Automobiles774 articles archived since 1845

Readers Respond to "Climate Heretic" and Other Articles

Letters to the editor from the November 2010 issue of Scientific American

The Immortal Ambitions of Ray Kurzweil: A Review of Transcendent Man

A documentary about Ray Kurzweil's belief that technology could conquer mortality reveals the futurist's emotional life but fails to question his bold claims

Pay-Off: Have E-ZPass and Similar Toll Programs Reduced Traffic and Pollution?

Studies have shown that automated systems result in major decreases in toll plaza delays and air pollution. But does taking the inconvenience out of paying tolls encourage more driving?

Inventing Batteries from Air

ARPA-e and others aim to fund development of a battery that relies on lithium and air

Personal Technology in 2011

Video games, smart phones, apps, e-readers--people are fitting digital gadgets into all aspects of their lives

A Tale of Two U.S. Electric Car Companies

Can the U.S. grow a domestic electric car industry?

Mind Out of Body: Controlling Machines with Thought

In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, a pioneering neuroscientist argues that brain-wave control of machines will allow the paralyzed to walk, and portends a future of mind melds and thought downloads...

Anecdotes from the Archive: A ride fit for a shah

Circuit Breaker? Electric Car Popularity May Depend on Home Energy Management

Never mind electric-vehicle range anxiety, how will power utilities and home systems handle the growing load of a burgeoning fleet of electric cars? A maker of home battery-charging stations partners with networking giant Cisco Systems to enable energy monitoring and management from a single touch-screen device...

Gizmos Galore: The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Pictures [Slide Show]

Here is a bit of what an estimated 140,000 attendees saw at last week's CES

Gizmos Galore: The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Pictures [Slide Show]

Here is a bit of what an estimated 140,000 attendees saw at last week's CES

M.I.T. Panel Says a Charging Infrastructure May Be a Bigger Roadblock for Electric Vehicles Than Technology

The infrastructure challenges include installing tens of millions of charging stations, strengthening the grid to handle electricity demand by plug-ins, and changing utility regulations to promote nighttime recharging...

What Is the Watson Jeopardy-Playing Supercomputer, Alex?

Scientific American editor Michael Moyer talks about the sneak preview he caught of IBM's Watson Jeopardy! -playing computer. And ScientificAmerican.com 's Larry Greenemeier spoke with Ford's Brad Probert about the new all-electric Focus at the Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas...

Wired Wheels: Taking a Spin in the Future of Urban Transportation

General Motors offers a taste of its Electric Networked Vehicle at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show

Consumer Electronics in 2011: Connecting Every Aspect of Our Lives

Gadgets of all shapes and sizes are emerging that provide convenient, full-function access to communications, GPS, social networking and other information from wherever we are. Scientific American takes a look at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)...

Practically Green: A Q&A with the Chevy Volt's Chief Engineer

As the Chevy Volt, the first extended-range electric car, rolls into showrooms, its chief engineer talks about what's under the hood and why it's not a hybrid

No Such Thing as a Free Parking Spot

It's not just driving our cars that harms the environment, parking them also poses a problem. David Biello reports

Driving to the Future: Can China--and the World--Afford 2 Billion Cars?

China could have one billion cars by mid-century--but what kind of vehicles will they be?

The Earth in 2010

What were the biggest environmental stories in 2010? David Biello reports

Vinod Khosla: Searching for the Radical Solution

Clean technology investor Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, talks with Scientific American editor Mark Fischetti about the energy payoffs to be had by reinventing mainstream technologies...