Matt Galla had a serious case of engineer’s block. All he needed was the push of inspiration to be able to see a legacy design in a whole new light. Eventually, that inspiration came from an unlikely source — beer. The problem “We’ve had a business in TE Circuit Protection providing safe and reliable solutions when customers need resettable devices

Vision is great until it runs headlong into cold hard reality. That’s my take-away from the news today that Shai Agassi, co-founder of battery-infrastructure company Better Place, was pushed aside as CEO. Agassi and Better Place have benefited from amazing publicity, and, to a great degree, communal hope. His articulate and passionate vision for the future fits nicely with our

We hear a lot about the tipping point for electric vehicles. Engineers have solved the problem, if not the economics. But when a gallon of gas, at $3.75 (give or take), offers 70 times more energy density than the equivalent lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery (at 400 pounds), it may be time to reset our electric-vehicle expectations. This may be happening all

A century ago the New York Times reported that electric vehicle technology had arrived. Recall (although you weren't alive, unless I'm missing a fantastic story) that at the time many technologies were competing to power vehicles, from electric batteries to steam to internal combustion engines. A century later, we're driving EVs but they're really expensive. Why? Because battery technology really

Three-Day Chevrolet Volt Teardown Results to be Presented in Three Sessions at North America’s Largest Electronic Design Conference in Silicon Valley, March 26-29   Phoenix and San Francisco, March 21, 2012 – What makes the Chevy Volt run? Find out during DESIGN West, March 26-29, when UBM Electronics, the daily source of essential business and technical information for the electronics

LARGO, Fla.–Like yoga, the pinnacle of design innovation is a balance struck between form, functionality, cost and, oh, 10 or 20 other variables.   Not easy, but, like yoga, can be learned over years of practice. The best part of our Drive for Innovation meetings is finding people who can articulate their best efforts at achieving balance with what are

03/01/12 Chevy Volt teardown reveals future battery pack upgrades and safety monitoring systems

Last fall, I got the ball rolling on a topic that has very few fence-sitters: What should be government's role in funding development of new technologies. Government, particularly the military, has long played a role, so the question comes down to how much is just right, and how do you avoid picking winners when (some would argue) the market needs

  General Motors this week said it would give loaner cars to all 6,000 Chevy Volt owners (should they want them) while federal investigators try to figure out why the electric vehicles' batteries are exploding and catching fire in crash-tests.   We won't be taking them up on it. There have been three car fires (all caused by federal investigators