07/26/2002

 

 

We can cut greenhouse (CO2) emissions NOW

 

I have found that all stories need to begin, at the beginning. That way, no one is left out. If you are familiar with the rudimentary information presented at the beginning of this post, please, do not choose to perceive it's inclusion as insulting. Bear with me, instead. My point: How we CAN reduce greenhouse gas emissions, NOW, will follow.

Take any two modern cars, with computer-controlled engines. Use, for this reference, two cars that are exactly the same, relevant to their drive trains, of the same model (approximate weight), with the same approximate mileage, in the same condition, overall, and with the same tires.

One of these cars is owned and driven by an older lady, who has yet to use the power her car has to offer. The other car is owned and driven by a teenager, who stomps the gas far too frequently.

Line these cars up on a drag strip. Run them through the quarter (or eighth) mile, twice, with drivers proficient in the sport, switching drivers the second time.

You will find the car owned by the teenager will SMOKE the older lady's car, every time. Why is that?

Today's ECUs (engine control units), which are computers, do much more than firing the spark plugs and adjusting the fuel/air mixture, fed into the engine. They optimize the operation of the car, which includes recording the way the car is used and, as the result, how the car will react to the commands, issued by the driver.

My purpose is not to bore those that are not technically inclined, with what they may consider useless information. Instead, I strive to demonstrate how what is called "Machine Learning" is already in common use. Machine Learning samples what has already taken place, then adjusts the decisions made, accordingly.

I am well aware that, in the minds of most, a car is merely a tool; a necessary, evil. Cars are also a major source of CO2 emissions, which are not a good thing, far from it.

This blog post is not about cars. It is about saving our planet! And it is about the fact that the technology necessary to accomplish same is not only present but it has been developed; tweaked, and improved, for a long time. That technology, when divorced from it's specific applications, is called Machine Learning.

While traveling ten miles, a can consume wildly different amounts of fuel, thereby generating significantly different amounts of CO2.. Why is that?

In order to explain this to the uninitiated, I will coin a phrase: Booms Per Yard - the number of times a cylinder in the engine fires (and goes boom), consuming fuel, during each yard the car travels.

Power is produced by burning fuel, which generates CO2. When moving a car from a dead stop more power is required, in order to overcome inertia; to cause something sitting still, to move. When cruising at the speed limit less power is required, because all the car needs to do is maintain the speed, at which it is traveling.

The transmission adapts the car to the current situation.

While the car is moving away from a traffic light the transmission allows the engine to run faster, thus producing more power, and more booms per yard. While the car is moving at the speed limit the transmission causes the engine to run slower, relative to it's speed, thus producing less power, and fewer booms per yard.

An epiphany occurs when two (or more) things we already knew come together, and with a vengeance. A common response is to strike ourselves in the forehead, hard, with the palms of our hands while saying, 'Why the HELL, didn't I think of that!' That, my friends, is one of the few (ahem...) questions, I am unable to answer.

The abundantly obvious, not to mention starkly simple way to reduce CO2 emissions, NOW, is to cause our cars to continue to cruse at the speed limit more, and to need to take off from red lights less. DUAAH!

NEWS FLASH!

President Joe Biden, seeming to recover from his senile doldrums, at least temporarily, has announced his 1-2-3 plan to cut the emission of greenhouse gases in this country NOW, and not by just a little!

Joe Biden's plan will:

1) cause our cars to do less work, which will

2) cause our cars to burn less fuel, which will

3) cause our cars to emit fewer greenhouse gasses (CO2)

Says President Biden, "Ah, simplicity. Thy servant am I, evermore!'

The premise of Biden's plan is a car running at the speed limit burns far less fuel than the same car, having to stop frequently.

Biden's plan begins by conscripting the best minds in the computer field and assigning then the task of creating a program that will optimize traffic flow, in any city, by making use of Machine Learning, and yes, Artificial Intelligence (AI).

At the same time, Biden will conscript the best minds in the hardware design field, assigning them to create the digital machinery necessary to upgrade current equipment to be able to perform the task, ways for those machines to communicate with each other and the facilities, necessary to make those machines. Resulting in the creation of, guess what: AMERICAN JOBS!

The implementation of Biden's plan is forecast to have several side-effects, one of which is the installation of a permanent, shit-eating grin on the face of every American, obliged to commute to and from their job! Another is the unthinkable potential for the export, of his new system.