kennb Posted October 19, 2013 Posted October 19, 2013 (edited) Let us peer into the future of the automobile for a bit to see what could be. By the year 2020, 6 years from now they will have cars on the road that require no one to drive them. They will take care of the task of safety of the passengers by avoiding obstacles and getting us to the destination unharmed. They could be all electric and have interchangeable pug in battery packs that can take us anyware. We can have a battery pack that is charging at home and one in the car. we will switch them out in the morning in 2 minutes before we leave home and last all day no matter where we go. The passengers will be able to control the car around town. Taking into account of this in the design of the physical car and advances in 3-D printing and materials the car will be built differently. A typical chassis arrangement the can be lengthened of shortened will be a matter of clicking a mouse on the computer. Special new plastics will allow the chassis to be a plastic type of material that can be replicated quickly for speed in manufacturing. The body will be designed around the generic chassis and be restricted on to the mounting plates. The bodies can be made in any configuration without special dies being made up through the use of 3-D printing....A side not here,,they have printers (prototypes of course) that can be brought to a site and print a house, so doing a full size car is child's play. Onto the think tank. Starting with a generic chassis that has all the working and electronics built in we adjourn to the manufactures prototyping room to build this chassis. I will not be using a 3-D printer but all the applications I am doing can be easily and cheaply done with one. Simple shapes designed to hold all the equipment required and accept a variety of body shapes is in the works on the design floor. Taking all the variables and a fore mentioned criteria the chassis is under construction. Note: Feel free to add information, ask questions and make recommendations as I go. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22767382@N08/sets/72157636718363726/ Edited October 19, 2013 by kennb
BluePopsicle Posted October 19, 2013 Posted October 19, 2013 Interesting concept. I look forward to keeping an eye on this idea.
Tom Geiger Posted October 19, 2013 Posted October 19, 2013 I remember reading that the 20th century had more technical advances than the previous FIVE centuries combined! And we're already off to a roaring start in the 21st. I don't believe there are limits to what we will see in our lifetime. I'm never shocked, but always pleasantly amazed at new things that come out. As cars have gotten more complex, many of us feared that they'd become unserviceable and needing repairs on expensive systems regularly. The opposite has happened. As complex as they are, cars require much less service than the older cars we love. The life of the average car has been extended from an expected 100,000 to at least 200,000 and going on towards 300,000 these days. We'll probably see 500,000 mile cars in our future. Science will figure out longer range batteries for full electric vehicles. And the cost differential between gas, hybrid and full electric vehicles will fade. And as they become more mainstream, fueling will be more available. Whether stations will have quick high volt charges that take as long as filling a current gas tank, or we'll swap out our fuel cells like we do propane tanks today, electric cars will work the way we need them to work in our lives. Cars will be more automated. Already we have cars coming out that stop instead of plowing into the car in front of them. That alone would eliminate half the rust hour accidents. Add in fully automated driverless cars, and traffic will be able to flow bumper to bumper at high speeds. And there will be no drunk drivers. The car will lock out the user controls and take the drunk to his home. The fun part is that we cannot even imagine some of the things we'll see in our life time!
kennb Posted October 19, 2013 Author Posted October 19, 2013 Tom you are so right about that. Rear suspension and drive units...electric if course,,,,are starting to come together http://www.flickr.com/photos/22767382@N08/sets/72157636724164743/
LDO Posted October 19, 2013 Posted October 19, 2013 Sounds a bit optimistic, but boy is it refreshing to read. Much better than the "anything I don't like is stupid (and con not possibly improve from where it is today)" point of view.
