Toyota Denies Government Helped Fund Prius Development

Absolutely! There is always a bunch of bulls*** from folks who are up in arms about this "meddling" in the private sector. Actually, the private sector has reaped a lot of reward - and profit - from taxpayers

1. Big pharma companies. Universities receive a lot of taxpayer money for research into diseases, chemical modeling, etc. Then along comes a pharma, which can pick and chose, for very little cost. Most colleges and universities offer such technology transfer at no cost or very little cost

2. Computers. The taxpayer generously contributed $12 billion from 1954-1962 to fund the US Air Force SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) program. Yes, it was a vacuum tube monster, but it laid the groundwork for wide area networks, redundancy, COBOL, etc etc.

http://www.thegalleryofoldiron.com/SAGE.HTM

IBM-SAGE-computer

IBM Archives: SAGE console

The IBM link has a hint to the solid 1950's design philosophy. Hidden by the left cuff, is the built-in ashtray and cigarette lighter that every SAGE console featured

Ah, the good ole days

3. Internet. This actually started off as ARPANet, a concept of a survivable wide area network that would still work in the event of a sneak USSR attack. The first 3 nodes were UCLA, Stanford Research, and the University of Utah

The list goes on

 

Now we know why Jim Press will be the first and only non-Japanese board member. Wait until congress begins its investigation. If that happens it will be time to dump your toyota stock.

 

Toyota has sternly denied any government involvement. Remember what brought down nixon, it was the cover-up.

 

Hi Malorn!

Everyone wants to know when you are coming back to post in this thread:

http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-h...soline-could-drop-50-cents-gallon-spring.html

Its up to 31 pages now.

 

Hey, Malorn!
Welcome back.

 

Thank you.

 

I thought Al Gore said he invented the internet?

 

By then Chrysler will be dead and no one will much care. Well, maybe Malorn.

 

I fail to see the scandal here. Maybe you can enlighten me.

What would be so awful if it was discovered that the Japanese government helped Toyota and/or Panasonic by funding research into hybrids and/or battery technology?

The US Government funds research that helps US companies though the DOE , NASA and other entities. Are you ok with this?

 

Dump Toyota stocks?

Then what, buy Chrysler stock or better yet GM's ? Malorn, do you own any GM's or Chrysler stocks..

 

You aren't new on here are you? I not only own stocks, I also own dealerships. Actually I sold all Chrysler stock after the daimler purchase.

 

I've said it before and I'm sure I will say it again, you have some extremely idiotic ideas.

Why would it even matter if the Japanase government helped fund the research on the Prius? Didn't the US government give billions of dollars to the Big 3 in the Supercar program to make an 80mpg car? Wait until the Japanese government investigates that! Then it might be time to get rid of the GM dealerships. Or do it now given the March sales of GM down 13% (Toyota only down 3.4%, with overall sales down 12%). Geez Louise.

 

He certainly has a different way of thinking. I find it fascinating. It completely defies common logic. :loco:

 

Oops, fixed.

 

For that matter there is an entire government office that does nothing else, and spends ~$3B a year doing so. DARPA/ARPA pumps money into the US tech sector to make sure the US remains competitive and that key technologies are available to the defense department. They generally fund research that is considered too risky for straight commercial development. At the end of the project the DD gets to use it, and the company that developed it gets to pretty much do whatever they want with it. Having worked on a few DARPA contracts, I can definitely say they are a pretty sweet deal.

Whether Toyota did or did not receive government funding for the Prius is more or less irrelevant. As is whether or not they are telling the truth about it. Nothing stopped the US Government from giving the automakers billions to develop hybrids. The US automakers just weren't smart and or forward thinking enough to turn that huge handout into a commercial advantage. Instead they chuckled to themselves about how they conned Clinton/Gore out of a couple of $Bs of our tax money and got to continue making ever bigger/faster/heavier/thirstier vehicles. Seems to me they pretty much got what was coming to them.

Rob

 

That's right, my bad

 

Don't forget MURI, through the US Air Force. I was involved in a couple of MURI projects before moving to Canada. There are quite a few FFRDC's with ties between military and the civilian/public sector

MITRE Corporation is an example of a FFRDC that arose from military research

MITRE - About Us - MITRE History

Another example of a company that started off as a public sector/academic exercise was EG&G (Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Greer). Edgerton was a professor at MIT, he is generally credited with developing strobe light systems for high speed photography.

Germeshausen and Greer were graduate students at MIT who were recruited by Edgerton to start EG&G, way back in 1947. They have known expertise is nuclear weapons development, especially trigger assemblies for the warheads

I'm sure we'll soon find out if Toyota received Japanease taxpayer dollars to fund their hybrid research. If they did, it was a good investment. Now, what did the Big 3 do with their DOE taxpayer money??

 

DARPANet alone has more than paid for that

I have no problem with FFRDC's investing taxpayer dollars into these projects. Where I have a BIG problem is the intended recepient more or less pissing it away.

The GM Apologists always whine on and on about a sinister global conspiracy theory to explain why gasoline is so high (It's called OPEC, deal with it) or why hybrids didn't fade away into "smoke and mirrors" as Lutz predicted they would. Like this gem from way back in 2004

CURRENT EVENTS UPDATE - FALL 2004

Why GM shareholders haven't strung up Lutz and the rest of GM's Board is beyond me. If I were that incompetent in my job, I'd be homeless