The car of the future is (finally!) on the way - Pulse
The Nucleon was a 1958 concept car that used a steam engine powered by uranium fission (tailfins optional. In that regard, the Nucleon is just one of many dream cars that failed to hit the road. Sometimes it seems as if that the revolutionary “car of the future” is one of those things, like small-scale nuclear fusion, that is always a decade away. The car of the future is probably still a decade away—but not much more. There is a real chance that the long-awaited reinvention of the car really is just around the corner. I say that because there has already been a revolution of sorts, but one so gradual and so positive that it has been relatively little noticed by the average person shopping for wheels. What I am thinking of specifically is that new cars are not really mechanical any more. Today’s cars, McKinsey noted last year, “have the computing power of 20 personal computers. ” That is a fundamental change and one that can, and will, lead to even bigger changes. Or think about anti-lock brakes. These prevent the wheels from locking up, and according to some engineers , have been even more important than seatbelts in terms of saving lives. but no one really took much notice of them. The new, improved windshields looked pretty much like the ones they replaced. Source: www.linkedin.com
