What is HCCI?

Working of camless engine with electromechanical valve actuator?

INTRODUCTIONThe cam has been an integral part of the IC engine from its invention. The cam controls the "breathing channels" of the IC engines, that is, the valves through which the fuel air mixture (in SI engines) or air (in CI engines) is supplied and exhaust driven out. Besieged by demands for better fuel economy, more power, and less pollution, motor engineers around the world are pursuing a radical "camless" design that promises to deliver the internal - combustion engine's biggest efficiency improvement in years.Cams, lifters, pushrods... all these things have up until now been associated with the internal combustion engine. But the end is near or these lovely shiny metal objects that comprise the valve train hardware in your pride and joy. Camless engine technology is soon to be a reality for mass-produced vehicles. In the camless valvetrain, the valve motion is controlled directly by a valve actuator - there's no camshaft or connecting mechanisms. Various studies have shown that a camless valve train can eliminate many otherwise necessary engine design trade-offs. Automotive engines equipped with camless valve trains of the electro-hydraulic and electro-mechanical type have been studied for over twenty years, but production vehicles with such engines are still not available. The issues that have had to be addressed in the actuator design include:â€¢ Reliable valve performance costâ€¢ packagingâ€¢ power consumptionâ€¢ noise and vibrationNoise has been identified as the main problem with the electromechanical actuator technology, arising from high contact velocities of the actuator's moving parts. For this noise to be reduced, a so-called soft-landing of the valves has to be achieved.The valvetrain in a typical internal combustion engine comprises several moving components. Some are rotating and some are moving in a linear manner. Included are poppet valves that are operated by rocker arms or tappets, with valve springs used to return the valves to their seats. In such a system the parasitic power losses are major - power is wasted in accelerating and decelerating the components of the valvetrain. Friction of the camshaft, springs, cam belts, etc also robs us of precious power and worsens fuel economy, not to mention contributing to wear and tear. The power draw on the crankshaft to operate the conventional valve train is 5 to 10 percent of total power outputAnother factor working against the conventional valve train is that of the cam profile. Usually, it is fixed to deliver only one specific cam timing. The cam lobes have to be shaped such that when the valve travels up and down at the engines maximum speed it should still be able to slow down and gently contact the valve seat. The valves crashing down on their valve seats results in an engine that is real noisy and has a short life expectancy.Having different cam profiles will result in different engine characteristics. While high-rpm power and low rpm-torque can be each optimized, a compromise is required to obtain the best of both in the same engine. With Variable Valve Timing (VVT) technologies the compromise is getting better and better - reasonable low down torque and high-speed power are being produced by many sub 2-litre engines.But the problem remains that the cam grind is still a fixed quantity - or two fixed quantities in the case of Honda V-TEC engines. That's why the Electromechanical Valve Train is considered the next evolution of VVT. With the potential to dial in any conceivable valve timing at any point of the combustion cycle for each individual cylinder, valves can be opened with more lift and/or duration, as the computer deems necessary.Conventional valve train mechanismPushrod engines have been installed in cars since the dawn of the horseless carriage. A pushrod is exactly what its name implies. It is a rod that goes from the camshaft to the top of the cylinder head which push open the valves for the passage of fuel air mixture and exhaust gases. Each cylinder of a pushrod engine has one arm (rocker arm) that operates the valves to bring the fuel air mixture and another arm to control the valve that lets exhaust gas escape after the engine fires. There are several valve train arrangements for a pushrod.CrankshaftCrankshaft is the engine component from which the power is taken. It receives the power from the connecting rods in the designated sequence for onward transmission to the clutch and subsequently to the wheels. The crankshaft assembly includes the crankshaft and bearings, the flywheel, vibration damper, sprocket or gear to drive camshaft and oil seals at the front and rear.CamshaftThe camshaft provides a means of actuating the opening and controlling the period before closing, both for the inlet as well as the exhaust valves, it also provides a drive for the ignition distributor and the mechanical fuel pump.The camshaft consists of a number of cams at suitable angular positions for operating the valves at approximate timings relative to the piston movement and in the sequence according to the selected firing order. There are two lobes on the camshaft for each cylinder of the engine; one to