Now THIS is what I'd like to see in the future

[Troublco]

You could put a cabin ANYWHERE with one of these bad boys, and if you set it up with LED lights, you wouldn't have to worry about having lights for years.

[sniper7]

Best way,get him to run for President. He doesn't need the money.
Always wished Lee Iacocco kept running instead of bowing out.

No I don't want him a president. or Warren Buffet. no thanks.

[sniper7]

I wish they would develop a miniature nuclear reactor for cars and trucks. something that is surrounded with the strength of a black box from an airplane that could easily survive all crashes so there isn't a chance of nuclear waste.
but on the upper hand, if a aircraft carrier can be powered for 20 years by a reactor, what is to say you couldn't have a car that would be powered for 20+ years as well. then we could truly throw up a huge middle finger to the middle east and never buy gas again. (at least for cars)

[Troublco]

I wish they would develop a miniature nuclear reactor for cars and trucks. something that is surrounded with the strength of a black box from an airplane that could easily survive all crashes so there isn't a chance of nuclear waste.
but on the upper hand, if a aircraft carrier can be powered for 20 years by a reactor, what is to say you couldn't have a car that would be powered for 20+ years as well. then we could truly throw up a huge middle finger to the middle east and never buy gas again. (at least for cars)

I'd settle for someone figuring out how to make a fuel cell that uses water to generate hydrogen and oxygen and uses them to generate power. You could use one of those in lots of things, homes included.

My guess is that the oil companies will find a way to keep either from happening, if someone ever figured out how.

[sniper7]

I'd settle for someone figuring out how to make a fuel cell that uses water to generate hydrogen and oxygen and uses them to generate power. You could use one of those in lots of things, homes included.

My guess is that the oil companies will find a way to keep either from happening, if someone ever figured out how.

I am sure the technology is out there or at least close.

you honestly can't tell me that cars have not been able to truly increase gas mileage over the past 40 years...VW diesel bugs still get just as good of gas mileage as the new Jetta TDI.
I know more factors go into it such as emissions and weight and size of the vehicle but still. A truck from the 80's can still get damn near the same MPG as a new truck today.
You would think by now all cars would be getting in the 30+ range and trucks that got under 20 MPG would be few and far between.

I think a lot of it has to do with the oil companies paying the manufacturers or buying into them to keep MPG down so the oil companies make more money. Pretty simple concept: you sell 1 vehicle to a person on average every 7 years, but you sell them 2000 gallons of gas in that same time with a lot higher profit margin.

[Troublco]

I am sure the technology is out there or at least close.

you honestly can't tell me that cars have not been able to truly increase gas mileage over the past 40 years...VW diesel bugs still get just as good of gas mileage as the new Jetta TDI.
I know more factors go into it such as emissions and weight and size of the vehicle but still. A truck from the 80's can still get damn near the same MPG as a new truck today.
You would think by now all cars would be getting in the 30+ range and trucks that got under 20 MPG would be few and far between.

I think a lot of it has to do with the oil companies paying the manufacturers or buying into them to keep MPG down so the oil companies make more money. Pretty simple concept: you sell 1 vehicle to a person on average every 7 years, but you sell them 2000 gallons of gas in that same time with a lot higher profit margin.

Remember that Honda CRx's that got 50 mpg? Those lasted about 2 years, and they disappeared.

I've heard a couple stories (not too many, oddly enough...) over the years about one or two individuals who came up with super-efficient carburetors and that sort of thing. Don't really know how much truth there is to them. At some point you get to where the energy required to operate the engine and put out the required power is dependent on the engine's efficiency. You can do things to increase that efficiency, like the power recovery turbines used on the R-3350 engines used on certain large WWII aircraft like the B-29 that used the otherwise wasted energy going out the tailpipe to physically put more power to the crankshaft. And of course turbochargers. But I have run across interesting technologies that were used at certain times that have almost completely disappeared, even most of the info on them.

For example, about 12 +/- years ago I found a reference to a "wood-gas generator" to enable a tractor to be able to run on the combustible gas from wood. I actually found the plans for it online after some digging. I printed them out, and have them somewhere. It was sort of a clunky looking device, but from what I found it worked. They used them to run tractors during WWII.

Don't hear about that sort of stuff, do you?

