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5 Current Innovations In The Automotive Sector

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They say the only constant thing in life is change. Indeed, every facet of our lives, changes occur. The automotive sector is no different.

All over the world, the automotive sector is witnessing a revolution of some sort in different areas.

The past few years, the world has experienced some innovations in the automotive sector. These innovations have introduced new ways we drive our cars, how cars operate and how we commute.

Autojosh.com highlights 5 specific areas where we have seen new approaches to how cars were produced or how they are used.





Car-sharing

Car-sharing is a type of car rental where people rent cars for short periods – often by hours.

This practice is attractive to people who only need to drive a car occasionally. This model is also attractive to people who love to have access to different types or models of cars.

Car-sharing is practiced in countries like Australia, US, Canada. In the UK, it is referred to as “Car clubs”.

The company renting out the cars may be a commercial business, or the users may be organized as a company, public agency, cooperative, or ad hoc grouping. Car-sharing is part of a larger trend of shared mobility.

Car-sharing services are available in over 1,000 cities in several countries.





As of December 2012, there were an estimated 1.7 million car-sharing members in 27 countries. This is according to the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at U.C. Berkeley.

 

 

 

Autonomous cars

An autonomous car is a car that is capable of driving itself. They are also called “driverless cars” , “robotic cars” or “self-driving cars”.

Autonomous cars are capable of sensing its environment and navigating around without human control and input.

The cars use a technology that combines a variety of techniques to perceive their surroundings, including radar, laser light, GPS, odometry and computer vision.

The potential benefits of autonomous cars include reduced human presence and movement on the road, increased safety, increased customer satisfaction and reduced crime – and there will be reduced cases of cars colliding with other cars.

Ride-sharing

This is a service where someone can request for a ride at very short notice. The car that responds to the request are drawn from a pool of vehicles in the ride share company.

This type of carpooling generally makes use of three recent technological advances:

  • GPS navigation devices to determine a driver’s route and arrange the shared ride
  • Smartphones for a traveler to request a ride from wherever they happen to be
  • Social networks to establish trust and accountability between drivers and passengers

Ride-sharing is also known as “real-time ridesharing”, “on-demand ridesharing”, “ad-hoc ridesharing , “instant ridesharing”, “dynamic ridesharing”, and “dynamic carpooling”.

Uber, Taxify, Oga Taxi, etc., are some examples of ride-sharing platforms.

 

Electric cars

An electric car – or “Electric Vehicle (EV)” – is a car that is powered by electricity. An electric car is propelled by one or more electric motors, using energy typically stored in rechargeable batteries.

Since 2008, a revolution in electric vehicle manufacturing occurred. This was principally  due to advances in batteries, concerns about increasing oil prices, and the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

So many nations and governments have established tax credits, subsidies, and other incentives to promote the introduction and now adoption in the mass market of new electric vehicles depending on battery size, their all-electric range and purchase price.

Charging an electric car can be done at a variety of charging stations. These charging stations can be installed in both houses and public areas.

As of June 2017, there are over 2 million electric cars in use around the world.

The Nissan Leaf is the best-selling highway-capable electric car ever, with over 300,000 units sold globally by January 2018.  Ranking second is the Tesla Model S with almost 213,000 units sold worldwide through December 2017.

The two best-selling electric vehicles, the Nissan Leaf, and the Tesla Model S, have driving ranges reaching 243 km and,539 km respectively.

 

 

 

 

Hybrid cars

A hybrid car is a car that can switch from two or more different types of power sources to power the car’s engines.

For instance, they can switch from using petrol to power the car’s engine to using electricity to power the same engine.

The basic principle with hybrid vehicles is that the different power sources work better at different speeds and then switching from one to the other at the proper time during the speed transform yields a win-win in terms of energy efficiency, as such that translates into greater fuel efficiency.

 





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