The TechMobility Podcast
Welcome to The TechMobility Podcast, your ultimate source for authentic insights, news, and perspectives at the nexus of mobility and technology. We're all about REAL FACTS, REAL OPINIONS, and REAL TALK! From personal privacy to space hotels, if it moves or moves you, we're discussing it! Our weekly episodes venture beyond the conventional, offering a unique, unfiltered take on the topics that matter. We're not afraid to color outside the lines, and we believe you'll appreciate our bold approach!
The TechMobility Podcast
EV Advances, AI Guardrails' Ethical Impact, Subaru Tops in Consumer Reports Rankings, and EV Fire Blankets
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Uncover the future landscape of electric vehicles and the transformative technologies driving the industry forward. Promise yourself a deep insight into how automakers like Mercedes and Chevrolet are leading the charge in extending EV range and slashing costs by shifting away from reliance on cobalt and lithium. Explore Toyota's groundbreaking strides toward solid-state batteries with the potential to revolutionize travel with up to 1,000-mile ranges by the decade's end. Anticipate the exciting possibility of a robust charging infrastructure within the next five years, making EVs more practical and accessible than ever before.
Imagine a world where AI aligns seamlessly with organizational values, thanks to robust guardrails. The parallels between the rapid evolution of broadband internet and current advancements in battery technology serve as a reminder of the swift pace of innovation. Learn about the critical role of AI guardrails in maintaining ethical standards as AI technologies proliferate. Discover how these frameworks help organizations integrate AI without compromising their core principles, ensuring that technological progress enhances rather than erodes integrity.
The episode also delves into the evolving safety measures within the EV industry, highlighting innovative solutions like Bridge Hill's fire blankets, which offer a proactive approach to vehicle fires without water. With the shift towards solid-state batteries reducing fire risks, these blankets become an invaluable safety tool in high-risk areas. Celebrate Subaru's triumph in Consumer Reports' annual brand report card, a testament to its unwavering quality and reliability. Tune in to the Tech Mobility Podcast, available on platforms like Apple Podcasts and iHeart Radio, to stay informed about the ever-evolving sectors of tech and mobility.
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Welcome to the Tech Mobility Podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Ken Chester. There's been a lot of talk and I've taken a lot of heat for talking about EVs and I'm going to still kind of talk about them, because whether you accept them, whether you'll never own one, whether you're driving one now, whether you're driving a hybrid, doesn't matter Because of the long lead times in the auto industry and I'm talking years and many billions of dollars. This is not an industry that can turn on a dime or respond to a whim of regulatory roulette. They're going to lock their plans in and they're usually locking plans in for 5, 10, 15 years and they're committing billions of dollars to do it Now. I say that because I've been telling you for the last couple of years once traditional automakers start scaling up the manufacturing of EVs, I told you what was going to happen. I told you the price of EVs would eventually come down. The price of batteries would come down as the automakers seek to move away from rare earth metals like cobalt, also move away from lithium and try to get more stable, lower cost, more consistency, and all of that's happening. We covered that here. What I want to talk about is the next phase, because we've spent a lot of time talking about charging stations, as you know, having more charging stations to deal with range anxiety.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, what is the most important thing is how far can I go between charges. Let me give you a slightly different perspective on looking at that. Typically, you look at that as, okay, I'm driving all week, every week. How far can I go if I'm going to take a trip, if I'm going across town, if I need my vehicle for work where I'm driving a lot of mileage In the upper Midwest? The way we look at it, it's a little bit different. What we're looking at, particularly if you don't own a home, don't have a garage and don't have the ability to charge an EV at home, but you want to own one. There's this build-out right now of EV chargers and we're probably, honestly, five years away from it being where it needs to be. It's not there. It is not there right now for a variety of reasons between and all of this we've talked about. We've talked about reliability, location, timing, cost. All of that cost all of that.
