Techdirt. Stories filed under "f1" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "f1"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 20 May 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: High Performance Vehicles Without Internal Combustion Engines Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110217/22243813160/dailydirt-high-performance-vehicles-without-internal-combustion-engines.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110217/22243813160/dailydirt-high-performance-vehicles-without-internal-combustion-engines.shtml
  • The European Union is talking about starting a Formula One racing event for electric vehicles. It could begin in 2013 if everything runs smoothly. [url]
  • Peugeot set a production electric car record at the Nürburgring track -- finishing a lap in about 9 minutes. Too bad that translates to a somewhat unimpressive average speed of 86 mph, though... [url]
  • All-electric cars usually suffer from limited range (compared to hydrocarbon-burning vehicles), but putting motors in the wheels eliminates drivetrains and other components -- which could produce electric cars with more practical recharging requirements. The Japanese SIM-LEI vehicle uses the same batteries from Toyota and gets a 200 mile range, which might help to end "range anxiety" for EV drivers. [url]
  • The National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) promotes all kinds of electric vehicle performance competitions. Instant torque is a nice feature for electric motors, apparently. [url]
  • To discover more interesting car-related content, check out what's driving around StumbleUpon. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110217/22243813160     Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:20:09 PST F1 Racing Looks To Embrace The Internet, Rather Than Fight It Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091209/1055057267.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091209/1055057267.shtml gone on the attack against online video, even as it refuses to offer many customers any other way to watch the matches. It looks like Formula 1 racing is taking a very different approach. Paul Rodriguez alerts us to an article about how Formula 1 is looking to really embrace the internet and avoid the mistakes that others have made in the past. At first, I was a bit nervous, because the article mentions that Formula 1 wants to "follow the example of the music industry..." in embracing the internet (it's news to me that the music industry has actually embraced the internet), but further down in the article, it does appear that they realize what's really happening:
    "It doesn't make sense to try to charge people for something that they will figure out how to get for free. F1 will be available on the internet and you need to be prepared for that. The challenge is not in deciding what you give away for free but in deciding what sort of value you're going to provide on top of that -- elements that people are actually willing to pay for."
    Bingo. It's exactly what we've been saying about so many industries, but too many of them focus on the core content and assume it must be sold. Instead, Formula 1 seems to realize that the core content is going to be free, so you need to focus on providing additional scarce value on top of that which is worth paying for.

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