Granddad's belt is back however you like.
Until recently, a timing belt was regarded as a burdensome service item rendered obsolete by maintenance-free chain drives. Volkswagen's new EA211 group of inline-fours bucks the stigma, boasting a 150,000-mile timing belt. Belt drives are significantly lighter and potentially quieter, leading to lower parasitic losses and NVH characteristics. Ford immerses the belt to use new turbo three in oil for additional noise reduction, and Honda's SOHC 3.5-liter V-6 also soldiers lets start on a belt rather than a chain.
New lows in downsizing
Just how small an electric train engine can you cram into how big is a vehicle? Insiders reveal that Ford has evaluated a 60 minute.5-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder inside an early prototype of their 2015 F-150. While discussing betting on traversing to a three-banger underneath the hood of an King Ranch soon, heightened pressure to increase fuel efficiency is driving automakers to engines with lower than four cylinders.
Threes Gasoline and diesel threes starting from 660 cc to just one.5 liters currently power the cars and small trucks of over 30 brands worldwide. Three pots can deliver ample punch, however they can also be buzzy because of the tendency to rock longitudinally. Balance shafts, special engine mounts, and also other tricks are increasingly being employed to lessen the vibes.
Twos Two-cylinder gas and diesel engines, from 625 cc to almost 1.0 liter, are another fuel-economy growth area, while they offer approximately 20-percent less consumption than similarly sized triples and fours. Early adopters are the Fiat 500, Tata Nano, and VW Up mini cars, but compact twins will likely serve as hybrid range extenders. BMW is employing a 35-hp version of the Taiwan-built 647-cc scooter engine to power the generator from the 2014 i3 hybrid city car.
Ones Single-cylinder engines? They're planning to remain the developing world's favored power for three-wheelers and urban microhaulers—at least to the near term.
Why fuel economy matters
"The companies are focused on literally many technologies to boost fuel economy: light weighting, improved aerodynamics, direct injection, downsized displacement, higher-pressure turbos, more-efficient transmissions, etc. The reason for efficiency technologies would be to address social goals like energy security and greenhouse-gas reduction. With these advancements, the U.S. use of gasoline will continuously decline looking at the high in 2007 and don't reach those levels again."
Robert Bienenfeld
Senior Manager of Environment and Energy Strategy for American Honda
Multipurpose materials
"New developments will demonstrate the possibility of creating materials that contain structural, sensoric, and electrical characteristics simultaneously. Let's take, one example is, a bumper with parking sensors along with the electrical wiring integrated together with the structural material. And the really smart thing is the fact these materials automobile and improve efficiency."
Thomas Weber
Board Member of Daimler AG for Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development
Just Don't Sit on It! This isn't the level of printer that creates office holiday parties bearable. Layer by layer, an ultraviolet laser solidifies resin to make a throttle body at 3-Dimensional Services Group in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Printed cars
Three-dimensional printers deposit material layer by layer to generate 3-d objects. Jim Kor's 290-mpg, three-wheeled Urbee won't replace your Accord in the near future, but it really just might change how your car is created. Here's why the methodology may alter car manufacturing.
"We started Urbee in 1996 together with the goal to create the greenest car within the world—the car using the least energy. Three-dimensional printing got into it once we entered the Automotive X-Prize competition so we were wanting to hurry. We created a cold call to 3-D printer Stratasys. They said, 'We think we can easily do it; it is at the edge of what we are able to do.' We took your vehicle to 3-D printing shows, and I only agreed to be blown away with what I saw. You can print magnesium. You can print aluminum. You can print steel. It's expensive certainly, but so was photo digital portrait photography.
"The first Urbee was 3-D printed. The second one we're designing for 3-D printing. That's called digital manufacturing. If we could predict where each of the forces are, then we can easily put the material there and nowhere else. We can build a number of the strongest, lightest structures in the world in a different way than carbon fibre. Three-D printing even offers virtually zero waste, and also since there's no ought to tool up, you can change anything figure on the fly.
"A wide range of car companies previously bought treadmills, and perhaps they are using them for rapid prototyping. One vision for the future has a building brimming with these 3-D printing machines, with each machine making one production part. It becomes a greater way to build things, to just place the material in which you want it."
—Jim Kor, Urbee project leader
Simulators get serious, helping for making seriously fast cars even faster. seriously.
It may come as no surprise how the sports cars manufactured by McLaren, a firm best known for the Formula 1 success, are overflowing with technology. But one very sound pieces is not from the car in any respect but McLaren's state-of-the-art driving simulator.
Created to build up McLaren's Grand Prix cars, it contains an F1 tub placed on hydraulic rams that tilt and roll the tub on three axes. The "driver" faces a 180-degree spherical screen about five ft . tall and 16 feet wide. Five pairs of projectors beam images in the track and surrounding environment on the screen to supply a three-dimensional view to your driver wearing 3-D glasses. An electric motor for the steering wheel provides effort and kickback based for the road-surface database, whilst the two pedals offer realistic feedback.
A typical run incorporates some 1.2 million data points, defining the vehicle and track parameters. A car's suspension performance, tire behavior, powertrain performance, and aerodynamic drag and lift are common accurately modeled. So is the car's audio profile, as a result of an elaborate reproduction on the engine's intake, exhaust, and mechanical sounds, in addition to transmission, wind, and tire noise.
