California 'Cool Cars' Proposal Aims at Hot Interiors, Could Block GPS Signals
For every push, a shove.
California wants to cut down on use of auto air conditioning as part of its greenhouse gas management plant, so the California Air Resources Board has drafted the "cool cars" law that would require a special reflective window coating to keep car interiors cooler by reducing the amount of solar energy - heat - entering through the glass.
The proposed rule would mandate a 45 percent reduction by 2014 and a 60 percent cut by 2016.
The idea is that by reducing solar energy entering though the windows, cars' interiors - especially when parked in the sun - would stay cooler, reducing the demand for automotive air conditioner use which, in turn, would improve vehicle fuel economy with a corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
That's the push or, in physics, an action that by its very existence requires an opposite and equal reaction - the shove.
The shove is coming from automakers and the electronics industry.
Seems those metallic coatings needed to block solar energy, CARB is being told, don't work with the plastic windows some convertibles -especially the soft-top Jeep Wrangler - still sport.
The coating also can block GPS signals - Toyota Motor Corp. told CARB that all of its factory-installed GPS systems use window-mounted antennas that will have to be relocated at a cost of $110 to $250 per car, and Garmin, a manufacturer of aftermarket GPS systems that typically use dash-mounted antennas, has said it isn't sure its systems will work under the coated glass.
The industries are lobbying for more time to study the radio conductivity - or blockage - of the reflective window coatings, citing worries about cell-phone and radio reception as well.
While we'd welcome a coating that would render cellphones inoperative inside cars, we'd hate to lose GPS or satellite radio reception.
We expect CARB will make allowances to keep all those things working.
On the soft-top/plastic window side of things, Chrysler told CARB that if it could no longer offer soft-top Jeep ranglers with those roll-up plastic windows, it would have to go to hard tops with glass windows that would add considerable weight and thus reduce the Wrangler's fuel economy - increasing its greenhouse gas emissions.
CARB officials said they'd exempt cars with soft plastic windows from the requirement.
This is the same law that originally contained language requiring automotive paints with reduced heat absorption - a rule that was dropped when automakers said they'd have to quit selling black cars in the state.
- Posted by
- John O'Dell October 19, 2009, 12:23 PM
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- California Cool Cars Law
Um, sunshades?
Can't keep a bureaucracy in business with suggestions like that! Besides, if they tried to require people to buy and use sunshades, they'd have about as much luck as the state has had outlaying phone-to-ear cell-phone use in cars. Even the gov's wife ignores thatone!
$6 silver reflective sunshades... works great for cooling it down while parked, and less A/C to cool it down.
The manufactureres should be encouraged to make A/C systems smarter... and take into account human acclimation science and thermostat control in all vehicles. I'm surprised CARB doesn't instead just mandate thermostat control of the A/C and delete "MAX" or "HIGH FAN" settings outright.
Also surprising that CARB doesn't outlaw systems (like Mercedes) that have the A/C on by DEFAULT year-round. One has to push a button to purposefully turn it OFF. Even in pleasant Southern California there are hundreds of thousands of Mercedes running around with the A/C "ON", even if they have the windows down and the fan blowing. That's a waste of fuel.
I'll wager 90% of folks have no idea how to run a climate control system properly and economically.
Pretty soon CARB will legally mandate that cars are all white, have no A/C at all, and be made out of lightweight cardboard to save fuel. They really come up with the goofiest ideas that have no "real world" practicality.
If I can't use my dashboard GPS, guess what? I'll just continue to drive my older gas guzzling non-hybrid instead. That'll really help the situation, won't it?
Every law has backlash, and usually unexpected and detrimental. This one is fraught with the same sort of backlash possibilities: higher costs which suppress sales of lower greenhouse emissions vehicles, so CO2 usage remains higher than if the window block wasn't installed. Crazy.