The UW Hybrid Vehicle Team has sent their group leaders off to Boston this week for the EcoCAR Fall Workshop at The MathWorks headquarters.   The team will be learning more about MathWorks tools, as well as learning more from Mototron and National Instruments.  They will also learn more about EcoCAR Year Two competition logistics and guidelines, and participate in some PR and Outreach Events.

The team left Madison to head to the Fall Workshop in Detroit, MI. We checked out a university vehicle for transportation - unfortunately the only vehicle left was a 1997 Suburban that was missing most of the interior panels and smelled like gas. We made it all the way to Gilberts, Illinois before we slowly started to lose power until we could no longer maintain 45. Shortly thereafter the oil pressure dropped, coolant boiled and the engine seized. We barely made it off the road into the mosquito infested roadside to enjoy our 2 hours while we waited for a tow truck and a van to move 7 people and luggage to a safe location so we could rent a new vehicle.

We ended up getting dropped off at a hotel to await a ride to the airport to rent a van to continue driving to Detroit. Our ride arrived, a white stretch limo!

Not much room even in the stretch limo!

The limo took us to Ace Rent a Car, who saved us as the only rental place open at 11PM who would rent a van to a 23 year old.

After switching vehicles 4 times we finally arrived in Detroit at 5:30AM this morning, to get ready to get to the conference at 6:30AM (7:30EST) meaning no sleep for us today!!!