Speaker 2:Automakers are expanding the range through more efficient EV batteries and more efficient EV motors. Case in point this is from Hagerty Media New Mercedes CLA to lead the charge with 400 mile range and 10 minute top-ups. I told you a long time ago that the standard is going to be between 450, 500 miles and I told you the threshold for me personally was 450 miles because all the reasons driving extreme weather, both extreme heat, extreme cold, load all these things degrade how many miles you get, just like in your gasoline vehicle when it's really cold or really hot. You're not going to get EPA numbers. You're not and you don't. If you've got a truck, and even if it's a diesel truck and you're carrying a very heavy load, you're going to get less range. Those are facts, even with fossil fuel vehicles.
Speaker 2:What's happening here is Mercedes is dealing with two issues that we just talked about One range, two time to recharge. If I've got a 400 mile range and even if I'm doing 50 miles a day round trip, because they say the average trip for a consumer is less than 25 miles, one way to work. So let's say we're doing average, we're doing 50 miles a day. Okay, time seven, that's 350 miles. So even if you knock off 50 just for it, it 400 mile range means I only have to charge this once a week and if I can get it charged in 10 minutes. That rivals what it takes to fill up my my gasoline powered vehicle right now. It takes about 10 minutes from the time you pull up, verify your card, put the thing, put the nozzle in the tank, start running, stop it, put it back, seal it, get in the vehicle 10 minutes, 15. If I take my time, if I run in to get something from the convenience store, the Chevy Silverado EV, that pickup truck is in the marketplace right now and the work truck has a range right now, epa certified range, not what the manufacturer is saying, what the EPA certified as. And they're saying that that particular version of that EV truck gets 450 miles right now. Right now We've also reported here about oh, I'd say maybe six, eight months ago we talked about Toyota's activities.
Speaker 2:We talked about by the middle of the decade guess what folks we're. In the middle of the decade Toyota would have a solid-state EV battery pack capable of more than 600 miles of range. And Toyota, who does not do anything on the edges, they're very conservative said that by the end of the decade they would have a solid-state battery with a range of 1,000 miles, not kilometers, miles, 1,000 miles, even your best gasoline or diesel pickup truck with dual tanks. Most you're going to get, I've seen, is 600 miles. You've got a vehicle with a 1,000 mile range range and it has the ability, one, to be charged, to use a fast charger. Two, the automakers have made changes so that you can use the Tesla supercharger network, which has a higher uptime and better availability than what they're building out right now, which means if you use the Tesla network with a vehicle that has a thousand mile range, you can come in and in 15, 20 minutes most be tanked up ready to go a week, week and a half and if you don't drive that much, maybe upwards of a month.
Speaker 2:A thousand miles. A thousand mile range used to be what Americans did on average per month Used to be when they were figuring leases. Back in the day they figured average mileage was 12,000 miles a year. Can you imagine, if you're doing the old average of a thousand miles a month, realizing that with a vehicle like what Toyota is in the process will have by the end of the decade, you might only have to charge your vehicle once a month? Let that sink in Once a month and with the technology being what it is for, fast charging might only take 15, 20 minutes Tops.
Speaker 2:This is where we're going the new Mercedes CLA, which is a small Mercedes, 400 miles and I honestly believe that that's the starting point. I honestly believe that 500 miles will be the standard by the end of the decade. I really do standard before by the end of the decade, I really do now. Mercedes most compact, ev, launched this year, will be able to cover 466 miles on a full charge. That's the european measure. That's the equivalent to 399 miles in the epa scale. The smallest vehicle, 400 miles, which beats just about everything in the marketplace, save for three vehicles I know which are EPA rated the Tesla, the Lucid Air and the Chevy Silverado EV. So it's up there and, honestly, ram is talking about a truck that will be up there in the 500-mile range, 600-mile range, and I honestly believe, as they continue to develop this technology, that more and more automakers will be there.
