by Gordon E Dower
These pages present a new idea for the automobile;
an idea so simple that it can be conveyed
in a few words—perhaps only a sentence—
yet its implications are so broad that
they could fill a book. Unfortunately, they
are not immediately obvious because they
require a new way of thinking about the
automobile, its place in our lives, and its effect
upon our environment—not only the air
we breathe but the very structure and organization
of the city we may live in.
The conventional way of presenting a new
idea is to state it first and then show its potential
value but this presentation does it the
other way round: first it strives to show a
need and then offers the idea as a means of
satisfying that need. Details of the idea will
not be given here for fear they would distract
from the main theme which is not just an idea
for a new type of automobile but a concept of
a future transportation system. It will suffice
to say that detailed implementation is perfectly
straightforward, posing but little challenge
to engineers.
In the early years of this century, the electric car was a worthy candidate for city transportation: its quiet elegance (Fig. 1) compared favorably to its hand-cranking, noisy and temperamental rival. But it cannot compete with the refined, powerful and protean machine, which now defines our needs in the environment of streets, and arteries into which the city has evolved. The car is the product of 100 years of competitive development and enormous industrial production, and it has molded the city to adapt to it, whereas the PEV has, until recent years, suffered the neglect of an uneconomic competitor. Small wonder is it that its resurgence is in response to a gasping call for relief rather than its "sex appeal" to a public long influenced by the dream-car advertising that extols every virtue, real or imaginary, of the gasoline car. If we continue to think of the PEV merely as a car with a different engine, we may look forward to a gloomy future both figuratively and literally. If, however, we order our needs and priorities to suit present-day technology, we may discover that the PEV can offer features, which outweigh its apparent shortcomings, especially when cities adapt to those features. Let us examine, therefore, not only what we should expect from the PEV but what we should expect from the city, and how the two might interact with one another to enhance our quality of life. This is not a matter of minor importance, an exercise in "what if"-ing. Changes will be forced upon us, so we may as well decide what we really want, in order better to guide those changes. A useful starting point is to recognize that the sporting aspects of driving a car have no relevance in a city environment or as a means of transportation; indeed safety demands that they should be discouraged. If a maximum speed limit is enforced, there is no point in designing a PEV to go much faster. Neither is there any point in making it look as if will go faster. These 3 considerations favor a smaller power plant and more practical design. [More]
