Concept Cars is an illustrated guide to 70 of the most creative products of car design. From the science fiction inspired concept cars of the 1950s to the remarkably innovative designs of the present day, here are the cars that push the boundaries of automotive design to the limit. Featured are designs that opened the doors to future innovations, as well as the cars that actually made it to production, such as the new VW Beetle and the Porsche Boxster. Key car designers such as Norman Bel Geddes, the "father of streamlining," and Peter Schreyer, the man responsible for the Audi TT, are covered as well. 190 color photographs and illustrations are included in this discovery of the fantastic, the extraordinary, and just plain outlandish creations of the automotive industry.
Unbekannte Preziosen Wenn Autofirmen Studien und Prototypen zeigen, erlauben sie damit einen Blick hinter den Vorhang, eine Vision von dem, was kommt oder kommen könnte. Neben dem, was bei offiziellen Terminen und auf Messen gezeigt wird, gibt es aber eine überwältigende Menge von Entwürfen und Modellen, die der Öffentlichkeit aus verschiedensten Gründen verborgen bleiben. In diesem Buch wird das unmögliche möglich: ein Blick auf noch nie gesehene Porsche - Porsche Unseen. Stefan Bogner durfte exklusiv im Allerheiligsten des Porsche Designs fotografieren und beschert uns absolute Aha-Momente. Die Porsche-DNA ist in jedem der gezeigten Modelle erkennbar, die Ausführung aber so neu und zum Teil so unerwartet, dass man meint, in einem Paralleluniversum gelandet zu sein. Ein 1-Liter-Auto von Porsche? Ein coupéhafter 4-Sitzer mit 911-Zügen? Einsitzige Roadster mit dem Geist der 50er-Jahre? Das alles hat Stefan Bogner im Modell oder sogar fahrfertig vor der Linse gehabt. Die erhellenden Hintergründe hat Jan Baedeker im persönlichen Gespräch mit Designchef Michael Mauer notiert. Folgen Sie uns auf eine unvergleichliche Entdeckungsreise durch die Welt des Porsche Designs! Zweisprachig: Deutsch/Englisch Unknown valuables When car companies present studies and prototypes, they allow a glimpse behind the scenes, a vision of what will come or might come. Apart from what is shown on official events and at fairs, there is an overwhelming number of drafts and models, that remain hidden from the public for various reasons. This book achieves the impossible: a look at Porsche cars the public never laid eyes on - Porsche Unseen. Stefan Bogner was exclusively allowed to take pictures in the Porsche Design sanctum, aha-experiences guaranteed. The Porsche DNA is recognisable in any of the models shown, but the design is so new and unexpected that it suggests the existence of a parallel universe. A 1-litre Porsche? A coupé-like four seater with 911-looks? Single-seated roadsters with 50's flair? Stefan Bogner took photos of all of them - either as models or ready to drive. Jan Baedeker talked with Michael Mauer, Head of Design, and took down the enlightening background information. Join our extraordinary expedition of discovery through the world of Porsche Design!
A penetrating look at near-future disruption as truly autonomous vehicles arrive. For decades we have dreamed of building an automobile that can drive itself. But as that dream of autonomy draws close, we are discovering that the driverless car is a red herring. When self-driving technology infects buses, bikes, delivery vans, and even buildings…a wild, woollier, future awaits. Technology will transform life behind the wheel into a high-def video game that makes our ride safer, smoother, and more efficient. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicles will turbocharge our appetite for the instant delivery of goods, making the future as much about moving things as it is about moving people. Giant corporations will link the automated machines that move us to the cloud, raising concerns about mobility monopolies and privatization of streets and sidewalks. The pace of our daily lives and the fabric of our cities and towns will change dramatically as automated vehicles reprogram the way we work, shop, and play. Ghost Road is both a beacon and a warning; it explains where we might be headed together in driverless vehicles, and the choices we must make as societies and individuals to shape that future.
