Popular Science - The Future of the Car

Popular Science magazine in their current issue May 2007, is concentrated on the future of the car. This is only a logical topic as there was a Science Channel/Discovery Channel series recently about the future of the car "FutureCar".

Both the series and Popular Science go in to all the high technology that will go in to cars and Dr. Michio Kaku participates whom I have a deep respect. I've read his book Visions a few years back and enjoyed it thoroughly.

However, the problem with the Popular Science article, the FutureCar TV series and Dr. Michio Kaku's contributions to the FutureCar series is that they ignore simple physics. The point being that by not using a mechanical device to move a person you will always consume more energy for the weight of the mechanical device. This energy, unlike the energy that humans runs on is not always reusable or replaceable.

A large change may be required of society if it intends to keep the majority of its capabilities. We can either concentrate on keeping cars on the road and consuming less (but never zero) energy or we can concentrate on changing our infrastructure and our environment so that human power is what is necessary for most movements.

The way to accomplish this is by making vast cities called an arcology. An arcology is like a city, but most likely it would not have streets, businesses would be located close to residences and work wouldn't be far from home. This can be accomplished with buildings of many different formats, connected together by different types of rail and tubes where people can walk, run or cycle protected from the elements.

It would be a path to a healthier United States population as well, as those of us that can walk to work, will walk to work. It would remove a massive cause of pollution, the automobile from use (at least within the confines of an arcology.

Arcologies are also high on the use of alternative energies, as they can use whatever power source is available. It could start out using coal or whatever, but an alternative power source could be use and replace the current coal burning power plant.

The demise of the car would increase disposable income of the average person, as they would not have to pay for car insurance, car payments, car maintenance and they would gain the time that is typically lost by driving in a car every day.

The demise of the car would also be a huge safety win for humans. They would not die in car accidents, no one would be hit by cars walking across the street and the pollution created by cars would disappear. As a parent in northern NJ, I am always concerned about my child being hit by a car. It is so densely populated up here with so many cars that it is a grave concern to me. No one should ever have to live through losing their child through being hit by a car. An arcology is the path to the removal of this being possible.

Of course, there are technical and social barriers that we would have to overcome in order to create arcologies. Most of us don't want to live in apartments because you can hear all the people around you. However, I suspect that this can easily be solved by using appropriate materials to block the sounds of other people.

Everyone in the world doesn't have to live in an arcology. However, the greater a percentage that do live in arcologies would greatly alleviate many problems that confront humanity now and in the near future.

I suspect all this talk about future cars and all these great technologies is simply delaying the executioner of the car.