Draft Script
                Take Notice:
                
                  If anything can be predicted about a documentary production,
                  it's that the final program will be different from the show
                  the filmmakers envision as they write the initial script.
                  Inspiration strikes in the midst of filming, taking scenes in
                  entirely new directions. Experts being interviewed say and do
                  unexpected things. After months of research, producers Joe
                  Seamans and Janet Smith drafted a script to guide them as they
                  took their camera crew into the field. The following prologue
                  and summary of scenes is adapted from that preliminary script.
                
                
                  Bear in mind, things can—and will—change. It's
                  part of what makes documentary filmmaking a wild and
                  exhilarating ride.
                
                Prologue
                
                  Locks chirp. People get into their cars. Doors slam. Engines
                  rev. Faces peer through windshields. Cars converge from
                  driveways and parking lots to roadways, highways, and
                  interstates—leading to epic aerial images and time lapse
                  of traffic flow and congestion. With "Car Talk" Guys Tom and
                  Ray Magliozzi as our guides, we ponder the big picture:
                
                
                  When we get into our cars and close the doors, we enter a very
                  private space. Driving is something as personal as our
                  underwear. But looking down from above gives us another
                  perspective. In the U.S. alone, there are 200 million people
                  with a license to drive wherever it is they want to go.
                  Together, in pursuit of our happiness and livelihoods, we
                  consumed about 150 billion gallons of gasoline last year.
                
                
                  But every day as we drive along, two problems grow. The first
                  is where gasoline comes from, and the second is where it goes.
                  There's debate over how much oil is left and how to keep it
                  coming, but if things continue as they are, it will disappear.
                  What's more, out of sight under the hood, burning gas creates
                  carbon compounds that enter the atmosphere and are changing
                  the climate. You may not have voted for Al Gore, but he's not
                  making this up. The Earth is getting warmer.
                
                
                  Most of us push these unsettling thoughts to the backs of our
                  minds. Some people don't. What they see on the horizon is not
                  the end of the road, but challenge and opportunity. This
                  community of scientists, entrepreneurs, and engineers is on a
                  quest to innovate so that all of us can hang onto something we
                  desperately want—to keep on truckin' down the road into
                  the future.
                
                Show Title: Car of the Future
                
                  Note: Throughout the program, in addition to meeting
                  various "characters" as Tom and Ray visit laboratories, auto
                  shows, and elsewhere, we'll hear from a group of experts
                  interviewed separately. (See
                  expert participants
                  for a tentative list.) These experts will offer an overview of
                  the problems, analysis of the technologies and policies that
                  can solve them, and a realistic timetable for change.
                
                SCENE SUMMARIES
                
                  AltWheels: Creating a New Future
                  An odd assortment of vehicles is on parade. Their bumper
                  stickers suggest what it's all about: MPG not SUV, Biodiesel:
                  No Drilling Required, My Car is a Vegetarian Too! But
                  AltWheels is not a love-in for car-haters; in fact, Ford, GM,
                  Honda, and Toyota are a few of the sponsors, and some of their
                  hydrogen, hybrid, and flexfuel concept cars are in the parade.
                  At the AltWheels convention, Tom and Ray will peruse cars
                  powered by hydrogen fuel cells, solar panels, biodiesel,
                  ethanol, electricity, even gasoline—diverse technologies
                  we'll explore in-depth later in the show. They'll joke around
                  with alt-vehicle fans but also ask some hard questions. No
                  alternative technology seems the magic bullet. And there are
                  many obstacles to the wide-scale adoption of new breeds of
                  vehicles.
                
                
                  Hydrogen: The Magic Genie?
                  If carbon was the energy genie for the last century, will
                  hydrogen keep us moving through this new millennium? With
                  archival stills and film, we'll look at the history of
                  hydrogen fuel cells, from the 1830s—when a Welsh
                  physicist combined oxygen and hydrogen in a cell with platinum
                  electrodes and generated electricity and water—to the
                  space age—when fuel cells powered the lunar module that
                  took Neil Armstrong to the moon. At the L.A. Car Show, Tom and
                  Ray will see some of the latest efforts of automakers like GM
                  to capitalize on hydrogen. And they'll also travel to Iceland,
                  a country powered by renewable hydro- and geothermal power, to
                  explore the challenges of transitioning to fuel-cell vehicles.
                
