Today, even the most efficient internal-combustion engines use only 30 percent of the fuel’s energy to propel the vehicle. Much of the rest exits out the rear as waste heat. Now, researchers at General Motors are working on an energy-­scavenging device that could convert that exhaust heat into electricity.

The key is the use of a shape-memory alloy (SMA), explains Jan Aase, director of GM’s Vehicle Development Research Lab. “When you heat it up, it shrinks to its original length and gets stiffer,” he says. “When you cool it, you can stretch it out. So if you wrap shape-memory-alloy wire around two pulleys—one hot, one cold—the material will actually cycle the pulleys.”

The hot set is next to the pipe, while the cold one is offset and cooled by fresh air. The SMA wire coils around the pulleys. As the material expands and contracts, it causes the pulleys to spin, which drives a generator. GM is working with California-based Dynalloy, a company that recently developed a process to produce a nickel-titanium SMA capable of repeating millions of heat/cool cycles.

The researchers hope that the unit will produce enough juice to power all of a car’s electrical accessories— including electric power-steering pumps—allowing the engine to burn less fuel. GM R&D last year received a $2.7 million government grant to pursue the technology, which could potentially harness energy from factory smokestacks and house furnaces, as well as from automotive tailpipes. GM hopes to have a prototype ready by late 2010. Maybe in the Volt?

The first vehicle to feature Ford’s new MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch Technology will be the 2011 Lincoln MKX, which will debut at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. After the MKX, look for this technology in the refreshed 2011 Ford Edge and then the all-new 2011 Ford Focus. Eventually, all Lincoln models will feature this. So what is MyLincoln Touch? MyLincoln Touch brings Ford a generation (or two) beyond the competition. It is a piece of driver connect technology like SYNC, only much more advanced. Ford has gone ahead and broken down all of the possible non-driving-related tasks into four groups: Phone, Climate, Navigation and Entertainment. In the car you will get a large, eight-inch touchscreen display in the center stack, two 4.2-inch LCD screens to the right and left of an analog speedometer and two steering wheel-mounted five-way button controls. Using Ford’s award-winning HMI (human-machine interface) setup, MyLincoln Touch seeks to allow a driver to control in-car technology through either voice, touch or the wheel-mounted controllers. As Ford termed it, VUI (voice user interface), TUI (touch user interface) and GUI (graphic user interface).

Ford has gone ahead and broken down all of the possible non-driving-related tasks into four groups: Phone, Climate, Navigation and Entertainment. As far as the large, eight-inch touchscreen goes, its four corners each contain a button for one of the four groupings. Phone is brown, Navigation is green, Entertainment is purple and Climate is blue. All devices with bluetooth will be able to connect..in addition the system will serve as a wireless hotspot. Users will be able to take all of their MyLincoln Touch settings with them from vehicle to vehicle – just plug in an SD card or flash drive and you’re good to go drive another MyFord Touch-equipped car.

Over the past few years microprocessors and wireless Internet connections have turned cameras, phones and televisions into computers. Today the same technologies are being used and developed to transform the common automobile into a moving communication center; the internet on the dashboard. There are already products like Chrysler’s Uconnect that can turn the family minivan into a rolling Wi-Fi hot spot. The $499 box is a combination high-speed cellular Internet connection and wireless router that gives any nearby Wi-Fi-enabled device Web access. This allows passengers to surf the Web while cruising around town or down the highway. Coming technologies promise to take car computing to the next level by tightly integrating Web information and entertainment with driving tasks — and even putting Internet-based information at the driver’s fingertips.

Television technology is also coming to cars. In development is a way to extend live television feeds to the back seat. Various aftermarket companies are working towards this. The industry is eagerly waiting consumer’s response to this new world of Web- and channel-surfing in automobiles. There are still many potholes that could put a dent in the progress.  Coverage is still spotty in rural areas, and the speed of existing networks cannot match that of a cable broadband connection. Do we really need TV and internet in our cars? Not really, but with today’s hustle and bustle society saving time, even if it’s in the car, will likely be important to many. The funny thing is years in the future it will likely be like the internet and cell phones are today, part of everyday life.

HD Radio – Clearer Radio For Free

HD radio makes FM radio sound like CD and AM sound like FM, and offers what the HD Radio Web site calls “crystal-clear reception with no audio distortion.” The biggest benefit compared to satellite radio is it’s free. And like satellite radio, it offers alternative content that’s largely commercial-free by allowing a station to “multicast” separate programming on an adjacent sub-frequency that only an HD Radio can tune in. Another benefit to HD radio is it supplies detailed artist and song title listings, as well as info on traffic, weather, sports, stocks, emergencies and more. Although HD Radio has been around since 2005, it has yet to achieve mainstream status.

So how do you get HD Radio?  It was first available as an aftermarket product, but more recently automakers are beginning to offer it factory installed. For example, Jaguar offers HD Radio as standard in the 2009 XF and XK and will make it standard in all 2010 models. The bottom line with HD Radio is it is a free source of higher quality sound compared to traditional radio. HD Digital radio receivers are able to smooth out the sound signals to deliver crystal-clear reception. One factor that is keeping HD from becoming mainstream is that the service is not available everywhere, particularly in rural areas. While 1,800 radio stations have signed up so far, the signals from HD Radio stations in urban areas only extend about a maximum of 50 miles.

Bluetooth in Cars

Bluetooth is a word that just about every knows, and it has taken the technological world by swarm, enabling multi devices to communicate.  Bluetooth is a standardized short-range wireless communication technology that uses a low-power radio frequency. It has a list of benefits such as: it’s low-cost, its low energy consuming, and it’s interoperable, even if gear is made by different manufacturers. This gear may include your cell, laptop, PDA, and can involve the car stereo if the vehicle is equipped.  The transmission range between devices is about 30 ft. The Bluetooth allows one type of device, such as a headset, to communicate wirelessly with another type of device, like a car stereo. Any devices with the same Bluetooth “profile” can communicate.

A big breakthrough for Bluetooth has been to include Bluetooth-enabled stereos that can sync with your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone into vehicles. While you’re in the car, link the phone to your stereo and talk through the stereo speakers with the vehicle’s built-in microphone. You don’t even have to touch the phone. If the phone you have has Bluetooth capabilities, then this will work anywhere. For vehicles without the Bluetooth included, a hands-free car kit can be installed. With this technology you can also sync all your devices, like editing your address book, or putting a date in on the calendar, it can all be done wirelessly.  There is no special software or cables, no docking stations, or extra monthly fees.  In a world when owning so many different devices are common, Bluetooth is the answer.

The advantage of Bluetooth over WiFi is that you can be totally mobile, and walk around where you want. The possible developments with Bluetooth are endless, so who knows what we will be using it for in the coming decades.  Until then, it will become a standard feature in many vehicles, from many different automakers.