Released on = February 15, 2007, 12:56 pm

Press Release Author = JPods LLC

Industry = -- Choose an Industry --

Press Release Summary = Solar powered, computer transportation networks to automate
highly repetitive travel.

Press Release Body = Burnsville, MN. JPods, a Minnesota company completes a cross
North America tour to educate companies, campuses and cities how they can build
solar powered transportation networks.

\"I\'d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we
don\'t have to wait \'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that.\" -- Thomas
Edison (1847-1931)

Walking barefoot on sun-baked asphalt, you quickly get an idea sunshine is a potent
and widespread energy source. Harnessing this power to make oil independent
transportation requires three actions:
Convert the distributed nature of transportation network into solar collectors.
Drive Parasitic Mass towards zero. Current transportation, where we pay for moving
ton to move a person, is too wasteful to take advantage of solar power.
Deregulate transportation so it is open to innovation. Current regulations mandate
delays, more highways, more oil dependence and other restrictions beyond the ability
of most innovators to navigate.
Convert Transportation Networks into Solar Power Collectors
In the North American Solar Challenge cars travel 2,500-mile/4,000 kilometer (from
Austin, Texas to Calgary, Alberta, Canada) averaging speeds of 46.2 mph; powered by
2 m x 6 m solar panels.



JPods designed its technology to make practical the success of solar cars. JPod, the
vehicle, weight is reduced, room made for up to 4 people. Rails with near perfect
rolling surfaces and roller coaster mechanics reduce add stability and safety.
Computer networks and controls add safety, flexibility make operating the vehicle
independent of the ability of the pilot. Solar collectors are mounted on the rail
to reduce vehicle weight and harvest sunshine over a very large area.
Electricity converted from sunshine exceeds that drawn from the grid. Here is the math:
Fully loaded JPods use 6 kW at 50 kmh (30 mph).
Typically travel 2 seconds apart (26.8 meters, 88 feet,).
Adding solar collectors 2 meters wide (6.56 feet)
Makes 7.5 kW under full sun (26.8 x 2 x 0.14 kw/sq meter; 88 x 6.56 x 13 w/sq ft).
Drive Parasitic Mass towards Zero
Parasitic Mass is the mass we pay to move that is not cargo or passengers.
Currently we are creating congestion and consuming energy moving a ton to move a
person. We need to strive towards moving only the person.

Further, the number of stop-starts, instances of consuming electric power to build
kinetic energy, needs to be driven towards one. \"Beam me up Scotty\" would be
perfect use of energy. You move only what you want to move and move it from origin
to destination in a single action. We do not have the physics for this but the idea
is right. A metric for it is PEC, Parasitic Energy Consumption.


PEC is the moving mass divided by the mass you wish to move, multiplied by the
number of stop-starts (applications of kinetic energy):
\"Beam me up\" scores a perfect 1, move only what you want from origin to destination.
JPods have a PEC of 3.25, a 450 lb vehicle moves a 200 lb person from point of
origin to point of destination only stopping at the destination.
Cars in a typical commute have a PEC of 275, 1 ton of vehicle moving a 200 lb person
with 25 stop-starts.
Light Rail has a PEC of 310, 3 tons of vehicle per 200 lb passenger with 10
stop-starts.
JPods are ultra-light computer controlled vehicles suspended from rails that move
people and cargo non-stop from origin to destination. JPods implement the simple
physics that it costs less to move less.

Cross Continent Education Tour
The Wright Brothers, inventors of the airplane, like most innovators work in small
companies with limited cash and few lobbying skills. To help educate cities and
business campuses that energy neutral transportation is practical, a demonstration
JPod was packed into a trailer and taken on a cross continent tour; starting in
Minneapolis, to Ottawa, Canada the tour ended in Santa Cruz, California.


Ottawa, Canada. In front of Parliament is Candidate for Mayor Peter Anweiler. Santa
Cruz, CA. Pauline James sitting in a JPod at the beach.

JPods President Bill James underscores the serious need to grant right of ways to
build innovative and energy neutral transportation networks, \"Climate Change and
Peak Oil consequences are going to impact before we can re-tool to be independent of
oil. The crisis may be as far away as 26 years. It could happen tomorrow. Most
likely, it will crash on us in 3 to 6 years. Action this morning will mitigate some
consequences; action this afternoon will mitigate fewer consequences. The Internet
as take 37 years to reach its current level of access; re-tooling sustainable
transportation will likely take 50 years.\"

James continued, \"We seem locked in regulatory mess. Non-binding resolutions
against Global Warming are passed in the same legislative sessions as road
expansions that will demand more use of oil. In facing the coming crisis please
consider the following lesson taken from the book Good to Great and face the Brutal
Facts of our present reality. It is an abridged conversation between the author, Jim
Collins, and Admiral Jim Stockdale (imprisoned in the "Hanoi Hilton" from 1965 to
1973). This book is a profound insight into the making of great organizations:\"

Collins: In preparation, I read In Love and War, the book Stockdale and
his wife had written in alternating chapters, chronicling their experiences during
those eight years.

