Hopefully you are all getting your news elsewhere by now, but just in case I thought I'd point out that we're in the final stages of the AXP now! Go get some news: Autoblog Green, MSNBC, or the Progressive Automotive X Prize site itself. Be sure to check out the Team Standings. For your edification, here is a list of the teams that remain in contention:
Mainstream Class (Two vehicles, one team)
· Edison2, Very Light Car #97 (Charlottesville, VA), Internal Combustion Engine
· Edison2, Very Light Car #98 (Charlottesville, VA), Internal Combustion Engine
Alternative Class - Tandem (Two vehicles, one team)
· X-Tracer, E-Tracer #72 (Switzerland), Battery Electric
· X-Tracer, E-Tracer #79 (Switzerland), Battery Electric
Alternative Class - Side-by-Side (Five vehicles, five teams)
· Aptera, Aptera 2e (San Diego, CA), Battery Electric
· Li-ion Motors, Wave II (North Carolina), Battery Electric
· RaceAbout Association, RaceAbout (Finland), Battery Electric
· TW4XP, TW4XP (Germany), Battery Electric
· ZAP, Alias (Santa Rosa, CA), Battery Electric
Obviously with only one team in each of Mainstream and Alternative Tandem, it's not so much a race against competitors as a contest of "can we meet the requirements of the AXP itself". As it turns out, building a high efficiency car in about 2 years, one that can meet standards set by the Consumer Reports, is a task that few teams could even complete! And the teams that remain are by no means assured of winning: they still have a battery of tests to go before being declared winners. I talked a lot here about the balance being struck by the AXP on supporting "garage innovation" versus holding teams to rigorous standards engineering and business wise, and it seems clear in these final days that the balance was placed too far over on requirements. But given the huge field they had (111 teams!), I can't blame the XPF for making it a little harder. I hope someone wins in each class. It'd be really embarrassing to have turfed out so many teams only to fail to award the prize money, that'd sure make bad press!
Anyway, best of luck to those teams that remain, keep light on the pedal and your eyes on the road!
For a long time I've been telling myself that I'll get back into this project, that I will update the car pages, research the new teams, etc. But it's finally time to admit that that isn't going to happen. Today I removed the prominent link to the X Prize Cars page from the column to the right of every page. The information therein is now quite old, many of the teams profiled have dropped out, and many others have changed significantly. I've felt for quite awhile that that page was more misleading than helpful, and today I retire it, without much hope that I will renew it before the prize is awarded.
On the up side, the teams page at the auto x prize website is actually not bad. And some other media (like new scientist) have done some decent coverage of the teams.
I'll probably still post stuff here occasionally, and I will post the winners of the prize, but if you're looking for good coverage you'll find the autoblog at xprize.org to be better than mine going forward. There are also occassionally stories on the Auto X Prize at autobloggreen, which has a much broader mission to cover the "green scene". I'm sorry if I've disappointed anyone.
At a press event at the Auto Show in Detroit (pictured), the PIAXP team unveiled the new Competition Timeline, still showing the same September end date. But, in what I had actually come to suspect was going to happen, they have removed all excitement from the prize: there will be no race across Manhattan, no race between Vancouver and Seattle, no race at the Indianapolis Speedway, in fact no public races at all!
What is left in the schedule is some shakedown safety testing, some "closed door" track testing at the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) -- where "speed will be important" (can you hear the excitement) -- and finally some dynamometer testing. The big opportunity for the public will be a one day open house at the MIS in July, although apparently this will focus on the DASH+ high school student competition ("design the dashboard of the future and you can win!"), and only have a few of the PIAXP cars present.
That's not what I signed up for, and I imagine many of the recent big team losses are related to this - surely the teams had inside knowledge on the direction the prize is going. The big problem with this new timeline is that the prize will likely never enter the mainstream with this schedule. I talk to a lot of people about the Automotive X Prize, and the number of people who have heard about it is TINY, <1%, regardless of how informed the person should theoretically be (neither technical people nor greenies know about it, even if they are knowledgeable about the previous X Prize). For well over a year, I've been comforting myself with the knowledge that once they shut down parts of Manhattan and race odd looking cars, this thing would hit the public big time. But apparently, that future event is not going to happen, in fact no public race will happen at all.
