Automotive Motor Engine

Safety is trending topic in future car

From anti-lock brakes to airbags, technology has always made cars safer. But now a motoring gadget that can tell if you are having a heart attack behind the wheel and calls for help is en route to the UK. Sensors in the driver’s seat pick up heart rate changes and sound an alert before the cardiac arrest strikes, then the system calls for help via the mobile phone network.

It is hoped the feature will help people with cardiovascular disease, who are 23% more likely to be involved in a road accident. The figure rises to 52% for angina sufferers. Manufacturer Ford, which developed the heart rhythm monitor, is working on other smart technologies as are other car makers.

(more…)

Driving around is getting easier by technology

Although getting cars off the road and encouraging people to use public transport is a major part of the battle to reduce traffic congestion, technology is becoming an increasingly large part of the mix. There are sensors along many motorways that register traffic flow, and smart cars will one day share their information with other road users. One example could be that a car sends out a signal to drivers that it has deployed its airbag, warning of an accident ahead.

Matthew Ensor, general manager, transportation, at engineering firm Beca says intelligent transport systems along with GPS are already allowing companies to see how long it takes drivers to complete their journeys. “Smart transport is about making better use of our transport network, and that leads to better efficiency,” he says. “With better information about travel times or travel options, people will change how they make the trip – they can make it more efficiently.”

(more…)

Driving is seriously endangered by distracted focus

For Judy and David Teater, it was January 2004. Judy Teater was driving their 12-year-old son, Joe, to be tutored in Grand Rapids, Mich. Holly Jo Smeckert, a 20-year-old nanny, was taking a child to dance class. As Judy Teater passed through an intersection, Smeckert drove her employer’s Hummer H2 through a red light, hitting the side of the Teaters’ SUV, killing Joe. Smeckert was talking on a cellphone.

“She passed four cars and a school bus that were stopped for the red light,” Judy Teater said. “She was talking and looking straight ahead and didn’t see the cars passing in front of her.” At any moment of the day, 11 percent of American motorists are talking on a cellphone, federal regulators say. But while law enforcers, policymakers and regulators struggle to deal with that threat in a comprehensive and effective way — there’s still no uniform way to even report that distraction was involved in an accident — the distractions keep coming. The safety problem has spread well beyond the risks of talking on the phone or texting while driving.

(more…)

Crying tiger over standard of fuel efficiency

In 1972, a vice president of General Motors said that requiring catalytic converters in cars would result in a “complete stoppage of production.” Of course, that didn’t happen. In 1966, Henry Ford II predicted that his company would “have to close down” over seat belt and safety glass standards. In 2008, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said proposed new fuel economy standards went “beyond what is technologically feasible and economically practicable.” Two years later, they stood side by side with the president, endorsing those same standards, and pledging to average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

Now the government is considering the next generation of fuel efficiency standards. And guess what? The automakers are at it again, predicting doom. But as an automotive technology expert, former auto company engineer and longtime observer of how efficiency and safety improvements get done, I can tell you this: Once again, they are crying wolf. (more…)