The Car in 2035: Mobility Planning for the Near Future focuses on the car, the street, and public policy in Southern California. In this collection of essays and images, the car is viewed as both a challenge and benefit to our neighborhoods, cities, and suburbs. Despite rising fuel prices, the automobile will be Southern California's primary form of transportation in 2035 because the region's population will continue to be dispersed widely, and the car offers the best access to the area's tremendous diversity of economic, social, recreational, and cultural opportunities. But the infrastructure will need to accommodate a heterogeneous mix of modes of transportation, including more cars on the road than today.
"Zoom goes zero to sixty in nothing flat. It's an exciting ride into the future of the world's favorite physical object, the automobile." -Gregg Easterbrook, author of THE PROGRESS PARADOX "Zoom offers a new way to think about cars and energy that's key to understanding the forces shaping business today. It's smart, well-informed and insightful--exactly what one would expect from two of The Economist's best journalists." -Chris Anderson, author of THE LONG TAIL "Zoom puts oil in its sights and squeezes off one telling round after another. Car lovers will see a sunny future with other fuels; OPEC a steadily darkening twilight." -R. James Woolsey, VP, Booz Allen Hamilton; former Director of Central Intelligence "An incisive analysis of the end of the petroleum age, including all its repercussions and opportunities." -Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures "Oil is the problem. Cars are the solution." Those two simple sentences by the authors of Zoom define the scope of their illuminating and important book, an examination of a transformation in business and culture that is occurring before our eyes. We are living in the midst of a Great Awakening. People are seeking environmentally-sound alternatives to gas guzzlers. Detroit's reign is over. Oil companies, despite their billion-dollar profits, could be on the brink of extinction if they don't adapt. And citizens, all too aware that these industries have lobbied politicians into gridlock over energy policy, are mobilizing to support leaders who advocate new policies. In Zoom, Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, award-winning correspondents for The Economist, show why and how geopolitical and economic forces are compelling the linked industries of oil and autos to change as never before. Drawing on years of industry research-including dozens of interviews with motor and energy executives, top policymakers, and latter-day Fords and Edisons-Carson and Vaitheeswaran explain: -How Toyota became the world's largest automaker through innovation and superior performance. -Why American politicians have, for decades failed to address our energy issues and global warming-and how grassroots movements, along with individual entrepreneurs, innovators, and outsiders, are making real reform possible. -How these Green revolutionaries are creating new products powered by hydrogen, electricity, bio-fuels, and digital technology. As political leaders debate our energy, environmental and economic future, Zoom offers a lucid and visionary portrait of what that future could be. Anyone planning to vote will find compelling truth in its assertions and conclusions.
From an engineer and futurist, an impassioned account of technological stagnation since the 1970s and an imaginative blueprint for a richer, more abundant future The science fiction of the 1960s promised us a future remade by technological innovation: we’d vacation in geodesic domes on Mars, have meaningful conversations with computers, and drop our children off at school in flying cars. Fast-forward 60 years, and we’re still stuck in traffic in gas-guzzling sedans and boarding the same types of planes we flew in over half a century ago. What happened to the future we were promised? In Where Is My Flying Car?, J. Storrs Hall sets out to answer this deceptively simple question. What starts as an examination of the technical limitations of building flying cars evolves into an investigation of the scientific, technological, and social roots of the economic stagnation that started in the 1970s. From the failure to adopt nuclear energy and the suppression of cold fusion technology to the rise of a counterculture hostile to progress, Hall recounts how our collective ambitions for the future were derailed, with devastating consequences for global wealth creation and distribution. Hall then outlines a framework for a future powered by exponential progress—one in which we build as much in the world of atoms as we do in the world of bits, one rich in abundance and wonder. Drawing on years of original research and personal engineering experience, Where Is My Flying Car?, originally published in 2018, is an urgent, timely analysis of technological progress over the last 50 years and a bold vision for a better future.
Considerable work has gone into electric car and battery development in the last ten years, with the prospect of substantial improvements in range and performance in battery cars as well as in hybrids and those using fuel cells. This book covers the development of electric cars, from their early days, to new hybrid models in production. Most of the coverage is focused on the very latest technological issues faced by automotive engineers working on electric cars, as well as the key business factors vital for the successful transfer of electric cars into the mass market.
