rank at GM, but had been fired for unknown reasons. Other than that, that's all I know. So, I only take it at face value, a RUMOR.

[Jammer]

Related to making an invention and getting a patent:

As far as pursuing a US Patent, I know a little bit about the process. I am NO car expert, but I have played a 5-string banjo since I was 8 years old. When I was in my 20's I became obsessed with the idea of inventing a small modification to a standard banjo that would allow it to be plugged into normal off the wall guitar electronics so it could sound like a hard rock guitar. It took me the better part of a decade, but I finally did come up with the modification that made "Heavy Metal Banjo" a reality. Without my little invention a banjo can NOT be forced to over drive an amp into heavy distortion correctly UNLESS it is a solid body banjo, OR one is using headphones. When I finally got the results I wanted, and got MP3s posted etc... I discovered that nobody, and I mean NOBODY gave a dam. I often wondered it it would of gone over better if I had found it in the 1960's instead, but there were other complications...

My closest friends told me to patent the devise I came up with. I could not afford a full fledged patent search by the pros, so I had to do it on my own. After searching for almost 2 years another banjo player on a banjo-player's site posted a link. That link lead me straight to the invention a guy made to a banjo in the 1920's during the Jazz era. To my shock this invention was EXACTLY the same thing I had made- A Banjo Head-Mute that could mute the head to be extremely quiet, so much that flipping the head hardly makes almost NO sound whatsoever- It was the important first step needed to over drive a tube amp to distortion without a loud whistling noise that would give anyone brain damage long before turning up past #3 on the volume knob.....

What I learned was somebody else had already invented what I had thought I invented in the 1990's- but the first one came out in the 1920's, and was intended to silent the instrument, where I had came up with the device for the exact opposite purpose. I still get credit for coming up with the application and style of playing "Heavy Metal Banjo" and it used to come up on a Google search. But, boy I learned it is a lot of work....

What I learned:

It's amazing how many ideas on almost everything have already been patented. It seems every-time I think I have a new idea, if I search long enough, I discover somebody else has already thought of it. And a real full fledged patent search can take a VERY long time, I guess that is why inventors normally get a "Patent Pending" issued first, because it takes so very long to do a complete search of older patents.

[Bicycle Bob]

When the EV1 was being designed, it was like a war between the designers from Aerovironment and the GM staff. The staff lost often enough that the car performed well even on lead batteries. I'm sure the guys who lost those arguments are now free to make decisions on the Volt their way.

[dcb]

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by Christ

Dude... you realize the NSX is a specialty car, and it's street version never turned a profit, right?

The original reason for producing that car for street use was because of the rules of the races Honda was interested in, and to show competition with European Supercar markets.

Oddly enough, the engine from the 1st gen NSX is available in the Accord. I'm not sure where the Gen2 NSX engine comes from.

Dude... who cares. I was talking about the first gen INSIGHT. The insight and the NSX shared the same assembly line and manufacturing process. I was making a point of the fact that you can't turn a profit selling aluminum cars for $20k. Same story with the Audi A1 from a few years back. Brilliant on paper but it doesn't make financial sense.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by tjts1

I was making a point of the fact that you can't turn a profit selling aluminum cars for $20k.

And in the process missing the real point, which is that the Insight was never intended to turn a profit.