Two of my favorite car companies have partnered together, Ford and Toyota, to work on my favorite drive topology, rear-wheel drive, with everyone's favorite engine system, the hybrid.
● The partnership sets the two companies on equal footing in an effort to create and advanced hybrid system for rear-wheel drive light trucks and SUVs.
● The goal is to deliver greater fuel efficiency while not compromising the performance of the vehicles.
● The team will also work towards developing the next-generation standards for in vehicle internet and digital communication systems.
● Ford and Toyota pledge to deliver the new tech within the coming decade.
I like where their minds are at. However, I would like to see this same hybrid RWD system come to consumer and sport cars. I believe I am not the only one. Perhaps market demand with usher in a new revival for RWD. We can only hope.
Auto -inflating tires are given in science fiction futures, if the vehicles have wheels that is. Look at the film Demolition Man, which features Wesley Snipe's character using voice commands to auto-inflate a tire. It seems like a simple idea, only now is it made?
From Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company comes the Air Maintenance Technology (AMT). The entire system is housed inside the tire. There will be no need for external intervention. Goodyear senior vice president and chief technical officer Jean-Claude Kihn elaborated, "While the technology is complex, the idea behind the AMT system is relatively simple and powered by the tire itself as it rolls down the road."
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)Office of Vehicle Technology awarded Goodyear with $1.5 million USD for further research in using the AMT system on commercial truck tires. Tires not properly inflated will cause up to a 3.3% drop in fuel economy. The DOE's angle is to lessen the demand for foreign oil by the 3.3%. The average semi-truck drives up to 1 million miles in its life time. The 3.3% improvement could mean a savings of $6,000 USD in the end. (3.3% ~= 0.12 cents per . With a liberal 20 mpg, the savings comes up to $6.000 at current gasoline prices.)
The grant also applies to a Goodyear and PPG Industries partnership on improving rolling resistance and fuel efficiencies of tires.
There is no date or pricing on the AMT system's release. Goodyear is also very hush on how the technology works. I am going to guess it is very similar to the SIT (self inflating tire) from 2008.
Why does every electric car that boasts a world record range on a single charge always looks like it is from an ugly Buck Rogers future?
Buck Rogers Rocket Ship (left) Bluebird EV capable of 500 mph (Right)
Schluckspecht E (left) and with the Schluckspecht Team (right) (via Team Schluckspecht)
Team Schluckspecht just barely does away with the outer-space fairing look with their new world record holding electric vehicle (EV), the "Schluckspecht E" or "Boozer E" in English. On a single charge the EV travelled 1,013.8 miles (1,631.5 km) over a span of 36 hours and 12 minutes. The efficiency comes from taking as much mass out of the EV's chassis, only having one seat, and evenly dividing the power demand equally between 14 individual lithium-cobalt batteries. Drive in applied directly via two motors, one on each front wheel, which does away with a transmission. However, the team did not break any land-speed records. The Boozer could only reach 28 mph (45 km/h). The test took place at the Bosch corporate race track in Boxberg, Germany.
I would stomach driving this EV if it could go 65 mph. I am sure much of the range will be lost adding a transmission, but it would still best every EV available today.
I did not know how to turn off the change oil light in my car, it was not in the manual. What did I do? I checked youtube for the answer. Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TU) and Audi are about to bring a video manual you can talk to on all new model Audi cars.
The Avatar-based Virtual Co-driver System (AviCoS) is a animated avatar that can give the driver, or anyone in the car, detailed information on the vehicle using "natural-language dialog." Simply ask a question, and the system will deliver the answer. AviCoS uses an AI that can analyze complete sentences and answer using audio, images, or video on a embedded screen in the car. The avatar can also visually guide the user through the car, or point to areas of interest.
If the user is unfamiliar with a certain feature of the car, the touch screen lets the user enter the "Touch & Tell Mode." The user touches the area of the car where more information is needed, the avatar provides all the background information. While driving, all animations and graphical outputs are suppressed to avoid distracting the driver. However, voice communication will still work. " Overall, AviCoS provides comfortable and interactive access to multimedia content that goes far beyond the information contained in printed manuals. The self-explanatory system can be used without training, making it easy to get familiar with the operation of a vehicle," said TU Institute for Business Informatics' Dr Michael Schermann.
The development team stated that the next step is to sense the drivers mood through elevated speech patterns or tone of voice. When angry, the animations are suppressed. In a time a difficulty, I would not care to see flashy animations, I suppose.
Self taught, Terry Hope has made his own solar power generating electric bicycle. Hope fitted the stock Specialized FRS 18 speed bike with a front grill and windshield for mounting eighteen 6"x6" mono crystalline sollar cells. Approximately 4 watt (@ 8.7v) output on each cell. Totaling 72 watts if all conditions are ideal. A 24V motor controller moves the 1 HP motor at the core of the project. Batteries are 6s1p 5000mah LIPO as the main, and two 4s1p LIPO 5000mah as "booster packs" which are wired in series. I assume he uses the "boosters" to overdrive the motor. Across the handle bars are several buttons used to turn the solar on or off for direct use, button for the booster, and the all important red E-stop. Hope added toggles to use solar for battery charging.
The motor itself drives the main sprocket. As with most multi-speed bicycles, the pedals are not engaged by the motor. The drive system is very unique compared to other electric bicycles. However, this is not ready for mass production. It is still very much a labor of love. I like the smaller electric bicycle Hope has made more than the 18 speed, see his launch page.