In this simulator, a person develops realistic impressions of steering feel, turn-in behavior, cornering balance, overall responsiveness, and the entire body control. Ride comfort can also be modeled, but harshness and general NVH aren't synthesized here. And as the database of racetracks is extensive, just one or two real-world roads have already been mapped.
Three heavy-duty gaming PCs operate the machine, one each for audio, video, and dynamic simulation. During the development with the stunningly competent 12C sports vehicle, test drivers and engineers spent in excess of 1000 hours in this particular simulator. Paul Burnham, McLaren's vehicle dynamics manager, says that this investment here shaved per year from the auto's development cycle. As the modeling and simulation be extensive, quality drive might eventually serve only as confirmation in the simulator's work.
Hydrogen coming of age
"For almost two decades, automakers are actually touting the arrival of hydrogen, plus the public, politicians, and regulators have either ignored it or left. Not so at Toyota. In 2015, Toyota's fuel-cell sedan will hit the streets. Hydrogen fuel cells offer all of the promise of battery-electric vehicles without worrying about range limitation and long refueling times that hinder widespread consumer acceptance of EVs."
Chris Hostetter
DualBoost turbocharger
As boosting moves more detailed becoming SOP, turbo suppliers are striving to further improve the responses with their exhaust-driven devices. Honeywell's DualBoost turbocharger has two compressor wheels mounted continual on a single turbine-driven shaft. Because the dual-wheel turbo mass is lighter versus the alternatives—twin turbos or one turbo having a much larger compressor—its inertia is less and its response quicker. A DualBoost turbo also saves weight and improves packaging. In 2011, Ford's 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V-8 took over as first engine make use of the technology. A gas engine using a DualBoost turbo should arrive by 2016.
Formula 1's new rules mean road cars will get a a little eau de speed.
For another Formula 1 season, constructors face new rules. Well, you will find new rules each year, even so the 2014 social bookmarks a major shift toward enhanced efficiency. Reading every one of the technical regulations is often as confusing as scrutinizing the Hapsburg family tree. We achieved it so you aren't required to.
The big news: Turbochargers return after the 25-year hiatus, and also the powertrain shrinks from the 2.4-liter V-8 which has a seven-speed automated manual to single.6-liter V-6 through an eight-speed 'box. The cylinder-bank angle remains 90 degrees. Maximum engine rpm drops from 18,000 rpm to 15,000, but direct fuel injection is required. Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, the M-B department that can supply V-6s towards the Mercedes AMG, Force India, Williams, and McLaren F1 teams, says it's aiming for 750 horsepower, or comparable as the outgoing V-8.
Besides turbocharging, F1's other alternative to displacement is much more electric assist. The current hybrid system, called KERS (for kinetic energy recovery system), will probably be supplanted by the more complex approach having a simplified name: ERS. It includes two electric machines, the very first of which is recognized as MGU-K (motor generator unit-kinetic). It delivers torque for the wheels during acceleration and generates electricity during braking. MGU-K is rule-restricted to 161 horsepower, and that is 81 greater than the old KERS motor, which enable it to use four megajoules (1 megajoule = 1.1 kWh) of electricity per lap—10 times the energy intake of KERS.
The second unit harvests excess turbocharger energy with the electric motor mounted coaxially relating to the compressor and turbine impellers. Called MGU-H (the H is made for heat), it might draw or replace the maximum amount of electrical energy on the battery as race strategists desire. Per the rule book, the 1st motor, MGU-K, can recover only two megajoules of your energy per lap, or half from the system's allowed consumption. That leaves the turbo-mounted generator, restricted to 125,000 rpm, to provide the other two megajoules essential for acceleration boost. When used being a motor, MGU-H spools in the turbocharger to reduce lag.
Stated a different way, ERS provides 161 horsepower of electric boost for 33.3 seconds per lap, versus 6.7 seconds with all the old 80-hp KERS.
One from the more interesting rule changes has nothing to do together with the engines. For 2014, every car is limited by 220 pounds of gas, that is roughly a 30-percent improvement in efficiency as outlined by Mercedes. So, cars dialing within the engine and fighting for position ahead of time in a race run the chance sucking the tanks dry prematurily .. Also, teams should have just five engines to the entire season, versus eight currently. Limiting engine supply and revs should improve reliability, while restricting fuel consumption will place greater focus on strategy. Tech transfer to road cars should ensue.
The laws of physics never change.
Sixteen years separate the GM EV1 on the Volkswagen XL1 , and even though the technologies have evolved, the formula for developing a hyperefficient car hasn't. Consider the humble powertrains, exotic materials, and meticulously massaged aerodynamics, and thank Isaac Newton.
General Motors EV1
L x W x H
153.1 x 65.6 x 45.4 in
aluminum space frame
AC induction motor,
AC permanent-magnet electric motor; combined system, 68 hp, 103 lb-ft
16.5 kWh, lead-acid;
250 units
"Battery technology continues to be advancing for a snail's pace, along with the automakers haven't even designed a consensus by what technology to pursue the electric car has finally arrived."
—Car and Driver, October 1996
What We Said
"Here's another instance of VW chairman Ferdinand Piëch planning to extremes—on this case, showing his many critics from the German Green Party the best places to stick it."
—Car and Driver, July 2013
Second-generation model
†C/D estimate
The autonomous automobile
The robot chauffeur is inevitable—it's already lurking inside cars we drive today. and definitely will autonomous systems ever evolve to reliably make the level of complex human judgments that ensure real safety driving? Well, that part seems a great deal less certain. Read Our In-depth Feature ››
The probability of progress
"In the longer term, your vehicle will cover more driver sins and that we will be driving better, with superior mpg and much better route management, but vehicle cost might be a problem. If we push too difficult, we risk Cubanization of the fleet, where it truly is better to maintain old cars than buy expensive brand new ones."