Shardik Posted October 19, 2013 Posted October 19, 2013 Yaay! A future without an apocalypse! I agree with Lee that some of your predictions are possibly a bit optimistic, ie. battery technology has a long way to go to get to consumer replaceable battery packs, and I can't see most people giving up their autonomy behind the wheel. Then again, the future will not be built by pessimists. And now you've got me thinking of alternatives to your design, darn you!
kennb Posted October 20, 2013 Author Posted October 20, 2013 Thanks to those that are comments and adding to the dialog. It gives more viewpoints and additional information I may not have thought of. The basic chassis is complete for now. The front suspension is roughed out along with the electric motors. I will be refining this setup as I go along and making adjustments and changes as I see them. Lets consider what goes over the chassis so that we can build further refinements to the chassis to accept the body. We are going to have to investigate what is going to happen with the body and how it is going to be designed over the chassis. What can we do to make this not only adaptable but maybe adaptable by the owner. Taking this one step further we should look at how the body is attached and constructed. Since each car on the road can not hit another with the technology how crash resistant do we have to make the body? Can we make plastic bodies? do we need 15 airbags to protect the occupants? What criteria do we have to go by to produce a body and how can it be attached to the frame? There is a lot of thinking to go into this aspect of the future cars. I will be looking into this by means of having the body rest into 8 attachment points the not only hold the body in place but also provide electrical contacts for the body lighting, interior and headlights and taillights. Those would be needed only so the occupants can see the surrounding since at night the cars would not need them. The cars would react the same way in darkness as in light. This would be very scary for the people inside the car though. What if we made the body detachable? Can there be a way to change the body on the chassis to fit the needs of the day? Lets look at the possibility of having a coupe for inclement weather or an open car for nice days. On Saturday work days we could have a truck type of body to haul lumber and materials. This opens a whole new aspect of car ownership. One chassis and 3 or 4 different interchangeable bodies. How would this work? there could be a system to lift one body off and drop another in place. This "shell would have opening doors and and appearance of what we feel for the day. The major components would be fixed on the chassis and the body would be designed around this concept. I will be working this next week at looking into how this can be done and the different ways to accomplish this overall concept of adaptability. Note: Feel free to add information, ask questions and make recommendations as I go. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22767382@N08/sets/72157636754101494/
BluePopsicle Posted October 20, 2013 Posted October 20, 2013 You've got a heck of an imagination on ya. It's really different and quite refreshing to see. I'm enjoying this build and look forward to more. =)
Tom Geiger Posted October 20, 2013 Posted October 20, 2013 I will be looking into this by means of having the body rest into 8 attachment points the not only hold the body in place but also provide electrical contacts for the body lighting, interior and headlights and taillights. Those would be needed only so the occupants can see the surrounding since at night the cars would not need them. The cars would react the same way in darkness as in light. This would be very scary for the people inside the car though. I believe cars will have lights. Will cars of the future allow owners to drive them when wanted and be self guided when needed? Kind of like an airliner? And same with lighting, an airliner has marker lights when in flight and only hits the headlights when landing. I think marker lights will be needed to be visible to other cars and pedestrians at night. It's kind of scary when a hybrid car sneaks up on you now without sound, imagine them without lights!
kennb Posted October 21, 2013 Author Posted October 21, 2013 I have set the body mount locations and made a sketch of the mounting brackets that will be on the body to plug into the chassis at these locations....each one is designed to carry power to the body systems and provide an automatic attachment system that makes it part of the chassis......................When the body is dropped onto the chassis 6 pins will engage to provide structural attachment and complete the electrical circuits for the body via system similar to and SD card into a camera. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22767382@N08/sets/72157636803889606/
Shardik Posted October 22, 2013 Posted October 22, 2013 I am really enjoying the design exercise aspect of this project. The amount of thought you're putting into this should result in a very plausible end product.
mnwildpunk Posted October 22, 2013 Posted October 22, 2013 (edited) Ok is it just me or other too .but all your posted pix are just a big black space Edited October 22, 2013 by mnwildpunk
kennb Posted October 22, 2013 Author Posted October 22, 2013 Ok is it just me or other too .but all your posted pix are just a big black space they are slide shows through flicker,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,if you cant get tem you can go to the link here to see that and other things I am working on http://www.flickr.com/photos/22767382@N08/
kennb Posted October 22, 2013 Author Posted October 22, 2013 I am really enjoying the design exercise aspect of this project. The amount of thought you're putting into this should result in a very plausible end product. Thank you.......you are seeing the design exercise aspect of what I am doing.
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