PAK TAMRIN - CDI FLASH DESIGNER, PRODUCER & MARKETING REP

CDI FLASH, HOME DELIVERY & INSTALLATION AT YOUR CAR
COIL DIRECT IGNITION DIRANCANG, DIBUAT DAN DIPASARKAN OLEH ANAK NEGERI
Garansi dua tahun, atau tukar casing yang masih utuh dengan CDI baru
Tamrin Ishak jln Penganten Ali No.37 RT004/06 Ciracas Pasar Rebo, Jakarta Timur 13740
Phone (021) 870 5462 HP/Cellular 0812 9270675 atau 0815 115 28757


TIDAK PERLU buat anda yang TIDAK MENGGUNAKAN PLATINA

Di designed dan di rancang buat anda, pemilik mobil atau motor dengan bahan bakar bensin dan masih menggunakan platina

CDI FLASH sudah dipasang pada lebih dari seratus mobil pelanggan kami, untuk melihat daftar pelanggan silahkan click di sini
Komentar: Akhirnya CDI Flash datang Juga |

Harga per unit berikut pemasangan Rp 300,000 (Jabodetabek)
pembelian tanpa pemasangan Rp 250,000 per unit termasuk ongkos kirim


Silahkan klik untuk memperbesar gambar dibawah ini




Pak TAMRIN Phone (021) 870 5462 HP/Cellular 0812 9270675 atau 0815 115 28757

MENGAPA CDI FLASH

Tidak perlu ganti platina dan condenser

Pengapian lebih cepat dan lebih besar membuat akselerasi mesin lebih tinggi
Hemat Bahan Bakar
Bebas Perawatan
Mudah memasangnya
Bergaransi dua tahun atau tukar casing yang masih utuh dengan CDI baru
Dirancang, Dibuat dan Dipasarkan Oleh Anak Negeri


Pak TAMRIN Phone (021) 870 5462 HP/Cellular 0812 9270675 atau 0815 115 28757

 

¨  Tidak perlu ganti platina dan condenser

¨  Pengapian lebih cepat dan lebih besar membuat akselerasi mesin lebih tinggi

¨  Hemat Bahan Bakar

¨  Bebas Perawatan

¨  Mudah memasangnya

¨  Bergaransi dua tahun atau tukar casing yang masih utuh dengan CDI baru




 

COIL DIRECT IGNITION

Flash berfungsi mengambil alih loncatan api pada platina, sehingga platina tidak akan aus atau rusak.

Flash memperbesar api pada busi sehingga pemakaian bahan bakar lebih hemat.

CARA MEMASANG

1.  Pasang Flash pada pegangan atau bracket coil dengan cara melepas salah satu bautnya dan menggantikan dengan mur dan baut yang disediakan atau pada tempat yang dikehendaki dan jangan lupa memasang kabel hijau atau masa pada baut tersebut.

2.  Lepas kabel pada distributor atau delko yang berasal dari ( - ) coil dan kabel condenser lalu gabungkan kabel-kabel tersebut dengan kabel coklat dan diisolasi.

3.  Pasang kabel Flash lainnya, kabel merah di ( + ) coil. Kabel hitam di distributor atau delko menggantikan posisi kabel yang dilepas pada ad.2.

CATATAN:

Þ  Secara berkala as rotor diberi gemuk atau grease agar ebonite pada platina tidak aus atau rusak.

Þ  Bila terjadi kerusakan pada Flash, maka pindahkan jack Flash ke soket cadangan yang tersedia, sehingga platina berfungsi seperti semula.

 
   

Pak TAMRIN Phone (021) 870 5462 HP/Cellular 0812 9270675 atau 0815 115 28757

HOME

Version 09-February-2011

 

 


 
Capacitor discharge ignition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_discharge_ignition
Capacitor discharge ignition (CDI) or thyristor ignition is a type of automotive electronic ignition system which is widely used in outboard motors, motorcycles, lawn mowers, chainsaws, small engines, turbine-powered aircraft, and some cars. It was originally developed to overcome the long charging times associated with high inductance coils used in inductive discharge ignition (IDI) systems, making the ignition system more suitable for high engine speeds (for small engines, racing engines and rotary piston engines). The capacitive-discharge ignition uses capacitor discharge current output to fire the spark plugs.
History