operate the intake valve and the other to operate the exhaust valve.PROBLEMS RELATED TO CONVENTIONAL VALVE TRAINThe poppet valves that are operated by rocker arms or tappets, with valve springs used to return the valves to their seats. In such a system the parasitic power losses are major - power is wasted in accelerating and decelerating the components of the valve train. Friction of the camshaft, springs, cam belts, etc also robs us of precious power and worsens fuel economy, not to mention contributing to wear and tear. The power draw on the crankshaft to operate the conventional valve train is 5 to 10 percent of total power output.Another factor working against the conventional valve train is that of the cam profile. Usually , it is fixed to deliver only one specific cam timing. The cam lobes have to be shaped such that when the valve travels up and down at the engines maximum speed it should still be able to slow down and gently contact the valve seat.The single lobed cam is designed to operate the valves at only specific periods of the Otto cycle, thus preventing the engine from achieving maximum torque at higher rpms. The opening and closing of the valves is constrained by the geometry of the cam profile.ELECTROMECHANICAL CAMLESS VALVE ACTUATORIn recent years camless engine has caught much attention in the automotive industry. Camless valve train offers programmable valve motion control capability. An EMV system consists of two opposing electromagnets, an armature, two springs and an engine valve. The armature moves between the two magnets. When neither magnet is energized, the armature is held at the mid-point of the two magnets by the two springs located on either side of the armature. This system is used to control the motion of the engine valve. The engine valve is then in turn used to control the flow of air into and out of a combustion engine cylinder. The camless engine, where lift and valve timing can be adjusted freely from valve to valve and from cycle to cycle. It also allows multiple lift events per cycle and, indeed, no events per cycle-switching off the cylinder entirely.Computer controlled- opening and closing of valves make it possible to optimize the various phases of engine running. During idling phases, specific intake valve opening strategies make it possible to admit just the necessary quantity of air without having recourse to throttling the intake with a butterfly valve, something that generates consumption of fuel not used by the engine. Timing of valve opening or the latitude to only open a single intake valve make it possible to stabilize the engine on idling points which consume little fuel while ensuring a good level of drive ability or the driver.During urban driving and on the open road, both adequate opening and timing of the valves make it possible to admit a quantity of air limited to the requirement so the engine mixed with a massofburned gases purposely retained in the engine. This strategy ensures reduction of fuel consumption, polluting exhaust emissions, in particular, nitrogen oxides, produced by the engine. In terms of performance, the modularity of the system makes it possible to maximize the massof fresh air trapped in the cylinder at all engine speeds, ensuring both good torque and high power.Apart from these advantages, deactivation of the cylinder also delivers additional savings in terms offuel consumption and exhaust emissions when the engine is only using a small amount of its power as, or example, in urban use. In this mode, only halfof the cylinders are used to provide energy to the wheels, significantly limiting losses due to poor engine efficiency. The camless system is there or system which, on an air aspirated supercharged engine provides the customer with a significant improvement in engine features. In addition, it is a system that has a strong potential or evolution and its functions will be consumption required in order to implement combustion through auto-ignition, such as the HCCI system, which is under consideration as the next stage in the battle to reduce fuel consumption.Electromechanical Valve Train is considered the next evolution of VVT. With the potential to dial in any conceivable valve timing point of the combustion cycle for each individual cylinder, valves can be opened with more lift and/or duration, as the computer deems necessary. Just imagine that you have your latest 2-litre 16-valve EMVT powered engine on the dyno after installing an exhaust. Simply changing a couple of numbers on the computer will have a set of completely revised valve timing maps to suit your exhaust - or cold air intake for that mater. There will be no need for expensive cam changes that may not even give the results you are after. Electronically altering valve events will have a far more major impact on engine performance than any current electronically-controlled item.CONTROL DESIGNWhen the valve-closing event starts, the lower solenoid coil is deactivated, and the valve moves up towards its seating position by the mechanical spring force. An electro mechanical valve actuator works according to the spring-mass pendulum principle, which means that the system follows its own natural oscillation