Forward to the Future – of cars....

Today’s post: Weds, 4-2-2008

As I see it, cars will gradually evolve to be more energy efficient & the kinds that will increasingly be our transportation will be hybrids, all electric cars, plug-in hybrids, --

& possibly fuel cell cars run on hydrogen – IF the technology for safe storage advances & if they can be fueled by using renewable or possibly nuclear power to liberate the hydrogen from water or methane.

The cars look set to appear in our marketplace in large numbers in about that order. Hybrids are here now & more will be arriving soon. Two or three all electric car models will arrive within a few more months from Tesla Motors & Miles Electric Vehicles. And, plug-in hybrids now in development will arrive soon after that.

In addition, cars will be more comfortable & safer to drive and, for energy efficiency, will tend to get lighter, more aerodynamically streamlined, -- & somewhat smaller, perhaps.

To see all of the above, but in a car a bit extreme appearance-wise, go to www.aptera.com -- This is the website of Aptera Motors.

They do not yet make a car that most people would buy or one large enough for some family’s needs.

(It is a 3 wheeled car that looks like a tiny airplane with no wings & reminds me a bit of R2D2 of StarWars with its back leaning look. And, it only holds two people. It’s well engineered NOT to be fragile in a crash but looks like it is. My personal preference is for a larger more normal looking car with 4 wheels. I prefer the look of the Honda Civic Hybrid over the Prius for example.

Some early adapters & some younger buyers WILL buy their limited production cars now. But they don’t yet have a design ready for prime time, large sales to the general public in my view.)

However, their design innovations are extremely impressive. I hope designers & executives from GM, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Chrysler, & the other, still large, car makers adapt many of them.

The bad news is the larger companies will lose market share if they don’t as the newer car companies will do so I think.

On Aptera’s website I found an article from TreeHugger, www.treehugger.com

This key paragraph describes two of the most useful & desirable innovations that any car maker could add to its cars.:

“You'll get some pretty slick features, including solar cells embedded under the roof operate an always-on climate control system, ensuring the interior never gets too hot or too cold, and a computer-controlled “Eyes Forward” vision system. By replacing the side mirrors with embedded cameras that display a 180-degree rear view in the front of the instrument panel, Eyes Forward "gives the driver complete situational awareness without taking their eyes off of the road."

These two innovations are extremely desirable features I wish our car we currently drive had now.

In addition to the added comfort of not having to get into a horribly hot car on a hot, sunny day, this system eliminates or sharply reduces the outside power needed to run the air conditioning on such days by using the available solar energy. This is something I’d like to see on all cars soon.

Secondly, highway patrol officers & car safety instructors teach to check your rear view mirrors often as you drive. Even good drivers, probably including most of the officers & instructors, have trouble remembering to do this often. And, if you do it at just the wrong time so taking your eyes away from looking forward causes you to miss a sudden threat in front of you, it can even be a bad idea sometimes.

This eyes forward TV display of what is behind you & what is in your blind spots, is a brilliant idea which solves both these problems at the same time. Good job.

It will be interesting to see how cars develop from here given all these innovations.

The good news is that a lot of these things will happen within 10 years; & most of them will happen, I think, within 30 years.