LETTERS - Brief Article

Hybrids Are Here

Your December cover story was the best piece yet on the new breed of hybrid vehicles. Honda's Insight and Toyota's Prius will be remembered, in 20 years, as the first shots fired towards making the electric drivetrain a reality in production cars. The Japanese deserve credit for making the production commitment, but U.S. hybrid vehicles are also on the way.

Jim Reese Thermodyne Engineering Cleveland, OH

Very interesting tech analysis of the new hybrids from Japan. The electronics/electrical suppliers, not to mention software companies, must be going ga-ga over the future opportunities that this trend presents.

Clayton Yost, M.E. Secaucus, NJ via e-mail

Merging Autos and the Net

The ideas Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy espouses to "merge" the Net with the auto industry (Dec. '99, p. 53) aren't prophetic -- they're already with us. Automakers already "get a cut of the service bill" through their dealer networks. Customers can charge these services to credit cards held by the manufacturer (GM and Ford are examples). Also, we're already able to "drive a car into a lot, park it and pick up another more suited for current needs." It's called car rental, and some automakers already own a few. They typically do not generate enormous profits.

Finally, instead of a Java ring, how about encoding a car key to prevent theft and identify the car. Oops, done that. "Smart" car keys make more sense.

All McNealy is doing is putting his own `spin' on existing technologies -- and trying to get a cut of the auto business before Bill Gates does.

Michael Gulu III Warren, Mich. Mound Road Engine Plant DaimlerChrysler

Missing the Best Employees?

I totally agree with Ron Harbour (Dec. '99): To keep and attract top talent, we've got to do a better job of telling the world that the auto industry utilizes more truly high technology than most of these valueless "dot coms," and makes products that will remain far more important to our daily lives than the E-Bays and Amazons of the world.

Rudy DeSalvo Ford Motor Co. via email

I agree with Mr. Harbour on the lack of talent in the automotive industry today. However, the problem is not the lack of interest from talented people. The problem is that talented people cannot get into this industry; and if they managed to get in, they become frustrated and leave.

The automotive industry is under strict control by old fashioned "paper work filing people," who hate innovation and fight any sign of talent.

The problem is augmented by the human resource departments which are staffed by individuals who lack any knowledge about this industry. These individuals try all what they can to discourage talented people from ever getting in. All they look for in a candidate is his or her "experience in filing paper work."

It is not enough to "make radical change the way we do business," as GM stated. What is much more important is to change the way you hire the people who will do this business. After all, you cannot make any change without having the right kind of people to make it.

Abraham Hanounik Kalamazoo, Mich. via e-mail

Smith's Words vs. Actions

In the November '99 issue (p. 57), GM Chairman Jack Smith claims that his company is "not a bureaucratic, lumbering giant." And in the same issue (p.39), you noted that GM Advanced Vehicle Technology director Bob Purcell had to take much of the recent Triaxx program "outside of GM" in order to execute it as quickly as possible.

Which speaks louder?

Michael J. Burkett Sanborn, NY via e-mail

Citroen's Innovations

Ted Kwolek (Letters, Oct. '99) is correct in saying that Citroen was the first automaker to offer semi-active suspension. However, the model so equipped in 1989 was the XM, not the SM. The SM was discontinued in 1975. It was the car which offered, among other innovations, speed-sensitive steering assist, self-leveling headlamps, and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic road wheels, with which an essentially stock SM won the Morocco rally in 1973.

Ted Gomulka C & I Applications Detroit Diesel Corp.

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