Saturday, April 24, 2010

Fuel and propulsion technologies


A radio taxi in New Delhi. A court order requires all commercial vehicles including trucks, buses and taxis in India to run on Compressed Natural Gas

Most automobiles in use today are propelled by gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel internal combustion engines, which are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[17] Increasing costs of oil-based fuels, tightening environmental laws and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles. Efforts to improve or replace existing technologies include the development of hybrid vehicles, and electric and hydrogen vehicles which do not release pollution into the air.

Data transmission

Automobiles use CAM, MOSH (optic fiber), multiplexing, bluetooth and WiFi between others.

Safety


Result of a serious automobile accident.

There are three main statistics for which vehicle safety can be compared:[18] (Data taken from UK transportation)

Deaths per

billion journeys

Bus: 4.3
Rail: 20
Van: 20
Car: 40
Foot: 40
Water: 90
Air: 117
Bicycle: 170
Motorcycle: 1640
Deaths per

billion hours

Bus: 11.1
Rail: 30
Air: 30.8
Water: 50
Van: 60
Car: 130
Foot: 220
Bicycle: 550
Motorcycle: 4840
Deaths per

billion kilometres

Air: 0.05
Bus: 0.4
Rail: 0.6
Van: 1.2
Water: 2.6
Car: 3.1
Bicycle: 44.6
Foot: 54.2
Motorcycle: 108.9


While road traffic injuries represent the leading cause in worldwide injury-related deaths,[19] their popularity undermines this statistic.

Mary Ward became one of the first documented automobile fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland[20] and Henry Bliss one of the United States' first pedestrian automobile casualties in 1899 in New York.[21] There are now standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests,[22] as well as insurance-backed IIHS tests

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