Ford to swap out spark plugs for lasers, windshields for googly eyes
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 17th 2009 2:23PM
posted July 17th 2009 2:23PM
Ah, yes... the future. Remember that? That magical land of flying cars, wearable chariots and Robot Apocalypse? Well, none of that has come to pass (yet!) but if researchers at Liverpool University have their way (and all indications are that they will) the next Ford you purchase will use a laser beam ignition system instead of spark plugs. According to The Telegraph (UK), lasers can be split into multiple beams and aimed at multiple ignition points, making the new system much more reliable. In addition, the engine's cold weather performance is improved -- and as the article points out, "this is the time when around 80 per cent of the exhaust emissions are produced and the engine is at is least efficient." And if that weren't enough, the laser system produces more stable combustion, using less fuel in the process. Consumers can expect to see this technology hit showrooms "within the next few years."
[Via Auto Blog]
[Via Auto Blog]
Cars with FRICKIN' LASERS!!!!! YAY!
Yea, but they put the laser beams in the wrong spot. I'd rather they be aimed forwards or mounted like a turret.
Pew Pew?
affirmative
I actually wanted make a grid of laser pointers that were mounted in my rear window. So that when a huge SUV comes up behind me, flicking his brights, I can just activate the grid and dazzle them. And dazzle sounds like such a cute, happy word.
haha, first thing that came to my mind reading this as well..."FREAKIN LASERS" yeah baby, yeah...
Except that now I won't have to change $10 in sparkplugs, I'll have to change $1000 in lasers. YAY!
congratulations on your meltdown....Didn't anyone tell you to make sure your optics are clean.
Wow, sexy. I want that
That's what she said.
Perfect, we might start to see it in cars just after gasoline has been abandoned for good.
not really, with electric cars projected to cost upwards of 90k usd, most of us will be left with fuel efficient gasoline cars, or diesel cars which will cost around 15k to 35k usd
Uh... the Tesla Model S is supposed to cost
What the hell, that was supposed to say "cost less than 60k and they have another one planned that will cost less than 30k".. stupid comment system...
What the crap engadget. It's good you don't support html in your comments, but at least display the less-than and greater-than signs.
Thats if tesla can ever address its production problems. I really don't think they have the means to supply America...yet...maybe...
diesel cars don't need spark plugs....
It is very unlikely hydrocarbon burning cars will go away anytime soon. At least with current technology, It is cheaper and more feasible for the next few decades to use plug-in electric hybrid vehicles that have modest lithium-polymer/Zinc-Air/etc batteries for small drives around town, and then use a traditional ICE engine running on biofuel for longer trips
- Purely electric cars would need a nationwide electrical charging station infrastructure in place of gas/petrol stations.
- Electric cars using hydrogen fuel-cells are a great idea, but so far hydrogen is expensive to make, difficult to store safely in a vehicle, and fuel cells use very expensive platinum. In addition, fuel stations would require brand new infrastructure for hydrogen storage, and large hydrogen transport trucks could be very dangerous to have on the highways. It is far cheaper to use rechargable battery packs than fuel cells, but that takes you back to the problem of distribution stations.
hydrocarbon Bio-fuels can be refined into gasoline, diesel, ethanol, etc and are going to be efficient and far cheaper to implement since they fit right in to the current model of fuel distribution and internal combustion engines. Cellulosic ethanol has a come a long way, and can use existing agricultural waste or special fast growing plants that can be grown and harvested on land with very poor soil that is unsuitable for growing food crops.
Similarly, there is a radical new biofuel that is obtained from algae. They can grow this algae in transparent containers in enormous green houses sitting in the middle of the desert. The greenhouses are cheap and can be built anywhere that is sunny so they don't displace crop land. The Algae only require water, sunlight, carbon dioxide, and a tiny amount of nutrients. They multiple quickly, and can be continuously harvested. The secret is that, in anaerobic conditions, these algae store their "food" in the form of a thick oil-like hydrocarbon in this big pocket in the middle of their cell. For harvesting, they use a high pressure process that separates the oil from the water and organic material.
Anyways, I'm done rambling, I obviously am enthusiastic about renewable energy. ;)
@ loose
Why is filling stations a problem?? They are already have stuff we need... it's running their lights and pumps and all that... Some minor mods to their connection to the grid and most any gas station would be able to swap a petrol pump or two for elec..or add some. No, I think it's the lack of a standard connection due to the lack of the technology for batteries to accept a charge fast enough to be feasible in a stop, fill up, grab some papers&brew and GO!!!!---->
oh and my IPU declares jihad upon ur FSM
@corystal
I didn't mention the problem with charging batteries because I figured it was self-evident. Although, if Ultracapacitor technology that like that from EEStor becomes feasible, we may see batteries being replaced with new energy storage devices that can be fully charged in minutes, although they would need to make a standardized charging format that can handle very high current levels.
