BusinessWeek taking bets on the car of tomorrow
Predicting the path of the automotive industry in the long run is nigh impossible, as the technologies we will find ourselves beholden to in fifty years haven't even been invented yet, that is, of course, assuming a robot army hasn't staged a world coup before then. BusinessWeek is the latest to scan the horizon of technology and science fiction to tell us what we'll be driving in the future, and it should be no surprise that the first guess is the Moller SkyCar we've been promised for so long. Also on the list of future vehicles are the Volkswagen GX3 that's already been nixed for production in the present and the Ford SYNUS personal armored truck.
The slideshow assembled by BusinessWeek is accompanied by an article that also examines what areas of exotic technology will become commonplace in the future. Alternative fuels is an obvious one, as is the impending dashboard battle between Apple and Microsoft to be the operating system of choice in cars.
BusinessWeek's article got us thinking about what features we want in our future car, and flying isn't one of them. Whoever wants to give up the marriage of rubber and road is no friend of ours. Aside from an increasing focus on vehicles capable of zero-emissions, we believe active and passive safety technology and your in-car entertainment will receive the most attention from techies.
[Source: BusinessWeek]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James Sonne 8:43PM (10/02/2006)
One can use a liquid hydrogen cooled "Relativity Drive" to lift a 3000 pound vehicle off the ground and 'fly' around instead of riding on the road. This technology is available now, assuming you have a source of liquid nitrogen and a several kilowatt microwave you could make it at home. This is an incentive to go to a hydrogen infracturer as well, instead of gasoline. Solar panels provide the energy, liquid hydrogen provides the cooling, and photons provide the force.
http://www.newscientist.com
http://www.wikipedia.org
Reply
rem83 9:14PM (10/02/2006)
Why bother using solar panels to generate the energy? As long as you're violating conservation of momentum, you might as well violate conservation of energy and use a MEG (Motionless Electromagnetic Generator - http://jnaudin.free.fr/meg/meg.htm) to generate the electricity. Or, you could try living in the real world with technologis that don't violate the "proven" laws of nature. Also, even if the "Relativity Drive" did work, you'd probably need an ass-load of energy to lift a car up (I didn't see any equations on the website that would allow me to relate energy input to thrust generated). I think overcoming rolling resistance is probably a lot more efficient.
Reply
a 11:07PM (10/02/2006)
i dont know what u guys above me are talking about, but the pictures sure look like the Hydralisks in Starcraft.
Reply
compuntoes 11:20PM (10/02/2006)
I think the liquid hydrogen is the best and more powerful energy font for a car, not solar energy
Reply
compuntoes 11:25PM (10/02/2006)
Or maybe hybrid cars, but it's so difficult
Reply
T_biz 1:16AM (10/03/2006)
So basically all I see here is a super impracticle motorcycle. "Car of the future" my arse. Business Week should chaneg it's name to Business Weak.
Reply
DPC car videos 1:51AM (10/03/2006)
Straight out of movie "Tron"
Reply
Gunbuster 4:31PM (10/03/2006)
The Taelon Mothership does have a Go Kart track!
Reply
James Sonne 9:15AM (10/03/2006)
RE: #2, who's violating any laws? It's the same idea as a solar sail in space.
The amount of thrust created is directly proportional to the kW of the magnetron producing the photons and the Q efficiency, which is a quantitative value of the amount of heat lost in the system. I'll make you an EMDrive right now, just buy me some sheet copper and a powerful microwave, and I'll give you a couple of millinewtons worth of thrust. That's easier than trying to make an internal combustion engine at home.
Reply
Riker 11:36AM (10/03/2006)
James,
The only thing that the EMdrive has in common with solar sails is that both their surfaces experience a pressure from electromagnetic radiation.
But the EMdrive is trying to create an imbalance of pressure in a closed system.
You might as well try lifting yourself off the ground by pulling up on your own shirt collar.
Reply
rem83 12:02PM (10/03/2006)
#10 - Exactly. Additionally, solar sails are thousands, perhaps millions, of square meters, they experience fairly slow acceleration and require extremely high intensity light. Even if it was possible to generate this so called pressure differential, it would not be nearly as great as the pressure differential between the light and dark sides of the solar sail. I'll believe 30 N/W once Roger Shawyer wins the nobel prize, which he most certainly would if his claims were true.
Reply