paul schreiber

In English, when reading numbers out loud, one often “chunks” the numbers into smaller groups. For example, when reading the phone number “555-1212,” one would say “five five five, one two one two,” not “five hundred fifty-five, one thousand two hundred and twelve.”

Similarly, one would call Interstate 280 “interstate two eighty,” not “interstate two hundred and eighty.”

Toyota’s Prius GPS does this. It’s an example of good design — speak the language your customers speak.

However, this falls apart when you switch the Prius over to French. Exit 420 becomes exit quatre (4) vingt (20). The problem? In most parts of the French-speaking world, 80 is also pronounced “quatre vingts” (“four twenties”).

In this case, you have to listen to your GPS and read the screen to be sure you take the right exit.

the f-secure folks tried to hack a Prius via Bluetooth. The Prius stood strong.

so my prius check engine light came on the other day. now, i knew from the internet that the most common cause of this is a loose gas cap.

so, i promptly unscrewed my gas cap and re-screwed it in. tight.

i started the car again. light still on. went to bed. started the car again this morning. the light was still on. drove to the dealer. light was still on.

i told the dealer the light came on, and i had checked the gas cap, and it was nice and tight.

a couple hours later they called me back. i was right. sort of. the thing is, at some point, the gas cap had been loose, and the car’s computer noticed it. according to the dealer, i have to drive the car for at least 20 minutes 2-4 times for the car to believe the gas cap really is fixed.

stupid computer!

$36 later, the sheet they gave me read:

HAS CODE PO440, GAS CAP WAS TIGHT, CAP PASSED WITH TESTER. EVAP VSV & CCV OPER. OK. PULLED EVAP SYSTEM INTO VACUMN, HOLDS VAC. DID CUST FIND GAS CAP LOOSE & TIGHTEN?


at lunch, a coworker informed me autozone lets you borrow a tester that reads the codes from the car’s computer and allows you to reset the systems as needed. hmmmph.

in a way, i was punished for attentiveness. had i procrastinated and waited a few days to go to the dealer, the light would have magically fixed itself.

while i was out last night, two friends IMd me with news of the CalCars plug-in hybrid initiative and the New York Times coverage.

some folks have hacked a prius by adding more batteries, pushing it well over 100 mpg. (Caveat: burning coal to generate electricity isn’t a net win, coseversation wise. Of course, if you get your power via windmills…)

and lastly, smart start outsmarted some dumb thieves.

The Boston Globe on the Prius love:

Then there’s the hipness factor: ”I’ve had a lot of kids tell me that this is way cool,” she says, ”and at age 52, I have very few ways to be way cool.” When she first started driving the old Prius, it was, she says, ”a guy magnet.” For a certain type of guy, anyway. ”I would go out, and guys in Subaru Outbacks with Greenpeace stickers and L.L. Bean shirts would come over,” she says.

Wired talks about the Prius:

But the marketing department knew that only a special customer would pay $20,000 for a compact car. Specifically, someone with a master’s degree, a six-figure income, and a fondness for composting.

Oh well, I’m 0-for-3 on that one. :)