Speaker 2:Think of it like back in the day of broadband. You remember dial-up, when you're trying to get to the Internet, how slow it was, and then now how fast it is. I mean they talk about latency times in nanoseconds, which is the time it takes to connect to the network. Nanoseconds. If technology for broadband, for internet, could evolve like that over the years. Battery technology, which has picked up speed in the last five to six years, will continue to accelerate and may even exceed a thousand miles by the end of the decade. Accelerate and may even exceed 1,000 miles by the end of the decade. Can you imagine All this anxiety stuff will be things of the past, just like dial-up is, for the most part, a thing of the past for most Americans. You know when you dialed up you went, got lunch, come back and then you heard you've got mail after about 10 minutes. Imagine you wouldn't tolerate that. Now, with all this attention to AI over the last few years, where's the guidance? We talk AI guardrails. Next you are listening to the Tech Mobility.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the main place to be these days, and we are no exception. I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Facebook videos, from my latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary of a variety of mobility and technology-related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you. Be sure to watch, like and follow us on Facebook. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to our Facebook page. Social media is the place to be these days. We're no exception. I'm ken chester, the tech mobility show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly instagram videos, from the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you be sure to watch, like and follow us on Instagram. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar.
Speaker 2:For those of you that listen to podcasts, we have just the one for you. Hi, I'm Ken Chester. Tech Mobility Topics is a podcast where I upload topic-specific videos each week, shorter than a full show. These bite-sized programs are just the thing, particularly if you're interested in a particular topic covered on the weekly radio show, from Apple Podcasts to iHeartRadio and many podcast platforms in between. We got you covered. Just enter Tech Mobility Topics in the search bar, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 5:Are you looking for outstanding value? We'll be right back. The Oldsmobile 88 has been a best buy five years running. Know how many other full-size cars can say that? Nobody, nobody, nobody. Kind of makes buying a car simpler, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:It's your money, the Oldsmobile 88. That was from 1996. That car was amazing. I remember reviewing the car and I can tell you this GM had a motor in production for years. It was the 3800 V6, series 2 and Series 3. That engine was so good. When I wrote car reviews back then I said if you find the engine in the car by the vehicle around it, the engine was amazing For the vehicle weights. Back in the 90s that engine delivered and I'm talking midsize and full-size cars, these were not little cars and it would deliver 30 miles to the gallon on the highway. This is almost 30 years ago. And yes, that was the EPA rating and yes, those cars did get that. Their city rating wasn't so good, it was 20, but most folks did better than 20 in the city and just about 30 in the highway. I mean it was an excellent car. It was just very good all the way around. Engine, the four-speed automatic, it was great. It was great, it was all of that. And yes, it won the awards and it was one of those times where the hype actually equaled the car and the car equaled the hype. It was that good. I miss the car. Oh well, artificial intelligence Seems that lately.
Speaker 2:When it comes to AI, it's the Wild West out there. The good news is that there is a framework to keep AI and its development from getting out of hand. This is topic A. I won't get into the guidelines that were developed and passed and actually codified into law in Europe. What I'm talking about is a McKinsey Company white paper that talks about what AI guardrails are as it applies to an organization, and we're going to get into a little bit into the weeds. I won't have time to cover everything. This thing is very, very rich and it's worth reading. If you can go to McKinsey and Company type in what are AI guardrails Guarantee, it's worth the read. We're going to just kind of give you the highlights, so we'll start by the obvious what are AI guardrails?
Speaker 2:Ai guardrails help ensure that an organization's AI tools and their application in the business reflect the organization's standards, policies and values. In other words, if you're an ethical company and you want to make sure your use of AI is ethical and on brand, then you're going to want to adopt these systems and procedures in the way that you approach the use of AI. Where people have gotten into problems is they didn't follow this, and we'll get into a little bit of that in a minute. With the advent of generative AI, the concept of guardrails also applies to systems designed to ensure that the company's AI tools, especially large language models, otherwise known as LLMs, work in alignment with organizational standards, policies and values. And in case you're not sure or don't remember what an LLM is, this is the big, hairy ugly volume of tremendous data that is used to train the AI model. They feed this data into a computer using AI, and the AI develops and looks for trends and patterns and acts on that based on the guidelines programmed into it. It responds based on what it's told, how it learns.
