Despite assurances to Americans about oversight on the bailout funds as they are affectionately known, this has not been the reality on the ground. With the auto industry in dire straits and looking like it will also receive some form of government assistance in the form of loans, a group of 10 Engineers from Dupont have come up with a suggestion which includes transparency, monthly reporting and may just be the best way to get these companies back on track. A Manhattan project for Detroit.
The CEO of DuPont said Tuesday that the Detroit automakers, leading U.S. technology companies and others should come together to create a new kind of car.
It would involve the best scientists and engineers from the Detroit auto companies as well as Microsoft, Intel, Google, Boeing and DuPont. The U.S. government and leading research universities such as the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology would also be included.
http://www.freep.com/...
Although this proposal actually involves the sale of $5B in public bonds, there is no reason why some of the public loan money could not be indexed towards making this a reality.
By collectively engaging all three big auto makers and teaming them up with some of America's brightest scientists and engineers from the IT, chemical, aerospace fields, the mind boggles as to what developments could come out of an association and common goal like this.
that American automakers ought to form an research-and-development collective — a "Manhattan Project" of sorts, he says — to conceive and develop the very best concepts toward creating clean, efficient automotive technology. That body, Mr. Klein says, would then share and distribute this knowledge base and innovations, among all automakers.
Great idea - a motor city/Detroit project.
Particularly if it includes a level of public accountability.
Unlike the Manhattan Project, which produced the atomic bomb, this initiative would be very public, with monthly updates to the public.
More here
http://earth2tech.com/...