David Cole
Self-driving sensors
Though GPS navigation systems can get you to your nearest Baskin-Robbins, they will not be nearly precise enough to compliment cars in traffic. These sensors make autonomous driving possible.
Camera: High-definition cameras certainly are a computer's eyes, allowing it to produce sense of traffic lights, lane markings, and pavement edges. Side-by-side (a.k.a. stereo) cameras perceive depth the way in which two human eyes do, and they are generally getting cheaper each day.
Inertial gyroscope: When the GPS antenna is masked by buildings or tunnels, a gyro serves to be a simple inertial navigation system. A gyro joined with wheel-speed-sensor information provides approximate vehicle location.
Infrared camera: Because warmer objects emit more infrared radiation than colder ones, these cameras can identify and locate animals, wandering drunks, along with other cars shrouded in dark or fog. Their night-vision function will swiftly be utilized in the main cameras.
Lidar: The 64-beam Velodyne laser range-finder appears to be a bucket and rotates at nearly 900 rpm, painting the planet with 1.3 million laser shots per second to accurately locate every object within 50 yards of the auto. It provides the automobile with a detailed picture of the company's surroundings that's updated 15 times per second. More compact LIDAR (a portmanteau of "light" and "radar") sensors are under development by Audi.
Radar: Radio waves may be used to identify the venue and speed of other vehicles past the range on the LIDAR sensor. Radar may detect pedestrians in low-visibility conditions when LIDAR is unreliable. Autonomous cars typically require a radar sensor each and every end of your vehicle. Small ones cost about $25 each, providing a cost-effective strategy to fly on instruments.
Hatz, 54, will be the R&D boss at Porsche. Before that, he was your head of engine and transmission development to the entire VW Group. He also served at Audi, BMW, Fiat, and Opel. Consider his vision for the future reliable. Read Full Interview ››
Electric glossary
On AC, DC, and why electrolytes aren't just something you get within a bottle of Gatorade.
17 ALTERNATING CURRENT A flow of electrons that periodically reverses direction.
18 AMPERAGE An electric energy's strength measured in amperes (amps).
19 BATTERY A device who makes electricity at a chemical reaction. Some batteries can convert electricity back to chemical energy and they are thus rechargeable.
20 CAPACITOR Two conductors separated by an insulator and accustomed to store electricity.
21 CURRENT A flow of electrons in the wire or between two points using a difference in potential (for instance inside a cell).
22 DIRECT CURRENT A flow of electrons in a direction, from negative to positive.
23 ELECTRIC MACHINE An energy-conversion device that could operate being a motor or generator.
24 ELECTRODE A terminal for carrying ac current to or coming from a battery. The negative electrode that carries electrons out of your battery is named an anode. The positive electrode can be a cathode.
25 ELECTROLYTE A liquid, gel, paste, or solid compound that conducts current in a very battery.
26 INDUCTION MOTOR A motor which uses electromagnetic induction (instead of a physical connection between stator and rotor windings) to induce a current from the rotor, thereby eliminating the troublesome rotating conductors called commutators or slip rings.
27 KILOWATT-HOUR (kWh) An energy unit commonly accustomed to quantify electrical consumption or battery capacity; equal to consuming 1000 watts of power for starters hour.
28 LEAD-ACID BATTERY The oldest sort of rechargeable battery, offering affordable and a good power-to-weight ratio. Here, lead-plate electrodes surrounded by way of a diluted sulfuric-acid electrolyte sit inside of a plastic case.
29 LITHIUM-ION BATTERY A battery having a lithium-based compound to have an electrolyte, it features a high energy-to-weight ratio and low discharge keep, but tougher heat challenges. Not all chemistries feel secure enough for automotive use. Currently, cell shapes are generally cylindrical or prismatic.
30 NICKEL-METAL-HYDRIDE BATTERY A battery that utilizes a nickel cathode, metallic anode, as well as a hydrogen-based electrolyte. It falls between lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries in price and energy density. Currently the most widely used battery type for hybrid applications.
31 PARALLEL HYBRID A hybrid in which an electrical motor powers the wheels in collaboration having an internal-combustion engine. Example: Toyota Prius.
32 PERMANENT MAGNET A material including neodymium which causes a strong, persistent magnetic field. Often familiar with replace copper-wire windings from the rotor.
33 REGENERATIVE BRAKING Operating an electrical motor like a generator to slow a car while converting its motion, or kinetic energy, into electricity for recharging the car battery.
34 ROTOR The moving part of a power machine.
35 SERIES HYBRID Electric current from a motor room fire-driven generator powers an electric powered motor driving the wheels. There is no mechanical connection between your engine as well as the wheels. Example: Fisker Karma. The Chevrolet Volt has both parallel- and series-hybrid modes.
36 STATOR The static portion of an electric powered machine. Usually fitted with copper windings that build a magnetic field.
37 SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR An AC motor where the rotor turns for a speed proportional for the supply-current frequency.
38 THREE-PHASE MOTOR By using three AC currents which can be evenly spaced but from phase with each other, power production is a bit more constant and motor vibration is reduced.