frequency, and external electromagnetic force is only needed for overcoming the friction loss. The electromagnetic actuator is only effective in a relatively short range closing to the seating position, and so it is not efficient in the sense of energy consumption to apply closed-loop control when the valve is still far away from theseating position. The system goes unstable as the engine valve moves to the region within one-third of the total lift.This type of system uses an armature attached to the valve stem. The outside casing contains a magnetic coil of some sort that can be used to either attract or repel the armature, hence opening or closing the valve.Most early systems employed solenoid and magnetic attraction/repulsion actuating principals using an iron or ferromagnetic armature. These types of armatures limited the performance of the actuator because they resulted in a variable air gap. As the air gap becomes larger (ie when the distance between the moving and stationary magnets or electromagnets increases), there is a reduction in the force. To maintain high forces on the armature as the size of the air gap increases, a higher current is employed in the coils of such devices. This increased current leads to higher energy losses in the system, not to mention non-linear behaviour that makes it difficult to obtain adequate performance. The result of this is that most such designs have high seating velocities (ie the valves slam open and shut hard!) and the system cannot vary the amount of valve lift.The electromechanical valve actuators of the latest poppet valve design eliminate the iron or ferromagnetic armature. Instead it is replaced with a current-carrying armature coil. A magnetic field is generated by a magnetic field generator and is directed across the fixed air gap. An armature having a current-carrying armature coil is exposed to the magnetic field in the air gap. When a current is passed through the armature coil and that current is perpendicular to the magnetic field, a force is exerted on the armature.When a current runs through the armature coil in either direction and perpendicular to the magnetic field, an electromagnetic vector force, known as a Lorentz force, is exerted on the armature coil. The force generated on the armature coil drives the armature coil linearly in the air gap in a direction parallel with the valve stem. Depending on the direction of the current supplied to the armature coil, the valve will be driven toward an open or closed position. These latest electromechanical valve actuators develop higher and better-controlled forces than those designs mentioned previously. These forces are constant along the distance of travel of the armature because the size of the air gap does not change.The key component of the Siemens-developed infinitely variable electromechanical valve train is an armature-position sensor. This sensor ensures the exact position of the armature is known to the ECU at all times and allows the magnetic coil current to be adjusted to obtain the desired valve motion.The ability of the electromechanical valve actuator to generate force in either direction and to vary the amount of force applied to the armature in either direction is an important advantage of this design. For instance, varying the value of the current through the armature coil and/or changing the intensity of the magnetic field can control the speed of opening and closing of the valve. This method can also be used to slow the valve closure member to reduce the seating velocity, thereby lessening wear as well as reducing the resulting noise.A special software algorithm is used to control the actuator coil currents such that the valves are decelerated to a speed near zero as they land - in conjunction with a switching time of barely three milliseconds. For the valves this means minimal wear and minimum noise generation. The 16-valve four cylinder engine that is currently undergoing tests in Germany, by Siemens, is equipped with 16 valve actuators and the corresponding armature-position sensors. A ECU is used and two cable rails connect the actuators to it. A 42-volt starter-generator provides the power.WORKINGCamless engines generally employ one of two types of camless actuators: electro-hydraulic or electro-mechanical valve actuators. The actuators receive input from the ECU via a dedicated CAN bus to open and close the poppet valves at a prescribed crankshaft angle timing, transition time and lift, matching the valve timing request sent by the ECU. Feedback is then sent by the actuators through the CAN bus to verify the actual occurrence of the operation.Electromechanical actuators are generally made with two solenoids and two springs. As can be seen in Figure 1 the ECM receives input from the crankshaft position sensor to close the valve, which activates Solenoid 1 by taking current from the battery. The current is passed through a pulse width modulator which tunes the amplitude of the current to control the speed of valve seating. The magnetic field created by Solenoid 1 attracts the armature in the upper position. Spring 1 is compressed and thus closes the valve. Solenoid 2 pulls the armature down to open the valve as shown in Figure 2.

