Windshield Time
Chances are you spend a lot of time in your car. Here’s some automotive-related news that might help you appreciate your home-away-from-home a little more.
Diesel in your future?
Why is it that 50 percent of all European auto sales involve diesel-powered vehicles, while less than 4 percent of U. S. sales do? According to a recent article in Business Week, the reason may be … no reason at all. Americans are still hung up on the smoky, smelly diesels of the 1970s, which caused many states to ban their sale. But times — and diesel fuel — have changed. Cleaner-burning technologies are available today. That fact, plus the fact that diesel fuel offers 20 percent to 40 percent greater fuel economy than gasoline, may change the picture in America. In fact, market researcher J.D. Power & Associates predicts that diesel sales in the United States will nearly triple in the coming years, capturing 11.8 percent of the market by 2015. Diesel has another thing going for it: Approximately 40 percent of U.S. filling stations offer it (compared with only several hundred that offer ethanol-based E85). Mercedes says it may introduce a diesel-burning car to the U.S. market next year, while Honda will bring its 2.2-liter engine — dubbed the i-CTDi — to Americans, likely by 2009.
An end to rear-enders
With rear-end collisions accounting for 30 percent of all U.S. road crashes in the United States, it might be time for a new brake-light. Two researchers at the University of Toronto have been experimenting with brake lights that grow larger the harder the driver brakes. According to New Scientist magazine, the scientists have devised a triangle-shaped light, with an upper brake light placed slightly above two lights on either side. When the driver just touches the brakes, the lights form a small triangle close to the center of the car. As braking gets heavier, all three lights get bigger, and those to the left and right also move outwards in proportion to the braking force. With the brakes fully applied, the lights get larger still and move right out to the edge of the car.
Wake up
In the not too distant future, your car will be equipped with technology to try to prevent you from falling asleep at the wheel, according to a recent article in the New York Times. To date, solutions to drowsiness have been physical, for example, rumble strips on the road and raised lane markers that give a thumping tire warning. However, technologies that employ computer-chip-based video cameras and in-car software are being developed to monitor eye and head movement or unexpected lane “wandering.” When activated, they cause the steering wheel to vibrate, a puff of air to blow on the back of the driver’s neck, or a buzzer to sound. Statistics indicate an annoying buzzer might be worth the intrusion. In a
2002 report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that 1,500 people are killed and another 71,000 injured every year in fatigue-related crashes. Companies pursuing electronic wake-up technologies include Denso Corporation of Japan, Siemens VDO of Germany and Ford.
Part-time studs
Nobody wants to think about winter when spring has sprung. But a new tire company called Q wants you to do just that. Q (www.qtires.com) has developed an all-weather tire with retractable studs. The Celsius tire contains safety studs that deploy only when you need them, that is, when driving in ice or snow. The technology enables air pressure from the main chamber of the tire to expand a secondary chamber, which lifts the studs above the surface of the tread. When road conditions no longer require studs, the air pressure is released to the atmosphere and the studs retract below the tread face. [FI]
|
|
|
