Emerging Technologies Subscribe
Yokohama dB Super E-spec orange oil-infused tires now on sale
Yokohama debuted its new ADVAN ENV-R1 orange oil-infused racing tire at the Porsche GT3 Challenge at Sebring a few months back. At the time, the company promised to have new tires using the eco-friendly technology on the market for consumer use in short order. Apparently, that time is now. According to Dan King, Yokohama vice president of sales: The eco-focused dB Super E-spec mixes sustainable orange oil and natural rubber to drastically cut the use of petroleum, without compromising performance. It also helps consumers save money at the gas ... Read more →
Efficient air conditioning could potentially save billions of gallons of gas Jeremy Korzeniewski
The U.S. Department of Transportation and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) are hard at work developing new ways to make the air conditioners more efficient and reduce the interior tempteratures ...
Yamaha files patents for hybrid motorcycle based on Gen-Ryu, LUXAIR concepts Jeremy Korzeniewski
2005 Yamaha Gen-Ryu patent filing - Click above for high-res image gallery Yamaha is reportedly developing a hybrid motorcycle based on the Gen-Ryu concept that first debuted at the Tokyo Motor ...
Fiat's eco:Drive wins award for defining new car-driver relationship Xavier Navarro
Click above for a high-res gallery of Jodie Kidd with the Fiat eco:Drive Ever hear of an advertising award given to a piece of software that helps drivers save gas at the pumps? That's what Fiat's ...
Dean Kamen working on hybrid scooter with Stirling engine Jeremy Korzeniewski
Dean Kamen's Stirling-powered hybrid scooter patents - Click above for image gallery We've known about Dean Kamen's work on the Stirling engine for hybrid vehicle use since the inventor introduced ...
More emerging-technologies news
Carver Europe files for bankruptcy, technology may live on 3 days ago on AutoblogGreen
Carver One - Click above for high-res image gallery We've been following the story of the Carver One leaning three-wheeler for the last few years, and we've often thought the vehicle was a great idea just waiting to catch on. Unfortunately, the company may never build another vehicle of its own ...
Is XP Vehicles' inflatable car just a lot of hot air? 4 days ago on AutoblogGreen
It's has been a while since we heard any news about the inflatable car from XP Vehicles but it seems they are still out there and still planning to take the auto industry by storm. Freshly featured on the cover of Product Design & Development (PDD), the concept vehicle that doesn't employ ...
VIDEO: Jaguar extols the glory of aluminum 5 days ago on AutoblogGreen
2010 Jaguar XJ - Click above to view the video after the jump Jaguar has long been a proponent of aluminum construction for automobiles. In fact, the current-generation XJ uses an aluminum-intensive chassis that's held together by loads of epoxy and over 3,000 rivets, which allows the big Jag's ...
Driving the airless Air Car could be a better experience 6 days ago on AutoblogGreen
Last December, Green Car Advisor's Nick Kurczewski was able to snag a ride in MDI's AIRPod. Now, the lucky punk journalist has taken a turn behind the wheel. The short version of his review: this could be the car of the future and it feels like an amusement park ride, but it's no Millennium Falcon. ...
Could chicken feathers hold the key to effective hydrogen storage? 7 days ago on AutoblogGreen
It's no secret that a ton of problems need to be overcome before there's any real chance we'll all be driving clean-emissions hydrogen-powered cars and trucks. One such problem is how to store the hydrogen, which is a much less energy-dense fuel than gasoline. Researchers at the University of ...
Electric airplane to debut at Oshkosh [w/VIDEO] 8 days ago on AutoblogGreen
Yuneec E430 electric airplane - Click above for high-res image gallery It isn't the first electric airplane we've seen, nor is it the fastest. It's not even the first one to be shown at the annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. What makes the Yuneec E430 unique is that it may be the first fully-enclosed ...
