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. Image File history File links Current_event_marker. ... Karl Benzs Velo (vélo means bicycle in French) model (1894) - entered into the first automobile race 2005 MINI Cooper S. An automobile (also motor car or simply car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. ... Sustainable living might best be defined as a lifestyle that could, hypothetically, be sustained unmodified for many generations without exhausting any natural resources. ...

Main Energy sources

Andrew A. Frank argues that hybrid cars that can be plugged into the electric grid (Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) will soon become standard in the automobile industry.^[1] Dr. Andy Frank of University of California, Berkeley and his teams of students have been experimenting with various advanced vehicle technologies for the last 25 years. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Hybrid vehicle. ... Lithium-ion battery pack, with cover removed, in CalCars plug-in hybrid converted Toyota Prius. ...

• Dual-mode vehicle or vehicles able to platoon that use relatively small electric motors and fuel supplies or battery reserves for door-to-door service off electrically powered arteries. Some swap battery packs to avoid waiting associated with recharging. This also avoids deep dischage that shortens battery life and makes a smaller and lighter battery pack with logistically infinite range using incremental energy sipping through frequent fully automatic battery exchange at speed. The monorail mode provides superior safety at very high speed.

• Battery electric vehicles have the potential of using locally available sustainable energy resources while at the same time reducing vehicle energy requirements by 1/2 to 1/4 when using batteries to store electricity. A new high-performance electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster has attracted much media attention^[1] since its release in June 2006.

• Hydrogen cars could eventually be produced that use sustainable energy resources and water. The resulting hydrogen could be burned in an engine or converted back into electricity by a fuel cell and its support systems instead of a battery to be powered as an electric vehicle. Due to the additional conversion losses and added distribution and support logistics overall efficiency is currently not as good as current ICE ("internal combustion engine") vehicles. Rather it is far simpler and more efficient (by a factor of three to six by some estimates) to transmit locally available sustainable electricity directly into the batteries of a battery electric vehicle.

• Alternative fuels are being proposed : alcohol fuel, water (see hydrogen fuel), highly compressed air (see air car), garbage, hemp oil.

A dual-mode vehicle is a vehicle that can run on power from two different sources, typically electricity from overhead lines or ground level power supply and in parallel or alternating from an internal combustion engine burning liquid fuels or gas. ... Grouping vehicles into platoons is one proposed method to increase road capacity without building additional traffic lanes. ... The Toyota RAV4 EV was powered by twenty-four 12 volt batteries, with an operational cost equivalent of over 165 miles per gallon at 2005 US gasoline prices. ... The Tesla Roadster is the first fully electric automobile to be produced by electric car firm Tesla Motors. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Hydrogen vehicle. ... A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i. ... A streetcar drawing current from a single overhead wire, returning current through the rails and ground An electric locomotive, taking power through a pantograph An electric vehicle, or EV, is a vehicle with one or more electric motors for propulsion. ... Gasoline on the left, alcohol on the right at a filling station in Brazil Rising energy prices and global warming have led to increased interest in alternative fuels. ... Hydrogen fuel is potentially an alternative to gasoline, creating a hydrogen economy. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Energy savers

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

• Regenerative braking

• BMW's Turbosteamer technology to harness the heat generated by conventional internal combustion engines and use it to generate mechanical energy [2], resulting in a 15% increase in engine efficiency. [3]

• Utilization of waste heat from the engine as useful mechanical energy through exhaust powered steam, stirling engines, thermal diodes or etc..^[2]

Regenerative braking is any technology which allows a vehicle to recapture and store part of the kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost to heat when braking. ... The world-wide recognized term, BMW, abbreviated for Bayerische Motoren Werke or in English Bavarian Motor Works, is an independent German company and manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles. ... An internal combustion engine is an engine that is powered by the expansion of hot combustion products of fuel directly acting within an engine. ... In physics, mechanical energy describes the potential energy and kinetic energy present in the components of a mechanical system. ... // The term steam engine may also refer to an entire railroad steam locomotive. ... Cut away diagram of a Rhombic Drive Beta Stirling Engine Design Pink - Hot cylinder wall, Dark grey - Cold cylinder wall (with coolant inlet and outlet pipes in Yellow), Dark Green - Thermal insulation separating the two cylinder ends, Light Green - Displacer piston, Dark Blue - Power piston, Light Blue - Flywheels, Not Shown... A thermal diode is a heat engine which converts a heat difference directly into electric power. ...

Materials

• Duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes may totally replace all steel in cars (potentially improving lightness and strength).
• Nanotechnology-enhanced cars will be stronger than steel which can help to reduce weight and better protect passengers.

Duralumin (or duraluminum) is an alloy of aluminium (about 95%), copper (about 4%), and small amounts of magnesium (0. ... Bundle of fiberglass Fiberglass or glassfibre is material made from extremely fine fibers of glass. ... Carbon fiber composite is a strong, light and very expensive material. ... 3D model of three types of single-walled carbon nanotubes. ... The steel cable of a colliery winding tower. ... Buckminsterfullerene C60, also known as the buckyball, is the simplest of the carbon structures known as fullerenes. ... A spring scale measures the weight of an object In the physical sciences, weight is a measurement of the gravitational force acting on an object. ...

See also

• Automobile dependency
• Flying car
• New Mobility Agenda
• New urbanism
• Transit-oriented development
• Vehicle Infrastructure Integration

Automobile dependency is a term coined by Professors Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy to capture the predicament of most cities in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and to a lesser extent, large cities in Europe. ... The Flying Car The Waterman Aerobile at the Smithsonian. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The New urbanism is an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s. ... Aerial view of growth patterns in Arlington County, Virginia. ... Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) is the ongoing development of technology which directly links vehicles with the infrastructure. ...

External links

Cars specifically

• What if Cars Could Drive Themselves? (from U. Washington's Innovative Transportation Technologies website)
• Hypercar Concept - Rocky Mountain Institute

Transportation technology

• [4] 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, audio 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

References

1. ^ "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction"
2. ^ "BMW unveils the turbosteamer concept", Gizmag, December 14, 2005. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.