One of the issues that automobiles industries face is the weight of the vehicle. Most of the auto companies are trying to reduce their cars' weights in order to work efficiently. The reason behind trimming the weight is to save more fuel. When a heavy car runs, it consumes more fuel than a non heavy car. The engines in those heavy cars require a high level of power to operate well. This power comes from consuming a lot of fuel. Nowadays, companies are trying to replace some steel parts of cars with a carbon fiber parts. And this would create more environmental cars that consume less fuel. But the problem is with the high price of carbon fiber. However, researchers team in "Oak Ridge National Laboratory" in Tennessee found that they can reduce the costs of carbon fiber by adding special chemical substances and through a process that is called knitting yarn. By then, the carbon fiber would be called carbon fiber fabric.
Another challenge for the automobile industry is that the shortage in batteries. This happens in both electric and regular cars. This issue might be noticed while trying to operate a car and it does not work. There is a new device that can solve that issue. It is called the ultracapacitor. This device generates electricity in a different way than regular batteries (chemical) do because it depends on electrolyte and carbon-coated metal plates. In addition, it absorbs a lot of electricity and it releases it so fast when needed. Also. this device proved that it can work under any weather condition in cold or hot times. The problem with this device is that a little bit expensive than regular batteries.
2. What are some examples of ethics challenges that industry players have experienced?
The U.S. Department of Transportation has been checking all of Toyota's cars, especially for acceleration issues and also electronic parts. As a result, Toyota recalled more than eight million cars globally about the acceleration issue and others related to electronic problems. However, Toyota denied these claims from the insurance companies. These companies are trying to receive a minimum compensation of 230, 000 million dollars from Toyota.
Sources:
1- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704405704576064091264764416.html?KEYWORDS=automotive+industry
2- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723104576061832001057852.html?KEYWORDS=automobiles+problems
Good post, make sure to comment on at least one of your teammates posts as well.
ReplyDeleteThe issues that you bring up with the cars weight and batteries are important to the industry, but I am not entirely sure if they are ethical issues. Maybe the weight of the car affects the safety of the car for the consumer or the batteries short life span and how they affect the environment would be better examples of ethical issues.
ReplyDeleteI sort of agree with Josh. They are key issues, but I am not sure if they are ethical. You could also look at having large automobiles as a safety issue. There have been accidents between a large SUV and a smaller car and the people in the smaller car died because of the impact of such a larger vehicle. It would be more ethical to reduce the size in vehicles to protect other people on the road. This is just an Idea that came to mind when I saw the issue of larger cars.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and a lot of great information.
I also agree with Josh's opinion but for the battery part, I think it does not relate exactly to the environmental matters. Batteries in vehicle is supposed to be designed actually to recharge itself and battery has nothing got to do with the exhaust gas which had direct affect towards the enviornment
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