LightLane adds instant bike lane for night bicycle rides 10 days ago on AutoblogGreen
LightLane - Click above to watch a video after the break There's no question that well-designed and implemented bike lanes improve safety for cyclists by making them less likely to be hit by passing automobiles, and that's especially true after the sun goes down. LightLane thinks it has the ...
Drive your green vehicle at Laguna Seca during Refuel 11 days ago on AutoblogGreen
Ever wanted to take your green vehicle to a world-renowned race track, show it off to the masses and maybe even try a little race-against-the-clock action? Well, soon you can. On July 19th, Speed Ventures is presenting a day at Laguna Seca for owners, builders and manufacturers of ...
Greenlings: Why don't we use solar to power our electric cars? 15 days ago on AutoblogGreen
Venturi Astrolab concept - Click above for high-res image gallery For years, we've been watching as solar-powered race cars travel at relatively high rates of speed for hours on end – as long as the sun happens to be shining, of course. In fact, the World Solar Challenge has been taking ...
SNCF launches "door-to-door" trip planner for four French cities 15 days ago on AutoblogGreen
SNCF, the public company that manages French railways, has launched a new directions service that includes all modes of public transport. While there are plenty of sites that offer directions for drivers, and most mass transit systems have their own "how to go" application, this is claimed to be ...
Sainsbury's supermarket in Gloucester, UK generates electricity from parking lot 17 days ago on AutoblogGreen
We've seen the concept for roadways that generate power through either electricity or hydraulics, but it turns out there's actually at least one pace in the world where something similar is already happening. At the Sainsbury's supermarket in Gloucester, UK, a series of plates are mounted so that ...
California looking to classify tires by rolling resistance? 19 days ago on AutoblogGreen
Low rolling resistance tires have been increasingly used to help manufacturers improve EPA efficiency ratings. While the specialty rubber used to be found mostly on hybrids, it is starting to find its way onto other vehicles as well, like gas-engined Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs. According ...
Zipcar announces new iPhone app, gives new meaning to "unlocked" cell phone 25 days ago on AutoblogGreen
If you're not an Apple fanboy who's been hitting F5 repeatedly over on Engadget today, here's a green car tie-in from the big WWDC that's just wrapping up: your iPhone will soon be able to unlock the doors of your Zipcar rental vehicle. Yes, your phone can now tell your car what to do. It's only a ...
UPDATE: Ford's new Bobcat, ethanol injected, turbocharged V8 25 days ago on AutoblogGreen
Back in the 1970s, a Bobcat at Ford was a Mercury-badged version of the infamous Pinto. Hopefully, the new usage of the name at Ford will turn out with better results. So far, it's looking very promising. Our buddy Mike Levine has been doing some digging in the document treasure trove at the U.S. ...
Ford Fusion hybrid, the most patented car in history 29 days ago on AutoblogGreen
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid - Click above for a high-res image gallery More technology than ever before is being added to modern automobiles, and much of this whiz-bang tech has been created to cut down on fuel consumption and reduce emissions. This being the case, it's not particularly surprising ...
Ford gets Inventor of the Year award for engine block coating system 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
For decades, automakers have been trying to reduce the mass of major engine components. For the most part casting cylinder blocks and heads in aluminum rather than the traditional iron has been considered the preferred approach. The problem is that aluminum is not as tough as iron and when you have ...
Geeky? Green? Learn to drive green with the EcoGyzer 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
In this world where there seems to be a gadget for everything, there must be unusual gadgets to monitor your driving and teach you to drive green, right? Yes, we all know the basic rules: go light on the gas pedal, using high gears as early as possible, being gentle on the brake pedal... While you ...
Institute of Mechanical Engineers: Electric cars aren't enough (w/POLL) 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
According to a recent survey from the Royal Automobile Club Foundation in the UK, there will be lots of people who want to buy electric vehicles but are going to get frustrated by the long delay in getting EVs ready for mass consumption. That's a problem, but the Institute of Mechanical Engineers ...
