Monday, August 18, 2008

Future cars: small, sleek, smart



It's time for the all-new Chevrolet Camaro...A 21st century face on that 60's sport car, the Chevy Camaro boasting 26 miles per gallon, it reflects what designers say will characterize all cars 10 years from now...Eficiency: vehicles from all types they say, will shrink to make them more fuel efficient. General Motors Vice-President of Global Design Ed Welburn: "We have techologies (...) development that will take away that dependency on oil from other countries, the Volt is a very good example of it, Volt would be a mainstream technology..."

He's referring to Chevy's concept car, the all-electric Volt, cars that also look sleeker and more aerodynamic, as seen in the models assembled by students here at California's prestigious Art Center College of Design, the emphasis on the environment will haste the use of new material, that could give a new look to cars inside and out... Steward Rich shares the college transportation design department: "If you look at the production processes, the raw material extraction, materials that are truly sustainable, maybe even interior finishings for example that are changeable, so a car may have a wardrobe and you may be able to swap up different kinds of materials..."

And with advancements of those materials, electronic and lightning, voters would be able to customize their car more, even changing the ..., those seem to be leading the way toward the same sort of reconfigurability, the opportunity of maybe change the color of something, as you choose or by mood, ah...it seems to be possible now, or or artificial muscle that changes you know the way seat forms and arm rests of the interior shapes might feel so you actually might have a different posture in your eight o'clock drive versus three in the afternoon drives"...

New camera technologies could eliminate side and rear view mirrors streamlining the look...in ten years from now you'll be able to park of voice-command...now that's really sitting in the driver's seat...

Fred Cortale, Reuters, New York.

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