Mary Barra’s Post

Bernard, your comments 💯 correct. Now, years after abandoning the support for required skill training at the high school level, a quick change in comments and wording is easy to use in an attempt to cover up past ill's and short sighted elimination for skilled trades support many, many years ago.

This is my ideal car design, one that extracts the heat from every drop of gasoline while protecting the engine, motor, and inverter. Most cars waste 70% of fuel as heat. My QUAD-POWER system doesn't. 1. Crank Power - Gasoline explodes to drive the crank. 2. Exhaust ORC - 600°C exhaust → thermal oil → Mini-ORC (Right DBHE 150→45°C + Sanden TRSE09) 3. Engine Oil-Cooling ORC* - We replace water with thermal oil. Engine can safely run at 150°C, no boiling, no corrosion. The cooling loop itself becomes a generator. 4. Regenerative Braking - Every brake is a recharge. Plus *Dual Active Oil Cooling*: 45°C for inverter, 75°C for motor. Cooler = 4x longer life + higher efficiency. And the best part? *When the car moves, ram-air at 20°C becomes a free condenser.* It cools the 90°C refrigerant back to 30°C, enlarging the pressure difference. The faster you drive, the more power you generate. Cooling is not a cost. *Cooling is income.* This is not waste heat recovery. This is *active thermal power generation.*

Mary Barra A valuable message. As technology changes the workplace, the importance of skilled people does not disappear—the skills simply evolve. The combination of technical capability, continuous learning, and practical problem-solving will become increasingly important across industries. I particularly like the focus on recognizing younger technicians. When organizations invest in developing frontline talent and give skilled professionals a clear path to grow, they build not only stronger capabilities but also future leaders. A strong reminder that the future of work depends on investing in people as much as technology.

We don't even build our own die sets any more, Lets just says GM kicked the "Once sought after" Tool and Die Trade right square in the....Where part quality determines die work. shipping the tooling back to build source or bringing build source in. Cute promo tho Mary

It all starts in the junior and high school level shop classes - metalworking and automotive repair. Years ago junior highs and high schools had vast comprehensive shop classes with lots of machine tools and welders. Lakewood High School in Lakewood, Ohio ( Cleveland, Ohio area ), had a foundry. Many high schools in the 50's - 60's - 70's, had auto repair garages and training. Now junior high and high school shop training is basic, small and barren with the schools featuring computer labs instead. High school automotive repair garages are non existent. Please name me one High School that has an automotive repair shop and yearly course in auto diagnostics and repair? This is where the interest is built, Junior High and High School. Boys naturally like to work with their hands and produce-show tangible results, be it fixing or making. Start em at 12 years old in Junior High metal and wood classes. That's the code.

The trades are also where AI in the plant gets judged. A vision system can flag a defect, but someone who knows the die and the press decides whether the flag is right and what to do next. Good to see that path getting this attention.

It is about time people were told that skilled trades are important and taught those skills. For too many years, people have thought that computers were the most important things to learn. Then they turned on the light switch and there was no light and they did not know how to change a bulb or look at a fuse or put the plug in the wall. They don't know plumbing, heating, how to change a furnace filter, how to change a light bulb in their car or the battery in the remote. Change the education system to practical skills.