What was the first automobile created?

The word automobile comes, via the French automobile, from the Ancient Greek word αὐτό&sigmaf; (autós, "self") and the Latin mobilis ("movable"); meaning a vehicle that moves itself, rather than being pulled or pushed by a separate animal or another vehicle. The alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled vehicle"), or the Middle English word carre ("cart") (from Old North French), or from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic Chariot).[5][6]HistoryThis section may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Please consider moving more of the content into sub-articles and using this article for a summary of the key points of the subject. (January 2010)Main article: History of the automobile Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, designed a steam-powered vehicle around 1672. It was a 65 cm-long scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger, but possibly was the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile').[7][8][9] It is not known if Verbiest's model was ever built.[8]Leonty Shamshurenkov, a Russian peasant, constructed a human-pedalled four-wheeled "auto-running" carriage in 1752, and subsequently proposed to equip it with odometer and to use the same principle for making a self-propelling sledge.[10]Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some[citation needed], who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable. What is not in doubt is that Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devilroad locomotive in 1801, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle, although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.In the 1780s, a Russian inventor of merchant origin, Ivan Kulibin, developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, Transmission, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.[11]In 1807 Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude probably created the world's first internal combustion engine which they called a Pyréolophore, but they chose to install it in a boat on the river Saone in France.[12] Coincidentally in 1807 the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed his own 'internal combustion engine' and used it to develop the world's first vehicle, albeit rudimentary, to be powered by such an engine. The Niépces' Pyréolophore was fuelled by a mixture of Lycopodium powder (dried Lycopodium moss), finely crushed coal dust and resin that were mixed with oil, whereas de Rivaz used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.[12] Neither design was very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.[13]In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile that was powered by electricity. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.[14]Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.[13]An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885, and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883. It was an integral design, without the adaptation of other existing components, and included several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888. Karl BenzA photograph of the original Benz Patent Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the conceptIn 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle.His first Motorwagen was built in 1885, and he was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on January 29, 1886. Benz began promotion of the vehicle on July 3, 1886, and about 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called a boxermotor in German. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company.Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892, which was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after disputes with their backers. Benz and the Maybach and the Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other's early work. They never worked together because, by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG.Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes, that was placed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their automobile models jointly, although keeping their respective brands.On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz, as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35 hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929, and at times, his two sons participated in the management of the company as well.In 1890, Émile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France.The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was drawn in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent for an automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on November 5, 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of automobiles in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.In Britain, there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success, with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[15] Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894[16] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both one-offs.[16] The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Motor Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawson's company made its first automobiles in 1897, and they bore the name Daimler.[16]In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897, he built the first Diesel Engine.[13] Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.ProductionRansom E. Olds The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1914.As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing productivity eightfold (requiring 12.5 man-hours before, 1 hour 33 minutes after), while using less manpower.[17] It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1914, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford's apocryphal remark, "any color as long as it's black".[17] In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months' pay.