Showing posts with label car. Show all posts

2012-03-29

A Google Self-Driving Car Experience

Amazing! Google's self-driving car allows the blind to drive | Fox News

Mahan was behind the wheel of a Toyota Prius tooling the small California town of Morgan Hill in late January, a routine trip to pick up the dry cleaning and drop by the Taco Bell drive-in for a snack.

He also happens to be 95 percent blind.

Mahan, head of the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center, “drove” along a specially programmed route thanks to Google’s autonomous driving technology.

Source: Amazing! Google's self-driving car allows the blind to drive | Fox News

Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan - YouTube

We announced our self-driving car project in 2010 to make driving safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient. Having safely completed over 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, we wanted to share one of our favorite moments. Here's Steve, who joined us for a special drive on a carefully programmed route to experience being behind the wheel in a whole new way. We organized this test as a technical experiment, but we think it's also a promising look at what autonomous technology may one day deliver if rigorous technology and safety standards can be met.

Source: Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan - YouTube

Google driverless car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Google Driverless Car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for driverless cars. [...]

The system combines information gathered from Google Street View with artificial intelligence software that combines input from video cameras inside the car, a LIDAR sensor on top of the vehicle, radar sensors on the front of the vehicle and a position sensor attached to one of the rear wheels that helps locate the car's position on the map.

Source: Google driverless car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sebastian Thrun: Google's driverless car | Video on TED.com

Sebastian Thrun helped build Google's amazing driverless car, powered by a very personal quest to save lives and reduce traffic accidents. Jawdropping video shows the DARPA Challenge-winning car motoring through busy city traffic with no one behind the wheel, and dramatic test drive footage from TED2011 demonstrates how fast the thing can really go.

Source: Sebastian Thrun: Google's driverless car | Video on TED.com

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2011-12-01

Wacky wheels: Zoleco Sports Car

Zoleco is a new start-up automobile company which hopes to integrate aerodynamics and energy conservation. Zoleco is also the name of its prototype vehicle which is capable of reaching top speeds of an impressive 200mph. Initial calculations show that using just 8.5hp, the car can touch 65mph with a huge 91.4mpg. If you look at other eco-friendly vehicles, you’ll notice that they don’t give as much mileage, examples being the fuel efficient Alfa Romeo at 54.3mpg and the 2011 Camry V8 at 19/28 city/highway. Zoleco uses a fiberglass body and incorporates innovative safety features that set it apart from the rest.

Source: Wacky wheels: Zoleco Sports Car

Zoleco

The purpose of this specialty car company is to create an outstanding, very efficient, energy conserving sports car. This futuristic concept car prototype is being built with a unique and exciting form of automotive design. By using the scientific approach of combining the laws of nature with practicality and common sense we can produce a car that is…

• Sporty • Fun to drive

• Practical • Eco-friendly

• Exotic • A great compliment to ones individuality.

This all comes together to help address the sustainability issues in the future of our personal transportation.

Read More: The Car | The Man | Development Summary | Technical Benefits & Details | Engine Technology Research

Source: Zoleco

Zoleco is a home-built 151 mpg concept car

Canadian Zoltan Bod is a self-proclaimed "car and performance nut" who has built his very own, very efficient, 151 mpg (1.56 L/100 km) concept car. Dubbed Zoleco (which merges part of Bod's name with the word "eco"), it is designed with ergonomic considerations and seats up to four passengers comfortably. It also features a teardrop body shape and a three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine, along with thermal and braking energy recovery technologies, that conserve as much energy as possible. The result is a sporty and eco-friendly car that we're told is fun to drive.

Source: Zoleco is a home-built 151 mpg concept car

The DIY Eco-Friendly Zoleco Concept Car from Canada

The future of the Zoleco is currently up in the air, as it could eventually head to production.

Zoltan Bod is considering selling a do-it-yourself kit for his Zoleco concept, allowing prospective buyers with some free-time and a bit of automotive acumen to create their own efficient car.

Source: The DIY Eco-Friendly Zoleco Concept Car from Canada

Source: Exotic AERODYNAMIC Unique Car Prototype Zoleco video 3 - YouTube

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2010-09-30

Volvo Car Body Panels Serve as Rechargeable Battery

At Volvo, the body becomes the battery

In a materials development project launched by the London Imperial College, nine European companies and institutes are developing carbon fibres and polymer resin that can store and charge more energy faster than conventional batteries are able to do. Volvo is the only car manufacturer participating in the project funded in part by the European Union.

The material to be developed will be extremely strong and pliant. Thus, it can be shaped for use in building a vehicle's body panels. It also will be much lighter than today's batteries. According to Volvo, a car's weight could be reduced by as much as 15 percent if steel body panels would be replaced with the new material.

Collected from: At Volvo, the body becomes the battery

Cars of the future could be powered by their bodywork thanks to new battery technology

The researchers say that the composite material that they are developing, which is made of carbon fibres and a polymer resin, will store and discharge large amounts of energy much more quickly than conventional batteries. In addition, the material does not use chemical processes, making it quicker to recharge than conventional batteries. Furthermore, this recharging process causes little degradation in the composite material, because it does not involve a chemical reaction, whereas conventional batteries degrade over time.

The material could be charged by plugging a hybrid car into household power supply. The researchers are also exploring other alternatives for charging it such as recycling energy created when a car brakes.