The history of the capacitor discharge ignition system can be traced back to the 1890s when it is believed that Nikola Tesla was the first to propose such an ignition syste]. In U.S. patent #609250 first filed February 17, 1897, Tesla writes 'Any suitable moving portion of the apparatus is caused to mechanically control the charging of a condenser and its discharge through a circuit in inductive relation to a secondary circuit leading to the terminals between which the discharge is to occur, so that at the desired intervals the condenser may be discharged though its circuit and induce in the other circuit a current of high potential which produces the desired discharge.'
The patent also describes very generally with a drawing, a mechanical means to accomplish this. In the late 1940s an attempt to make one using mechanical means to trigger the capacitor's discharge was tried. It used extra contact switches in addition to the usual points (contact breaker), but suffered from timing problems and was unreliable. The quest for an electronic means of producing a CD ignition began in earnest during the 1950s. In the mid 1950s, the Engineering Research Institute of the University of Michigan in cooperation with Chrysler Corporation in the United States worked to find a method to produce a viable unit.
They were unsuccessful, but did provide much data on the advantages of such a system, should one be built. Namely; a fast voltage rise time to fire-fouled spark plugs, high energy throughout the RPM range resulting in better starting, more power and economy, and lower emissions. A few engineers and scientists had built CD ignitions throughout the 1950s, using thyratrons which required a warm-up period, and thyratrons were vulnerable to the effects of vibration as well. Silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCR) or thyristors came later thanks to Bill Gutzwiller and his team at General Electric. These early attempts all suffered from the same problem that made them unable to perform much beyond idling speed.
This was due to 'points bounce' which is a feature of a points-triggered system. In the standard system with points, distributor, coil, ignition (Kettering system) points bounce prevents the coil from saturating fully as RPM increases resulting in a weak spark, thus limiting high speed potential. In a CD ignition, at least those early attempts, the points bounce created unwanted trigger pulses to the thyratron that resulted in a series of weak, untimed sparks that caused extreme misfiring. There were two possible solutions to the problem.
The first would be to develop another means of triggering the discharge of the capacitor to one discharge per power stroke by replacing the points with something else. This could be done magnetically or optically, but that would necessitate more electronics and an expensive distributor. The other option was to keep the points, as they were already in use and reliable, and find a way to overcome the 'points bounce' problem. This was accomplished in April 1962 by a Canadian, RCAF officer F.L. Winterburn working in his basement in Ottawa, Ontario.

F.L. Winterburn
The design used an inexpensive method that would only recognize the first opening of the points and ignore subsequent openings when the points bounced.
A company was formed in Ottawa in early 1963 called Hyland Electronics building CD ignitions using the Winterburn design. It provided a 75 milijoule spark at all engine speeds up to 5,000 rpm on an eight cylinder (10,000 rpm on a four-cylinder) and consumed only four amperes at that speed. Dynamometer testing during 1963 and 1964 showed a minimum of 5% increase in horsepower with the system, with 10% the norm. One example, a Ford Falcon, had an increase in horsepower of 17%. Spark plug lifespan was increased to at least 50,000 miles and points lifespan was greatly extended from 8,000 miles to at least 60,000 miles. Points lifespan became a factor of rubbing block (cam follower) wear and the life cycle of the spring with some lasting almost 100,000 miles.
The Hyland unit was tolerant of varied points gaps. The system could be switched back to standard induction discharge ignition by the simple swapping of two wires. The Hyland CD ignition was the first commercially produced CD ignition and retailed for $39.95 Canadian. The patents were applied for by Winterburn on September 23, 1963 (United States patent# 3,564,581). The design was leaked to the United States in the summer of 1963 when Hyland exposed the design to a US company in an effort to expand sales. Afterward, numerous companies started building their own throughout the 1960s and 1970s without licence.
Some were direct copies of the Winterburn circuit. In 1971 Bosch bought the European patent rights (German, French, British) from Winterburn as their own CD ignition was based upon the Winterburn design. The first commercial motorcycle using the CDI system was manufactured by Kawasaki. By the end of 1960s, the US government made new laws enforcing strict emission standards. As a result, more and more electronic ignition systems were developed, and starting from 1970s all smaller engines installed CDI system to replace the contact point system, including Honda Cub which began to use AC-CDI system.

