FUTURE CARS: Memory metal allows cars to repair themselves

CARS are great to own and drive and even admire, but it is clear on so many levels that they are not globally sustainable. Our roads are already over-crowded, accidents happen daily, lives are lost, and they fart out enough carbon monoxide to choke a large Redwood plantation.

New cars are being pumped out the assembly line at an alarming rate. There are currently over 800 million cars and light trucks on the roads today, consuming over 260 billion gallons of petrol and diesel every year.

Coupled with the fuel crisis are motor vehicle accidents. If you are not killed or severely injured in a car accident, you are at least left with a hefty bill to pay. I was involved in quite a bad car accident earlier this year. It took six months to get my car back from the panel beaters. The only injuries sustained were to my patience and wallet.

Transport should be so much higher on the technological agenda and it’s high time that vehicle-related problems were met. What’s more is that the technology for safer and more environment-friendly transport is already available; it just needs to be put into proper use.

Shape Memory Alloy

Shape memory alloy is at the forefront of future transport. This cheaply produced metal, also known as smart metal, memory metal, muscle wire and Nitinol, is able to regain its original shape when heated. This can be demonstrated with a memory alloy spring. The object is deformed and disfigured beyond recognition and springs back to its original shape when heated. Here's a video demonstrating this process:

Memory Alloy in Action

To put it very simply, memory materials are created at a specific temperature and then held in place until cooled. Applying any heat source after the object is disfigured will return it to its original shape.

Shape memory alloy is already being used in medical applications, such as optometry and dentistry, as well as aerospace; but why not use it more vigorously in vehicle production? Serious research advances in the field of memory materials have been ongoing since the 1960s. This lightweight, solid-state material is the perfect alternative to conventional materials used to manufacture cars.

Shape memory alloy is at the forefront of future transport. This cheaply produced metal is able to regain its original shape when heated.

Cars in the Future

Safety and fuel-efficiency are the two major factors when it comes to considering cars of the future. To be more fuel-efficient, cars need to be more aerodynamic and lightweight on top of having better, eco-friendlier engines. To achieve this, more consideration needs to be given to vehicle shape and the material used to make cars.

Many cars today might seem more plastic than metal — the cheaper ones certainly feel that way. The good news is that there are also memory plastics and textiles, which behave very similarly to memory metals. Future vehicles would be made from a combination of these memory materials — eliminating the need to waste time and resources at the panel beater.

This is, of course, if accidents were even to occur in the future. Social engineer and industrial designer, Jacque Fresco, believes that there is no reason for accidents to happen at all in the future.

But as an extra precaution, Fresco explains how the front end of future cars would be equipped with radar or sonar, or other sensory devices. These would be able to detect the distance between other vehicles and maintain that separation automatically.

Like the human body, cars of the future could even have memory systems of their entire configuration built in — allowing them to regenerate automatically if entire parts were lost. “The technology of the future will enable our automotive vehicles to repair and regenerate damaged areas automatically,” says Fresco.

I don’t think I can ever look at my current car the same way again.

• This article is the seventh in a series of Future by Design concepts. The others are available under Quite Interesting - A Resource-Based Economy

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CAR PORN: Cars on display at the 63rd Frankfurt Motor Show

THE 63rd Frankfurt Motor Show opened to the public on Thursday with numerous marques unveiling new models and defying the current economic downturn. Car manufacturers are revealing vehicles with the latest styling and technological devices, with this edition seeing an emphasis on environmentally-friendly motoring mixed in with presenting luxury models and everyday vehicles to the public. Here's some of what went on show.

Frankfurt Motor Show pics

A sexy model is seen at the Abarth booth

The BMW Vision

A concept study by Renault

Formula One world champion and adviser for Scuderia Ferrari, Michael Schumacher poses with Ferrari's new 458 Italia

A hostess smiles with cars of Renault

Tom Purves, chairman of Rolls Royce presented the new Ghost

Skoda's new Superb Kombi

The Mercedes SLS AMG. PHOTOS: AP

I can't help but feel slightly aroused ...

Related post: Cars in the Park

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Louis Theroux may not like Joburg, but Alex Parker paints a much better picture than the BBC (and reviews the Chrysler 300c Touring)

Alexander Parker

IT’S been a long-standing suspicion, but I have until recently secretly deduced that I am in denial. Such a state of mind is often misunderstood. Being in denial has nothing to do with ignorance or stupidity. I am not, for example, in denial about the imminent end of the world due to climate change. I am unconvinced, and that’s something completely different.

No, denial is failure to acknowledge a difficult truth, a truth you know to be true, as a form of defence against it. And for years, in the darkest part of the night, I have quietly suspected that I might think Joburg is a complete and utter dump. That my professions of love for the place are just the channelling of my dreams.

After yet another insanely dangerous piece of driving by a taxi, we sighed and said, you know, this is a bad, lawless town, with bad drivers and worse traffic lights. What a hellhole, we said.

