Crashing computers, and cars too

By Chris Sorensen - Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 2 Comments

Sit inside a Toyota Prius hybrid and it’s hard not to marvel at all the high-tech eye candy: push-button ignition, touch-screen display and digital images of the vehicle’s dual gas-electric powertrains at work. But while automakers have generally rushed to highlight the sophisticated technology under the hood of their hybrids, Toyota’s recent decision to recall nearly half a million Prius vehicles because of a software glitch may cause drivers to think twice about buying such overly computerized cars.

Toyota decided to issue the recall because of a problem with the Prius’s computer-controlled brake system—specifically the way it switches between its hydraulic (stopping) and regenerative (power storing) braking systems, which can lead to uneven braking on bumpy terrain. Similarly, Ford said it would provide owners of some of its hybrid models with a software patch to fix a similar problem. “Hybrids have tended to be relatively error free compared to regular vehicles—that is, until now,” says Tony Faria, co-director of the University of Windsor business school’s Office of Automotive Research. Suddenly, these high-tech cars can seem downright scary.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Toyota is in the midst of recalling some 8.1 million vehicles worldwide amid a small number of complaints of “unintended acceleration.” So far, Toyota has identified ill-fitting floor mats and potentially sticky gas pedals as the culprits, but several observers have suggested Toyota’s drive-by-wire throttles (which replace the mechanical link between gas pedals and the engine with an electronic one) are to blame. It hasn’t helped that Apple co-founder and engineering guru Steve Wozniak publicly speculated that he was having software-related problems with the cruise control mechanism on his Prius.

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Ryan Bartt Chute 1980-2009

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 1:40 PM - 5 Comments

R yan Bartt Chute was born on Sept. 13, 1980, in Moose Jaw, Sask., the second of four children to Bartt and Marla Chute. His parents were grain farmers whose sprawling fields, located about 25 km north of town, had been in the family since the 1920s. A “fun-loving” child, Ryan “loved to tuck his head in the crook of your neck and cuddle,” says Marla. He was drawn to the outdoors—particularly whatever his dad was doing. As a toddler, he had his own corner in the tractor cab, complete with a pillow and blanket. “When he got tired, he’d lay down and have a sleep,” says Bartt. The harvest was an early source of fascination. In late August, he would spend hours in the fields with his dad, watching him combine the lentils, peas and wheat.

A curious boy, Ryan trailed Bartt in the workshop, tinkering with the machinery. Like his father, he was eager to try new things, and fuelled his bent for adventure with dirt bikes, jet skis and snowmobiles, later learning to drive a motorcycle and a big rig. In school, Ryan’s ability to elicit laughter made him a favourite among his classmates, if not always his teachers. “He spent a fair bit of time in the hallway,” says friend Jason Doney. He extended his good-natured teasing to sisters Andrea and Alana, but was also protective—his brother Reid, born in 1985, died in infancy, and Ryan kept a close eye on them. Continue…

Philip Ronald Morden 1976-2009

By Ken MacQueen - Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 1:40 PM - 6 Comments

Philip Ronald Morden was born June 30, 1976, in Hamilton and grew up in the tight-knit suburb of Ancaster. He was the second child of Judy Morden, an office administrator at the school board, and her husband, Glen, who worked in construction. Philip was close to his older sister, Andrea, who “mothered him as her own,” as Judy puts it. Family and friends describe him as charismatic, with boundless curiosity for the inner workings of everything, be they machines, economics or people. Judy recalls a trip to Walt Disney World where the site’s famous roller coaster fired their young son’s imagination. “Philip was more interested in how they built Space Mountain than the ride itself,” she says. Philip and his dad were often bent over bicycles or cars. “I’d let him take things apart and then help him put them together,” says Glen. “Just so he had an understanding of it.”

He was a natural athlete, always eager to push the limit in any sport he embraced, from snowboarding to hockey to skateboarding, says Josh Doan, a childhood friend. “He didn’t really have any fears trying the newest trick on a skateboard or a snowboard,” says Josh, now head golf pro at the nearby Glen Abbey Golf Club. “I was always envious of that. He would push me definitely to do what he could do, to just take it over that edge.” Philip did not share Josh’s passion for golf, but when the two teens worked as “backshop boys” at Ancaster’s Heron Point Golf Course, Philip added excitement to the game by overriding the speed governor on the gas-powered carts. “He was a bit mischievous,” says Josh. “He made those golf carts go really fast.” Continue…

I bought a car and it nearly killed me

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 43 Comments

To know why the American auto industry is in such a mess, you only have to ask my neighbours. Once, long ago, the aspirational young couples and empty-nesters on my midtown Toronto street might have driven American cars. Now they would rather be on fire.

Walking down the street, I count several Audis, a few BMWs, a couple of Volvos, the odd Mercedes-Benz or Saab. Not an American car in sight. Why? Much has been made of Detroit’s history of poor quality, and deservedly so. But it isn’t really about that. If it were about quality, or safety, or price, or any of the things people claim to care about when they buy a car, my neighbours would have all bought Japanese and Korean. That the street is instead tiled with European cars tells you something else was on their minds. And that something is self-image.

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The mystery of Air France flight 447

By Philippe Gohier - Monday, June 1, 2009 at 9:58 PM - 8 Comments

[UPDATE: Brazilian military pilots have spotted aircraft debris in the area where flight 447 is believed to have gone down. An airplane seat, a life jacket, metallic debris and signs of fuel were found in two areas about 60 kilometres apart in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. However, no signs of life were detected in either area.]

Twenty-four hours after Air France flight 447 disappeared off air traffic controllers’ radar screens, precious little is known about the circumstances surrounding the event. And the bits of information that have come to light provide almost nothing in the way of an explanation about why an aircraft that’s widely considered to be among the safest in its class never reached Paris after departing Rio de Janeiro.

ALSO AT MACLEANS.CA: Searching for wreckage — and answers : Speculation is rampant, but crash investigators in the case of Air France Flight 447 are focused on the facts

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Things are looking up for Toronto's condo market

By Colin Campbell - Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 3:13 PM - 5 Comments

The multitude of construction cranes that now dot Toronto’s skyline seem to point upwards as if oblivious to the harsh economic times unfolding below. Floors keep getting stacked onto condo project after condo project, adding to the number of new units that are unsold, and will likely remain that way for many months. It’s a trend that has led many in this city to look up and wonder not just who’s going to buy all these new condos, but whether a crash in the once-heated condo market is now all but inevitable.

A report this week from TD Economics says “no.” The inventories of new condos, while significant, are not as bad as one might think, nor is the impact the recession is having on the economy of the Toronto area. The market is certainly caught up in the downturn, but the kind of underlying circumstances that have caused all-out meltdowns in U.S. cities do not exists here, it says. Toronto’s condo market is in the midst of a “cyclical downturn rather than a drawn out structural downturn,” it states. Continue…

AIG – A question for our readers

By Steve Maich - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 11:58 AM - 17 Comments

Last night’s shocking bail out of AIG hasn’t done much to calm the fears roiling through the markets this morning. It has, however, got me to thinking.

Clearly Paulson felt he was in a no-win situation, and made a decision based on the cold calculus of pragmatism. He ahd to decide which was the lesss terrible of two terrible options:

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