Where Is Auto Development Headed?
There is a lot of new technology coming down the road. Remember how fast computer technology came about? This is what is beginning to happen in a lot of other areas and it won’t be long before our daily lives will be unrecognizable by those who live in the past. There seems to be a lot happening in the area of automobiles. For one thing engineers are talking about doing away with spark plugs and substituting a laser. The idea is the laser would ignite fuel much more efficiently and bring the efficiency of an engine burning fuel up another 27%. In a way I am a little surprised engineers are still working on improving the internal combustion engine. While I am not an engineer, it does seem to me the days are numbered for this type of engine. One of the things which has prevented electric cars from taking over is the fact we are told there are no batteries in existence today which can individually power a car sufficiently. I would believe this except for the fact a whistleblower has come out and stated the military has secretly developed batteries over 50 years ago which blow anything away we are using today, but they are tied up in what is known as black programs. These black programs are the ones which are secretly funded, sometimes with unlimited funds. If this is truly the case we need to get these batteries into our automobiles.
Let me tell you a little more about this whistleblower. He’s a former US government worker who is keeping his identity secret and we can hardly blame him for that. He claims the US has had endless battery technology for over 50 years and is hiding it from us. This sort of goes along with what we were told by the death bed confession of Ben Rich who was the former head of the Lockheed Skunk Works, A Department of Lockheed which developed secret aircraft and space related weapons. He talked about technology being locked up in black projects which could take us to the stars, cure cancer and do many other things, but which would take an act of God to get released. So you see this whistleblower I talked about is certainly not the first tell us about these things. I think it is an open secret in government that there are some very incredible inventions which we are not releasing to the public and which could change their lives. This is just another symptom of keeping too many secrets.
A new engine for cars is coming to town and if its reviewers are correct it will make a heck of a difference, because it will do to incredible things. Before I get into that, let me tell you the entire engine is only the size of a cooking pot. First of all it is said the engine will save about 1000 pounds in weight and the savings will be made by eliminating parts from the conventional engine and part of the transmission along with the cooling system, emission system and fluids. The engine is called a wave disk engine being developed by Michigan State University. It is designed to be used in hybrid cars and some say it is actually a generator. It will allow hybrid automobiles to get power from about 60% of the fuel burned, where we now only get a return of about 15%. This seems to indicate we will not only do better on the electric side of things but on the fuel-burning side we might get as much as four times the range. Hybrid cars are really only a stopgap measure on the way to full electric powered cars or possibly hydrogen powered ones. As I said batteries have always been the problem and we have had electric powered cars since the late 1800s but they were only useful for short distances. About the most practical electric vehicle we have today, aside from possibly the Tesla, is the Chinese bus which charges itself in 10 seconds after traveling about 3 miles. This vehicle is perfect for a city bus which makes many stops anyway.
A new material has been created at MIT which may find an eventual use in automobiles. The material soaks up solar energy in a different way. It absorbs heat and will release it later when needed. It stores the heat in chemical form and this is how it can retain it for so long. This may find use as a charger for car batteries in electric vehicles. During the day it could provide some sort of a charge even as the car is running, giving you a longer-range on battery power. When you park your car in the daytime it would continue to charge. Scientists are saying, “This work presents an exciting Avenue for simultaneous energy harvesting and storage within a single material.” I believe this material still has a way to go before it could be efficient enough.
One of the things which has worried people is the fact lithium-Ion batteries are prone to go on fire. There have been many cases in the past where this has happened even on airplanes and certainly on many laptops. Scientists are now saying they have developed lithium-ion batteries which can detect when they beginning to overheat and shut down and only restart when the temperatures go down. A professor of chemical engineering at Stanford said, “People have tried different strategies to solve the problem of accidental fires in lithium-ion batteries. We’ve designed the first battery that can be shut down and revived over repeated heating and cooling cycles without compromising performance.” If one of these batteries reaches 300°F which is 150°C the electrodes can catch fire or even explode. The problem until now has been the technologies which exist to prevent this render the battery useless and it can never be used again.
Lastly as we all know by now it seems to be only a matter of time before cars will be driving themselves. In the beginning it’s going to take brave souls to sit in a car without a driver. I guess it will be the equivalent of those early aviators who took to the skies and tried to do things like flying across the English Channel. Once we get used to this, it will become very commonplace, but I think there may still be times when a human will have to take over directing the automobile. Those times may be when Lane stripes are missing or covered, there is a system malfunction or somebody wants to drive for the enjoyment of it. The automatic systems may become so good people in the future may not be allowed to drive cars, because it wouldn’t be as safe as the car driving itself. If history is any indicator, we may never have a flying car, because the requirements are too stiff for the average person. I am talking about having to pass certain aeronautical tests, having expensive equipment installed in the autos to keep you in a lane in the sky and different sorts of radar which would have to be installed.
I think we should enjoy the cars we have now, because their days are certainly numbered.
