Car that runs on Air

For years people have been talking about alternate fuel and some companies have hybrid cars in production, most or all hybrid cars currently available are petrol + electric i.e. Battery. But how about a car that runs on AIR.... yes this is possible and French engineer Guy Negre is about to bring this revolutionary vehicle to the masses thanks to a contract with India’s main car manufacturer; Tata Motors. read more http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/the-mdi-air-car-the-ultimate-green-machine.

video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A3XHFT5qc

IBM predicts Smart Car

IBM released report of top 5 innovation predictions and that mentions a smart car - "There is an enormous amount of computing power in cars today...I think the logical extension of that is to have a set of sensors on cars, and have those sensors communicate with networks and other cars on the road."

It is important that technology is brought into cars to make them more safer, if sensors can study the road condition and traffic and alter driver or automatically turn on the safety features it can reduce the no. of accidental deaths in the country. If i remeber correctly the figure in India alone is 350000/year.
The question that comes to my mind is that in countries where traffic is more disciplines and organised it is easier to write programs and do simulation, but what would happen in a country like India where there is little or no traffic dicipline. Let's wait and watch!

Need for Alternate Fuel

Lets first look at what alternate fuel means - Alternative fuel means non fossil fuel. Alternative fuel is getting more attention due the high fuel prices. In the future finding of fossil fuel will end. We need to be concerned of Alternative fuel like biofuel, biodiesel, vegoil, methanol, hydrogen, which can be produced and not depend on the fossil fuels. Currently 85% + of the energy generation happens with fossil fuel and over 21.3 billion tonnes of CO2 is produced because of this and natural process can only absorb 1/2 of this. BIG WORRY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel



Most automobile companies are aware of this and are working on alternate fuels, but the speed is slow, may be they are worried about market share and profitability and don't want to invest too much in R & D. I dontmean that nothing is happening - India alone will see 9 new models running on CNG / LPG in the near future. The question to ask is- is this enough to save the earth? Is CNG /LPG the solution ?http://www.financialexpress.com/old/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144070



Indian govt is already pushing manufacturers to mix 5% methanol with automobile fuel and plans to increase it to 10% in the future. This is something that the govt needs to do with out any further delay.



The question still remains unanswered. I don't think these steps are adequate in saving this LOVELY planet.

Local Innovation

I am so impressed by the innovation and wanted to find out more on who and how the innovations were made, to my pleasant surprise its majorly LOCAL. Lets just look at some of the examples - the assembly line for TATA Nano is designed by one of Bangalore based companies called SPM and they have done a phenominal job by designing the assemblyline at less than half the cost of what it would have normally cost by sourcing fromthe right places directly. The assembly line can roll out engines every 40 sec and had the latest technology like RFID.

Every supplier has had to look at lowering or optimising the cost which could fuel, lets look at another example of Delphi who have designed the instrument panel and to keep costs under control they have looked at the angle carefully so that reflections don't fall on driver and thus eliminated the anti glare.

There are many more such examples and will cover in future posts.

Think Innovation as impossible is nothing.

Others wake up to NANOs call

Till last year every one doubted when Ratan Tata used to speak of his dreamcar, and all other car manufacturers had said that this is impossible or even if they do it it would be substandard quality car which would not meet the safety and emission standards.

Now that TATA has made it and shown it to the world, every other company is talking about a cheaper car.. this started with Bajaj unvieling the concept car before TATA Nano and now Hyundai and Maruti also talking of smaller chearer car.

The question is - Do you need to be pushed to a corner to start thinking innovatively ? or companies are happy exploiting customers ignorance, (what i mean is if i knew a product can be made @ x then would i pay 1.5x ) ?

Lean Design - NANO

It is interesting to note that TATA have not only looked at cutting cost in soucing and manufacturing but have done it at the design stage. Lean Design is just not about designing to keep cost low by using cost effective material, or reducing design cost it is about designing to maximise profit or DFP (Design for Profit). I have also put some more thoughts in my other blog.
http://www.infosysblogs.com/thinkflat/2008/01/nano_innovation_in_automobile.html