39 VOLTAGE An electromotive force. Also, the visible difference in electrical potential between two points.
40 WATT A unit of power; 746 watts are the same as one horsepower.
The desolate man gas engines
"The combustion engine along with the electric motor usually are not mutually exclusive but instead complement one another and play to your strengths of the special advantages. We feel that combustion engines will always be the leading driveline technology inside medium term, but increasingly integrated in hybrid or plug-in hybrid systems, depending for the vehicle concept and its particular intended use."
Michael Hankel
When 12 Volts aren't enough
Twelve-volt electrical systems have reliably provided the juice for over 50 years, but they also may be tapped out. Modern vehicle features, from heated seats to adaptive chassis controls, draw millions of power. Add hybrid-electric capability, as well as the standard 12-volt setup is soon overburdened. A second 48-volt power loop allows engineers to utilize thinner, lighter wires for everyone those subsystems that draw over 500 watts. Audi, BMW, and Ford, by way of example, already use such dual-voltage electrical systems. A second battery or even a DC-to-DC converter needs to accommodate the high-voltage loop. Expect to see more premium models turn to 48 volts inside the near future.
Lead-acid batteries live
The drive to cut back hybrid-battery costs has invigorated R&D in lead-acid tech, cast aside for dead when higher performing but pricier nickel- and lithium-based chemistries emerged. The new lead-acid designs are intended for basic stop-start systems and low-voltage hybrids. Some feature thinner, denser plates stacked in novel ways to increase efficiency. Others add carbon towards the negative plate, which boosts storage capacity during partial-state-of-charge operation. The most promising designs could increase energy density by the factor of three while retaining the high charge/discharge cycling rates meant for hybrid operation.
VBOX
Strapping a VBOX II data loggers into a car for just a test-and-tune session is like using a bazooka whenever a butter knife will perform. Racelogic's VBOX Sport is perfectly suited to the casual data geek. The new Sport logs GPS data 20 times another for around six hours using one battery charge. It's waterproof, comes with a internal antenna, and will also mount to handlebars or perhaps a windshield. At $429, it does not take cheapest VBOX offering. Instead of any built-in display, the Sport uses Bluetooth to change an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to a real-time speedo (Android is resulting). Racelogic has promised a predictive lap-timing app, plus the free software enables you to analyze data using your PC being a pro.
Radar detectors
A radar detector is usually a lot just like a radio. But rather than music and talk, it picks the frequencies emitted by position- and speed-monitoring radar. In the past, radar-detector design targeting picking up radar from miles away. But not all that sounds like radar derives from police officers trying to meet their ticket quotas. From automatic door openers to vehicle-blind-spot monitoring systems, the earth is filled with devices emitting microwaves for the same frequency as radar guns. To be useful, a detector can't just sound the alarm anytime it "hears" the appropriate frequency. Escort's Passport Max ($550) uses new technology to filter noise in an attempt to find police radar faster plus more accurately. In our time while using Passport Max, we learned that if it's going off, there is no question you will find there's Smokey lurking.
Cars that do not crash
"Autonomous-driving technology will 1 day allow us to engineer cars that do not crash, that will fundamentally change just how we design our vehicles. If cars don't crash, we can easily rethink the types of materials we use, we can easily reduce or even eliminate bulky safety structures, you can tremendously shed extra pounds, therefore we can improve fuel economy."
Mary Barra
Senior Vice President of Global Product Development for General Motors
New phone tricks
For its first 40 years, the cellphone was shackled to cars with a curly cord plugged in towards the lighter socket. Now the tables have turned, while using modern phone dictating many aspects of automotive design and technology.
A) the phone to be a cable box The MirrorLink standard allows the auto's console display to become the big-screen TV for a smartphone's cable box. Your small phone affords the processing power and apps for navigation, a music library, phone connections, as well as other functions, nevertheless the familiar interface is projected with a large and accessible dash screen. Alpine, JVC, Kenwood, and Sony already offer MirrorLink-enabled aftermarket head units. Based within the amount of certification activity among major industry suppliers, automakers are close behind.
B) open apps for that car Ford's OpenXC programming interface gives coders usage of vehicle data like steering-wheel angle, fuel consumption, and accelerator position. If Ford incorporates OpenXC into production cars, it may lead to apps that log data around the track or coach one to higher fuel economy. Developers have concocted a DIY backup camera employing an inexpensive webcam as well as a phone for your display. And because the normal is open source, any automaker can tap it due to the own cars.
C) your cord is obsolete Induction charging constitutes a cellphone truly wireless. Late this past year, the Toyota Avalon had become the first car to present induction phone charging from your factory (as part of any $1950 package). A pad ahead with the shifter juices phones compatible using the international Qi (pronounced "chee") wireless-charging protocol. In the long run, magnetic resonance technology could allow charging multiple devices with a greater range through the charger compared to the Qi standard of merely one.6 inches.
Looking for the new car? Just Google it.
The search giant wants in with your next car purchase. Google "BMW 335i San Francisco" and you'll be shown which Bay Area dealers have one. As an inventory tool, /cars does nothing new, but Google's reach should eventually yield the greatest listing of cars in a location. And if you request more information at a dealer, it truly is filtered through anonymous telephone numbers and emails so salesmen can't pester you. Only in Northern California at this time, expanding soon.
The convergence of gas and diesel engines
"The strongest technology I see about the horizon is combining gasoline and diesel attributes with controlled auto ignition. At Hyundai/Kia, we call that gasoline direct injection with compression ignition. This can be a step beyond what's been achieved by many researchers with homogeneous charge compression ignition. The benefit is diesel efficiency with gasoline convenience."