The basic principle

Most ignition systems used in cars are inductive discharge ignition (IDI) systems, which are solely relying on the electric inductance at the coil to produce high-voltage electricity to the spark plugs as the magnetic field breaks down when the current to the primary coil winding is disconnected (disruptive discharge). In a CDI system, a charging circuit charges a high voltage capacitor, and at the instant of ignition the system stops charging the capacitor, allowing the capacitor to discharge its output to the ignition coil before reaching the spark plug.
A typical CDI module consists of a small transformer, a charging circuit, a triggering circuit and a main capacitor. First, the system voltage is raised up to 400-600 volts by a transformer inside the CDI module. Then, the electric current flows to the charging circuit and charges the capacitor. The rectifier inside the charging circuit prevents capacitor discharge before the moment of ignition. When the triggering circuit receives triggering signals, the triggering circuit stops the operation of the charging circuit, allowing the capacitor to discharge its output rapidly to the low inductance ignition coil, which increase the 400-600 V capacitor discharge to up to 40 kV at the secondary winding at the spark plug. When there's no triggering signal, the charging circuit is re-connected to charge back the capacitor.
The amount of energy the CDI system can store for the generation of a spark is dependent on the voltage and capacitance of the capacitors used, but usually it's around 50 mJ, or more. The standard points/coil/distributor ignition, more properly called the inductive discharge ignition system or Kettering ignition system, produces 25mJ at low speed and drops off quickly as speed increases.
Most CDI modules are generally of two types:
AC-CDI - The AC-CDI module obtains its electricity source solely from the alternating current produced by the alternator. The AC-CDI system is the most basic CDI system which is widely used in small engines.
Note that not all small engine ignition systems are CDI. Some older engines, and engines like older Briggs and Stratton use magneto ignition. The entire ignition system, coil and points, are under the magnetized flywheel.
Another sort of ignition system commonly used on small off-road motorcycles in the 1960s and 1970s was called Energy Transfer. A coil under the flywheel generated a strong DC current pulse as the flywheel magnet moved over it. This DC current flowed through a wire to an ignition coil mounted outside of the engine. The points sometimes were under the flywheel for two-stroke engines, and commonly on the camshaft for four-stroke engines. This system worked like all Kettering (points/coil) ignition systems... the opening points trigger the collapse of the magnetic field in the ignition coil, producing a high voltage pulse which flows through the spark plug wire to the spark plug.
If the engine was rotated while examining the wave-form output of the coil with an oscilloscope, it would appear to be AC. But you must consider that since the charge-time of the coil corresponds to much less than a full revolution of the crank, the coil really 'sees' only DC current for charging the external ignition coil.
Some electronic ignition systems exist that are not CDI. These systems use a transistor to switch the charging current to the coil off and on at the appropriate times. This eliminated the problem of burned and worn points, and provided a hotter spark because of the faster voltage rise and collapse time in the ignition coil.
DC-CDI - The DC-CDI module is powered by the battery, and therefore an additional DC/AC inverter circuit is included in the CDI module to raise the 12 V DC to 400-600 V DC, making the CDI module slightly larger. However, vehicles that use DC-CDI systems have more precise ignition timing and the engine can be started more easily when cold.

Advantages and Disadvantages of CDI

A CDI system has a short charging time, a fast voltage rise (between 3 ~ 10 kV/µs) compared to typical inductive systems (300 ~ 500 V/µs) and a short spark duration limited to about 50-80 µs. The fast voltage rise makes CDI systems insensitive to shunt resistance, but the limited spark duration can for some applications be too short to provide reliable ignition. The insensitivity to shunt resistance and the ability to fire multiple sparks can provide improved cold starting ability.
Since the CDI system only provides a short spark, it's also possible to combine this ignition system with ionization measurement. This is done by connecting a low voltage (about 80 V) to the spark plug, except when fired. The current flow over the spark plug can then be used to calculate the temperature and pressure inside the cylinder.

 
Automobile
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile
An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.[1]
There are approximately 600 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven people).[2][3] Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over a billion cubic meters (260 billion US gallons) of petrol/gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.

Etymology

Look up automobile in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The word automobile comes, via the French automobile, from the Ancient Greek word a?t?? (autós, "self") and the Latin mobilis ("movable"); meaning a vehicle that moves itself, rather than being pulled or pushed by a separate animal or another vehicle. The alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled vehicle"), or the Middle English word carre ("cart") (from Old North French), or from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic Chariot).

