More than 20 partners from all areas of the European car industry worked together in the EUREKA ITEA Cluster EAST-EEA project to develop a common software interface for electronic devices to be used in all cars from 2009. This will make the next generation of vehicles quicker to design and cheaper to bring to market, while maintaining high quality standards.
Electronics are being used increasingly to improve safety and comfort in all areas of the car – from engine, steering and br
PlayStation users worldwide can now see for themselves what happens when Ariane launcher technology is applied to Le Mans racing. All they have to do is sit back and select which Pescarolo racing car they want to test-drive.
Gran Turismo 4, a new PlayStation 2 game, features the two custom-built top-performance Pescarolo racing cars that took part in the Le Mans endurance race in 2003 and 2004. Both were constructed using technologies developed for European space programmes.
Russian scientists are successfully developing smokeless gunpowder for automobile airbags, under ISTC Project #1882. This powder combusts almost instantaneously at the most important moment, but the airbag will fill with a gas that is harmless to the passenger, not like known compositions today.
The Russian scientists, from the Institute of Chemical Physics RAS, propose to make car safety airbags even safer. Their theoretical and practical investigations have established of which c
A new way to protect the eyes of drivers from the light of oncoming cars is found by Russian scientists. The technology for production of new anti-blinding systems is under development. Finance is extended by the Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE) under the program “Start”.
Russian scientists from Dimitrovgrad (Ul’yanovsk area) have designed a new non-blinding headlight system. Its use in cars will significantly decrease the risk of driving at nigh
Russian researchers, specialists of the Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, suggest the way to make motor-car airbags even more secure. Their theoretical and practical investigations allowed to determine which the compounds should be included in the powder that burns at the moment of blow during the accident so that the airbags were instantly filled up with gases not dangerous to human beings and environment. The researchers’ effort was supported by the Interna
A theoretical study of friction between solids that looks at the process just one molecule at a time could soon lead to a more effective way to stop cars in an emergency than simply slamming on the brakes or using ABS. This research is reported today in a special Einstein Year issue of the New Journal of Physics (www.njp.org) published jointly by the Institute of Physics and the German Physical Society (Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft).
Scientists and engineers have assimi
The University of Deusto (Bilbao) is developing a system for the remote monitoring of vehicles.
The NEXT-CAR project consists in developing a system for the management of a number of sensors incorporated into a vehicle and the subsequent sending of data from these to a monitoring control centre.
The basis of the project is a small pocket computer (PDA) which receives all the information from the vehicle’s network of electronic sensors, thus enabling it to monitor the compl
ROBOTIKER-TECNALIA Technological Centre is currently developing the project known as TANGER (Technologies for New Generation Automobiles). These technologies will integrate novel and innovative solutions into new automotive products centred at the point of driving. Within its strategy of product and processes design and development, ROBOTIKER-TECNALIA have taken a clear decision to technologically enhance the point of driving, this being the centre of control of the vehicle, taking in both th
Fraunhofer IIS presented the first DRM chip design for car radios. This car radio solution will enable drivers to select their preferred radio program from hundreds of different radio stations. However, it is something more than purely listening to favorite music: the new radio formats offer multilingual support to ethnic news or talk programs. In this way, drivers will get local news or may listen to programs in foreign languages – at any time and any place.
With the internati
Flow control techniques and aerodynamic improvements developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology could save the U.S. trucking industry hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel per year.
Recent tests done using a full-size tractor-trailer truck show the techniques – which are based on systems originally developed for jet aircraft wings – could increase fuel economy by as much as 11-12 percent. The improvements could also enhance braking and directional control, potentially
The Swedish automotive industry, with its base in western Sweden, has a crucial role to play in the Swedish economy. Exports from the Volvo Group and Volvo Cars alone amount to around SEK 140 billion per year, equivalent to almost 15 per cent of the total. To sustain competitiveness and improve the future potential of the industry, Volvo and Chalmers have agreed to expand their research collaboration with the aim of producing more environmentally friendly diesel engines and developing the vehicl
Researchers in England have found a promising method for producing hydrogen from sunflower oil, a development that could lead to cleaner and more efficient hydrogen production for powering automobile fuel cells as well as homes, factories and offices. The development was described today at the 228th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Fuel cells show much promise for supplying the energy needs of the future, and their demand is
The GAIKER Technological Centre and the ANTOLIN GROUP, a world leader in the design and production of a wide variety of components for the automobile industry, have designed a research project aimed at improving the assessment of residues created in the manufacture of automobile roofs.
It is currently estimated that a plant manufacturing these roofs can generate something like 2000 t of different residues per year, some of which are very complex in their structure and composition and end up
Researchers from the Area of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering at the Universitat Jaume I (UJI), Spain, have devised a quicker method to evaluate the systems used in the automotive industry to protect the metal chassis of vehicles against corrosion. This new technique allows the time required to carry out such tests to be reduced from two months to just one day.
The metal chassis of automobiles are under constant exposure to environmental conditions (high ambient relative hum
Samples of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) collected from automobiles and forklifts varied widely in both their composition and their toxicity, according to a pair of studies published today in the June issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The studies show that the two samples of DEP have different physical and chemical properties, as well as different mutagenic effects in bacteria and pulmonary toxicity effects in mice. The results confirm that DEP can be highl
The car will not be the first application for fuel cells. This is one of the conclusions in the doctoral thesis of Robert van den Hoed, which he will defend on 17 May at TU Delft. “My research project confirms that large organisations such as in the automobile industry have trouble implementing radical changes.” A fuel cell powered car as a case to gain insight into radical innovation theory.
For years now, fuel cells running on hydrogen have been mentioned as an environmentally friendly a
Feedback
