Car News Articles

Via
Business Week

By building mathematical models of its own employees,
IBM aims to improve productivity and automate management

by Stephen Baker

BusinessWeek’s 2006 Cover Story, “Math Will Rock Your World,” announced a new age of numbers. With the rise of new networks, the story argued, all of us were channeling the details of our lives into vast databases. Every credit-card purchase, every cell-phone call, every click on the computer mouse fed these digital troves. Those with the tools and skills to make sense of them could begin to decipher our movements, desires, diseases, and shopping habits—and predict our behavior. This promised to transform business and society. In a book expanding upon this Cover Story, The Numerati, Senior Writer Stephen Baker introduces us to the mathematical wizards who are digging through our data to decode us as patients, shoppers, voters, potential terrorists—even lovers.

One of the most promising laboratories for the Numerati is the workplace, where every keystroke, click, and e-mail can be studied. In a chapter called “The Worker,” Baker travels to IBM (IBM), where mathematicians are building predictive models of their own colleagues. An excerpt:

On a late spring morning I drive up into the forests of Westchester County, N.Y., to the headquarters of IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. It sits like a fortress atop a hill, a long, curved wall of glass reflecting the cotton-ball clouds floating above. I have a date there with Samer Takriti, a Syrian-born mathematician. He heads up a team that’s piecing together mathematical models of 50,000 of IBM’s tech consultants. The idea is to pile up inventories of all of their skills and then to calculate, mathematically, how best to deploy them. I’m here to find out how Takriti and his colleagues go about turning IBM’s workers into numbers. If this works, his team plans to apply these models to other companies and to automate much of what we now call management.

(Photo courtesy of RTE Entertainment)

With the onset of fall, football season is upon us, and fans everywhere have one thing in mind: Tailgating. Even if your team is an offensive disaster, even if the defense ruptures every time it faces a decent running back, even if you know it’s going to be a long season of forehead-slapping fumbles, there’s always tailgating. Sizzling hot dogs and cold beverages go a long way toward making up for that third interception of the game, so with that in mind, the Cars.com staff has put together a list of the top 10 vehicles for a tailgate party, including a video that tackles all the features you could ask for on that Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Let us know what key feature you look for when you tailgate in the comments section.

Top 10 Tailgaters (Cars.com)

The crash between a car and truck on the Sydney Harbour Bridge yesterday was a graphic demonstration of just how severe inner-city collisions can be – and how important vehicle safety is in surviving such an impact. It was also a reminder of how much damage can be done at speeds well under the freeway speed limit.

Assuming both vehicles were travelling at or near the 70km/h speed limit in place on the Bridge the closing speed of the crash would have been somewhere near 140km/h. However, contrary to what many believe, a head-on crash like this is not the same as crashing a vehicle into a fixed object. According to the laws of physics it’s actually similar to crashing one of those vehicles into a fixed object at about 70km/h.

That’s only a few kilometres an hour over the 64km/h barrier test used in NCAP testing, although the NCAP barrier is a deformable barrier, so absorbs some of the crash energy.

Further complicating the crash in question is the fact the garbage truck would have been significantly heavier than the car – it was actually a Subaru Tribeca – so the car would have fared worse (which it did).

Anyone who caught a glimpse of the car on the news would realise the 63-year-old driver was lucky to be alive, even if he was left in a critical condition in hospital.

Then you realise that the Tribeca is one of the safest cars on the road. It’s a decent sized off-roader (or SUV) and achieves a maximum five-star NCAP safety rating.

Having spoken to one of the people closest to the topic of road safety – ANCAP council member, NRMA Insurance research manager and Drive Car of the Year tester Robert McDonald – it’s fair to say the driver’s choice of vehicle would have gone a long way to saving his life.

In such a severe crash, an older vehicle, smaller vehicle, or less safe vehicle is unlikely to have provided much of a chance of survival.

It’s crashes like those that ram home the safety message and how crucial it is to consider occupant protection when buying a vehicle (be it new or used).

It’s also a reminder of how quickly a minor misjudgement or mistake (we don’t know who was at fault in this crash, but clearly something went wrong) can have such catastrophic consequences.

Toby Hagon

Rossi wins the San Marino Grand Prix.

Seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi equalled the record of 68 wins in the top MotoGP category when he won the San Marino Grand Prix last night from team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Spaniard Toni Elias.

It also stretched the Yamaha rider’s lead in the world championship standings to 75 points with just five races left.

Pole-sitter and reigning world champion Casey Stoner crashed out on lap six while leading, handing Rossi a clear run.

Stoner remains second in the world championship race but just two points ahead of Spain’s Dani Pedrosa after the Honda Repsol rider finished fourth.

The Australian had flown off the start line and built up a lead of three seconds by the end of the second lap. Pedrosa had the quickest start and went from sixth to second within the first few corners, leaving Rossi frustrated in being unable to challenge Stoner from the start.

But the little Spaniard didn’t have the pace to hold off Rossi, who was soon up to second.

When Stoner skidded off the track Rossi coasted to victory with Spaniard Lorenzo overtaking his countryman Pedrosa before the Honda rider was relegated to third among his kinsmen as Elias also sailed past.

In the 250cc race Spaniard Alvaro Bautista, a former world champion at 125cc, won over Japan’s Yuki Takahashi with compatriot Hector Barbera in third. Italian Marco Simoncelli still leads the standings.

Reigning champion Gabor Talmacsi of Hungary led an Aprilia 1-2-3 finish in the 125cc race from Britain’s Bradley Smith and Italy’s Simone Corsi.

 

- The Australian

The latest addition to Dodge’s range in Australia will be under the spotlight at the Australian International Motor Show in October.

The all-new Dodge Journey is designed to blend the practicality of a people mover, the flexibility of an SUV and the overall efficiency of a passenger car.

The Journey will arrive in Australia with a 139kW/258Nm 2.7-litre V6 petrol engine mated to a six speed automatic transmission as standard across the range.

Also on offer will be a 103kW/310Nm 2.0-litre direct-injection turbo diesel engine — which uses high-pressure fuel injection, a variable geometry turbocharger and four valves per cylinder — matched to a Chrysler-Getrag six-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission. This is the first application of this six-speed automatic transmission, which Dodge says is expected to deliver a fuel economy improvement of up to six per cent compared to a conventional automatic transmission.

Flexible seating and storage combinations include standard seven-passenger seating with spacious cargo room and all the safety equipment consumers expect from Dodge. Seven-passenger seating and spacious storage bins — hidden in the floor and under the front passenger seat cushion — are standard on all models.

The Journey’s safety list includes standard multi-stage front driver and passenger air bags, front-seat-mounted side air bags, three-row side-curtain air bags, Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) and Electronic Roll Mitigation (ERM).

Comfort and practical features include second and third row theatre seating that gives passengers – especially children – a better view. The second row also has stadium Tilt ’N Slide function, that means with the push of a single lever on the side of the seat back, the seat cushions easily fold upward and the seat slides forward. The 50/50-split-folding third-row seat provides enough room for two passengers on an as needed basis. The seatback reclines six degrees to make the ride even more comfortable. A rear in-floor hidden storage bin located behind the third-row seat is standard on all models.

Model line-up

Dodge Journey SXT - 2.7L petrol V6 and six speed automatic

Dodge Journey R/T - 2.7L petrol V6 and six speed automatic

Dodge Journey R/T - CRD 2L turbo diesel and DCT six speed automatic

 

 Click here for information on the Australian International Motor Show

 

- Carsguide