History

Main article: History of the automobile
The first working steam-powered vehicle was probably designed by Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish member of a Jesuit mission in China around 1672. It was a 65 cm-long scale-model toy for the Chinese Emperor, that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger.[7][8][9] It is not known if Verbiest's model was ever built.[8]
In 1752, Leonty Shamshurenkov, a Russian peasant, constructed a human-pedalled four-wheeled "auto-running" carriage, and subsequently proposed to equip it with odometer and to use the same principle for making a self-propelling sledge.[10]
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769, by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle. However, this claim is disputed by some who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable.[citation needed] In 1801, Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle. It was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and was of little practical use.
In the 1780s, a Russian inventor of merchant origin, Ivan Kulibin, developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, Transmission, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.[11]
In 1807 Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude probably created the world's first internal combustion engine which they called a Pyréolophore, but they chose to install it in a boat on the river Saone in France.[12] Coincidentally, in 1807 the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed his own 'internal combustion engine' and used it to develop the world's first vehicle, to be powered by such an engine. The Niépces' Pyréolophore was fuelled by a mixture of Lycopodium powder (dried Lycopodium moss), finely crushed coal dust and resin that were mixed with oil, whereas de Rivaz used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.[12] Neither design was very successful, as was the case with others, such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobile, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.[13]
In November 1881, French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile powered by electricity at the International Exposition of Electricity, Paris.[14]
Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.[13]
An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885, and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, Benz & Cie., which was founded in 1883. It was an integral design, without the adaptation of other existing components, and included several new technological elements to create a new concept. He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888.


A photograph of the original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept
In 1879, Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle.
His first Motorwagen was built in 1885, and he was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on January 29, 1886. Benz began promotion of the vehicle on July 3, 1886, and about 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.
In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called boxermotor. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and, because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company.
Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890, and sold their first automobile in 1892 under the brand name, Daimler. It was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after disputes with their backers. Benz, Maybach and the Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each others' early work. They never worked together; by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG.
Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes, that was placed in a specially ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.


Karl Benz
Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their automobile models jointly, although keeping their respective brands. On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz, as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35 hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929, and at times, his two sons participated in the management of the company as well.
In 1890, Émile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France.
The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was drawn in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent for an automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on November 5, 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of automobiles in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.
In Britain, there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success, with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860.[15] Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894[16] followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895, but these were both one-offs.[16] The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler Motor Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896, after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawson's company made its first automobiles in 1897, and they bore the name Daimler.[16]
In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897, he built the first Diesel Engine.[13] Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.
Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional piston and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.
Production

Ransom E. Olds
The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Ransom Olds at his Oldsmobile factory in 1902. This concept was greatly expanded by Henry Ford, beginning in 1914.
As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in fifteen minute intervals, much faster than previous methods, increasing productivity eightfold (requiring 12.5 man-hours before, 1 hour 33 minutes after), while using less manpower.[17] It was so successful, paint became a bottleneck. Only Japan black would dry fast enough, forcing the company to drop the variety of colors available before 1914, until fast-drying Duco lacquer was developed in 1926. This is the source of Ford's apocryphal remark, "any color as long as it's black".[17] In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months' pay.[17]


Portrait of Henry Ford (ca. 1919)
Ford's complex safety procedures—especially assigning each worker to a specific location instead of allowing them to roam about—dramatically reduced the rate of injury. The combination of high wages and high efficiency is called "Fordism," and was copied by most major industries. The efficiency gains from the assembly line also coincided with the economic rise of the United States. The assembly line forced workers to work at a certain pace with very repetitive motions which led to more output per worker while other countries were using less productive methods.
In the automotive industry, its success was dominating, and quickly spread worldwide seeing the founding of Ford France and Ford Britain in 1911, Ford Denmark 1923, Ford Germany 1925; in 1921, Citroen was the first native European manufacturer to adopt the production method. Soon, companies had to have assembly lines, or risk going broke; by 1930, 250 companies which did not, had disappeared.[17]
Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910–1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.