Speaker 2:There's a whole lot of things going on. While Gen AI can improve a company's efficiency, innovation and competitive advantage, it can also introduce challenges and risks. Guardrails are critical to the responsible use of AI. Guardrails can identify and remove inaccurate content that's generated by LLMs, as well as monitor and filter out risky prompts. The companies that got their hands slapped and I'm talking about you, gannett they did not have it set up to where their guardrails would catch the inaccuracies that they allowed to go out and, in the end, there was no human curation of it. So, as a result, everything that they did. It went out wrong because it was nobody looking over the shoulder of this stuff. And then it messes up and this goes on to say such risky content can include security vulnerabilities, hallucinations, toxic or inappropriate contacts and misinformation.
Speaker 2:And I think I shared with you a while back where I asked AI. I asked an AI model to tell me about some previous companies that I ran, tell me the history. It gave me a beautiful history of the first company I founded, how it was founded, what it was doing, what the owners were doing and what it was doing now. Only one problem it was 100% wrong. 100% wrong. So you need something to basically keep it in the guardrail. So it doesn't do that.
Speaker 2:Now, these AI guardrails don't guarantee that AI systems will be completely safe, fair, compliant and ethical, but the guardrails, along with other procedural controls, ai trust frameworks, monitoring, compliance, software testing and evaluation practices, as well as a proper AI operations technology stack a set of procedures followed by operations to make sure that the AI that's used it's used ethically, responsibly and accurately scales the governance of AI across an organization, it's not just the IT department. Let me give you some highlights of what the benefits are of AI guardrails. One privacy and security. Ai systems are susceptible to hacks from malicious actors who exploit vulnerabilities to manipulate AI-generated outcomes. Guardrails can shore up AI systems against such attacks, helping to protect an organization and its customers. Two regulatory compliance. Don't even need to say anymore, but basically make sure that the organization need to make sure that the AI systems comply with existing and emerging laws and standards. Three and this is a big one trust. Maintaining trust with customers and the broader public is paramount for organizations.
Speaker 2:Guardrails enable continuous monitoring and review of AI-generated outputs, which can reduce the risk of errant content being released outside of the company. There are even different types and I'm just going to read them. I'm not going to even define them right now. Guardrails are grouped according to their purpose and types of risks. They address Appropriateness, hallucination, regulatory compliance, alignment, and I am going to expand on this last one. It's called validation.
Speaker 2:Validation guardrails check that the generated content meets specific criteria, that is, the content contains or does not contain certain information. If a piece of generated content is flagged by a validation guardrail, the content can be funneled into a correction loop to fix the error. Validation should be the last in a series of tasks that guardrails perform. Here's the most important part in this validation. It's something Gannett didn't do. After that, a human validator should review flag or ambiguous cases that require human reasoning. In other words, you don't send AI off by itself, on its own, without looking over its shoulder to make sure what it's doing is what you want it to do. I don't have the time to get into how guardrails work. I might save that for another time because there are specific functions within it and then there are specific guardrail systems that are available for an organization to use. So I'll make a promise, since I can't get to it and we're almost coming up to the end of the segment, I will do another segment to pick up these pieces that we didn't pick up right now, because you need to know. It's that important. The results are in from Consumer Reports and the answer is Subaru.
Speaker 2:This is the Tech Mobility Show. Do you listen to podcasts? Seems that most people do. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. If you missed any of our weekly episodes on the radio, our podcast is a great way to listen. You can find the Tech Mobility Podcast just about anywhere.
Speaker 2:You can enjoy podcasts. Be sure to follow us from Apple Podcasts, iheart Radio and many platforms in between. We are there. Just enter the Tech Mobility Podcast in the search bar. Wherever you listen to podcasts, social media, it's the place to be. We're no exception. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. Several times a week, I post to TikTok several of the topics that I cover on my weekly radio show. It's another way to keep up on mobility technology news and information. Several times a week, I post to TikTok several of the topics that I cover on my weekly radio show. It's another way to keep up on mobility technology news and information. I've built quite a library of short videos for your viewing pleasure, so be sure to watch, like and subscribe. That's the Tech. Mobility Show on TikTok. Check it out.
