Friday, August 15, 2008
Been thinking about Who Killed The Electric Car? which we watched on Netflix DVD recently. This film should have been called Who Killed the GM EV1? I didn't like some of the standard documentary style (e.g., cue the strings during the part you're supposed to be sad) and that it told you what you were supposed to think while glossing over what is probably a much larger body of evidence than they showed, but I thought it was informative nonetheless. The part that didn't seem to ring true for me, though, was why bother beating up on GM? Why force a company to do something it so obviously didn't want it to do? Those passionate people should have instead gone to another auto manufacturer or started a new company instead of wasting so much energy on GM. (Ironic, since their concern was ultimately an energy debate.) Why couldn't the battery genius have developed a new and better battery than the one he sold earlier to GM and then sell that to one of GM's competitors? Or if they knew that demand was strong, why couldn't they have started their own car company?—very difficult from the ground up, probably, but not impossible. From the EV1 entry in Wikipedia, it seems clear that GM now realizes their mistake. For not only could they have had a 10-year lead on electric cars, but now, knowing this history, who will trust GM enough to buy an electric or hybrid car from them? The damage done to their reputation is probably much worse than whatever short-term gain they thought they might have had by taking the actions they did. Companies really do need to listen to the customer, and it really is true that the most important thing is the relationship—not the product or service. For me, Who Killed The Electric Car? is more a lesson about how—at a certain point—passionate people need to let go and find new directions than it is about who was right or wrong about the EV1. I firmly believe that sometimes you just need to let people and corporations make their own mistakes. You don't control the birds (3F22). 2-hour web team meeting with Susie and Eric D. Cindy announced recently that Eric V has accepted the position of student affairs assistant—his first official day is Monday. Congrats, Eric! Small web edit for Eric V (admissions deadline error). Followup with various students: password change. Helped Joel get word- and character-count estimates for our supp app questions. Lunch: carving station pork sandwich to go from the cafeteria: $4.39. Met with Kirk F and Sierra A about Kirk's replacement for calendar.ucsf.edu. We tossed around a number of requirements, samples, and ideas. More work with Eric D on the slideshow. Scanned documents for Cindy. Followup with Albert H about cdrom duplication. Small web edits for Susie: Board of Advisors. Eric D made live the slideshow he's been working on, and I announced. Followup with Brandon A for student CKH. Followup with Sierra A about the test account she created for us. Dinner at home with Patrick: Mollie Stone's Italian meatloaf, Annie's organic macaroni and cheese, peas. Watched extras from Shortbus (2006, unrated) on DVD borrowed from psychobauble and Nate. A really good call to cut a number of Peter Sickles' scenes—they really didn't fit the film writingwise or plotwise.