We've seen plenty of tech over the years meant to mitigate our destruction of the environment -- from
greener autos to
Grateful Dead-themed cellphones -- most of which don't really ask us to tone down our consumer impulses all that much. But how about these new "Cool Cars" regulations recently adopted by the California Air Resources Board? By the year 2016, all autos sold in the state must have windows that prevent 60 percent of the sun's energy from entering the vehicle. To achieve this, windows are given a coat of glazing that contains microscopic specs of reflective metal oxide -- which will seriously hamper reception for your GPS, cellphone, and (this is of special interest to Engadget readers) white collar criminal-style work release ankle bracelet. As you can imagine, companies like Garmin are fuming -- although we suppose that if they play this right they can make a killing in the external car antenna business. It just goes to show you -- when it comes to environmental catastrophe, everyone's a victim.
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posted Oct 13th 2009 3:42AM
This is done to keep cars cooler during the summer. Therefore you will not need to use your A/C as often.
What about winter? It will be very cold outside and any sun energy would be welcomed.
Guess they'll have to add a regulation to prevent people from hanging their heads on the windows to get cell reception.
More liberal crap forced upon us. Just plain stupid. I don't know how anyone can live in that state.
You know, a lot of that "liberal crap" I'm a fan of. The problem is California lets people with no concept of the wide-reaching repercussions of poorly written laws pass them by very small measures.
Requiring a specific technology - rather than, say, a STANDARD of efficiency is how we got into the problem we have with CCFL bulbs, passenger diesel, etc.
Making a law that says "You have to use solution X" takes away all the creativity and competition that makes real solutions viable. Instead it throws a bunch of misdirected money at a promising early solution, completely destroying any hope of competition.
I agree. I don't care how anybody else lives their life. I don't care if they want to buy into certain things. Let them. It's a free country. But when my freedoms start being taken away because some politician thinks they know what's good for me, like with light bulbs for example, I have a very big problem with that. That's not what their job is.
Well there is ceramic based window tinting available...
>.>
Wow lol look @ the black guy in the picture w/ his arms folded
Also to add on to
Douglas @ Oct 13th 2009 10:04AM
"More liberal crap forced upon us. Just plain stupid. I don't know how anyone can live in that state."
Some1 said a quote about Cali and Wash D.C. but I can't find it but here how i think it goes
"As the state goes so does the nation"
So we could probably expect this to be in all States maybe