ear and desperation have always been powerful engines of innovation for the auto industry. Given the current state of the car business, you can bet we’re entering a golden age of innovation.
It will ultimately—and inexorably—lead to electrification. To be sure, bio-fuels, clean diesels, natural gas, fuel cells, and various hybrid technologies will play ever greater roles as we motor willy-nilly into the future. But electricity provides the most durable, affordable, and practical way of reducing the world’s dependence on oil, while reducing greenhouse gases. “The electrification of the car is the future and it should have been the present,” says Chris Paine, screenwriter and director of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” (He’s currently immersed in its sequel, “Revenge of the Electric Car”). “Major advances in power electronics in the 1990s made plug-in vehicles superior in both performance and efficiency to the internal combustion engine.”
As for emissions, “It’s easier to regulate the power grid than to regulate 260 million individual vehicles,” says Bruce M. Belzowski, assistant research scientist and associate director at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. And with that analogy, Belzowski paints with broad brush the future of the car. Use your cell phone as a guide.
As for emissions, “It’s easier to regulate the power grid than to regulate 260 million individual vehicles,” says Bruce M. Belzowski, assistant research scientist and associate director at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. And with that analogy, Belzowski paints with broad brush the future of the car. Use your cell phone as a guide.
Chevrolet’s forthcoming Volt, for example, may have one wheel stuck in fossil fuels, but it presents a practical first step toward electrification. The Volt is actually a plug-in serial hybrid: an internal combustion engine recharges the batteries, but doesn’t turn the wheels. Like your first cell phone, the Volt (and extended-range hybrids promised by Chrysler, Mercedes Benz, and scores of other makers) will give you the essential convenience and familiarity of today’s transportation solution—with some added benefits.
That will change. Today you care less about the cell phone you buy than the network it taps: e-mail, applications, TV shows, text messages, and whatnot. Shai Agassi’s Better Place envisions the vehicle as a node on a network. Smart charge stations would replace today’s gas stations. You would recharge your car or swap batteries, depending on the plan you subscribe to. You car would be subsidized, maybe even free. Just like your cell phone. “You have a distributed network of electrons and a distributed network of people,” says Agassi. “The network makes sure that there’s an optimized use of people and electrons.” And why is infrastructure, rather than batteries, the key to the electric car? “If there weren’t gas stations everywhere, you wouldn’t buy a [gasoline] car,” says Agassi. It’s no wonder the company is currently negotiating with the governments of 25 countries and all of the major automakers. Pilot programs are already underway. It’s becoming a reality. mine
That will change. Today you care less about the cell phone you buy than the network it taps: e-mail, applications, TV shows, text messages, and whatnot. Shai Agassi’s Better Place envisions the vehicle as a node on a network. Smart charge stations would replace today’s gas stations. You would recharge your car or swap batteries, depending on the plan you subscribe to. You car would be subsidized, maybe even free. Just like your cell phone. “You have a distributed network of electrons and a distributed network of people,” says Agassi. “The network makes sure that there’s an optimized use of people and electrons.” And why is infrastructure, rather than batteries, the key to the electric car? “If there weren’t gas stations everywhere, you wouldn’t buy a [gasoline] car,” says Agassi. It’s no wonder the company is currently negotiating with the governments of 25 countries and all of the major automakers. Pilot programs are already underway. It’s becoming a reality. mine
A similar future will unfold in car design and safety. Ever since antilock brakes became widely available in the 1970s, cars have been wresting decisions away from drivers and their comparatively slow reflexes in the interests of safety (“nannyware,” as macho auto journalists call it). Today’s adaptive cruise control, stability- and traction-control systems, self-parking technologies, crash-avoidance mechanisms, blind-spot monitors, and lane-departure warning systems rely variously on lasers, radar, and cameras to monitor and react to dangers the driver has failed to notice. Engineers at Nissan have been studying the noble bumble bee to understand how thousands of bees clustered at a hive can fly in three-dimensional space without colliding with one another. “The bee has a sense of other bees around it,” says Colin Price, Nissan’s manager of technology communications. “From this, we have developed a safety shield concept that surrounds the vehicle. For example, we have a side collision prevention system that . . . applies brakes on the opposite side of the vehicle to pull you back into your lane if it detects a car in the lane you’re entering.”
These technologies will continue to advance. But as with the games and applets built into early cell phones, many safety systems will eventually migrate to the network—in this case, the road itself. Smart highways, in which cars communicate with central computers that monitor sensors placed along the route, have been kicking around in theory and pilot programs since the 1990s. Today it would be possible for smart highways to alert drivers to congestion and suggest alternative routes. In the future, they could automatically slow cars to prevent pileups and other collisions.
These technologies will continue to advance. But as with the games and applets built into early cell phones, many safety systems will eventually migrate to the network—in this case, the road itself. Smart highways, in which cars communicate with central computers that monitor sensors placed along the route, have been kicking around in theory and pilot programs since the 1990s. Today it would be possible for smart highways to alert drivers to congestion and suggest alternative routes. In the future, they could automatically slow cars to prevent pileups and other collisions.
Even car connectivity itself will outsource greater chores to the network. Despite its soaring popularity, the GPS is heading for obsolescence. Only days ago, Ford and Microsoft unveiled a new version of Sync, which downloads turn-by-turn directions from a server. “We have a powerful voice engine in the car,” says Doug Vanagens, Ford’s director of connected services. “Then we have an even more powerful voice engine on the network.” Vanagens sees the future of car connectivity in the cell phone. Sync will merely harness its abilities. “Phones are going to continue to evolve, applications are going to continue to evolve. And we’re going to connect those to the vehicle.”
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