<![CDATA[Jalopnik: car of the future]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jalopnik.com.png <![CDATA[Jalopnik: car of the future]]> http://jalopnik.com/tag/car of the future http://jalopnik.com/tag/car of the future <![CDATA[ Dear God, No... Every Car Could Be A Hybrid By 2020 ]]> In a terrifying, post-apocalyptic, doomsday scenario envisioned by the brains at the IBM Institute for Business Value, every new car on the market in 2020 would be some kind of a hybrid. Not only that, but they project cars which communicate, avoiding accidents and taking over certain driving tasks. The findings were published in a paper, ominously titled "Automotive 2020: Clarity Beyond the Chaos," after the consulting branch of Big Blue interviewed 125 auto execs across the globe.

This dismal future of fuel efficiency and dangerously silent cities can only be battled with vigilance and your buying dollars. Imagine a world where hippies fall into deep depressions after their banner method of communicating moral superiority becomes commonplace; muscle-car fiends sit on the floors of garages everywhere, weeping into their now-pointless toolboxes. Where you don't drive, your car drives you. The horror... the horror. [Wired]

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Jalopnik-400471 Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT Ben Wojdyla http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=400471&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ "Car of the Future" Nova Episode Stunk, But Here's The Interesting Part ]]> Yeah, so, that Car of the Future episode of Nova with Click and Clack just wasn't all that good, sorry about that. The episode should probably have been called "Moments of forced laughter from two funny old guys in between John Lithgow talking down to the viewer about the car of the future". However, buried in the muck and mire of that episode was an interesting segment about the Rocky Mountain Institute and their work with lightweight materials, like in their Hypercar above, built with all carbon fiber superstructures and components.

Roasted testicle jokes aside, the founder, Amory Lovins — stop it — is the applied physicist behind the Colorado think tank and has some interesting things to say about the direction of cars to come. Take a couple of minutes and head over to the Nova website and listen to him talk about the challenges and opportunities for making cars better, stronger, faster, and more efficient. Okay, now you can make jokes about dangley bits. [Nova]

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Jalopnik-383214 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:20:00 EDT Ben Wojdyla http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=383214&view=rss&microfeed=true