[Jer]

I am sure the technology is out there or at least close.

you honestly can't tell me that cars have not been able to truly increase gas mileage over the past 40 years...VW diesel bugs still get just as good of gas mileage as the new Jetta TDI.
I know more factors go into it such as emissions and weight and size of the vehicle but still. A truck from the 80's can still get damn near the same MPG as a new truck today.
You would think by now all cars would be getting in the 30+ range and trucks that got under 20 MPG would be few and far between.

I think a lot of it has to do with the oil companies paying the manufacturers or buying into them to keep MPG down so the oil companies make more money. Pretty simple concept: you sell 1 vehicle to a person on average every 7 years, but you sell them 2000 gallons of gas in that same time with a lot higher profit margin.

You, like most people, fail to factor in the amount of power that those trucks have versus what they have now. Keep mind that the standard for power output of a 4dr sedan about 5yrs ago became higher than that of the Corvette of only a couple generations ago. American's wanted bigger and faster and didn't care about price or fuel economy. So, now that we've grown accustomed to a certain level of performance lots of people have a hard time 'down grading' to save on fuel. Some don't. So, while the numbers have only increased ever so slightly they are doing so with much larger vehicles that make a lot more power so just looking at mpg isn't a fair assessment. My in-laws tout how their 4cyl Accord gets almost as good of fuel economy as our Hybrid Camry and saved them a couple grand but I don't have the heart to point out that that car doesn't have enough power to get out of it's own way. The Camry Hybrid gets 40mpg and runs circles around their Accord in acceleration too. That's the key here is to create vehicles that are still drivable AND increase fuel economy.

I know this doesn't lend to a conspiracy theory but I'm pretty sure it's supply v demand at it's root in action here. Manufacturer's designed and built what people bought... why would you waste money developing vehicles that the buying public isn't asking for with their buying dollar? Makes no sense if your objective is to profit. Once the buying public demanded better fuel economy the powers that be started work on smaller vehicles, lighter vehicles and more fuel efficient vehicles. As more and more consumers downsize to smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles the drive for manufacturer's to compete in this arena will grow and cars will get better at what consumers demand. In the end the old adage 'follow the money' holds true.

[Hoosier]

I'd settle for someone figuring out how to make a fuel cell that uses water to generate hydrogen and oxygen and uses them to generate power. You could use one of those in lots of things, homes included.

Hydrolysis (splitting H2O into 2H + O) requires energy. A hydrogen fuel cell is the opposite of this process, it takes 2H as fuel and O from atmosphere and produces H2O + voltage.

So you aren't going to get a fuel cell that does both, it'd violate the laws of thermodynamics -- a perpetual motion machine, over-unity, whatever you want to call it.

What you can do is use a fuel cell as a power source that takes H as fuel, and use a mixture of Solar/Wind to produce hydrogen from tap water, and then feed it through the fuel cell on demand. The tricky bit is storing hydrogen, it's very small and will escape from many pressure vessels that hold larger molecules, like propane.

[Jer]

Remember that Honda CRx's that got 50 mpg? Those lasted about 2 years, and they disappeared.

I've heard a couple stories (not too many, oddly enough...) over the years about one or two individuals who came up with super-efficient carburetors and that sort of thing. Don't really know how much truth there is to them. At some point you get to where the energy required to operate the engine and put out the required power is dependent on the engine's efficiency. But I have run across interesting technologies that were used at certain times that have almost completely disappeared, even most of the info on them.

For example, about 12 +/- years ago I found a reference to a "wood-gas generator" to enable a tractor to be able to run on the combustible gas from wood. I actually found the plans for it online after some digging. I printed them out, and have them somewhere. It was sort of a clunky looking device, but from what I found it worked. They used them to run tractors during WWII.

Don't hear about that sort of stuff, do you?

Even if that worked the problems that would arise from all internal combustion engines burning trees to gain power would be substantially worse than what we face now.

The CRX stopped production because they weren't selling enough to be profitable anymore. Car manufactures don't just stop building cars that sell to quell some sort of better technology. Their primary objective is to build vehicles that sell at a profit... the more the better. Supply and demand determines this and each and every one of us has a say based on what we buy. If you think there should be more fuel efficient vehicles then stop buying 4x4 trucks and SUVs for driving around cities. Cracks me up when people think they need huge trucks and don't own a trailer to pull, haul nothing and live in a paved jungle. I know people who NEED trucks and actually use them for what they were designed for and to the it's a must... not a fashion statement.

[ronaldrwl]

One reason MPG hasn't gotten much better is Emissions Control (power sucking) and Safety Regulations (more weight).