The Quest for the Car of the Future

Lux writes "Where will the car of the future come from? It's unlikely to come from anywhere you'd expect it to. Wired's money is on the car of the future coming from NASA. 'New technology that promises to revolutionize the automobile as we know it is emerging from research institutions and startups — and these innovations won't set you back $100,000 like a Tesla will... One experiment involves small electric motors located in the wheels of the CityCar, a tiny, nimble and practically silent vehicle with wheels that turn 360 degrees, enabling it to slip neatly into tight urban parking spaces. Others are looking to revolutionize the automobile's engine, not replace it.'"

Comments

Damn It

[Greyfox]

The Car of the Future. Face it folks, the lifestyle we're living isn't sustainable. We're quickly moving to a future where the ultra-wealthy will be the only ones able to afford to own and operate an automobile as personal transportation. The rest of us are going to have to lower our expectations. Or if not us, our children. There are just too many people in the world and not enough resources to go around, especially once those billions of people in China and India decide they're sick of being have-nots on the global stage and start working for the luxuries that the more developed countries take for granted.

Efforts like this may slow the effects of the decline somewhat but I suspect that they'll lower where we bottom out at, too. Technology and conservation might be able to dig us out of this hole that we've dug ourselves into, but I don't think we're clever enough to deal with the issues central to this problem. In a nutshell, the people are the problem and they're not going to want to change.

Re:Not a good biodiesel crop.

[evilviper]

There isn't enough arable land, and there are already concerns about top soil depletion just with food crops.

Arguments about arable land are crap. I can grow crops on the roof of the Sears Tower if necessary. And things like genetic modifications have the potential to allow even higher yields, with less resources. The economics are the only existing problem with biofuels, though that's certainly not insubstantial.