Speaker 2:The company had commercials about 30 years ago that said inexpensive and built to stay that way. It was more than a tagline. For the second time in four years, subaru has finished at the top of Consumer Reports' annual brand report card as the best brand. Finished at the top of Consumer Reports annual brand report card as the best brand For 2025,. Cr adds tops and reliability to Subaru's crown. Are you curious how your brand did? This is topic B. Subaru beat out Lexus and Toyota Not by much, but beat them out for the most reliable, highest quality vehicles built right now. So how did they get there? What's going on? First of all, their reliability report card measures factors which include vehicle performance, safety and reliability, and when it comes to that, what Consumer Reports is saying is those companies with a long-term strategy, in other words, your systems. You don't do a lot of changes to what you make, and in the auto industry, it's called product smoothing. What that means is that you get to a level of production where you're building enough of them over and over and over, where you actually get good at it, meaning that every single job you build gets close and close to perfection.
Speaker 2:Japanese automakers had something that was really big in the 1980s, which is still going on in their plants. It's called Kaizen and what that is. What that means is continuous improvement. It's not big. It's not the big home run that somebody came up with the big idea. It's a lot of little things that they do every day, every week, every month, every year to get better and better. Here's a fun fact Did you know that, even as far away as the 1990s, that a vehicle rated average in the Consumer Reports rating would have to improve 10% a year just to keep the same rating from year to year? And that was almost 30 years ago, with all the technology in our vehicles today.
Speaker 2:Where automakers are getting dinged and why they slipped in their rankings in consumer reports primarily is because they've introduced new vehicles. They've introduced EVs, they've introduced hybrids. Anytime you introduce something radically new. And remember and I've said this, the EV supply chain is unlike anything the manufacturers have ever done. It's brand spanking new. They've had over a hundred years to perfect building vehicles, internal combustion vehicles and everything that goes in them. Building an EV is inherently different because there's so many fewer parts needed and so many opportunities to automate on the one hand, but that takes lines and lines of code, and if there's a bug in the code, you've got a problem. If you've got a supplier problem, it's more magnified because there are fewer suppliers now in what you're building. So that's what's happening.
Speaker 2:They came out with their 2025 report card two months earlier than usual and it's part of an updated data set released by Consumer Reports that packages all of its automotive rankings in what spot? And this was issued on December 5th. What they're saying? Jake Fisher, consumer Reports Senior Director of Auto Testing, in an interview said that automakers following a more long-term strategy that isn't reworked every few years tend to perform better. The more you change, the more errors can crop up. Fisher told Automotive News, when you look at an automaker like Toyota or Subaru, which really stays the course, makes incremental changes and already has good competitive products, they're really poised to do quite well.
Speaker 2:Other automakers swing quite widely. There's a new platform, new powertrains, and that's where you end up having reliability problems. For example, bmw, which topped the brand report card last year and the year before, missed out on being number one by one point. So who made up the top 10? And I want to tell you the difference between Subaru and the last one in the top 10, and I'm going to get this here is only seven points. No, I'm sorry, eight points. It's a scale of one to 100. The difference between Subaru and number 10 is separated by eight points. Bear that in mind, so let me read you points. Bear that in mind, so let me read you Subaru, lexus, porsche, honda, audi, kia, hyundai, toyota, infiniti, and I mentioned BMW. Those are your top 10.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was wondering when you're going to ask me that, and you said, hey, where are the American makes? Well, they're not in the top 10, unfortunately. And you're not going to believe this, and I'm going to explain myself. The best any of the domestics did was 16th place, and you'll never believe who it is it's Chrysler. They jumped eight spots to 16th, which is the best among the Detroit. Three Other domestic brands did worse when compared to last year. Let's talk about why that is One.
Speaker 2:Chrysler's been building its minivan for now 11 years the Chrysler Pacifica, with few changes. They've tweaked it, but revolutionary change, uh-uh, mm-mm. Because they've been building it for so long, quality couldn't do nothing but go up. Now you're probably wondering well, okay, chrysler, how is? Dodge, ram and Jeep do Worse.
Speaker 2:And here's a mind blower for you. They looked at 32 brands. We talked about Subaru, we talked about the top 10. Let me read you the bottom five Dodge, gmc, land Rover, rivian and number 32, jeep, and I've told you about that. I told you you can't go to war with everybody and think equality is going to be there.
