CA "cool car" regs to kill Jeep Wrangler, interfere with phones, garage openers, ankle bracelets?
2009 Jeep Wrangler - Click above for high-res image gallery
New "Cool Cars" regulations adopted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) could put an end to the Jeep Wrangler soft-top sales in the Golden State thanks to standards so stringent that the popular 4x4 won't be able to meet them. According to The Detroit News, CARB's latest controversial initiative requires automakers to build cars and trucks with windows which prevent 45% of the sun's energy from entering a vehicle by 2014, and 60% by 2016. To meet these provisions, vehicle manufacturers will have to utilize advanced window glazing containing microscopic specs of reflective metal oxide.
Coating vehicle glass with a metallic layer wreaks havoc on any vehicle electronic device relying on a clear "view" of the world outside. Garmin, a leading manufacturer of GPS devices, says satellite reception through coated glass will be degraded. In addition, cell phones, wireless laptop devices, garage door openers, and even ankle bracelets for parolees "may be adversely affected by the metallic reflective standard" as they all rely on signals passing cleanly through automotive glass.
For what it's worth, Honda tried utilizing the same technology in Japan two decades ago, yet dropped it due to problems with radio wave devices. We are assured that the Jeep soft-top won't have those problems simply because the technology cannot be applied to flexible plastic windows. Without an exemption for that model, Chrysler will only be allowed to sell hardtop Wrangler vehicles in California.
[Source: The Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
badasscat 12:28PM (10/12/2009)
Alot of those in San Fran......but that's just how Cali is anymore.
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doc b 8:32PM (10/12/2009)
just get ceramic film, then this article is moot. if i know it, the car makers know it and the dudes at autoblog should know it.
AMcA 9:32PM (10/12/2009)
How much is this going to cost per car?
some1 10:08PM (10/12/2009)
I think cali should just design a single car and force everyone to buy only it...
Color: white (only)
Engine: plug in hybrid with a 40 mile max (to keep driving down of course)
Glass: this random UV crap
Power: electric amount close to 100hp
max speed: 50mph
and the sticker price can be 60k, because all cali people seem to be rich, and hell, they need the money to fix their bankrupt gov...
this regulation makes no sense... i love the waste of tax dollars on such stupid ideas, wonder what is next... maybe they should look into more grave problems first
Dan Xie 12:20AM (10/13/2009)
American conservatives want to live in a society of total personal freedom, and are pulling their country back to the stone age.
Asia is already far ahead technologically, you guys should take a short trip here for a reality check.
Dan
(Hong-Kong)
AngeloD 12:51AM (10/13/2009)
Pugwash:
The irony of your having completely missing the point of the article, while slinging the crap about others not having read it, is rich.
Where in the article do you find these mysterious passages that state (as per your response): convertables are exempt from this legislation? manufacturers will be allowed to certify their vehicles as meeting the standard...with the convertable top stowed, all other convertables than the Wrangler will meet the standard?
Try defending your liberal views with facts next time.
John Johnson 11:37AM (10/12/2009)
I thought ceramic films blocked a very significant portion of the heat, while still not interfering due to being non-metallic?
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Gruv 11:49AM (10/12/2009)
My old Subaru SVX had a windshield with a titanium oxide coating to prevent UV rays. It also prevented my GPS unit from working, so I ran a remote antenna to the rear window.
zamafir 12:11PM (10/12/2009)
@john - correct, but if the original article was that objective then it'd be harder to rally sensationalism against big scary california. same ol same ol, california's still the largest single car market in the country, if vw has no problems spending boat loads of money custom tailoring emissions systems on their TDis for california, surely a grand amerrkkkaan company like chrsyler can solve something as simple as this. Current windows won’t block enough? Alright? But we’re supposed to believe there’s no way chrsyler could engineer a new design which would? Seriously? I’m so tired of hearing our (American) companies whining (or our press doing it for them) whenever a new business challenge presents itself which would require ingenuity to overcome. We can rally for status quo politics all we want, but that sorta slant shouldn’t affect our understanding of the realities of business. 'oh noez, new standards, we'll need to adapt to continue to be relevent, sooo hard'. come on. what other industry gets away with that bs.
AngeloD 12:28PM (10/12/2009)
Once again, this bankrupt, dysfunctional State has to inflict their abject stupidity and environmental extremism on its citizens, and undoubted eventually the rest of the USA.
Just amazing that this State, after decades of one party rule by the hard-left Democratic party, that can't pay its teachers, firemen, police, corrections officers, etc., still apparently has the funding for CARB to continue to inflict its hard-left enviro-political agenda on the citizens, and the sheeple continue to tolerate it.
rygar 2:44PM (10/12/2009)
Angelo,
Isn't the Governator Republican?
That aside, this is a stupid rule.
AngeloD 3:02PM (10/12/2009)
Schwartzeneger is a RINO to the core, many of his top administration are liberal Democrats, and both houses of the CA legislature have been controlled by the Democratic party for decades.
Pete Wilson was the last semi-conservative Republican governor.
So, please don't portray Californinia's bankrupt, job-killing regulatory environment as the result of bi-partisan stupidity, the Democratic party of California, along with the people who vote for them, deserves 99% of the blame for the State's condition.
CaptPugwash 9:23PM (10/12/2009)
Angelo, try reading the article then thinking rather than just sucking down the nonsense hook line and sinker.
The Wrangler is a convertible, and just like other convertibles the roof is made of some form of material not glass. Now stop and think, why would this new rule kill the Wrangler but not the other convertibles. Or perhaps this is a BS story on a slow news day to heat up those that are hard of thinking.
I'm sorry but its desperately sad and makes me frightened for the future of this country.No wonder we cannot have a reasoned, educated discussion about serious matters when the media is so sensationalist and there's so many dimwits that suck up the nonsense so easily.
Tim 11:38AM (10/12/2009)
Just fantastic. So now because of California's BS one won't be able to buy a new car and use a portable navigation unit. Brilliant.
Doesn't this kind of stuff somehow violate the commerce clause of the Constitution since there are already federal laws on the book regarding automobile safety and emissions? (I am asking because I don't know; this definitely effects interstate commerce though)
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garyppalaniuk 11:49AM (10/12/2009)
First it's banning lead weights in for car wheels because there's supposedly an epidemic of that happening. Then there was talk about banning dark coloured cars. Now this? Geez, no wonder the state is bankrupt. And to think that Californians with their import-heavy sales figures diss Detroit's government loans?
And Americans want to follow the "fabulous lifestyle" that Californians "enjoy"?
Quattrofan 1:01PM (10/12/2009)
I'm in California and I flat out love where I live, but this Nanny State bull$^%t is getting out of control. What's next, will they tell me not to go out when its sunny. Christ!
wjfreemont 2:51PM (10/12/2009)
Not really. For multiple reasons. But to your specific point - the states are allowed to pass laws that are more strict than the Fed's.
Farris 11:38AM (10/12/2009)
Wouldn't this also prevent the sales of *ALL* soft top cars with soft rear windows?
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Tim 11:39AM (10/12/2009)
I don't think there are any soft top convertibles with plastic windows anymore (or certainly not very many).
kruisin66 11:43AM (10/12/2009)
Doesn't existing window tinting achieve the same goals?
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