Collected from: Cars of the future could be powered by their bodywork thanks to new battery technology

YouTube - Car of the future powered by bodywork

Collected from: YouTube - Car of the future powered by bodywork

Tomorrow's Volvo car: body panels serve as the car battery

Volvo Cars contributes its expertise
The project will continue for three years. In the first stage, work focuses both on developing the composite material so it can store more energy and on studying ways of producing the material on an industrial scale. Only in the final stage will the battery be fitted to a car.

"Our role is to contribute expertise on how this technology can be integrated in the future and to input ideas about the advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost and user-friendliness," says Per-Ivar Sellergren, development engineer at the Volvo Cars Materials Centre.

Initially, the car's spare wheel recess will be converted into a composite battery.
"This is a relatively large structure that is easy to replace. Not sufficiently large to power the entire car, but enough to switch the engine off and on when the car is at a standstill, for instance at traffic lights," says Per-Ivar Sellergren.

Collected from: Tomorrow's Volvo car: body panels serve as the car battery

Sources: At Volvo, the body becomes the battery; Cars of the future could be powered by their bodywork thanks to new battery technology; YouTube - Car of the future powered by bodywork; Tomorrow's Volvo car: body panels serve as the car battery

Related: Imperial University and Volvo are working on a composite blend of carbon fibers and a polymer resin that could be shaped into a car’s panels. | Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit; Volvo Working with Imperial College to Create Cars with Bodies Made from Batteries - SlashGear; Volvo working on a car battery that could be shaped into body panels — Autoblog Green; Volvo Working on Storing Energy in a Car's Body Panels : TreeHugger; Green Car Congress: European Researchers Developing Multifunctional Structural Composite Material That Can Double as Energy Storage; Your Next Volvo May Be Made out of Batteries - Transportation - GOOD; Car parts that store energy, power car | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews; Volvo Working with Imperial College to Create Cars with Bodies Made from Batteries - SlashGear; Not a car with batteries, but a car that is a battery | MNN - Mother Nature Network; e.greenhalgh

2010-03-26

GM's EN-V Pride -- Electric Concept Car For Urban Mobility

Clipped from: GM unveils electric concept car for mega-cities | Reuters

GM unveils electric concept car for mega-cities

(Reuters) - General Motors unveiled a new electric concept car in China on Wednesday , aiming to burnish its image as a supplier of non-polluting cars tailored to the crowded mega-cities of the future.

Clipped from: YouTube - General Motors Unveils Concept Electric Car in Shanghai: Video

General Motors Unveils Concept Electric Car in Shanghai: Video

Clipped from: EN-V - China - NEWS

GM Unveils EN-V Concept: A Vision for Future Urban Mobility

2010-03-24

Shanghai – By 2030, urban areas will be home to more than 60 percent of the world’s 8 billion people. This will put tremendous pressure on a public infrastructure that is already struggling to meet the growing demand for transportation and basic services.
Read Full Article

Clipped from: EN-V - China - NEWS

        Vehicle

o   EN-V is short for Electric Networked Vehicle

o   Leverages electrification and connectivity, creating a new class of personal urban mobility

o   Connectivity separates EN-V from other electric vehicles

o   Autonomous driving, parking and retrieval with advanced sensors and drive-by-wire systems

o   Uses electricity supplied by a lithium-ion phosphate battery and can be recharged using ordinary outlets

o   Maximum speed of 40 kph and range of 40 kilometers, which is more than required by the average urban commuter

o   One-sixth the size of a regular passenger car and a 1.74-meter turning radius

o   Two-wheel drive, accommodates two passengers

Sources:

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2010-03-05

599 GTB HY-KERS -- A Green Ferrari

Clipped from: YouTube - Ferrari and the environment: the global approach

Ferrari and the environment: the global approach

Clipped from: Geneva Auto Show: Ferrari HY-KERS Hybrid Concept - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

March 2, 2010, 7:35 am

Geneva Auto Show: Ferrari HY-KERS Hybrid Concept

The Ferrari HY-KERS Hybrid concept was displayed above a mirror that showed off the car’s drive system.

Slide Show: 2010 Geneva Motor Show

Introduced on Tuesday: Ferrari HY-KERS Hybrid concept

Clipped from: YouTube - Ferrari World Premiere of the Hybrid 599 GTB Fiorano Concept Car.

Ferrari World Premiere of the Hybrid 599 GTB Fiorano Concept Car.

Clipped from: Geneva Motor Show: Ferrari's 200mph eco-friendly electric hybrid unveiled | Mail Online

The green Ferrari: No more roaring revs as Italian supercar goes electric

The prototype's appearance at the opening day of the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland stunned visitors.

The hybrid vehicle - which uses the electric motor to back up a more traditional 6.0-litre V12 petrol engine - even sported a bright metallic green paint to reinforce its environmentally friendly credentials.

The aim is to have the green technology as an option across Ferrari's entire range of cars by 2015.

Clipped from: YouTube - 2010 Ferrari 599 GTB HY-KERS Concept

Clipped from: HY-KERS vettura laboratorio

Geneva Motor Show

News, photos and videos

Ferrari participating in the 80th Geneva Motor Show 2010.

Felisa's comment at Geneva

President Montezemolo's speech

HY-KERS vettura laboratorio

The HY-KERS vettura laboratorio (experimental vehicle) is an example of how Ferrari is approaching the development of hybrid technology without losing sight of the performance traits and driving involvement that have always exemplified its cars.

Look at the first photos

Clipped from: YouTube - 2010 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano HY-KERS Hybrid Concept Car - Hell Hath Frozen Over