The best we can hope for now is that the final press event announcing the $10M winners makes a big splash, because it's clear to me that nothing else in the timeline will. The new competition is boring.
On the bright side, there is some nice new eye-candy: the PIAXP team has released two "Teams Banners", which contain a picture and a little bit of information about all 39 teams. You can download high-res versions in a .zip.
See also coverage by Autoblog Green (including informative interview of Eric Cahill) and Wired Autopia. Apparently these changes are all about how to make the competition simpler and cheaper to do. At one point Eric talks about how the MIS will allow them to "simulate city driving". Simulate! That's the new Automotive X Prize...
At a press event at the Auto Show in Detroit (pictured), the PIAXP team unveiled the new Competition Timeline, still showing the same September end date. But, in what I had actually come to suspect was going to happen, they have removed all excitement from the prize: there will be no race across Manhattan, no race between Vancouver and Seattle, no race at the Indianapolis Speedway, in fact no public races at all!
What is left in the schedule is some shakedown safety testing, some "closed door" track testing at the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) -- where "speed will be important" (can you hear the excitement) -- and finally some dynamometer testing. The big opportunity for the public will be a one day open house at the MIS in July, although apparently this will focus on the DASH+ high school student competition ("design the dashboard of the future and you can win!"), and only have a few of the PIAXP cars present.
That's not what I signed up for, and I imagine many of the recent big team losses are related to this - surely the teams had inside knowledge on the direction the prize is going. The big problem with this new timeline is that the prize will likely never enter the mainstream with this schedule. I talk to a lot of people about the Automotive X Prize, and the number of people who have heard about it is TINY, <1%, regardless of how informed the person should theoretically be (neither technical people nor greenies know about it, even if they are knowledgeable about the previous X Prize). For well over a year, I've been comforting myself with the knowledge that once they shut down parts of Manhattan and race odd looking cars, this thing would hit the public big time. But apparently, that future event is not going to happen, in fact no public race will happen at all.
The best we can hope for now is that the final press event announcing the $10M winners makes a big splash, because it's clear to me that nothing else in the timeline will. The new competition is boring.
On the bright side, there is some nice new eye-candy: the PIAXP team has released two "Teams Banners", which contain a picture and a little bit of information about all 39 teams. You can download high-res versions in a .zip.
Stuff.tv exclusive: Tesla pulls out of Automotive X Prize, they intend to focus on moving the Model S towards production instead. They will actually still race the Model S in the "Demonstration Division" of the Automotive X Prize, meaning that it will race along side the other cars, but will not have a chance to win the money, or be held to the same standards (esp. regarding MPGe). We can speculate forever about why they withdrew, but you have to wonder if they were measuring their efficiency and realized that to compete they were going to have to drive quite slowly. Being in the demonstration division means they can drive it like a bat out of hell, dusting the other teams, but getting only 50 MPGe. For a company that makes all of it's money to date selling sports cars, it's probably an important PR consideration to always portray your vehicles as fast...
A quick update on the Automotive X Prize. Many more teams have dropped out: Design Judging Complete: Over Half of All Entries Eliminated. This is actually expected: in the final stretch now, many teams are probably realizing that their car just isn't going to be finished, or just isn't working out (and thus won't be competitive). The image above shows the teams map from July (left) and December (right), a visual illustration of how many are gone. The teams page now lists only 42 teams.
In early November, the Automotive X Prize people hosted a three day "team summit" gathering, where teams got a huge download of information and requirements. This information included safety information, background on the Guidelines, help with PR, etc. They now face some stiff deadlines for some deliverables: Team Summit Day #1 - Three Deliverable Periods Begin December 15. Team Summit Day #1 - Teams Get Schooled in Competition PR and Social Media.
