New and Emerging Vehicle Technologies

The new technologies impacting the automotive industry today, are most evidently:

• Electric Vehicles - & everything they entail, from high efficiency electric motors, regenerative braking & power management systems to battery & fuel-cell technology, recharging infrastructure and recycling strategies.
• Fuel Cell Vehicles - including hydrogen-electric and hydrogen combustion conversions, Methanol fuel cells, re-fuelling technology/infrastructure - remains a viable approach to 'heavy' vehicles such as those used in construction and mining as well as road haulage and mass transit.
• Battery Technology - currently advanced Lithium batteries dominate (eg: LIB-NMC Vs LFP), with several alternatives in development (eg: Solid State Batteries). There is a continual effort to increase capacity, reduce charging times, improve safety and recyclability & to reduce dependence on overseas manufactures.
• Advanced Sensor and Actuator Technology - a wide sector, encompassing low cost digital video cameras, piezo-electric based sensors and actuators, optical and magnetic devices, and their control systems.
• Communications and Computing Technology - including Internet of Things (IoT), power efficient microprocessors and memory chips, wireless interconnects, better human-machine interfaces.
• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning - with applications from traction control & power management, to natural language interfaces, collision avoidance, and driver-less vehicles.
• Functional Materials, Advanced Composite Materials and Exotic Alloys - ever stronger, lighter, more durable, useful and sustainable - materials science is at the forefront of automotive technology.