Will high-speed car chases become a thing of the past? A company in the U.K. has developed a prototype that could stop cars in their tracks by blasting electromagnetic waves.
Continue reading… “RF Safe-Stop can shut down a vehicle’s engine by blasting radio waves”
The interior of the Tesla Model S offers a glimpse of the data-rich driving environments of tomorrow.
Cars will be big data collectors in the future. They will continuously monitoring the operation and function of the many moving parts of the vehicle and hopefully giving you a warning well in advance of pending failure.
Researchers have designed this proof-of-concept wireless charger for moving electric vehicles.
A problem with electric vehicles is providing power while the vehicles are moving. One way to extend the range of electric vehicles may be to provide power wirelessly through coils placed under the surface of a road. But charging moving vehicles with high-power wireless chargers below them is complex.
Continue reading… “Recharging electric vehicles on the move”
The battery is the biggest limitation for electric vehicles (EV). Tesla, General Motors, Nissan and others install heavy batteries that limit vehicle range and performance. The batteries take up as much as 15% of the vehicle’s total weight.
Nissan Leaf winter test.
How do people drive electric cars in places that consistently get many feet of snow every winter? The short answer is snow tires. The long answer is plan ahead.
Continue reading… “Can electric cars handle Canadian winters?”
Here is a vehicle for all couch potatoes out there: the Couch Bike
Some cars can be made without wheels, tracks or skis (and still get places just fine, thank you), others may not even require an engine, while some vehicles are so strange that can hardly be called “cars” anymore. On top of all that, some car designers must have something against drivers, judging by profoundly befuddling and non-user-friendly setups they come up with. In most cases, though, these experimental machines do get around quite well (sometimes even more efficiently than traditional vehicles), and almost certainly turn into prized collection items. (Photos)
Continue reading… “The world’s weirdest vehicles”
Tesla could be joining a number of companies who say they will create their own fully autonomous cars.
Tesla is searching for an autonomous driving engineer, someone who will likely bring some of those great hands-free features to its electric carsin the future. They put out a call for applicants on its careers page for an “Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Control Engineer,” or ADAS. The applicant will perform a research role, looking at how to add autonomous features and working with the “firmware team” to actually put this research into action.
Continue reading… “Tesla hiring a driverless-vehicle engineer”
Public fast charging as a vital step in the acceptance of electric vehicles.
According to a new study, struggling to find a rapid charging station for your electric car could be a thing of the past by 2020. The number of quick chargers worldwide will increase by one hundred times that of today.
Continue reading… “Number of electric fast-charging stations will reach 199,000 by 2020”
Researchers are building systems to enable humans to collaborate with robots and vehicles.
In the morning, you wake up and your robot starts the coffee maker and then sends the daily calendar to the car. The car then works on a plan that makes sure you keep to that schedule. This is the vision of MIT researchers who are developing systems to help people collaborate with robots and vehicles.
Continue reading… “MIT researchers envision a future of talking cars that can plan driver’s day”
Electric cars carrying receiving coils could charge themselves with embedded transmitting coils in the roadways.
When you think of an all-electric car you may picture it cruising down the highway, emitting little noise and no noxious fumes. It’s such an improvement that you have to wonder why only a handful of all-electric vehicles are now available on the mass market.
Continue reading… “An all-electric vehicle that never needs to be plugged in”
2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid
At this year’s Detroit North American International Auto Show Auto Blog Green had the opportunity to interview Ford’s newly-promoted chief operating officer Mark Fields. He will most likely be the most likely successor to CEO Alan Mulally.
Continue reading… “Electric vehicle sales could be up 25% by 2020: Ford COO Mark Fields”
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.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.