Ford Model T, 1927, regarded as the first affordable American automobile
Since the 1920s, nearly all cars have been mass-produced to meet market needs, so marketing plans often have heavily influenced automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one company, so buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved.
Reflecting the rapid pace of change, makes shared parts with one another so larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1930s, LaSalles, sold by Cadillac, used cheaper mechanical parts made by Oldsmobile; in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; by the 1990s, corporate powertrains and shared platforms (with interchangeable brakes, suspension, and other parts) were common. Even so, only major makers could afford high costs, and even companies with decades of production, such as Apperson, Cole, Dorris, Haynes, or Premier, could not manage: of some two hundred American car makers in existence in 1920, only 43 survived in 1930, and with the Great Depression, by 1940, only 17 of those were left.[17]
In Europe much the same would happen. Morris set up its production line at Cowley in 1924, and soon outsold Ford, while beginning in 1923 to follow Ford's practise of vertical integration, buying Hotchkiss (engines), Wrigley (gearboxes), and Osberton (radiators), for instance, as well as competitors, such as Wolseley: in 1925, Morris had 41% of total British car production. Most British small-car assemblers, from Abbey to Xtra had gone under. Citroen did the same in France, coming to cars in 1919; between them and other cheap cars in reply such as Renault's 10CV and Peugeot's 5CV, they produced 550,000 cars in 1925, and Mors, Hurtu, and others could not compete.[17] Germany's first mass-manufactured car, the Opel 4PS Laubfrosch (Tree Frog), came off the line at Russelsheim in 1924, soon making Opel the top car builder in Germany, with 37.5% of the market.[17]
See also: Automotive industry
Fuel and propulsion technologies

A radio taxi in New Delhi. A court order requires all commercial vehicles including trucks, buses and taxis in Delhi to run on Compressed Natural Gas
Main article: Automobile propulsion technologies
See also: Alternative fuel vehicle
Older automobiles were generally powered by a steam engine, which was fed by burning gasoline.[18] Most automobiles in use today however are propelled by a internal combustion engine, fueled by deflagration of gasoline (also known as petrol) or diesel. Both fuels are known to cause air pollution and are also blamed for contributing to climate change and global warming.[19] Increasing costs of oil-based fuels, tightening environmental laws and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles. Efforts to improve or replace existing technologies include the development of hybrid vehicles, electric and hydrogen vehicles that do not release pollution into the air.[citation needed]
Safety

Main articles: Car safety and Automobile accident


Result of a serious automobile accident
While road traffic injuries represent the leading cause in worldwide injury-related deaths,[20] their popularity undermines this statistic.
Mary Ward became one of the first documented automobile fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland[21] and Henry Bliss one of the United States' first pedestrian automobile casualties in 1899 in New York.[22] There are now standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests,[23] as well as insurance-backed IIHS tests.[24]
Costs and benefits

Further information: Automotive industry
Main article: Economics of automobile usage
The costs of automobile usage, which may include the cost of: acquiring the vehicle, repairs, maintenance, fuel, depreciation, injury, driving time, parking fees, tire replacement, taxes, and insurance,[25] are weighed against the cost of the alternatives, and the value of the benefits – perceived and real – of vehicle usage. The benefits may include on-demand transportation, mobility, independence and convenience.[9]
Main article: Effects of the automobile on societies
Similarly the costs to society of encompassing automobile use, which may include those of: maintaining roads, land use, pollution, public health, health care, and of disposing of the vehicle at the end of its life, can be balanced against the value of the benefits to society that automobile use generates. The societal benefits may include: economy benefits, such as job and wealth creation, of automobile production and maintenance, transportation provision, society wellbeing derived from leisure and travel opportunities, and revenue generation from the tax opportunities. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far reaching implications for the nature of societies.[26]
Environmental impact

See also: automobile emissions

The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (June 2010)
Transportation is a major contributor to air pollution in most industrialised nations. According to the American Surface Transportation Policy Project nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has worsened over the last decade.[27] In the United States the average passenger car emits 11,450 pounds (5,190 kg) of carbon dioxide annually, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen.[28]
Animals and plants are often negatively impacted by automobiles via habitat destruction and pollution. Over the lifetime of the average automobile the "loss of habitat potential" may be over 50,000 square meters (540,000 sq ft) based on primary production correlations.[29]
Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or to not drive. On average, today's automobiles are about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled steel helps reduce energy use and pollution.[30] In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the 27.5 miles per US gallon (8.55 L/100 km; 33.0 mpg-imp) standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at 22.2 miles per US gallon (10.6 L/100 km; 26.7 mpg-imp) in 2007.[31] Alternative fuel vehicles are another option that is less polluting than conventional petroleum powered vehicles.
Other negative effects

Residents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in car collisions[original research?] which kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number.[20] Sprawl is more broadly a factor in inactivity and obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.[32]
Millions of animals are also killed every year on roads by automobiles—so-called Roadkill.
Driverless cars

