The Cars Of Tomorrow
Where Do You Live?
People have always thought about how things would be different in the future. The future of the car has been a much loved topic of TV shows and cartoons for many years. What did you imagine cars would be like in the year 2010? Floating space speeders like on The Jetsons? Hovering land speeders like in Star Wars? The sky was the limit, literally, for what cars would look like. That isn’t the direction that technology has taken. Cars already do what we need them to do. No purpose other than extreme coolness would be served by having cars that hover. The police are busy trying to slow drivers down because our cars already go more than fast enough. In fact, in many places there’s so much traffic that cars can’t use the speed they already have. Although we do want good looking cars, consumers are choosing cars that look good, but pretty boring. After market upgrades are made to blend in with the original - boring - look of the car. Huge improvements in reliability and safety have become more important than other considerations. What do cars still leave to be desired? Even more practicality, in the form of fuel efficiency. The price of gasoline has soared in recent years, and it’s expensive just to drive around town. Cars that run on less gasoline, or none at all, are the hot sellers. There are a lot of options for accomplishing this goal, from propane to hydrogen to biofuels. All of these technologies have challenges, especially in keeping their costs down enough that they will be economically comparable to gasoline powered cars. One technology has taken the lead in the last few years and reached the consumer via the car dealership showroom: electricity. Fully electric cars are starting to appear at dealerships now - not far behind their hybrid counterparts. Toyota was the first to get its hybrid, the Prius, to consumers at a reasonable price. The other automakers weren’t far behind. The Ford Escape, Infiniti M35, Honda Civic and Nissan Altima are just a few of the offerings. Cadillac’s Escalade and GMC’s Sierra prove that hybrids no longer have to be only small, lightweight cars. The government has helped by offering incentives to those involved in manufacturing or buying cars that use less gasoline and are less damaging to the environment. You can go buy one of these cars today at your local Dallas Ford Dealership or Car Dealers Des Moines with no problem. The fully electric car is the next development we’ll see. They’ve been out in very small numbers until now, seen at car shows or as part of a fleet of cars driven by the local electric company. Finally cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt are hitting showrooms. There are still some hurdles to overcome, like limited range and price and longevity of batteries, but this is clearly the direction that new cars are headed. Good old fashioned fuel efficiency is getting overlooked to some degree. Even gasoline powered engines can be greatly improved if they just use less gas. This is a technology that’s been slowly but steadily improving for many years. There are gasoline powered cars getting 34-35 MPG - the Honda Civic and Ford Focus to name a few. This was unimaginable back in the 80’s when gas was only $1.35 a gallon and we loved our V8s. So while we’re unlikely to see cars like the DeLorean from Back to the Future or Kitt from the Knight Rider, cars will continue to evolve to meet our ever-changing needs. America’s love affair with the automobile is far from over.
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