Until recently, a timing belt was regarded as a burdensome service item rendered obsolete by maintenance-free chain drives. Volkswagen's new EA211 group of inline-fours bucks the stigma, boasting a 150,000-mile timing belt. Belt drives are significantly lighter and potentially quieter, leading to lower parasitic losses and NVH characteristics. Ford immerses the belt to use new turbo three in oil for additional noise reduction, and Honda's SOHC 3.5-liter V-6 also soldiers lets start on a belt rather than a chain.
New lows in downsizing
Just how small an electric train engine can you cram into how big is a vehicle? Insiders reveal that Ford has evaluated a 60 minute.5-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder inside an early prototype of their 2015 F-150. While discussing betting on traversing to a three-banger underneath the hood of an King Ranch soon, heightened pressure to increase fuel efficiency is driving automakers to engines with lower than four cylinders.
Threes Gasoline and diesel threes starting from 660 cc to just one.5 liters currently power the cars and small trucks of over 30 brands worldwide. Three pots can deliver ample punch, however they can also be buzzy because of the tendency to rock longitudinally. Balance shafts, special engine mounts, and also other tricks are increasingly being employed to lessen the vibes.
Twos Two-cylinder gas and diesel engines, from 625 cc to almost 1.0 liter, are another fuel-economy growth area, while they offer approximately 20-percent less consumption than similarly sized triples and fours. Early adopters are the Fiat 500, Tata Nano, and VW Up mini cars, but compact twins will likely serve as hybrid range extenders. BMW is employing a 35-hp version of the Taiwan-built 647-cc scooter engine to power the generator from the 2014 i3 hybrid city car.
Ones Single-cylinder engines? They're planning to remain the developing world's favored power for three-wheelers and urban microhaulers—at least to the near term.
Why fuel economy matters
"The companies are focused on literally many technologies to boost fuel economy: light weighting, improved aerodynamics, direct injection, downsized displacement, higher-pressure turbos, more-efficient transmissions, etc. The reason for efficiency technologies would be to address social goals like energy security and greenhouse-gas reduction. With these advancements, the U.S. use of gasoline will continuously decline looking at the high in 2007 and don't reach those levels again."
Robert Bienenfeld
Senior Manager of Environment and Energy Strategy for American Honda
Multipurpose materials
"New developments will demonstrate the possibility of creating materials that contain structural, sensoric, and electrical characteristics simultaneously. Let's take, one example is, a bumper with parking sensors along with the electrical wiring integrated together with the structural material. And the really smart thing is the fact these materials automobile and improve efficiency."
Thomas Weber
Board Member of Daimler AG for Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development
Just Don't Sit on It! This isn't the level of printer that creates office holiday parties bearable. Layer by layer, an ultraviolet laser solidifies resin to make a throttle body at 3-Dimensional Services Group in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Printed cars
Three-dimensional printers deposit material layer by layer to generate 3-d objects. Jim Kor's 290-mpg, three-wheeled Urbee won't replace your Accord in the near future, but it really just might change how your car is created. Here's why the methodology may alter car manufacturing.
"We started Urbee in 1996 together with the goal to create the greenest car within the world—the car using the least energy. Three-dimensional printing got into it once we entered the Automotive X-Prize competition so we were wanting to hurry. We created a cold call to 3-D printer Stratasys. They said, 'We think we can easily do it; it is at the edge of what we are able to do.' We took your vehicle to 3-D printing shows, and I only agreed to be blown away with what I saw. You can print magnesium. You can print aluminum. You can print steel. It's expensive certainly, but so was photo digital portrait photography.
"The first Urbee was 3-D printed. The second one we're designing for 3-D printing. That's called digital manufacturing. If we could predict where each of the forces are, then we can easily put the material there and nowhere else. We can build a number of the strongest, lightest structures in the world in a different way than carbon fibre. Three-D printing even offers virtually zero waste, and also since there's no ought to tool up, you can change anything figure on the fly.
"A wide range of car companies previously bought treadmills, and perhaps they are using them for rapid prototyping. One vision for the future has a building brimming with these 3-D printing machines, with each machine making one production part. It becomes a greater way to build things, to just place the material in which you want it."
—Jim Kor, Urbee project leader
Simulators get serious, helping for making seriously fast cars even faster. seriously.
It may come as no surprise how the sports cars manufactured by McLaren, a firm best known for the Formula 1 success, are overflowing with technology. But one very sound pieces is not from the car in any respect but McLaren's state-of-the-art driving simulator.
Created to build up McLaren's Grand Prix cars, it contains an F1 tub placed on hydraulic rams that tilt and roll the tub on three axes. The "driver" faces a 180-degree spherical screen about five ft . tall and 16 feet wide. Five pairs of projectors beam images in the track and surrounding environment on the screen to supply a three-dimensional view to your driver wearing 3-D glasses. An electric motor for the steering wheel provides effort and kickback based for the road-surface database, whilst the two pedals offer realistic feedback.
A typical run incorporates some 1.2 million data points, defining the vehicle and track parameters. A car's suspension performance, tire behavior, powertrain performance, and aerodynamic drag and lift are common accurately modeled. So is the car's audio profile, as a result of an elaborate reproduction on the engine's intake, exhaust, and mechanical sounds, in addition to transmission, wind, and tire noise.
In this simulator, a person develops realistic impressions of steering feel, turn-in behavior, cornering balance, overall responsiveness, and the entire body control. Ride comfort can also be modeled, but harshness and general NVH aren't synthesized here. And as the database of racetracks is extensive, just one or two real-world roads have already been mapped.
