Increasing vehicle efficiency

A friend directed me to a Popular Science articles titled "The Race to 100 MPG"
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/automotivetech/e5690576b64fc010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

I had some comments about the 3 advances mentioned.

• Cut weight and wind resistance: That is nice but there are some major problems with that. Cutting weight generally reduces the crash worthiness. I would hate to see that car hit even a mid-sized car at freeway speeds. I like efficiency but safety is more important. The size and shape of the car also reduce visibility of the driver which is also a safety concern. Finally I have a family of 4 with 1 more on the way so I could never dream of using that kind of car for anything but a commuter vehicle. I just don't think reducing weight and wind resistence will help much given the needs of car owners.
• Hydraulic drive system: I think this is excellent. One of the great things about it is that it could be fit into current car designs without major changes which should make adoption much easier. I like it that it is a component change so the engine could be made more efficient independantly which would make integration by the manufacturer easier. This sounds like something that could be in many new cars in just a few years.
• Jet Engine: First, this just sounds neat. Wouldn't you love to see your neighbor's face when they ask you what kind of engine your car has and you say "a jet engine!"? It would also be neat if it gives are car a "jet engine" sound (but much more quiet). Once again this appears to be an independant upgrade so that would really help.

As a developer I am a strong proponent of iterative development (many small changes instead of a few huge changes) and I think iterative effiency improvements will provide the fastest adoption also. I also like the electric motor and battery system from Tesla Motors.

I can't wait to see these things developed and make it into mass production!

Electronic vehicles

Someone showed me the cool developments by Tesla Motors. That is such a sweet car. I can't wait until they make a large family car and it becomes old enough that I can afford a used version (maybe in 15 years). That got me wondering if there is a better application of an electronic vehicle that would help accelerate its adoption. I think the sports car idea is great but is there something better?
Here are the attributes of electronic vehicles:

1. Quiet
2. High torque
3. Low range (Tesla is trying to improve that but for now the range is apparently about 120 miles for available vehicles).
4. Low maintenance costs
5. More simple system so less to go wrong
6. Higher initial cost
7. Low fuel costs
   
8. Long refuel time
9. Great for lower speeds and stop-and-go driving

The Tesla sports car finds 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9 positive and 3, 6, and 8 negative.

Is there another type of vehicle that would find more of the attributes positive? Consider a school bus:

1. Lower noise might help the driver hear children outside (if it isn't too noisey inside!)
2. High torque is good for moving a heavy bus.
3. Low range doesn't really matter. I doubt most buses go more than 100 miles in the morning or evening (for trips a diesel may still be best).
4. Lower maintenance costs would definitely help.
5. The simple system would be good for just about any vehicle.
6. Higher initial cost isn't good but a school district is more likely to look at the full cost over the expected life of the vehicle so with the lower fuel and maintenance costs this probably will not be a problem.
7. Lower fuel costs definitely help.
8. The long refuel time won't really matter because they could easily be recharged during the school day.
9. School buses are stop-and-go vehicles so this is a great match.

What do you think? Would electric vehicles make great school buses?

Update: I searched and found a few links about hybrid electric buses but not much about normal eletric buses. Here is a link about the Zebra bus:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/seminars/zebra-bus/zebra-bus.htm

Instant Messenger feature

It would be nice if instant messenger clients put some visual clue whenever the conversation is stagnant for a certain amount of time. That would usually show where each sub-conversations is. For example there could be a line across the screen whenever nobody types for 5 minutes. Of course the time should be configurable.