Let’s move to Durban, says the wife. Can’t. The work is here, says I. And it’s true. Of all my friends, very few are Joburg born and bred. Most are from somewhere else, here because that’s where the job is. Nobody is here for the views or the street cafes or the architecture or the opera or the restaurants. We’re here for the lucre, which in Joburg’s case is especially filthy - covered in dust from the mine dumps so conveniently placed whence the prevailing wind blows. The bitter winter doesn’t help, and neither do the informal settlements, with their simmering anger at government lies and corruption and grinding penury.

But then I watched Louis Theroux’s less-than-brilliant forray into Diepsloot and Hillbrow on BBC Knowledge and, as you do, I shouted at the TV. Who the bloody hell does he think he is, coming to my town and bad-mouthing it, jetting in, spending a couple of days in the roughest parts of town and writing off the whole damn place to drug lords and shack dwellers. The bloody cheek of it.

Then I remembered the day there was service delivery riots in townships across the country. News.bbc.co.uk’s global lead was something to do with South Africa’s townships being in flames. I remember checking local news sites. The riots weren’t even mentioned.

That’s when it struck me. The BBC has decided that they will use increased interest in SA because of the world cup as an opportunity to spread a little alarmism. They have form. All the polar bears are dead, remember?

It’s going to get worse. The BBC is going to make it look as though everyone in Joburg is either dead or about to get killed. The message is clear. Come to sunny Joburg and get murdered and then, probably, eaten.

Well to hell with the BBC. It’s a great town, this, the heart of an economy that feeds millions. And sure it’s rough. It’s a frontier town, on the front line of the war against poverty, a town that works despite it all. A town of diverse millions united in their strivings to make life better. Do not get in a Joburger’s way. We’re making money here. Clear the road! Of course it attracts millions of people, most of whom are impossibly poor. They come for a better life, like immigrants the world over. Such fortitude should be celebrated like it is in America.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Bollocks to the BBC. Of course they don’t like it here. The coffee’s terrible and the traffic’s a disaster and everybody’s a capitalist — even the communists.

What the BBC fails to understand is that people who live in Joburg, the rich and poor, face the kind of adversity that Londoners cannot dream of. And when Joburgers triumph it’s an indication of their unique character. They are strong, kind, a bit rough, very honest and endlessly welcoming. Of course Louis Theroux didn’t like it...

He’d probably also hate the Chrysler 300c Touring, because it’s Johannesburg on wheels. Firstly, it’s enormous. It’s got a serious automotive case of spread. That it’s a station-wagon gives it extra bulk, added weight and even more presence and poise. With it’s huge chrome grill, massive wheels and tiny windows, this car looks more like a tank. It’s the blingiest car ever made.

This car's a fast, pimped-out daddy wagon the size of a house that’ll hit 100km/h in just seven seconds.

Under the hood (for surely a car like this cannot have a bonnet) resides a very large piece of American metal - a 5.7-litre V8 lump that sounds biblical and belches power. The result is a very large car that’s very fast, a pimped-out daddy wagon the size of a house that’ll hit 100km/h in just seven seconds. That’s GTi territory.

Don’t expect too much in the corners, but then don’t expect it to be terrible either. It’s a big, wallowy old thing but unless you’re tying to set a lap time it’ll do just fine.

Anyway, the seats are too slippy and comfortable for that kind of tomfoolery. The interior is okay. It feels a bit dated and plasticky, like any Dodge, Jeep or Chrysler, but it does everything it’s supposed to do. You do get a brilliant stereo so you can wind down the window and blast some Kwaito. The car comes with an onboard hard drive for 20 Gigs of the stuff in fact.

Operating the touchscreen is a breeze, too,
so accessing Mandoza should be easy.

The best bit, of course, is the practicality. It has a vast boot. I mean it’s cavernous. The space in the rear is excellent. It really is a proper family car. Think of it as a car for kwaito stars, Kaiser Chiefs footballers and Soweto mafioso who also happen to have two kids. Take the kids to school. Lay down a track. Rough up an informant. Get some dog food. Go home. Brilliant.

It’s a car that does so much. It might be a bit shouty and flash. It might irritate a certain kind of person. It might be too fast and too big and it might not be the most sophisticated thing ever made, but that doesn’t mean, against my better judgment, that I absolutely love it. The damn thing has soul, just like mad, bad, wonderful Johannesburg.

- Alex Parker writes a weekly motoring column for the Weekend Witness
and has published a book called "25 Cars to Drive Before You Die"

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CARS: The 33rd annual Cars in the Park show revs it up this month at Alexandra Park in Pietermaritzburg

OVER 7 000 people attended the 32nd Cars in the Park show last year, where over 1 000 cars were on display ranging from mean-looking Mustangs, to vintage Volvos, to antique Cadillacs. It was the most amazing gathering of hot and sexy cars polished to perfection that I have ever witnessed. This year's show shone just as impressively as last year. Check out the videos below to get an idea of what was on display.

Cars in the Park 2009

Cars in the Park 2008

PS: The sh-boom song will be stuck in your head for at least a week.

Related post: Frankfurt Motor Show Gallery