Three heavy-duty gaming PCs operate the machine, one each for audio, video, and dynamic simulation. During the development with the stunningly competent 12C sports vehicle, test drivers and engineers spent in excess of 1000 hours in this particular simulator. Paul Burnham, McLaren's vehicle dynamics manager, says that this investment here shaved per year from the auto's development cycle. As the modeling and simulation be extensive, quality drive might eventually serve only as confirmation in the simulator's work.
Hydrogen coming of age
"For almost two decades, automakers are actually touting the arrival of hydrogen, plus the public, politicians, and regulators have either ignored it or left. Not so at Toyota. In 2015, Toyota's fuel-cell sedan will hit the streets. Hydrogen fuel cells offer all of the promise of battery-electric vehicles without worrying about range limitation and long refueling times that hinder widespread consumer acceptance of EVs."
Chris Hostetter
DualBoost turbocharger
As boosting moves more detailed becoming SOP, turbo suppliers are striving to further improve the responses with their exhaust-driven devices. Honeywell's DualBoost turbocharger has two compressor wheels mounted continual on a single turbine-driven shaft. Because the dual-wheel turbo mass is lighter versus the alternatives—twin turbos or one turbo having a much larger compressor—its inertia is less and its response quicker. A DualBoost turbo also saves weight and improves packaging. In 2011, Ford's 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V-8 took over as first engine make use of the technology. A gas engine using a DualBoost turbo should arrive by 2016.
Formula 1's new rules mean road cars will get a a little eau de speed.
For another Formula 1 season, constructors face new rules. Well, you will find new rules each year, even so the 2014 social bookmarks a major shift toward enhanced efficiency. Reading every one of the technical regulations is often as confusing as scrutinizing the Hapsburg family tree. We achieved it so you aren't required to.
The big news: Turbochargers return after the 25-year hiatus, and also the powertrain shrinks from the 2.4-liter V-8 which has a seven-speed automated manual to single.6-liter V-6 through an eight-speed 'box. The cylinder-bank angle remains 90 degrees. Maximum engine rpm drops from 18,000 rpm to 15,000, but direct fuel injection is required. Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, the M-B department that can supply V-6s towards the Mercedes AMG, Force India, Williams, and McLaren F1 teams, says it's aiming for 750 horsepower, or comparable as the outgoing V-8.
Besides turbocharging, F1's other alternative to displacement is much more electric assist. The current hybrid system, called KERS (for kinetic energy recovery system), will probably be supplanted by the more complex approach having a simplified name: ERS. It includes two electric machines, the very first of which is recognized as MGU-K (motor generator unit-kinetic). It delivers torque for the wheels during acceleration and generates electricity during braking. MGU-K is rule-restricted to 161 horsepower, and that is 81 greater than the old KERS motor, which enable it to use four megajoules (1 megajoule = 1.1 kWh) of electricity per lap—10 times the energy intake of KERS.
The second unit harvests excess turbocharger energy with the electric motor mounted coaxially relating to the compressor and turbine impellers. Called MGU-H (the H is made for heat), it might draw or replace the maximum amount of electrical energy on the battery as race strategists desire. Per the rule book, the 1st motor, MGU-K, can recover only two megajoules of your energy per lap, or half from the system's allowed consumption. That leaves the turbo-mounted generator, restricted to 125,000 rpm, to provide the other two megajoules essential for acceleration boost. When used being a motor, MGU-H spools in the turbocharger to reduce lag.
Stated a different way, ERS provides 161 horsepower of electric boost for 33.3 seconds per lap, versus 6.7 seconds with all the old 80-hp KERS.
One from the more interesting rule changes has nothing to do together with the engines. For 2014, every car is limited by 220 pounds of gas, that is roughly a 30-percent improvement in efficiency as outlined by Mercedes. So, cars dialing within the engine and fighting for position ahead of time in a race run the chance sucking the tanks dry prematurily .. Also, teams should have just five engines to the entire season, versus eight currently. Limiting engine supply and revs should improve reliability, while restricting fuel consumption will place greater focus on strategy. Tech transfer to road cars should ensue.
The laws of physics never change.
Sixteen years separate the GM EV1 on the Volkswagen XL1 , and even though the technologies have evolved, the formula for developing a hyperefficient car hasn't. Consider the humble powertrains, exotic materials, and meticulously massaged aerodynamics, and thank Isaac Newton.
General Motors EV1
L x W x H
153.1 x 65.6 x 45.4 in
aluminum space frame
AC induction motor,
AC permanent-magnet electric motor; combined system, 68 hp, 103 lb-ft
16.5 kWh, lead-acid;
250 units
"Battery technology continues to be advancing for a snail's pace, along with the automakers haven't even designed a consensus by what technology to pursue the electric car has finally arrived."
—Car and Driver, October 1996
What We Said
"Here's another instance of VW chairman Ferdinand Piëch planning to extremes—on this case, showing his many critics from the German Green Party the best places to stick it."
—Car and Driver, July 2013
Second-generation model
†C/D estimate
The autonomous automobile
The robot chauffeur is inevitable—it's already lurking inside cars we drive today. and definitely will autonomous systems ever evolve to reliably make the level of complex human judgments that ensure real safety driving? Well, that part seems a great deal less certain. Read Our In-depth Feature ››
The probability of progress
"In the longer term, your vehicle will cover more driver sins and that we will be driving better, with superior mpg and much better route management, but vehicle cost might be a problem. If we push too difficult, we risk Cubanization of the fleet, where it truly is better to maintain old cars than buy expensive brand new ones."
