Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Automobiles

An automobile is a motorized wheeled machine made for transporting people and even for carrying heavy loads.The inventors of automobile first built a steam powered machine. Now, due to the rise in advanced technologies new type of luxurious and advanced automobiles are being invented. Automobiles were designed as a four wheeled machine to be run on the road and carry one to eight passengers. The number of automobiles are increasing daily. Companies all over the world are competing amongst their selves to create the best and most convenient automobile. The number of automobiles are increasing rapidly in China and India. 

Due to the increase in population, people find buying vehicles convenient to them. Now, automobiles are used not only for transportation and convenience but also for style and fashion. The people who have stylish and fast cars are the ones who ride and are popular. The companies all over the world are competing to make the best vehicles with great safety and luxury for the convenience of the people. Automobiles are a big necessity for the people of this century. It has been the most easy and convenient way to travel.  


Older automobiles were generally powered by a steam engine, which was fed by burning gasoline. Most automobiles in use today however are propelled by a internal combustion engine, fueled by deflagration of gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel. Both fuels are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.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, electric and hydrogen vehicles that do not release pollution into the air.


Fully autonomous vehicles, also known as robotic cars, or driverless cars, already exist in prototype, and are expected to be commercially available around 2020. According to urban designer and futurist Michael E. Arth, driverless electric vehicles—in conjunction with the increased use of virtual reality for work, travel, and pleasure—could reduce the world's 800,000,000 vehicles to a fraction of that number within a few decades. This would be possible if almost all private cars requiring drivers, which are not in use and parked 90% of the time, would be traded for public self-driving taxis that would be in near constant use. This would also allow for getting the appropriate vehicle for the particular need—a bus could come for a group of people, a limousine could come for a special night out, and a Segway could come for a short trip down the street for one person. Children could be chauffeured in supervised safety, DUIs would no longer exist, and 41,000 lives could be saved each year in the U.S. alone.