Nissan's $1.1 billion loan likely to be approved by DOE 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Nissan EV-02 prototype - click above for a high res gallery The DOE loan that Nissan applied for to help it build electric cars and advanced batteries is likely to be approved for $1.1 billion, according to a report that cited "unidentified sources" in Kyodo News. The loan will probably speed up ...
Money's not there for flex-fuel and other advanced technologies, automakers say 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Here's the thing: American automakers used to fully support E85-capable (aka flex-fuel) vehicles. With a few cheap additions to a standard engine ($100, or thereabouts), a car could get a special badge, drink corn (where available) and get the automaker a bit of goodwill, especially from ...
Argonne project mixes lithium-ion batteries with ultracapacitors 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
A project developed at the Argonne National Laboratory for Science and Engineering Research could lead to better plug-in hybrids. The idea was to create a high power, high energy electrical storage system by mixing the best of two worlds: the high power density of ultracapacitors and the high ...
Thinking through the Better Place strategy: is it seriously flawed? 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Project Better Place battery swap - Click above for a hi-res image gallery Last week, Better Place previewed for a wide audience, via a new video, their battery swapping system. The video has kicked off a good discussion over on Peak Oil Garage that we wanted to share with you. The biggest ...
One Gallon Challenge, sort of an X-Prize lite, coming to Massachusetts in August 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
ExerTrike Tri-Hybrids - Click above for a gallery While we wait for the $10 million Automotive X Prize road races to get started, our old friend Jory Squibb is organizing a 100-mile race through Massachusetts that will put some of the most efficient and unusual vehicles around today through ...
BMW's "Brake Energy Regeneration" technology 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Autospies says that they've gotten their hands on the first picture of "BMW regenerative brake technology in action on a USA model" (a 550i GT). Well, we're interested in the technology, but something about the Celsius temperature gauge and the kilometer label tells us that maybe this is a Eurospec ...
Is the next Mazda Renesis rotary set to get direct-injection? 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Mazda rotary engine patent diagrams - Click above for a high-res image gallery Last October, it seems that Mazda quietly filed a patent for a twin-spark, direct injection version of the automaker's iconic rotary engine. It's taken this long for anyone to actually notice application 20090101103, ...
ZENN: Trust us, the EESTOR thing is totally cool, like $700,000 cool 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Hype maintenance can be hard work. Following the Earth Day announcement that the EEStor ultracapacitor had passed independent tests that showed it had a relative permittivity of 22,500, the automaker most closely tied to the secretive company, ZENN, has come out to say two things. First, the test ...
What is a continuously variable transmission? 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
As much as many of us would love to park our fossil-fuel-burning internal combustion engines for good in favor of electric or hydrogen-powered cars, that's not likely to happen on a grand scale in the next several years. Like it or not, we've managed to create a technology that's proven so ...
Kyocera offers details on solar cells used by 2010 Prius 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Want to know more about the solar moonroof option that's available on the latest third-generation Toyota Prius for 2010? Read on. According to Tech-On from Nikkei newspaper in Japan, the actual polycrystalline Si cells used by the automaker are supplied by Kyocera and are arranged in six columns ...
The greener side of Google Street View: camera on a trike 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
Google has already faced plenty of issues with its Street View technology, not the least of which has been angry Japanese citizens and invasion of privacy lawsuits from Americans whose driveways were mistaken for a roads. Beyond these unforeseen issues, there's also the rather obvious problem of ...
CPT introduces new belt-driven Integrated Starter Generator 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
British company Controlled Power Technologies (CPT) has announced the development of a belt-driven Integrated Starter Generator (B-ISG) that provides stop-start functionality. CPT claims that it suited for both gasoline and diesel engines, up to 3 and 2.5 liters respectively. CPT's SpeedStart ...
Ugly watermelons = ethanol opportunity 1 month ago on AutoblogGreen
America, your apparent hatred for disfigured fruit means we may have a big, untapped biomass source to make ethanol. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Oklahoma has been testing ways to make the simple sugars found in watermelons into ethanol, and the USDA is now reporting some success on that ...