26 November 2003 was the last flight for the commercial Concorde supersonic airliner. Global dreams of traveling 3 times faster than anything else were seemingly dashed forever.
That was until the 2011 Paris Air Show. Two supersonic jet concepts were announced from EADS and new player HyperMach Europe Aeronautics. Both claim speeds fasters than the Concorde. Both are decades away. More notably, both are promoting these jets as being "green."
EADS, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V., teased their concept called the ZEHST (Zero Emissions Hypersonic Transport). The jet contains three different types of purpulsion systems that will engage at different stages in flight, each quite green. The takeoff enginers use a algae based biofuel. At an altitude of 6km, the Ariane (rocket type) engine using cryogenically stored hydrogen and oxygen liquid fuels. At an altitude of 32km onboard ramjets take over the flight also using hydrogen as the fuel, taking the craft to speeds of up to mach 4 and possibly 5, high enough to not allow for sonic-booms. EADS claims that this method of propulsion will be cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
EADS spokesman Grgor von Kurell said, " We think the three different propulsion types we're considering - one of which we have perfected for the Ariane rocket - could make this achievable by 2050." EADS also claims a London to Tokyo flight of just over 2 hours.
HyberMach's jet concept called the SonicStar differentiates itself distinctly by giving a release date of 2021. This all depends on whether or not they get the funding and partnership. The S-MagJet 4000X engine that pushes this craft is 30% more efficient than the Concorde engine and at twice the speed, Mach 3.6. Another big feature claims it can adjust the sound footprint of the jet, and if need be suppress a sonic-boom.
The SonicStar, using conventional engine technology does seem to be poised for sooner realization. However, in its current design, the SonicStar is only designed to carry 10-20 passengers. Again, putting supersonic flight out of the reach of the global dreamers.
Without doubt, electric vehicles have sex appeal. Not in the same way that a five litre 480hp V8 Mustang at full throttle does. The benefit is more cerebral. They are the future, quiet and clean. Driving one comes with a feel good factor of saving the planet. I have one, and I love it, see here. It might even breed a certain little sanctimonious corner of the grey matter that makes one park it on the drive rather than put it in the garage.
Do we need them? Most certainly. I don’t believe it is possible for the planet’s resources to support all of China and India at the consumption rates in the West, an astounding 200kWh per head, every day. If China were like the USA they would be buying 60M cars per year: that’s the entire world car production in 2009. Something has to change.
Even the most optimistic people, which I rashly assume is the US Geological Society, say peak oil will be somewhere around 2030; IEA thinks we’ve flatlined and others say that we’ve peaked already. For mass consumption, oil shale may not be the significant low cost oil replacement we want it to be. Your children, or theirs, may be the last petrol heads on the planet.
A weighted 9" disc spins at 60,000 rpm, who's surface is traveling twice the speed of sound, may just power hybrid vehicles in the near future. British company Ricardo has designed a flywheel energy storage system to use in future hybrid vehicles. The system called Kinergy, stores the energy in breaking into the carbon fibre laced flywheels. The energy stored is then used as a torque assist in accelerating the vehicle. The flywheel is house in a vacuum sealed container and placed on magnetic bushings to reduce all friction to the near zero. A magnetic gearing and coupling mechanism gathers the energy from the flywheel and applies it, with no mechanical contact, to the transmission. Each flywheel produces approximately 30 kW of power from the 4.5 kg discs.
Flybus with Kinergy system, rear cutaway
Currently the Kinergy system is being tested on Flybus buses at airports, with a goal of 20% fuel savings. Another test involved using a Kinergy storage system paired with a Torotrak Continuously Variable Transmission on a Optare Solo bus. The future has Ricardo leading the KinerStor project with a consortium of other companies to bring the Kinergy system to other hybrid vehicles with a goal of 30% efficiency increase.
Here is a perfect example of, "I can not believe this has not been done already."
Aalto University in Finland is testing the use of hybrid technology in non-road, mobile industrial machinery. Think Prius versions of cranes, bulldozers, tractors, and diggers. Their concept is to capture of the energy from the work being performed by each machine that is lost when in operation. Like in hybrid cars, deceleration, braking energies are being absorbed as well as energy from such tasks as lowering a load. For the record, no one has attempted making hybrids in this area.
Head researchers Professor Jussi Suomela spoke of the impetus of the project, "These heavy duty machines are operated for long periods of time, so by the end of the day emissions and fuel consumption have added up. Being able to target them is a significant improvement." From recent experimental data, Suomela has show that involving such combustion/electric hybrids in work machinery has the potential to save 50% of the fuel costs in stand alone operation, and even more if the system is plugged into the power grid.
Now it is not a question of can it be done, but when can it be implemented. Great work, Aalto University.
When I first watched this video I had one question, what if the driver spaces out for a little bit? Although my question was not answered, I did see an impressive video of the brain controlled car in operation. The "MadeInGermany" autonomous car designed by Autonomous Labs in collaboration with the Freie Universitat in Berlin, has been controlled by an iPhone, iPad, and now a EEG (electroenzephalogram) tool. The Drive-By-Wire system interprets electromagnetic signals produced by the brain, though I am not sure what they are thinking about exactly to produce the commands. The 21st century promises finally surface.
