Future car technologies

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The visionary Audi RSQ sports coupé, used for the 2004 film I, Robot

A 2003 General Motors concept car on display at the Test Track attraction at Disney World's Epcot.

Potential future car technologies include new energy sources and materials, which are being developed in order to make automobiles more sustainable, safer, more energy efficient, or less polluting.

Advanced control

• Platoons of cars that are controlled by the lead car
• Automated highway systems
• Vehicle infrastructure integration

Energy source

One major problem in developing cleaner, energy efficient automobiles is the source of power to drive the engine. A variety of alternative fuel vehicles have been proposed or sold, including electric cars, hydrogen cars, and compressed-air cars.

Energy savers

Various technologies have been developed and utilized to increase the energy efficiency of conventional cars or supplement them, resulting in energy savings.

• Regenerative braking recaptures energy that would otherwise be lost as waste heat from the brake pads.
• BMW's Turbosteamer technology to harness the heat generated by conventional internal combustion engines and use it to generate mechanical energy [1], which can increase in fuel efficiency by 15%. [2]
• Compressed air Hybrid is an engine made by researchers at Brunel University, UK, which forces highly compressed air into the engine, which they claim reduces fuel consumption by 30%. [3]

• Utilization of waste heat from D.W. as useful mechanical energy through exhaust powered steam, stirling engines, thermal diodes, etc..^[1]
• Using computational fluid dynamics in the design stage can produce vehicles which take significantly less energy to push through the air, a major consideration at highway speeds. The Volkswagen 1-litre car and Aptera hybrid car are examples of ultra-low-drag vehicles.

• Installing Vortex prevention devices at the back of the roof of a car reduces drag and therefore improve fuel efficiency. ^[2]

Materials

• Duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes may totally replace all steel in cars (potentially improving lightness and strength). Aluminum, carbon fiber and fiberglass are currently being used more in cars today.

See also

• Automobile dependency
• MIT Car
• Microcar
• Flying car (aircraft)
• New Mobility Agenda
• New urbanism
• Transit-oriented development
• Vehicle Infrastructure Integration
• Hydrogen economy

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Future car technologies

• Future Cars at HowStuffWorks
• What if Cars Could Drive Themselves? (from U. Washington's Innovative Transportation Technologies website, last modified May 2003)
• Hypercar Concept - Rocky Mountain Institute
• RUF (Rapid Urban Flexible) dualmode transport system
• Roadmap of Key Developments in transportation
• Article on platooning and e-guideways from Francis Reynolds, grandfather of dualmode.
• Fuel-Cell Hype vs. Economic Reality, National Public Radio interview with Matt Wald
• Wired Magazine, How Hydrogen Can Save America*
• The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities, Costs, Barriers, and R&D Needs (2004) National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES)
• Urban Light Transport website
• Alternative Fuel Vehicle Training From the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium.
• New Scientific American article
• Fuel Efficient Vehicles Now An activist site with much information on what can be done now to do to improve things even more.
• Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems