New Cars - New Technology
By Rudy Hiebert, Fri Dec 9th

Exciting Future Of Automobiles

New technologies will improve fuel efficiency, increase safety, aid navigation and repair.

Bend Bohn, of the German auto components company, Robert Bosch Corporation, recently predicted that internal combustion engines will continue to dominate the automotive market well into the21st Century. Automotive manufacturers have invested considerable time and effort in attempt to improve fuel efficiency in these engines, and they have been successful. In fact the U.S.A. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), estimates engines have become 30 percent more fuel-efficient over the past15 years than previously. However the gains have been offset by the introduction of increasingly bigger and more powerful engines. The average engine in the present industry is 63percent more powerful than 20 years ago.

John Heywood, Director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimates new technology will reduce fuel consumption by a third by 2020 and a half by2030. Gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles and modern diesel engines are significantly more fuel efficient than their gasoline counterparts, but new technology in gasoline engines is also expected to reduce fuel consumption.

Next year, General Motors will begin introducing “displacementon demand” technology in their engines, reducing fuel consumption by eight percent by using only half their cylinders during most normal driving. GM predicts another 7 to 11 percent in fuel savings can be achieved through use of continuously variable automatic transmissions.

More advanced variable valve controls, already in the works at BMW, are expected to further increase fuel savings, while Bosch has recently developed it Direct-Start system. The system allows the engine to shut off while idling, but it instantly restarts as soon as the driver touches the gas pedal, igniting the combustion mixture in the fuel injections system without engaging the starter motor. Bosch predicts fuel savings of 5percent with the Direct-Start system.

New and exciting automotive technology goes far beyond fuel economy improvements. “’I’ve been involved [with auto research for more than 30 years, and there’s more action and more promise for improvement now than I’ve ever seen,” says Heywood.

New technology expected to hit the marketplace within the next decade:

Active safety systems will include radar and cameras that watch for danger. “We’ve put airbags just about every place you can.” Says Toyota Product-planning Manager, John Weiner, “Withinthe next five years the car will use algorithms to anticipate hazards and intervene or warn the driver.