Main article: Driverless car


A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car
Fully autonomous vehicles, also known as robotic cars, or driverless cars, already exist in prototype, and are expected to be commercially available around 2020. According to urban designer and futurist Michael E. Arth, driverless electric vehicles—in conjunction with the increased use of virtual reality for work, travel, and pleasure—could reduce the world's 800 million vehicles to a fraction of that number within a few decades.[33] This would be possible if almost all private cars requiring drivers, which are not in use and parked 90% of the time, would be traded for public self-driving taxis that would be in near constant use. This would also allow for getting the appropriate vehicle for the particular need—a bus could come for a group of people, a limousine could come for a special night out, and a Segway could come for a short trip down the street for one person. Children could be chauffeured in supervised safety, DUIs would no longer exist, and 41,000 lives could be saved each year in the US alone.[34][35]
Future car technologies

Main article: Future car technologies

This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010)
Automobile propulsion technology under development include gasoline/electric and plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles, hydrogen cars, biofuels, and various alternative fuels.
Research into future alternative forms of power include the development of fuel cells, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), stirling engines,[36] and even using the stored energy of compressed air or liquid nitrogen.
New materials which may replace steel car bodies include duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes.
Telematics technology is allowing more and more people to share cars, on a pay-as-you-go basis, through such schemes as City Car Club in the UK, Mobility in mainland Europe, and Zipcar in the US.
Open source development

There have been several projects aiming to develop a car on the principles of open design. The projects include OScar, Riversimple (through 40fires.org)[37] and c,mm,n.[38] None of the projects have reached significant success in terms of developing a car as a whole both from hardware and software perspective and no mass production ready open-source based design have been introduced as of late 2009. Some car hacking through on-board diagnostics (OBD) has been done so far.[39]
Alternatives to the automobile

Main article: Alternatives to the automobile
Established alternatives for some aspects of automobile use include public transit (buses, trolleybuses, trains, subways, monorails, tramways), cycling, walking, rollerblading, skateboarding, horseback riding and using a velomobile. Car-share arrangements and carpooling are also increasingly popular–the US market leader in car-sharing has experienced double-digit growth in revenue and membership growth between 2006 and 2007, offering a service that enables urban residents to "share" a vehicle rather than own a car in already congested neighborhoods.[40] Bike-share systems have been tried in some European cities, including Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Similar programs have been experimented with in a number of US Cities.[41] Additional individual modes of transport, such as personal rapid transit could serve as an alternative to automobiles if they prove to be socially accepted.[42]
Industry

Main article: Automotive industry
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide.[43]
In 2007, a total of 71.9 million new automobiles were sold worldwide: 22.9 million in Europe, 21.4 million in Asia-Pacific, 19.4 million in USA and Canada, 4.4 million in Latin America, 2.4 million in the Middle East and 1.4 million in Africa.[44] The markets in North America and Japan were stagnant, while those in South America and other parts of Asia grew strongly. Of the major markets, China, Russia, Brazil and India saw the most rapid growth.
About 250 million vehicles are in use in the United States. Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 260 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.[4] In the opinion of some, urban transport systems based around the car have proved unsustainable, consuming excessive energy, affecting the health of populations, and delivering a declining level of service despite increasing investments. Many of these negative impacts fall disproportionately on those social groups who are also least likely to own and drive cars.[45][46][47] The sustainable transport movement focuses on solutions to these problems.
In 2008, with rapidly rising oil prices, industries such as the automotive industry, are experiencing a combination of pricing pressures from raw material costs and changes in consumer buying habits. The industry is also facing increasing external competition from the public transport sector, as consumers re-evaluate their private vehicle usage.[48] Roughly half of the US's fifty-one light vehicle plants are projected to permanently close in the coming years, with the loss of another 200,000 jobs in the sector, on top of the 560,000 jobs lost this decade.[49] Combined with robust growth in China, in 2009, this resulted in China becoming the largest automobile producer and market in the world.
Market

Main article: Automotive market
The automotive market is formed by the demand and the industry. This article is about the general, major trends in the automotive market, mainly from the demand side.
The European automotive market has always boasted more smaller cars than the United States. With the high fuel prices and the world petroleum crisis, the United States may see its automotive market become more like the European market with fewer large vehicles on the road and more small cars.[50]
For luxurious cars, with the current volatility in oil prices, going for smaller cars is not only smart, but also trendy. And because fashion is of high importance with the upper classes, the little green cars with luxury trimmings become quite plausible.