Nissan Direct Adaptive Steering

Autonomous cars have many hurdles to clear before reaching consumers, but they're coming. Nissan, Volvo and Mercedes Benz have pledged to bring self-driving cars to showrooms by 2020. This year, Nissan's Infiniti Q50 luxury sedan debuted one of the biggest steps yet towards that goal: the first consumer steer-by-wire system. 

Another major function of the Direct Adaptive Steering is the newly developed straight-line stability system. If the vehicle’s line of travel deviates from a straight path, the Direct Adaptive Steering enhances the car’s handling characteristics by producing fractional sensations of resistance as feedback from the steering, helping the driver keep a straight line of travel and reducing the need for course corrections in a smooth and natural way. The feedback is so subtle that a driver may not notice it.

Direct adaptive steering bypasses the mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels that meet the road. Sensors measure how a driver turns the wheel and send that data through an electronic controller to actuators, which, in turn, pivot the steering rack. (For safety, two backup controllers provide redundancy.) Because there’s no physical link between the road and the steering wheel, drivers don’t feel jarring bumps or vibrations, but the system does electrically simulate natural steering resistance. Computers vary steering ratio and power assist for easier low-speed maneuvers and high-speed stability.

Trends in Automotive Fuels

Robotic Vehicles

Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in the Techfest of Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. There I witnessed an event "Robocalypse". In this event, 2 robots had to compete with each other. These robots were made such that they don't consume any fossil fuel. They worked on compressed air, storage batteries and one even worked on battery charged by Solar Cell. The one in the picture worked on compressed air. These sources are completely pollution free.

Though the use of alternate power sources is common in miniature toy and hobby vehicles, such technologies are also being developed by leading automobile manufacturers.

Tata, an Indian company, is working on car known as the AirPod, which runs completely on compressed air. The AirPod is powered by an air motor driven by compressed air. This compressed air is stored in a tank under high pressure. The energy from expansion of compressed air is used to run the engine that drives the AirPod. An onboard generator, which is powered by the wheels of the car is also used to run a compressor that builds up the pressure of the compressed air. This is very useful of enhancing the range of the car. It has a claimed range of almost 200 km on a single charge. Since the medium of power is air, it is not only non polluting, but also non hazardous.

Diesel Electric Bus

Volvo's diesel electric city bus.

Volvo India showcased the 7700 Diesel-Electric Hybrid city bus at the 2012 Delhi auto expo. The Volvo 7700, like all other Volvo city buses, will come with a low floor design for easy ingress and egress. Volvo 7700 hybrid bus will feature a 5 liter MD5 four cylinder, turbocharged and intercooled diesel engine which produces 210 Bhp of peak power and 800 Nm of peak torque. This engine is mated to an electric motor which will be powered by a lithium-ion battery. Volvo claims a whopping 35% reduction in fuel economy and a considerable 40% - 50% cut in exhaust emissions. 

The 7700 can be operated in 3 modes, all electric, diesel and diesel-electric. The electric motor will power the bus for speeds of up to 20 Kph, after which the diesel engine will take over. The Volvo 7700 is a parallel hybrid. It will keep on charging the electric battery through the diesel engines alternator, thus not constantly replenishing the battery. The Volvo 7700 also comes with Start-Stop system and  Regenerative Braking technologies. The engine shuts off at traffic signals or whenever the bus is stationary for more than a few seconds and the electric motor will kick in. This will help in conserving the battery stack and increasing the fuel efficiency. Volvo will offer a 105 seater version of the 7700 hybrid bus in India. It will also soon be running on the streets of Gothenburg. 

Nissan Leaf

Nissan Leaf

Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf is a five door electric hatchback which was introduced in 2010. 

Leaf stands for ‘Leading Environmentally Friendly, Affordable Family car’. 

The Leaf won the European and World Car of the Year Award in 2011 for its design, practicality and for its eco-friendliness. 

It has become an electric car icon much like the Toyota Prius, which an icon for the hybrids. 

2013 Leaf

The 2013 Leaf is even better than its predecessors.

The Leaf uses an 80 kW synchronous electric motor which develops 280 nm of torque. 

The motor is powered by a 24 killowatt-hours lithium ion battery. 

The Leaf has a top speed of 93 mph (150 kph) and can go from 0-60 mph in about 9.9 seconds. 

It has a low drag co-efficient of 0.28 cd which helps it to improve its fuel economy. 

On a full charge, the Leaf has a range of 75 miles (121 km). 

The low operating costs and the fact that it doesn’t harm the environment makes it one of the best electric cars in the market.

Charging of Battery

On the downside, the Leaf’s battery takes 20 hours to charge with a 110 volt charging chord. 

Most Leaf’s also come with a special feature called ‘quick charge’ which charges 80% of the battery in 30 minutes. 