As I moved through the book, I found myself getting depressed. It seemed so bleak -
the uncertainty of his fate, the brutality of his captors, and so forth. And then,
it dawned on me: "I am getting depressed reading this and I know the end of the
story! I know he gets out, reunites with his family, and becomes a national hero.
How on earth did he deal with it when he was actually there and did not know the end
of the story?"

Stockdale: I never lost faith. I never doubted not only that I would get out,
but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining
event of my life."

Collins: Who did not make it out?

Stockdale: Oh that's easy. The optimists.

Collins: The optimists? I don't understand.

Stockdale: The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be
out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd
say 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come and Easter would go.
And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a
broken heart.

After a long pause, Stockdale stopped and turned to face Collins:

Stockdale: This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that
you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the
discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they
might be.

We cannot afford to be optimistic that energy on which life depends will be
available from oil or that we can wastefully use oil without consequences.

We must face the Brutal Facts of our current reality:


1. Oil prices are unstable. Any one of many actions can instantly
disrupt our oil based economy, force massive lay-offs and preempt farmers' ability
to plant and harvest food:

a. Terrorist attacks on multiple pipelines or specific facilities.

b. Iran or Venezuela oil embargo.

c. Further civil deterioration in Iraq.

d. A Hurricane or other natural disaster.

e. Speculation.

2. Personal mobility is essential to our economies and cannot be
replaced by traditional mass transit. Approximately 97% of trips in the US and 80%
of trips in Europe are by car. Cars are the right answer; they are just the wrong
mass and randomness of behavior for repetitive travel. Personal mobility command a
huge market share because it adds efficiency to our individual contribution to the
economy; economic stability results from the efforts of the many, not the masses.

3. Costly and relatively dense train/bus systems in New York and
Washington DC have not solved their congestion or oil dependence problems.

4. Light rail projects planned outside NY and DC do not match the
capacity of those cities; they will not solve congestion or oil problems.

5. No subsidies. Taxes that subsidize light rail and buses will
disappear as increasing oil prices drive workers out of work.

6. Productivity gains in manufacturing's shift from Mass Production to
Just-in-Time, focusing on the quality of the process can be applied to Mass
Transportation. Personal mobility can be delivered by engineering the process.

7. Cars kill 14 of every 100,000 Americans each year. Cars are unsafe
relative to roller coasters and elevators.

8. Car accidents cost Americans about $150 billion each year.

9. Neither bio-fuel cars nor hybrids will solve congestion problems.
Typical worker loses 43 hours, a workweek, per year to congestion. Gridlock is
getting worse.

10. Two wars in 16 years. Troops are deployed and being killed as we spend
capital dollars to expand highways and our dependence on foreign oil. Personally, I
think these expenditures are obscene; the cost of war should be part of every
environmental impact statement; $.30 should be added to the price of every gallon of
gasoline to pay for wars that protect access to foreign oil. This is not soft
thinking; I volunteer and went to Iraq because I believe contributing to world
liberty is our best defense.





11. Peak Oil. By all estimates (OPEC, IEA, EIA, PB, EXXON, ...), the
maximum rate at which oil can be extract from the earth has peaked or will peak
within 26 years. At Peak Oil, oil prices are expected to triple each year (they
tripled in the last 6 years). Farmers and truckers are most at risk from unstable
oil prices. But everyone is at risk; we cannot eat food that could not be planted,
harvested and delivered. Please watch the documentary at:
http://abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20060710/

12. Re-tooling. It will take longer than 26 years to re-tool
transportation to be independent of oil. Failure to act in advance of Peak Oil will
exacerbate hardships.

13. After Peak Oil, oil based economies and populations will be forced to
decrease until a conversion to sustainable energy sources is accomplished. Action
in advance of events, cheap oil, is it seems the easiest and least costly way to
make this conversion.



14. Global Warming (adapted from NOAA, Sterns Review and Impacts of Climate
Change on Washington\'s Economy

a. Forest fire loses will increase by 50% by 2020.

b. West Nile virus, asthma and other health costs will rise.

c. Snowfall loses will affect lakes, streams and water supplies.

d. Farmers will have longer growing seasons but will face reduced water
supplies, increased demand, changes in pests, weeds, and crop diseases. Most
farmers are not profitable enough to adapt to more erratic weather events. Jumps
in fuel prices at planting or harvesting could halt or curtail those processes,
radically reducing the food supply.

e. Higher temperatures will affect dairy production.

James concludes: \"Optimism that market forces can compensate for required foresight
and action is a terribly dangerous gamble. It accounts for our current discomfort
and commitment of troops in the Middle East.\"

\"The good news is that action in advance of events is both the right and profitable
thing to do. Ending our oil addition will save a billion dollars a day; profit
harvested by preempting current waste. And, there is a great model to follow;
nearly all other organisms on earth live within a solar budget; there is enough
energy in sunshine.\"

Web Site = http://www.jpods.com/PRTourFeb07.html

Contact Details = Bill James
12636 Sable Drive
Burnsville, MN 55337
bill.james@jpods.com
612.414.4211 phone
612.605.0100 fax