[17] Portrait of Henry Ford (ca. 1919)Ford's complex safety procedures-especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about-dramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic rise of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods.In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not, had disappeared.[17]Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910-1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.Ford Model T, 1927, regarded as the first affordable American automobileSince the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans often have heavily influenced automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company, so buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved.Reflecting the rapid pace of change, makes shared parts with one another so larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; by the 1990s, corporate powertrains and shared platforms (with interchangeable brakes, suspension, and other parts) were common. Even so, only major makers could afford high costs, and even companies with decades of production, such as Apperson, Cole, Dorris, Haynes, or Premier, could not manage: of some two hundred American car makers in existence in 1920, only 43 survived in 1930, and with the Great Depression, by 1940, only 17 of those were left.[17]In Europe much the same would happen. Morris set up its production line at Cowley in 1924, and soon outsold Ford, while beginning in 1923 to follow Ford's practise of vertical integration, buying Hotchkiss (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41% of total British car production. Most British small-car assemblers, from Abbey to Xtra had gone under. Citroen did the same in France, coming to cars in 1919; between them and other cheap cars in reply such as Renault's 10CV and Peugeot's 5CV, they produced 550,000 cars in 1925, and Mors, Hurtu, and others could not compete.[17] Germany's first mass-manufactured car, the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree Frog), came off the line at Russelsheim in 1924, soon making Opel the top car builder in Germany, with 37.5% of the market.[17]See also: Automotive industryFuel and propulsion technologiesA radio taxi in New Delhi. A court order requires all commercial vehicles including trucks, buses and taxis in India to run on Compressed Natural Gas Main article: Automobile propulsion technologiesSee also: Alternative fuel vehicleOlder automobiles were generally powered by a steam engine, which was fed by burning gasoline. [18] Most automobiles in use today however are propelled by a internal combustion engine, fueled by deflagrating gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel. Both fuels are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[19] Increasing costs of oil-based fuels, tightening environmental laws and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles. Efforts to improve or replace existing technologies include the development of hybrid vehicles, electric and hydrogen vehicles that do not release pollution into the air.[citation needed]Data transmissionThis section requires expansion with: more details on data transmission in automobiles and adding appropriate citations.Automobiles use CAN, MOSH (optic fiber), multiplexing, bluetooth and WiFi between others.SafetyMain articles: Car safety and Automobile accident Result of a serious automobile accidentWhile road traffic injuries represent the leading cause in worldwide injury-related deaths,[20] their popularity undermines this statistic.Mary Ward became one of the first documented automobile fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland[21] and Henry Bliss one of the United States' first pedestrian automobile casualties in 1899 in New York.[22] There are now standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests,[23] as well as insurance-backed IIHS tests.[24]Costs and benefitsFurther information: Automotive industry Main article: Economics of automobile usageThe costs of automobile usage, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs, maintenance, fuel, depreciation, injury, driving time, parking fees, tire replacement, taxes, and insurance,[25] are weighed against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits - perceived and real - of vehicle usage. The benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence and convenience.[9]Main article: Effects of the automobile on societiesSimilarly the costs to society of encompassing automobile use, which may include those of: maintaining roads, land use, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that automobile use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of automobile production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far reaching implications for the nature of societies.[26]Environmental impactSee also: automobile emissions The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (June 2010)Transportation is a major contributor to air pollution in most industrialised nations. According to the American Surface Transportation Policy Project nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has worsened over the last decade.[27] In the United States the average passenger car emits 11,450 lbs (5 tonnes) of carbon dioxide, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen.[28]Animals and plants are often negatively impacted by automobiles via habitat destruction and pollution. Over the lifetime of the average automobile the "loss of habitat potential" may be over 50,000 square meters (538,195 square feet) based on Primary production correlations.[29]Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or to not drive. On average, today's automobiles are about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled steel helps reduce energy use and pollution.[30] In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the 27.5 miles per US gallon (8.55 L/100 km; 33.0 mpg-imp) standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at 22.2 miles per US gallon (10.6 L/100 km; 26.7 mpg-imp) in 2007.