The Leaf provides one of the most satisfying, stress-free ownership experiences in modern motoring

Toyota Camry

Toyota Camry to go hybrid

With the cause of green energy and environmentally viable vehicles getting stronger by the day, Toyota has become the largest car maker to join the number of car manufacturers that are introducing hybrid versions of diesel or petrol powered cars.

 The new Toyota Camry will feature a water-cooled system that reduces the temperature of the exhaust gas and reroutes it to the intake, thereby reducing emissions. The hybrid powertrain on this car consists of a 2.5 liter gasoline engine and a 650 volt electric motor, together producing about 200 hp and achieves 43 mpg in the city and 39 mpg on the highway. The car will also come with an EV drive mode, where it can be driven on the electric motor alone for 2.5 km, but the speed in this mode must be limited to below 40 kph. The Camry also comes with features such as Stop-Start system and Regenerative braking system. I will discuss about these new technologies in my future blogs.

Although hybrid cars have not done very well in India, the carmaker is planning to assemble the Camry hybrid locally alongside the 2.5 liter petrol model and is planning to sell around 20-25 Camry hybrids a month.

Revolution towards helping the planet - sustainable environment

Porsche's hybrid car

Hybrid electric cars are normally divided into the subtypes of either series or parallel, which refers to the way in which the engine supplies power to the propulsion system.

In the series hybrid, a heat engine powers a generator, which either charges the battery or supplies power directly to the propulsion circuit and thereby reduces demand on the battery. In a parallel hybrid, the heat engine delivers mechanical power directly to the drive train and the generator is eliminated. 

The series hybrid is used mostly in the design of today's hybrids, because of the lighter, smaller, and more powerful gensets which have been developed.

Energy and power requirements are based on a multiple of driving schedules that include power/duration plots of acceleration, cruise, and total trip energy demands for each driving schedule.

The hybrid electric car will be able to use fossil fuels better and make them last longer. 

With a hybrid electric vehicle the vehicle gets better gas mileage than a typical gasoline fed engine. 

In doing this a hybrid vehicle will make the earth's resources last longer and will not use them up as fast as is presently occurring . 

The reductions that the hybrid electric vehicle will make in the emissions problem will be one that is looked upon as a revolution towards helping the planet. 

As a human it is our right to live in a sustainable environment. 

With the production of this car the air environment in the long term will benefit.

Preserving Air Quality for the Future

The beautiful Himalayas. 

As we have seen I firmly believe that hybrid cars are the future.

Hybrid cars present a solution towards preserving air quality in years to come. 

Hybrid electric cars were created because of the shortfall in battery technology. 

The batteries that were being made could not produce enough power. 

These batteries would not sustain long trips with the car. 

In order to work around this an onboard generator, powered by an internal combustion engine could be used for long trips.

 These cars became known as hybrid electric vehicles that are now being mass-produced by companies like Toyota and Honda.
The hybrid cars' greatest advantage is that they release almost zero emissions into the atmosphere. 

These cars use their brakes to regenerate power to the batteries. 

When the car is slowing down it takes the energy being released when slowing the car down. 

The result is a use of energy that does not require the car to be plugged in. 

Exciting developments are taking place in the field of hybrid cars.

LC Super Hybrid technology at major international future car conference were presented in Stuttgart recently by UK Low Carbon Champions.

Stuttgart is known as the birthplace of the automobile, and has the famed Mercedes-Benz Museum.

It is essential that we study fossil fuels to prepare for the exciting developments taking place in the industry.

That is why I have been studying physics which I will discuss in further blog posts.

Hybrid Cars

Fuel efficient transport for the future

My philosophy powering the interest I have in alternatives for fossil fuels in the future stems from my belief that current vehicles which are powered by gasoline may pollute the environment with far reaching results. 

As technologies improve and the human way of life changes, my vision is that alternatively powered vehicles are destined to enter the automotive industry.

These vehicles developed in order to achieve better gas mileage and to help slow the production of the gases which cause Global Warming. 

The hybrid vehicle is one of the newest and most popular alternatively powered vehicles. Hybrid electric vehicles are energy efficient cars or trucks which run on an internal combustion engine of a gas vehicle with the battery and electric motor of an electric vehicle.

This results in twice the fuel economy of gas vehicles. These hybrid electric vehicles consume fewer natural resources than gas vehicles and produce almost no emission fumes compared to the standard gas vehicle.

Watch this blog for more amazing info on hybrid cars, the way forward in the future ...!

The Future and fossil fuels

My name is Tuhin Bagi, and I live in India. India is a beautiful country, with wonderful wild life and waterways. I am passionate about automobiles and commercial vehicles. Since 2010 I have been increasingly aware of the rate at which fossil fuels are being used for transport and other purposes. Therefore I have set out to become educated about possible future alternatives to fossil fuels. The great alternative I feel would be possibly solar cells and electricity. So my blog will be about issues surrounding fossil fuels, altern
tives, our future, developments, and other issues.
Welcome to my blog!