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Edited Date/Time
1/20/2012 8:03pm
Links at - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/
NOVA: Car of the Future
Tuesday 8:00 PM
Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's "Car Talk" fame takes viewers on a roller-coaster ride into the world of cars as NOVA takes a look at the latest and greatest in the automotive industry.
Check out the Hypercar® Vehicle at - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/efficiency.html hit the Launch interactive link to watch.
Their site - http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid191.php
They've started a separate company just to advance the carbon fiber mfg process - http://www.fiberforge.com/PAGES/who.html
Where's my carbon fiber composite Service Honda AF500 AJ ?
Whether a car gets 30mpg or 60 mpg, the car will still cost tons to operate each year, once you include the cost of the vehicle, the costs of maintenance, the cost of insurance, the cost of depreciation, and the cost of fuel. When you figure all of that in, a $30,000 car paid over 5 years will cost a person about $10,000 every year, not even including the fuel. That's a lot of money to toss, just to have that car.
I'm working with a company now that's ignoring the inefficiencies of the vehicles and trying to change the cultural approach to commuting. Their concepts will significantly remove the cost of the vehicle per family household, since you wouldn't even need to own a vehicle under their system. Our installation of their first system will be on the University of Washington campus in September. No, it's not going to magically be available to everyone. But, it's a step in the right direction.
They are basically not worrying about the propulsion system yet and concentrating on improving everything else. The easiest way to do that is to drop the weight and make the design extremely aerodynamic. Their carbon-fiber approach would make the car feather light and very strong - think an F1 chassis.
This would also allow for a new approach to assembly as the parts can be lifted by hand and glued together. that's why they've started a new venture to educate the other car companies on the new techniques.
As with anything new, the cost is initially high until you can factor in volume purchase/production.
Intrago Rental System
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
You will never eliminate multiple car families and mass transit is only somewhat "sucessful" in urban areas. Has anyone REALISTICALLY compared the waste of constructing and maintaining a mass transit system with personal auto use? There is nothing that requires people to pay $10,000 a year in auto expenses...that number can be reduced dramatically at will. With mass transit, once that disaster gets forced upon cities, the costs only go up and you are stuck with it forever.
If you were able to divorce everyone from their personal autos...are there going to be enough government jobs at the end of the train line for all of those people who made their living from personal autos? Personal autos provide huge numbers of PRIVATE SECTOR jobs.
If you really want to reduce waste, convince our government to stop burning tons of fuel in Iraq, shut down Nascar, and nix the space shuttle program.
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