Ford Will Use Mushrooms In Car Seats In The Future

Yes, you did read that right.

Ford have been working very hard in their commitment to use more sustainable materials for the automotive industry. In a bid to make their cars especially sustainable, Ford have turned to Ecovative, an eco-friendly research company first set up in Green Island, New York City. 

Ecovative believe there are wonderful properties in mushrooms that will help to shape the future of car parts. Ford have already started building mushroom-based car parts, such as bumpers, side doors and dashboards. Apparently the mushroom ingredient makes the parts just as strong and durable as normal parts, waterproof and fireproof, and they are also earth friendly! Within one month, the parts can be be decomposed effectively. Ford have said that they want to replace around 30 pounds of petroleum-based foam per car with eco-friendly alternatives. 

Ecovative have also started work with Dell to use mushroom-based packaging for their boxes in an effort to make their company more sustainable and eco-friendly. 

Images from Ecovative

So mushrooms...turns out they are not just a tasty addition to pizza!

Car Maintenance Guide

We have found a great link on how to keep your car well maintained in seven simple steps, this will help you to keep up general maintenance of your car as well as if you are going on a long journey. It also offers tips on buying a new or used car at the very bottom of the page. We hope it helps!

Car Maintenance Guide

(from uknetguide.com)

CW and Ford team up - Ford Focus 2012 giveaway

CW viewers will have the opportunity to win a Ford Focus 2010 this month, the American Channel are helping Ford to gain brand awareness for the new vehicle by using a large portfolio of celebrity endorsers including; Michael Steeger (90210), Tika Sumpter (GOSSIP GIRL), Robert Buckley (ONE TREE HILL), Nigel Barker (AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL), Sara Rue (SHEDDING FOR THE WEDDING), Katerina Graham (THE VAMPIRE DIARIES) and Cassidy Freeman (SMALLVILLE). 

 Each celebrity will be invited into the 'show room' and shown the vehicle, each time a celebrity is seen viewers have to fill in a form online to be entered for a chance to win a Ford Focus 2012. It might mean that viewers will have to remain glued to the television to win!

Tesla Vs Top Gear

In December 2008 the BBC's Top Gear show aired a feature on Tesla's Roadster, which has developed into a law suit against the BBC show. Tesla believe that their Roadster that was tested by Top Gear over 2 years ago was maliciously judged and that a script was already prewritten before the car was even driven. They say that this in itself is a testament to the show's guilt of giving misconceptions about the cars performance and image and more or less condemning the car in advance.

BBC's Top Gear said in the show that the Tesla Roadster could only drive a range of 55 miles around their track and showed the car actually coming to a halt, apparently running out of power. Tesla argue that the reason for the car slowing was due to a fault on the car prior to shooting - something to do with the fuse to the vacuum pump failing, so a harder pump of the brakes would have helped with this.

BBC's Top Gear has been very quiet about it all, until a few days ago. Apparently an email accidently sent to the Top Gear studio has resulted in the producer of the show, Andy Wilman, to bite back via the show's official blog. He explains that the reason for his defending of the show, which he would normally keep quiet about with it being a legal matter, is because Tesla are clearly using every opportunity to make this matter as public as possible, apparently even using shows like The One Show to get the Tesla Roadster it's credibility back, whilst scorning Top Gear's name in the process.



Andy Wilman, Producer of BBC's Top Gear.
 Photograph credit. - Taken from Top Gear Blog.



Wilman explains a few points. For example, the script that was pre-written before the show is a very normal way that their show manages to get filming done in one day. Even though the Tesla Roadster was tested by Top Gear staff at the BBC prior to Jeremy Clarkson driving the car, Tesla believe that this was an unfair judgement of the car. Wilman says that he provides the directors and crew with a 'treatment' which includes stats, figures, general appearence and general performance (hence the script) and then Clarkson tends to change the script to his own feelings and opinion of the car on the actual shoot. 

The '55 mile' data came from the 'boffins' themselves that work for Tesla from California. Apparently the details and data of the Top Gear track were given to these 'boffins' and they calculated themselves that the car could comfortably do 55 miles if driven hard based on the data given from the BBC show, they were simply reiterating the information given to them.

Wilman also argues that the Top Gear track has been there since the show has started and that it has always tested Sports cars and Supercars on this track. Tesla call the car themselves "The Supercar Redefined". Considering this car costs primarily more than most petrol sports cars from which it was based and it takes a substantial amount of time to recharge, the justification of comparing this car to an actual petrol sports car does seem long winded, and these judgements can be made before even driving the car, which is what Wilman argues.

In his blog he writes about the 'broken brakes', "Well to my mind, if the brakes are broken, then they're broken, and if this happened to your car, you'd take it to a garage to get fixed". He also says that Top Gear actually had full praise of the performance and handling when the car was on the track.

You can read the full blog here.

Tesla Sues BBC's Top Gear Show

The High end electrical car manufacturer, Tesla, has revealed that they will be taking legal action against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) because of the popular Top Gear television programme’s misinterpretation of their vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, which was tested on the show back in 2008.

The Tesla Roadster

Top Gear showcased the Tesla Roadster in a race in which the car came to a stunning halt half way through, apparently ‘running out of energy’. Oh dear. Tesla believe that the car was misrepresented on the show and said that the episode in which it was tested contained lies and misinformation about the car’s performance, behaviour and reliability.

Tesla argues that the BBC staged breakdowns of the Roadster and that Top Gear misinterpreted the car’s range at 55 miles when its official average test cycle figure is 211 miles.

Tesla is looking to collect around £100,000 in damages, citing the BBC's failure to correct the faulty results. Legal action was recommended for the car manufacturing company last week after a DVD was released and the programme began airing on global repeats.

We found a statement on Tesla’s website explaining the reason for them suing the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood:

 'Tesla reluctantly took legal action after its repeated attempts to contact the BBC, over the course of months, were ignored.

'The breakdowns were staged and the statements are untrue. Yet the programme’s lies are repeatedly and consistently re-broadcast to hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide on BBC television and websites, and on other TV channels via syndication; the show is available on the internet, and is for sale on Top Gear DVDs around the world.

'Tesla wants people to know the truth, and correct the public’s misperceptions. The Roadster and its EV technology, as well as EVs in general, have been unfairly and viciously maligned by Top Gear.

'Tesla simply wants Top Gear to stop rebroadcasting this malicious episode and to correct the record, but they’ve repeatedly ignored Tesla’s requests.'

The manufacturer’s communications boss, Ricardo Reyes, says that the company has been left having to explain the misconceptions of electric cars that it has generated as a result. He says that because of the show’s ‘buffoonery’, the test was mistaken as truth from the general public and that the script for Top Gear for the Tesla Roadster segment had been written before the cars were even driven.

The BBC News website report of the legal action has a statement from a spokesman who said: ‘We can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla had issued proceedings against the BBC. The BBC stands by the programme and will be vigorously defending this claim’.