                
                  Ethanol: Homegrown Gasoline
                  Since prehistoric times, we've poured ethanol down our throats
                  in the form of alcohol. A hundred years ago we started pouring
                  it into the fuel tanks of Model Ts, but ethanol couldn't
                  compete with cheap, available gas. Now it's making a comeback.
                  Ten percent of the stuff we put in our tanks is ethanol
                  because it makes gas burn cleaner. When we raise the number to
                  85 percent, carbon emissions drop to near zero. E85 can be
                  used without changing much under the hood—good news for
                  carmakers. And ethanol comes from plants that can be harvested
                  in our own backyard. But as we learn from Lee Lynd, biofuel
                  guru at Dartmouth, and others, the economics of ethanol are
                  uncertain, and ethanol production has environmental pitfalls
                  of its own. Should we rely on corn and sugarcane or look to
                  other candidates like switchgrass, a native perennial of the
                  North American prairie? Before we turn into a nation of
                  grass-guzzlers, technical hurdles need to be leaped.
                
                
                  Gasoline: Doing More with Less
                  Since new energy sources don't seem ready for prime time, why
                  not develop engines that use less gas? At MIT's Automotive
                  Research Lab, Tom and Ray meet engineers intent on doing just
                  that. Lab director John Heywood notes that over the last 25
                  years, engine efficiency improved 30 percent, but rather than
                  boost average fuel economy, the advances were used to make
                  heavier, higher performance cars. We learn more about how
                  internal combustion engines work, and how Heywood's team is
                  trying to increase their efficiency. Whether their innovations
                  will be used to create more muscle or more mileage is unclear.
                  Heywood believes that market forces alone are unlikely to curb
                  our appetite for oil. Like many, he thinks
                  "feebates"—where a customer pays an extra fee to buy a
                  gas hog but gets a rebate if she buys a gas-sipper—might
                  be part of the solution.
                
                
                  Hybrids: Two Is Better Than One
                  Larry David is no macho man and neither is his Prius, but
                  seeing him buzz around Hollywood in his hybrid on
                  Curb Your Enthusiasm may indicate change is in the
                  wind. Hybrid cars are as efficient as John Heywood's
                  experimental engine, and they've been on the market for over
                  10 years. We learn how hybrid vehicles work, and how engineers
                  aim to take them one step further. With Andy Frank at U.C.
                  Davis, we test-drive a GM Equinox retrofitted as a plug-in
                  hybrid. Right now, an overnight charge will let him drive 50
                  miles without using any gas. He says that if he could go
                  farther, he'd drive a car that's all electric.
                
                
                  Electrics: Off the Pump and Onto the Grid
                  When roads were scarce and driving distances were short,
                  electric cars outsold all other types of cars. That was in
                  1899. Until we have better batteries, electric cars will
                  remain tethered in a wireless world. Recent innovations in
                  battery technology have been driven by demand from Silicon
                  Valley, and now a group of entrepreneurs from the computer and
                  information technology industry have adapted these batteries
                  to build a new car that is causing a lot of buzz. Tom and Ray
                  take an exhilarating ride in the Tesla Roadster, a sports car
                  that's as green as a bicycle, and meet Tesla developer Martin
                  Eberhard, a dotcom success who is determined to change the way
                  people drive.
                
                
                  Lightweighting: It's the Mass, Stupid!
                  We dissolve from the red Tesla to a tiny blue Honda Insight
                  hybrid winding down a country road. Inside is Amory Lovins, a
                  physicist and independent energy guru. He says that most
                  people look at what's under the hood, but the real story is
                  what's on the outside. The Tesla body is made of carbon fiber,
                  which is much lighter than steel. Lovins developed his own
                  lightweight vehicle, the Hypercar, to change the physics of
                  how we drive. The concept is called lightweighting. Like the
                  Tesla, Lovins' Hypercar prototype is carefully crafted by hand
                  like a piece of art. For carbon fiber vehicles to become
                  affordable, they must be mass-produced, and Lovins is
                  determined to find ways to do it.
                
                
                  Epilogue
                  Will one of the projects Tom and Ray have glimpsed be the next
                  "flying car?" Or will they and their offspring become as
                  indispensable as the cup holder on our dash? And will some
                  come sooner than others? One thing seems clear. Without
                  enthusiasm and a creative spark, there is no innovation. And
                  without innovation, there's no change. Change always brings
                  risk, but so does driving down the same old road hoping we can
                  step on the gas forever. With our support of this great
                  transition, we may be able to keep the dream of mobility alive
                  long into the future.
                   
                
                
                
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