Speaker 2:Jeep's problem their product line is evolving. They're bringing out a lot of new products and until they get it settled it's a lot of problems. Ford missed out simply because of the Ford F-150 Lightning and the problems they had with that. I can make the same case. Gmc probably Hummer and the new Sierra EV. Chevy missed out because of the Equinox EV. So, as they're introducing, it's not so much that it's the EV itself as the whole new supply chain and everything what Consumer Reports did say.
Speaker 2:However, relative to that and I want to go a little further, because I saw two numbers which kind of blew my mind they said that plug-in okay, the outlet found that conventional hybrids which do not plug in and recharge and run on both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor are the most reliable type of electrified vehicle and it also happens to be the most popular right now Plug-in hybrids have 70% more problems than average, while EVs have 42% more. Still, both figures are roughly half what they were in the outlet survey last year. There's still problems, but the gap is closing, which is typical of Detroit. I will also mention, because you're going to ask me, tesla and Lucid are not on this list, so it's hard to say how they would rank. They are not on this list. No, I'm sorry, I take that back. Tesla is Lucid isn't. Tesla is number 17. And against Subaru, it's only half the score Out of 100, it's 36. Subaru at the top of the score is 79. Food for thought what is the quickest, safest way to extinguish an EV battery fire? Well, with a fire blanket. Of course.
Speaker 2:We are the Tech Mobility Show. To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country. Keep up with the happenings of the Tech Mobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. That's techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobility dot show. Did you know that TechMobility has a YouTube channel? Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the TechMobility show. Each week I upload a few short videos of some of the hot topics that I cover during my weekly radio program. I've designed these videos to be informative and entertaining. It's another way to keep up on current mobility and technology news and information. Be sure to watch, like and subscribe to my channel. That's the Tech Mobility Show on YouTube. Check it out.
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Speaker 2:Social media is the place to be these days, and we're no exception. I'm Ken Chester of the Tech Mobility Show. If you enjoy my program, then you will also enjoy my weekly Instagram videos From the latest vehicle reviews to timely commentary on a variety of mobility and technology-related topics. These short features are designed to inform and delight you. Be sure to watch, like and follow us on Instagram. You can find us by typing the Tech Mobility Show in the search bar.
Speaker 2:So you own an electric vehicle, any unthinkable happens. It catches fire. What do you do? Do you call 9-1-1 and hope for the best while it burns, or do you break out your bridge hill fire blanket and put the fire out before they even arrive? This is topic c. I'm as surprised as you are. I stumbled across this. In fact, I don't even know or remember how I stumbled across it, but there's such a thing as a fire blanket, and the fire blanket does some incredible stuff. It is strong enough to put out an EV fire. For those folks that don't realize how serious it is when lithium catches fire, it is very, very hard to put out. Now I'm going to also tell you that studies show that EVs don't catch fire anymore, at a higher rate or more often than an internal combustion engine. And in fact, if you want to go there, maybe about 15, 20 years ago there was a spate of fires where BMWs were catching fire in people's garages for no reason, just catching fire and burning the garage down. In one case took the house. So this happens. In fact, years ago, and I want to say maybe close to 30 years ago, such a vehicle caught fire in our church parking lot. At the end of the lot Caught fire, gasoline version engine car caught fire. So that happens.
Speaker 2:But as we are moving, whether you like it or not, to a world with more and more EVs, because of the sheer numbers of things and I would imagine, probably as they get older, the risk of an EV fire is still there. Is it a high risk? Not really, but it's a thing. Let me give you some significant benefits, because this company actually is in England and they have different kinds of fire blankets set up to extinguish different kinds of fires, which also includes a fossil fuel vehicle, a gasoline engine vehicle catching fire. They got a blanket for that. That'll put it out. Here's the advantage. No water usage that'll put it out. Here's the advantage. No water usage, immediate fire isolation, minimal smoke and disruption and, if it happens on the side of the road, protection for road infrastructure from fire damage. Because these thermal runaways which is what happens when you have a short in the EV battery and it catches fire it's extremely hard to extinguish and while first responders are still now getting their hands around their minds around how to deal with these things, I wouldn't be surprised if this catches on stateside, because it's a brilliant idea and I'm like, yeah, duh, why don't we have these everywhere? Because it makes totally sense, total sense, particularly in those situations which are close, where it catches fire in a parking garage or a corporate lot or your garage. Save your garage, be able to break out your blanket, smother it. It's done, it's out, not ours, it's out. Why? Because it takes away the very thing it needs Needs oxygen to breathe. There's no oxygen, it can't burn, it's just crazy.
