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Are driverless cars coming sooner than expected? Google and Audi already working on ways to make our vehicles more autonomous and safe, so we’re left wondering what the future will look like once every car has that ability.
Continue reading… “Driverless cars could make intersections more efficient”
15 metropolitan areas have accounted for 41% of all U.S. electric vehicle registrations through the first 10 months of 2012.
The mix of new hybrid and electric vehicles varies as much among the different regions of the United States as does the mix of makes and models, if not more so. The 15 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) with the highest percentage of hybrid powertrains together account for almost 30% of all hybrid registrations nationally, yet these same 15 markets include just 12.5% of all new vehicle registrations. Nine of these 15 hybrid-rich areas have a hybrid penetration greater than 6%, while the national penetration is 2.97%. In San Francisco, the market area with the highest hybrid mix, almost one of every 10 new vehicles sold is a hybrid.
About 112,000 natural-gas powered vehicles are now on U.S. roads.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. said it is working with General Electric Co GE and Whirlpool Corp. to develop a $500 appliance that will allow natural-gas powered cars to be refueled at their owners’ homes.
Continue reading… “Energy company developing home refueling appliance for natural-gas cars”
Shell, and others, see the export of the super-cooled natural gas as a lucrative venture.
While oil development continue to dominate the Royal Dutch Shell portfolio, the energy developer is now making plans to invest heavily in liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Shell, and others, see the export of the super-cooled natural gas as a lucrative venture.
Continue reading… “Companies pave way for natural gas fueled cars and trucks”
Buying a car often is the second-largest purchase most people will ever make.
They could be called digital test-drivers. According to a new study, more than one in 10 new-car shoppers, armed with online research, now buy vehicles without taking a test drive.
Continue reading… “More car buyers are skipping the test drive: Study”
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 1954, Brook Stevens, a well-known industrial designer gave a keynote speech at an advertising conference titled “Planned Obsolescence.”
By his definition, planned obsolescence was “instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than necessary.”
Continue reading… “Turmoil Ahead for the Automotive Industry”
Sitting in traffic? Send a text message to the guy in front of you.
The New York International Auto Show kicks off this Friday and there will be a torrent of technology, but it isn’t focused on mpg or “skid pad” performance. The new models are all about apps and Facebook friends.
Continue reading… “Bump Network – service sends messages to license plates”
You might already be familiar with Google’s self-driving car project. They have spent years working on a tough engineering problem—how to create a hardware and software system capable of gathering and interpreting massive amounts of real-time data and acting on that knowledge swiftly and surely enough to navigate innumerable varieties of crowded thoroughfares without ever once (among other human frailties) exploding in a fit of road rage at the guy who just cut hard left across your lane without even bothering to flash his blinker.
In 2009, auto accidents caused by distracted driving left over 5,000 people killed, and 450,000 injured. With smartphone use growing rapidly, along with new developments like Facebook integration with your car’s dashboard, the number of distracted driving accidents, it would seem, has nowhere to go but up.
Continue reading… “Driverless cars and the end of distracted driving: Infographic”
American drivers are holding on to their cars and trucks for longer, new data suggest.
New data suggests American drivers are holding on to their cars and trucks longer as they put off buying new vehicles in the face of high unemployment and a struggling economy.
Continue reading… “American drivers keeping their cars longer”
Getting a smartphone has been a rite of passage for many teens.
There are a lot of problems the auto industry has to worry about. They have to worry about pensions and health care costs for their employees. They also have to worry about recalls and the rising cost of gas. But there is something else that automakers should be concerned about.
Continue reading… “Teenagers prefer smartphones to cars”
John Fleming and Tim Maxwell claim they can make ammonia for 75 cents a gallon.
John Fleming of SilverEagles Energy and Tim Maxwell from Texas Tech University, say they have developed a way to make ammonia that is cheap enough so that it could be used as fuel for cars. If their claims turn out to be true, many consumers might consider switching over because ammonia, when burned in an engine, emits nothing but nitrogen and water vapor out the tailpipe. And if that’s not enough incentive, they claim they can make the ammonia for just 20 cents a liter (approximately 75 cents a gallon).
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.