November 12th, 2008
Steve Jobs for President. Of GM?
The old joke went something like this: If auto manufacturers improved their products as much and as fast as American designers and makers of microelectronics have theirs, a car today would be capable of speeds in excess of 1,000 miles an hour, go 650 miles on a gallon of gas, and be the size of a postage stamp.
Now comes Thomas L. Friedman — the New York Times writer who in 2005 posited “The World Is Flat” — to toss out the suggestion that “somebody ought to call Steve Jobs” and ask him to run one of America’s faltering car companies for the next year. He concludes:
“I bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.”
The thrust of Friedman’s argument is that American car companies, for decades, have failed to innovate, relying instead to their last dying breaths on gas-guzzling products, like trucks and SUVs.
Heck, it was 1971 — the same year that Intel introduced its first microprocessor, the 4004 — that GM introduced its first subcompact car, the Chevy Vega.
This was in response to the success of the Volkswagen Beetle, from Germany, and small cars from Honda, Toyota and Datsun (now called Nissan). That car suffered from carburetor fires, overheating engines and rusting bodies. And a management-labor dispute didn’t help.
Nearly four decades have passed and there’s still not a standout subcompact in GM’s lineup. That’s plenty of time to work out the bugs of making fuel-efficient, stylish, even cool cars — and fight back foreign competition at the same time.
But it’s not like GM lacks innovation. Remember the GM Hy-Wire automobile, that ran on a hydrogen fuel cell and was driven “by wire” technology?
This reinvention of the automobile was touted back in August 2002 by then- and current GM chief Rick Wagoner. Its “skateboard” chassis was only 11 inches thick. There was no engine or drive train. Seats could move far front or back, on a wide-open plane. The steering wheel could shift from the left to the right, in front of whichever seat the driver was permitted to sit in. There were no pedals. Accelerating and braking was handled through hand grips.
This is the kind of car Steve Jobs might well design. What it says is that GM (which more recently was promising to bring out the Chevy Volt electric car) really lacks the courage of its convictions. It shows off innovations. Just doesn’t introduce them. Now, it has no money to spend on new models. Much less real innovation.
So, help Steve Jobs here. And GM. What would the perfect iCar be?
Describe it. Or send an illustration to: tst@tstonramp.com
See also: Help Steve Jobs (or GM) design the iCar
Tom Steinert-Threlkeld is editor-in-chief of Securities Industry News, as well as a long-time media, technology and business journalist. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 11/12/08