[31] Alternative fuel vehicles are another option that is less polluting than conventional petroleum powered vehicles.Other negative effectsResidents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in car collisions[original research?] which kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number.[20] Sprawl is more broadly a factor in inactivity and obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.[32] Driverless carsMain article: Driverless car A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless carFully autonomous vehicles, also known as robotic cars, or driverless cars, already exist in prototype, and are expected to be commercially available around 2020. According to urban designer and futurist Michael E. Arth, driverless electric vehicles-in conjunction with the increased use of virtual reality for work, travel, and pleasure-could reduce the world's 800,000,000 vehicles to a fraction of that number within a few decades.[33] This would be possible if almost all private cars requiring drivers, which are not in use and parked 90% of the time, would be traded for public self-driving taxis that would be in near constant use. This would also allow for getting the appropriate vehicle for the particular need-a bus could come for a group of people, a limousine could come for a special night out, and a Segway could come for a short trip down the street for one person. Children could be chauffeured in supervised safety, DUIs would no longer exist, and 41,000 lives could be saved each year in the U.S. alone.[34][35]Future car technologiesMain article: Future car technologies This section needs additional citations for verification.Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010)Automobile propulsion technology under development include gasoline/electric and plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, biofuels, and various alternative fuels.Research into future alternative forms of power include the development of fuel cells, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), stirling engines,[36] and even using the stored energy of compressed air or liquid nitrogen.New materials which may replace steel car bodies include duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes.Telematics technology is allowing more and more people to share cars, on a pay-as-you-go basis, through such schemes as City Car Club in the UK, Mobility in mainland Europe, and Zipcar in the US.Open source developmentThere have been several projects aiming to develop a car on the principles of open design. The projects include OScar, Riversimple (through 40fires.org)[37] and c,mm,n.[38] None of the projects have reached significant success in terms of developing a car as a whole both from hardware and software perspective and no mass production ready open-source based design have been introduced as of late 2009. Some car hacking through on-board diagnostics (OBD) has been done so far.[39] Alternatives to the automobileMain article: Alternatives to the automobile Established alternatives for some aspects of automobile use include public transit (buses, trolleybuses, trains, subways, monorails, tramways), cycling, walking, rollerblading, skateboarding, horseback riding and using a velomobile. Car-share arrangements and carpooling are also increasingly popular-the U.S. market leader in car-sharing has experienced double-digit growth in revenue and membership growth between 2006 and 2007, offering a service that enables urban residents to "share" a vehicle rather than own a car in already congested neighborhoods.[40] Bike-share systems have been tried in some European cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Similar programs have been experimented with in a number of U.S. Cities.[41] Additional individual modes of transport, such as personal rapid transit could serve as an alternative to automobiles if they prove to be socially accepted.[42]IndustryMain article: Automotive industry The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide.[43]In 2007, a total of 71.9 million new automobiles were sold worldwide: 22.9 million in Europe, 21.4 million in Asia-Pacific, 19.4 million in USA and Canada, 4.4 million in Latin America, 2.4 million in the Middle East and 1.4 million in Africa.[44] The markets in North America and Japan were stagnant, while those in South America and other parts of Asia grew strongly. Of the major markets, China, Russia, Brazil and India saw the most rapid growth.About 250 million vehicles are in use in the United States. Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 260 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.[4] In the opinion of some, urban transport systems based around the car have proved unsustainable, consuming excessive energy, affecting the health of populations, and delivering a declining level of service despite increasing investments. Many of these negative impacts fall disproportionately on those social groups who are also least likely to own and drive cars.[45][46][47] The sustainable transport movement focuses on solutions to these problems.In 2008, with rapidly rising oil prices, industries such as the automotive industry, are experiencing a combination of pricing pressures from raw material costs and changes in consumer buying habits. The industry is also facing increasing external competition from the public transport sector, as consumers re-evaluate their private vehicle usage.[48] Roughly half of the US's fifty-one light vehicle plants are projected to permanently close in the coming years, with the loss of another 200,000 jobs in the sector, on top of the 560,000 jobs lost this decade.[49] Combined with robust growth in China, in 2009, this resulted in China becoming the largest automobile producer and market in the world.

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