Few things capture the thoughts like the unknown future. TV shows and cartoons have shown us some pretty inventive possibilities of what vehicles would become. How did you imagine we would travel in the year 2010? The self-driven taxi from Total Recall? Hovering craft like in Star Wars? We imagined better, faster, cooler cars than ever. Technology has taken a completely different direction. Cars already do what we need them to do. Hovering would be cool, but wouldn’t really serve any other purpose. Cars already have sufficient speed that the highway patrol has to try to slow people down. In fact, in many places there’s so much traffic that cars can’t use the speed they already have. Aesthetics are still important, but rather than buying the flashiest possible car, people are choosing streamlined, attractive cars. Even spoilers are usually understated and painted the same color as the car. Auto makers tout the vehicles’ reliability and safety records, which has improved exponentially in recent years. What do cars still leave to be desired? Fuel efficiency – even more practicality. The price of gasoline has soared in recent years, and it’s expensive just to drive around town. Cars that run on less gasoline, or none at all, are the hot sellers. Automakers have a lot of choices for reaching this goal, from hydrogen to biofuel to propane. None of these technologies is perfect yet, especially economically. In the last few years, one technology has taken the lead and reached the car dealership: electricity. Hybrids were the first to hit the market and fully electric vehicles aren’t far behind. Toyota was the first to get its hybrid, the Prius, to consumers at a reasonable price. The other automakers followed closely on their heels. The Ford Escape, Infiniti M35, Honda Civic and Nissan Altima are just a few of the offerings. Cadillac’s Escalade and GMC’s Sierra prove that hybrids no longer have to be only small, lightweight cars. The government has encouraged the use of cars that consume less gasoline and don’t cause as much damage to the environment by offering financial incentives. You can go buy one of these cars today at your local San Bernardino Toyota Dealership or Car Dealers Des Moines with no problem. The fully electric car is the next development we’ll see. They’ve been out in very small numbers until now, seen at car shows or as part of a fleet of cars driven by the local electric company. Finally cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt are hitting showrooms. New cars are clearly headed in this direction despite unresolved issues like price of batteries and limited range. One innovation that gets a lot less attention is just good old fashioned fuel efficiency. A car can run on gasoline, but use a lot less of it. Though less flashy, fuel efficiency has been slowly and steadily improving for many years. Look at the non-hybrid version of the Honda Civic, which gets 34 MPG or the Ford Focus with its 35 MPG highway. I never would have imagined such numbers when I filled up my first V8 muscle car when gas cost only $1.35 a gallon. So while we’re unlikely to see cars like the DeLorean from Back to the Future or Kitt from the Knight Rider, cars will continue to evolve to meet our ever-changing needs. America’s love affair with the automobile is far from over.
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