Future Car Technologies - Autos

<p>Science is enabling people to make giant technological strides in all fields, including those of automobiles. Although the dawn of mass produced flying cars is still far away, major interest combined with high funding has resulted in many potentially ground breaking technological changes in cars. Areas where research is primarily focused on includes finding new energy sources and materials; including biogas, hydrogen, nitrogen, electric and solar power as potential energy sources, building smart cars, making cars less accident prone, saving energy, having greater fuel efficiency and producing cleaner cars, which do not pollute the environment. Techniques such as regenerative braking, the 'Turbosteamer' used by BMW and the use of computational fluid dynamics help in a more efficient use of energy.</p>

<p>The idea of a car propelled by nuclear energy may seem farfetched but the Ford Nucleon was pioneered in 1957, which was the first nuclear automobile. However, no working prototypes were produced but nuclear energy can be looked at in the future as a potential fuel source. Currently, hydrogen is proving to be a much more viable fuel source as several prototypes have been produced. BMW produced the BMW Hydrogen 7 as a dual fuel vehicle with the ability to use either liquid hydrogen or gasoline.</p>

<p>Apart from all these practical advantages, the aesthetics of the car are subject to immense scrutiny as well. Movies have generally heralded the creation of future technologies in cars. Many of the features present in the cars of early James Bond movies are present in mass-produced cars today. In the movie, I Robot, released in 2004, the producers used the Audi RSQ sports coup, which used spheres instead of wheels.</p>

<p>Fiction has also occasionally dwelled into the possibility of flying automobiles. In fact, the dream of building such a vehicle has been present ever since the first plane of the Wright Brothers took flight. In January 2009, the Terrafugia Transition, developed by former NASA engineers, took its first test flight as the world's first flying car. The car has the ability to transform from a car into a plane in approximately 15 seconds. The manufactures are confident in the ability of this integrated vehicle to be mass produced. Paul Moller has been trying to manufacture a flying car, which he calls a "Skycar", his prototype labeled M200X was unveiled in 1989, which could go as high as 50 feet. More interestingly Skycar M400, which is his latest design, has the ability to take off and land vertically, ability found in harrier jets. The car can reach speeds of 400 mph and currently costs $1 million but if it is to be mass produced it is likely to be available at a more afforda
ble price. Additionally, there are many other prototypes in the works including the likes of the Aerocar, Avrocar, ConvAir Car, Airphibian and Arrowbile. Many of these vehicles use different sets of technologies for propulsion and aerial abilities, some of them use propellers while the others are integrated with wings as well. Proper financial resources and technological integration between these several prototypes can finally bring the dream of mass production of flying cars to a reality.
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