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Comment by jdhn | Hacker News Reader

I can see the Detroit Auto Show slowly fading away unless they really revamp it. Two suggestions:

1) Don't hold it in the dead of winter, and instead move it to a time when it's warm out

2) Move out of the Cobo Center. Belle Isle could use a defining event, so perhaps they could hold it there.

Please no, Belle isle is a state park, (formerly city) the grand prix is already too much. (Could you imagine a 'Central Park grand prix'? or 'Hyde Park Heavy Digger Convention' etc...) these are beautiful spaces because historically they have been reserved for peaceful and quiet enjoyment.

I loved being able to take a Saturday and go to Detroit while I was in college in Cleveland, so selfishly I'd be against moving it to the summer. As a more practical concern, I would assume the show is when it is because it corresponds to manufacturer's debut schedules.

In terms of 2), what's wrong with the Cobo center? Being downtown is nice for walking around etc after.

There's nothing wrong with the Cobo Center, it's just that it happens in the middle of the winter. If you can't take the People Mover to Cobo or park real close, it can be a major pain in the butt to walk there.

I guess since I was a resident of the midwest, it never really bothered me :)

I can certainly understand for visitors from around the country why it'd be a pain.

The IAA is also on the decline (with some major OEMs missing), so I think it's a general trend of huge trade show becoming obsolete (mainly because they impose a timeline on the product roadmap that the OEMs don't want to follow).

They could have it coincide with the Woodward Dream Cruise[0] and put show rooms and panels along key points on Woodward.

[0]http://woodwarddreamcruise.com/

That could actually work. Only thing you'd have to watch out for is thunderstorms, however that'd probably be easier for people to deal with then snow & freezing temperatures.

Only in May when the temperature is warm enough and the humidity is low enough.

Too cold? They should consider heating the Cobo Center with the exhaust of "clean" diesel engines.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/31/suppressed-rigged...

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/wildlife-watch-l...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/30/vw-suspends...

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42876336

>The exhaust fume tests were carried out by EUGT, a now disbanded body that had been funded by VW as well as rivals Daimler, which owns Mercedes Benz, and BMW.

>Last week the New York Times reported that EUGT had exposed 10 monkeys to fumes - in an air-tight chamber - from several cars, including a diesel VW Beetle, at a lab in Albuquerque.

>In his first public comments on the test, Mr Mueller said: "The methods used by EUGT in the United States were wrong, they were unethical and repulsive. I am sorry that Volkswagen was involved in the matter as one of the sponsors of EUGT."

>Germany's Stuttgarter Zeitung and SWR radio reported that 19 men and six women had inhaled diesel fumes in another EUGT experiment.

VW admits the "optics" of gassing monkeys and humans with diesel exhaust doesn't look quite as good as the "optics" of Hitler delightfully grinning and endorsing their product:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34358783

Whoever is interested in this should take a look at Netflix' "Dirty Money" Episode 1. Alex Gibney (also directed Enron - smartest guys in the room) gives a good overview of the scandal, if you haven't been following it closely on the news. Very interesting, although I would have appreciated a deep dive into the actual algorithms used.. I'm sure there's articles on this though..

Regarding the human tests, as scandalous at it sounds on first glance, the SWR & ARD (government funded news channels similar to the BBC) also reported that it apparently isn't unusual to do this kind of human testing. The subjects were exposed to one specific kind of gas, and the dose, according to their correspondent, was less than what someone living at a busy street consumes regularly.

He mentioned that even Greenpeace "knows of these studies", referring to them in one of their papers.., whatever that means exactly.. He also states that the scientists were openly communicating that they were funded by the car manufacturers.

https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/bw/neben-affen-auch-menschenve... (google translate should do a good job if you don't understand German..)

Take a look at this talk from CCC.

https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7331-the_exhaust_emissions_scand...

With the monkeys at least the issue wasn't the actual gassing with fumes (as awful as that sounds), it was the fact that the monkeys were getting gassed with diesel fumes from a car that had the cheat-mod on it -- so the study was being used to show low harm from their 'clean' emissions car which in the real world was far more harmful. Absolutely unethical.

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