David Cole
Self-driving sensors
Though GPS navigation systems can get you to your nearest Baskin-Robbins, they will not be nearly precise enough to compliment cars in traffic. These sensors make autonomous driving possible.
Camera: High-definition cameras certainly are a computer's eyes, allowing it to produce sense of traffic lights, lane markings, and pavement edges. Side-by-side (a.k.a. stereo) cameras perceive depth the way in which two human eyes do, and they are generally getting cheaper each day.
Inertial gyroscope: When the GPS antenna is masked by buildings or tunnels, a gyro serves to be a simple inertial navigation system. A gyro joined with wheel-speed-sensor information provides approximate vehicle location.
Infrared camera: Because warmer objects emit more infrared radiation than colder ones, these cameras can identify and locate animals, wandering drunks, along with other cars shrouded in dark or fog. Their night-vision function will swiftly be utilized in the main cameras.
Lidar: The 64-beam Velodyne laser range-finder appears to be a bucket and rotates at nearly 900 rpm, painting the planet with 1.3 million laser shots per second to accurately locate every object within 50 yards of the auto. It provides the automobile with a detailed picture of the company's surroundings that's updated 15 times per second. More compact LIDAR (a portmanteau of "light" and "radar") sensors are under development by Audi.
Radar: Radio waves may be used to identify the venue and speed of other vehicles past the range on the LIDAR sensor. Radar may detect pedestrians in low-visibility conditions when LIDAR is unreliable. Autonomous cars typically require a radar sensor each and every end of your vehicle. Small ones cost about $25 each, providing a cost-effective strategy to fly on instruments.
Hatz, 54, will be the R&D boss at Porsche. Before that, he was your head of engine and transmission development to the entire VW Group. He also served at Audi, BMW, Fiat, and Opel. Consider his vision for the future reliable. Read Full Interview ››
Electric glossary
On AC, DC, and why electrolytes aren't just something you get within a bottle of Gatorade.
17 ALTERNATING CURRENT A flow of electrons that periodically reverses direction.
18 AMPERAGE An electric energy's strength measured in amperes (amps).
19 BATTERY A device who makes electricity at a chemical reaction. Some batteries can convert electricity back to chemical energy and they are thus rechargeable.
20 CAPACITOR Two conductors separated by an insulator and accustomed to store electricity.
21 CURRENT A flow of electrons in the wire or between two points using a difference in potential (for instance inside a cell).
22 DIRECT CURRENT A flow of electrons in a direction, from negative to positive.
23 ELECTRIC MACHINE An energy-conversion device that could operate being a motor or generator.
24 ELECTRODE A terminal for carrying ac current to or coming from a battery. The negative electrode that carries electrons out of your battery is named an anode. The positive electrode can be a cathode.
25 ELECTROLYTE A liquid, gel, paste, or solid compound that conducts current in a very battery.
26 INDUCTION MOTOR A motor which uses electromagnetic induction (instead of a physical connection between stator and rotor windings) to induce a current from the rotor, thereby eliminating the troublesome rotating conductors called commutators or slip rings.
27 KILOWATT-HOUR (kWh) An energy unit commonly accustomed to quantify electrical consumption or battery capacity; equal to consuming 1000 watts of power for starters hour.
28 LEAD-ACID BATTERY The oldest sort of rechargeable battery, offering affordable and a good power-to-weight ratio. Here, lead-plate electrodes surrounded by way of a diluted sulfuric-acid electrolyte sit inside of a plastic case.
29 LITHIUM-ION BATTERY A battery having a lithium-based compound to have an electrolyte, it features a high energy-to-weight ratio and low discharge keep, but tougher heat challenges. Not all chemistries feel secure enough for automotive use. Currently, cell shapes are generally cylindrical or prismatic.
30 NICKEL-METAL-HYDRIDE BATTERY A battery that utilizes a nickel cathode, metallic anode, as well as a hydrogen-based electrolyte. It falls between lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries in price and energy density. Currently the most widely used battery type for hybrid applications.
31 PARALLEL HYBRID A hybrid in which an electrical motor powers the wheels in collaboration having an internal-combustion engine. Example: Toyota Prius.
32 PERMANENT MAGNET A material including neodymium which causes a strong, persistent magnetic field. Often familiar with replace copper-wire windings from the rotor.
33 REGENERATIVE BRAKING Operating an electrical motor like a generator to slow a car while converting its motion, or kinetic energy, into electricity for recharging the car battery.
34 ROTOR The moving part of a power machine.
35 SERIES HYBRID Electric current from a motor room fire-driven generator powers an electric powered motor driving the wheels. There is no mechanical connection between your engine as well as the wheels. Example: Fisker Karma. The Chevrolet Volt has both parallel- and series-hybrid modes.
36 STATOR The static portion of an electric powered machine. Usually fitted with copper windings that build a magnetic field.
37 SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR An AC motor where the rotor turns for a speed proportional for the supply-current frequency.
38 THREE-PHASE MOTOR By using three AC currents which can be evenly spaced but from phase with each other, power production is a bit more constant and motor vibration is reduced.