Progress!
No, this is hype. Progress would be if we actually stopped *burning* stuff to make the car go.
Ah, the future. I've been there. Twice. Very utopic place, indeed.
And it will cost 10 times to replace and won't be user-serviceable.
Exactly
Very nice. Should definitely help with those who have relatively short commutes where the engine spends a good portion of the trip still warming up to normal operating temperature.
mehhh ... if you want to see the future of the automobile then look at the new 2010 E-Class ... Video here - [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_3RmIdkIA ] ... Mercedes will always rule the Automobile world and Audi will always be number 2
Mercedes rules the Auto world ? UMM Actually Toyota rule the Auto world.
Mercedes break down all the time and are built in Mexico.
mercedes aren't made in mexico. some of the parts like the headlamp covers are. that's it.
my wife's is the cheap c300 and it was made in stuttgart.
vroom vroom party starter!
Well Mercedes must be #3 then because BMW > Audi
BMW/LEXUS > Mercades(POS breaks down so much and all the repair parts are ALWAYS backordered from germany)
I've had a much better experience with BMW and Lexus then Merc.
Never used an AUDI though..
Oh you mean the E-class that is so technologically advanced that the commercial features a car with an airbag malfunction?
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/13/video-mercedes-benz-e-class-commercial-features-malfunctioning/
Gotta love Mercedes reliability...
Merc had their share of problems but the fact is that they are the design leaders and technology leaders. In terms of tech, Lexus can keep up. In terms of design, only BMW can compete.
The technological problems they had (hopefully resolved - haven't followed recently) are due to their misunderstanding the importance of software and due to them being pioneers of technologies. The whole automotive industry has no clue about software, actually.
In 2003, I bought a cheap 1993 Mercedes in Germany for EUR 2000. I drove it for a year. Not only did it drive like a new car. It also didn't have a single problem. Nothing! Then I sold it again for EUR 2000 (moved to different country). Ever since then, I have had nothing but the greatest respect for Mercedes. Oh yeah and it handled 110 mph cruise speed on the German Autbahn no problems. This was by far the best used car I ever owned.
How would you keep the lens clean is the thing that will take years to figure out I'm guessing then eh, heat explosion resistant&dirt/carbon repellent lens, bit of a troublesome thing to dream up
or what happens when you hit a huge ass pothole and the frickin lazers get knocked out of alignment? Lazer your engine to shit.
HAha, but seriously it'll be like a DVD laser, not likely to laser anything unless you have a blank DVD-R very close to it, and there's not much alignment needed in this use.
Also your car is full of pothole resistant (hopefully) electronics already.
Perhaps some sort of emitter lens that doesn't bond to those types of molecules? Don't worry though, I'm sure you will still need to replace them at a regular interval so they can keep the auto maintenance industry going. Perhaps this is more of a plot to increase the cost of spark plugs that you weren't paying enough for.
What happens to the CD player when you hit a pothole in the road? There's a laser in there.
Oops when all else fails RTFA. From the autoblog article:
--
Researchers also point out that the lasers use less energy than their spark plug counterparts, eliminate wear items and wires (fiber optics will carry the laser beam to the cylinders), and improve fuel burn by "watching" ignition from within the combustion chamber and sending messages back to the ECU to adjust fuel mixtures, timing, and ignition.
--
I still think that there must be some sort of micro lens that terminates the fiber optics though. Probably much smaller then a CD player or something like that, but you would still have to replace it regularly I'd bet.
This sounds like a great idea for Mazda's rotary engines that are terribly inefficient.
inefficient? are you kidding me? Show me 1 American car that is able to pump out 200+ hp naturally aspirated on a 1.3L engine?
American car? Say what now.
Say wwhat now?
@KEROLiUKAS
Umm... why are you pretending that when people talk about efficiency for cars, they are talking about displacement versus horsepower? It's Fuel Economy people mean when they say "efficiency" in relation to cars, and it's something people talk about ALL THE TIME, so why are you pretending you don't know that?
-Taylor
As Wwhat asked, how would you keep the lens clean?
Also, how powerful of a laser would it take to combust fuel? Where is that power coming from?
hasn't Zach learned his lesson yet?
Doesn't require huge power I imagine, DVD or bluray laser output at the most would be my guess, although I'm no combustion expert,
Although I do tend to get annoyed and combust in anger, but at those times I don't do math or motoring.
So will it be a Blu-Laser or the old red laser??
If you read the article, it says that it'll require less power than the spark plugs
Well I'm thinking the fuel needs to be a color that matches the laser color, so they'd go with a blue laser then add some fluoride or other poison to the fuel to make UV sensitive so it absorb the laserlight better, nicely keeping up the tradition of pointless pollution and tricks to raise the price of stuff. ;)