Aptera had a big shake up, and won't be shipping cars until late next year (if ever). The founders have all been booted, they are down to 20 employees, and due to inability to raise funds, are almost out of cash. Autopia: Aptera Founders Ousted in Boardroom Showdown, Gas 2.0: Aptera's Troubles: Get the Full, Inside Story Here.
An Update on Design Judging, by Steve Wesoloski (pictured), Senior Advisor, Deputy Technical Operations at the AXP:
As our teams going through the process know quite well, the guidelines in this first phase have been very strict. We've asked teams to probe their viability before on-road testing begins in the Spring. The priority during this phase is to ensure that all teams understand the criteria, that entered vehicles meet or exceed the criteria, and that teams appear capable of building a production intent vehicle to these standards in time for formal vehicle challenges. No small feat for any company.
Thomas pointed out in a comment to my last post that team numbers continue to fall: I confirm his count, there are only 73 listed now. So clearly the rigorous requirements are having their effect. At one time I considered starting my own AXP team, but it only took me a couple of months of doing some analysis to determine that I didn't have anywhere near enough time, energy or money to properly compete - building a car is expensive hard work, let alone building one which is capable of 100 MPGe and is designed for production... Kudos to those teams who are still hanging in there, making it work. If even half of the remaining teams actually race it will still be a huge number of teams at the starting block!
Among the 17 teams we've lost this time: Avion, Lightning Hybrids, Motive Industries, Red Light Racing. The complete list of teams in table format follows after the break.
When they originally revealed the official teams, on April 7th, 2009: 111 total, 106 listed and 6 more remain confidential (don't ask me why that totals 112, I just report 'em as I sees em)
Now, August 20th, 2009: 90 listed, meaning a change of 16 from the prior list. Actually 19 teams have vanished, and 3 have suddenly appeared. These three could be name changes (although not simple ones - I already sorted away 4 of those), or it could also be some of the 6 teams revealing themselves.
Among the list of vanished teams: Linc-Volt, Kinetic Vehicles, MDI-ZPM, Physics Lab of Lake Havasu, Myers Motors. In my opinion some of these teams represent real losses - no doubt there are some people who have quite the story to tell about why they dropped out. Others probably realized that their chosen vehicle would never achieve 100 MPGe. Several of the vanished teams are actively continuing their efforts, they just are not focusing on the AXP anymore.
Teams that have appeared: All Power Labs, Apet-X, Porteon. I actually remember Porteon from before, so it's kind of strange that they were not in the original 106 listed teams.
Read on for the complete table of teams and some brief commentary.
MAX Update No. 32: Why We Resigned from the Auto X Prize. I'm sorry to see Kinetic Vehicles leave - they were a great team with a great vehicle. Their reason for leaving?
But lately, this competition has been interfering with our goal for MAX: a high-mileage car you can build on a budget. The final rules have no place for a DIY car, and preparing MAX (even on paper) for factory production -- as in 10,000 cars a year -- has been sucking up our resources like you wouldn't believe. In the last year I have literally spent more hours filling out X Prize Foundation paperwork than I've spent developing MAX, and MAX has suffered for it. Instead of working on streamlining to improve the car's gas mileage, I've been writing business plans and tech documents and getting price quotes, for every single part in the car. Imagine trying to figure out the cost of 20,000 windshield wiper blades to be delivered in five years, etc., etc., etc.
This is evidence that the balance between business plan requirements and automotive engineering is currently on the business plan requirements, and this is having the predicted effect of pushing out teams that just want to build cars. Will this be good for the AXP? We won't know that until we know how many teams actually make it through this gauntlet. Kinetic Vehicles isn't the first team to drop out - in fact, it's just the most high profile of a whole string of recent drop outs.
How much work is it reasonable to ask teams to perform to ensure that the vehicles are "production capable"?
Awesome map of the locations of the Automotive X Prize teams. Learn more and see a bigger version