Speaker 2:Bridge Hill is recognized for producing fire blankets specifically designed to tackle the unique challenges of electric vehicle fires. Our original carb fire blanket is the most efficient solution to control and isolate car fires, including those involving electric vehicles. And then they go on. Common sense Car fires are inherently dangerous and emit toxic fumes. In high-risk locations like gas stations, and inherently dangerous and emit toxic fumes. In high-risk locations like gas stations, tunnels, car parks or even like passenger ferries, a car fire can quickly become a disaster. This car fire blanket allows someone to contain the flames, smoke and toxic fumes in seconds, offering an effective solution for managing fires and electric vehicles.
Speaker 2:Now, full disclosure. I do not work for Bridge Hill and they're not paying me, but I think this is so fascinating that I wanted to share it, because, okay, I mean truth. Yes, evs catch fire Not often, but they do, and I would say probably older ones, because part of the problem is, all these batteries are managed by what they call a battery management system. The BMS is designed to monitor what they call state of health of the battery. If there's problems going on, maybe have some remedial situations that it can do within certain parameters, but if that fails and either a cell goes undetected, goes runaway, gets overcharged or a problem, then you're going to have a fire.
Speaker 2:With the move, though, to solid-state batteries they get rid of. Solid-state means no lithium slurry, and it's that slurry that's so dangerous. With solid state, there's no liquid. That's why they call it solid state, and also, a solid state EV battery virtually eliminates any kind of fire risk. And while they've tested in fact the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has tested EVs to try to make them catch fire in accident scenarios that they would tested. In fact, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has tested EVs to try to make them catch fire in accident scenarios that they would do, and in fact one testing facility even drilled through one trying to get it to catch fire.
Speaker 2:I guess what I'm telling you is that, for the most part, the way that these are engineered are safe. What might happen is if the battery gets compromised over time say, get exposed to salt water over a period of time, like in a flood near the coast or something, or is owned by somebody on the coast. So years and years and years of being exposed to salt air maybe compromises it, but new batteries coming out of the plant, nah, I'm not saying it will never happen. All I'm saying is that it's rare, just like the gasoline-filled vehicle you're driving right now could catch fire. But how often does that happen? It's very rare. Same thing here. I just think that the car blanket. I would have never thought about it. I would have never thought about something like this. That is that simple? Now, I don't know what these are made of, but I know they're heavy, probably take two people to use, but makes sense. Let me give an example. They talk about their newest ones CarPro X and CarStandard fire blankets features a bold red center stripe for easier and quicker deployment, along with red and yellow handles, clear red markings on both sides, ready to meet newly released specifications. I guess that they have in Europe for this stuff, so they already have standards for something like this and it already meets the standards. Now this would help. This would help. This would help. This next product they got would help.
Speaker 2:In California it's called a heat block fire sale. It blocks 96% of the radiant heat from any fire. Simply attach it to a building vault or other property or hang it from a wire to create a fireproof wall. Imagine if folks in California had some of these to mitigate the terrible thing that they've had to go through. They have them for forklifts too, in a factory. They've got them for what they call extreme fire for like e-scooters and e-bikes, and then lithium fire blankets, specifically. All kinds of stuff. They have different types for different situations. All kinds of stuff. They have different types for different situations and to put them all in a fire blanket cabinet that you can wheel to wherever the problem is. I just wanted to share because I thought this was so incredibly neat and if I ever owned an EV, you betcha, I would have one of these. We've come to the end of our program. Be sure to join me here next time. This has been the Tech Mobility Show.
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