The future of cars… WTF

I am a bit of a technophile as far as new technologies and gadgets are concerned (I suppose others would call me a geek or a nerd), and so it’s always interesting (and sometimes amusing) to read about what the manufacturers are tinkering with. And this also increasingly includes cars, although I am not a car aficionado at all. Electric vehicles, obviously, are all the rage and so it is no surprise that they also feature prominently in many reviews of this year‘s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Take for example the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV: with a staggering maximum of 664 horsepower, it will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and the capacity of its battery will allow a range of up to 400 miles.

If trucks are not your thing, you might like the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX. This car will be an ecologist’s dream, if there is such a thing, as its interior features a surprising mix of sustainable materials: from mushrooms to bamboo, cactus and vegan silk. And this car definitely is for the long distance driver, since it sports a range of up to 620 miles per charge.

One of the more futuristic cars on show, however, must be the BMW iX Flow with E Ink: If you’ve ever felt indecisive about what color vehicle to buy, BMW may have the car for you – at least if you hesitate between white and black. The surface coating contains many millions of microcapsules, with a diameter equivalent to the thickness of a human hair. Each of these microcapsules contains negatively charged white pigments and positively charged black pigments. Depending on the chosen setting, stimulation by means of an electrical field causes either the white or the black pigments to collect at the surface of the microcapsule, giving the car body the desired shade. Unfortunately it is unlikely to hit the road anytime soon, as this is just an advanced research project.

But my personal favourite has to be the Cadillac InnerSpace concept car. It will be not only electric but also fully autonomous. And then there is obviously this sleek and stylish design…. Which shows that this will be a car that most of us and me included will definitely not be able to afford. But we are allowed to dream for a moment once in a while, aren’t we?

But then it might all come to naught, such as the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel concept, which was first presented in 2009 and of which we haven’t heard anything since (to be fair, even Cadillac in 2009 anticipated this for 2050). This mean looking driving machine (see photo below) would be fuelled by thorium, a highly radioactive substance of which one gram has the potential energy equivalent of over 7000 gallons of petrol. Just 8 grams of the miraculous metal would be enough to provide power to the 24 wheels propelling the car for a hundred years. Just imagine, no refuelling, no maintenance and zero CO2 emissions!

And this is not the first appearance of a nuclear powered car in modern history: Ford had already in 1958 presented the Nucleon, a concept car that could theoretically be made to run for more than 5,000 miles (over 8,000km) without needing to refuel. Sadly, the technology needed to make such a car a reality was far beyond the engineers of the day – and it probably still is today, so it never left the drawing board.

A nuclear powered vehicle is probably still decades away, but I am sure the option will occasionally resurface – and maybe one day even drive on our streets. EVs are all the rage at the moment, but considering their added demand on already strained electricity grids (see also my previous post on this subject here), there will no doubt be demand for alternative means of propulsion.

So it seems that cars will continue to get better and more innovative, WTF indeed!