39 VOLTAGE An electromotive force. Also, the visible difference in electrical potential between two points.
40 WATT A unit of power; 746 watts are the same as one horsepower.
The desolate man gas engines
"The combustion engine along with the electric motor usually are not mutually exclusive but instead complement one another and play to your strengths of the special advantages. We feel that combustion engines will always be the leading driveline technology inside medium term, but increasingly integrated in hybrid or plug-in hybrid systems, depending for the vehicle concept and its particular intended use."
Michael Hankel
When 12 Volts aren't enough
Twelve-volt electrical systems have reliably provided the juice for over 50 years, but they also may be tapped out. Modern vehicle features, from heated seats to adaptive chassis controls, draw millions of power. Add hybrid-electric capability, as well as the standard 12-volt setup is soon overburdened. A second 48-volt power loop allows engineers to utilize thinner, lighter wires for everyone those subsystems that draw over 500 watts. Audi, BMW, and Ford, by way of example, already use such dual-voltage electrical systems. A second battery or even a DC-to-DC converter needs to accommodate the high-voltage loop. Expect to see more premium models turn to 48 volts inside the near future.
Lead-acid batteries live
The drive to cut back hybrid-battery costs has invigorated R&D in lead-acid tech, cast aside for dead when higher performing but pricier nickel- and lithium-based chemistries emerged. The new lead-acid designs are intended for basic stop-start systems and low-voltage hybrids. Some feature thinner, denser plates stacked in novel ways to increase efficiency. Others add carbon towards the negative plate, which boosts storage capacity during partial-state-of-charge operation. The most promising designs could increase energy density by the factor of three while retaining the high charge/discharge cycling rates meant for hybrid operation.
VBOX
Strapping a VBOX II data loggers into a car for just a test-and-tune session is like using a bazooka whenever a butter knife will perform. Racelogic's VBOX Sport is perfectly suited to the casual data geek. The new Sport logs GPS data 20 times another for around six hours using one battery charge. It's waterproof, comes with a internal antenna, and will also mount to handlebars or perhaps a windshield. At $429, it does not take cheapest VBOX offering. Instead of any built-in display, the Sport uses Bluetooth to change an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to a real-time speedo (Android is resulting). Racelogic has promised a predictive lap-timing app, plus the free software enables you to analyze data using your PC being a pro.
Radar detectors
A radar detector is usually a lot just like a radio. But rather than music and talk, it picks the frequencies emitted by position- and speed-monitoring radar. In the past, radar-detector design targeting picking up radar from miles away. But not all that sounds like radar derives from police officers trying to meet their ticket quotas. From automatic door openers to vehicle-blind-spot monitoring systems, the earth is filled with devices emitting microwaves for the same frequency as radar guns. To be useful, a detector can't just sound the alarm anytime it "hears" the appropriate frequency. Escort's Passport Max ($550) uses new technology to filter noise in an attempt to find police radar faster plus more accurately. In our time while using Passport Max, we learned that if it's going off, there is no question you will find there's Smokey lurking.
Cars that do not crash
"Autonomous-driving technology will 1 day allow us to engineer cars that do not crash, that will fundamentally change just how we design our vehicles. If cars don't crash, we can easily rethink the types of materials we use, we can easily reduce or even eliminate bulky safety structures, you can tremendously shed extra pounds, therefore we can improve fuel economy."
Mary Barra
Senior Vice President of Global Product Development for General Motors
New phone tricks
For its first 40 years, the cellphone was shackled to cars with a curly cord plugged in towards the lighter socket. Now the tables have turned, while using modern phone dictating many aspects of automotive design and technology.
A) the phone to be a cable box The MirrorLink standard allows the auto's console display to become the big-screen TV for a smartphone's cable box. Your small phone affords the processing power and apps for navigation, a music library, phone connections, as well as other functions, nevertheless the familiar interface is projected with a large and accessible dash screen. Alpine, JVC, Kenwood, and Sony already offer MirrorLink-enabled aftermarket head units. Based within the amount of certification activity among major industry suppliers, automakers are close behind.
B) open apps for that car Ford's OpenXC programming interface gives coders usage of vehicle data like steering-wheel angle, fuel consumption, and accelerator position. If Ford incorporates OpenXC into production cars, it may lead to apps that log data around the track or coach one to higher fuel economy. Developers have concocted a DIY backup camera employing an inexpensive webcam as well as a phone for your display. And because the normal is open source, any automaker can tap it due to the own cars.
C) your cord is obsolete Induction charging constitutes a cellphone truly wireless. Late this past year, the Toyota Avalon had become the first car to present induction phone charging from your factory (as part of any $1950 package). A pad ahead with the shifter juices phones compatible using the international Qi (pronounced "chee") wireless-charging protocol. In the long run, magnetic resonance technology could allow charging multiple devices with a greater range through the charger compared to the Qi standard of merely one.6 inches.
Looking for the new car? Just Google it.
The search giant wants in with your next car purchase. Google "BMW 335i San Francisco" and you'll be shown which Bay Area dealers have one. As an inventory tool, /cars does nothing new, but Google's reach should eventually yield the greatest listing of cars in a location. And if you request more information at a dealer, it truly is filtered through anonymous telephone numbers and emails so salesmen can't pester you. Only in Northern California at this time, expanding soon.
The convergence of gas and diesel engines
"The strongest technology I see about the horizon is combining gasoline and diesel attributes with controlled auto ignition. At Hyundai/Kia, we call that gasoline direct injection with compression ignition. This can be a step beyond what's been achieved by many researchers with homogeneous charge compression ignition. The benefit is diesel efficiency with gasoline convenience."