Your Fort Collins auto shop is always watching for new tech and upcoming trends. They stay on top of changing technology in order to keep current with auto repair and maintenance, as well as keep auto technicians up to date and ready to fix anything that comes in to the shop.
Since the first mechanized transit was developed, inventors, writers and techies have been imagining more ways to move us around with greater innovation, precision and speed. Leonardo daVinci was great at this, coming up with ideas for numerous inventions which would allow humankind to travel mechanically.
According to Stuff Of Genius:
Da Vinci’s designs were spectacularly ahead of his time. If they had been built, they might have revolutionized the history of technology, though many of them may have been impossible to build with the tools available in the 15th and 16th centuries. In recent years, however, engineers have begun to construct models of da Vinci’s amazing machines and most of them actually work.
Leonardo da Vinci came up with the first known concept for several inventions, although none of them were realized in his day. These include:
- The ball bearing (ball bearings allow drive shafts to rotate).
- The parachute.
- The Ornithopter (a sort of combination between a hang glider and a very small plane).
- The Machine gun, sort of. Da Vinci’s machine gun was actually several guns placed together to allow multiple firings of bullets. He wasn’t a fan of war, but thought this particular idea, if realized, could make him some money from wealthy patrons.
- Diving suits.
- Armored tank.
- Self propelled cart, or the very first car. He imagined it as a toy, but future inventors took the self propelled moving cart, or automobile much further. Hence, our need for speed today.
- Futuristic City emphasizing sanitation and comfortable living and working space. His utopian concept is similar to what many modern cities have today: clean water, waste removal, and adequate living space. His primary concern was to combat disease, which was rampant during his time.
- Helicopter, also known as the flying pinwheel and the aerial screw.
- Robot. A robotic knight, or warrior actually. Think Terminator.
Your local auto shop may not contain inventors, but it is staffed with people who know and understand modern cars. Your auto technician, unlike da Vinci, has the tools and tech to build some of these things if they really wanted to, but they focus on repair and maintenance.
Our vehicles are becoming more computerized with each model year, allowing not only better safety for the driver, but better mechanical performance from any given vehicle. On board computers engage in diagnostics, and even smartphone apps help car owners identify what that awful noise or dash light likely indicates. With technology continually evolving, your local auto shop makes a point of not only staying current with contemporary changes in car manufacturing and repair, but eagerly watches for future technology.
Self Driving Cars
Trains and other mass transportation do it, even planes have auto pilot computerization and mechanization, how about cars? Google already has a prototype. Nissan announced it will have a self driving car on the market by 2020. Self driving cars are coming, it’s just a matter of new infrastructure and customer acceptance. Your grandchildren may have vehicles they jump into in the morning and just sit in while on their way. Self driving cars are important not only for convenience, but safety. With driver error eliminated, the high rate of traffic accidents would decrease dramatically.
Your autonomous car could even drive itself to your local auto shop for its regular maintenance check, how about that!
Networked Cars
These are small vehicles, currently known as pods, that will be available to anyone for use. A homogenization of a taxi and public transportation, these small electric calls will be available for anyone needing transportation. The idea behind them is not only convenience, but reduced traffic congestion as well as a reduction in carbon emissions from gasoline powered vehicles. They would be especially beneficial for people who can’t drive, like the visually disabled, children, and the elderly. GM has already developed a two seater electric driverless car that receives orders and input via a wireless network. They anticipate testing this car, the EN-V, in major cities by 2020.
Flying Cars
Wings? DaVinci would love this. Flying cars as a concept have been around for a very long time, and numerous inventors and designers have come up with several ways to make them not only a reality, but viable. Way back in 1917 the first known flying car was built. Succesful? Not so much. Flying cars are still predominantly in various stages of conceptualization, so your auto technician won’t be working on any of these in the foreseeable future. But who knows, maybe your great grandchildren will zoom above the cities on their way to work.
Whatever new tech in automobiles comes along, your auto technicians will be ready for it. We hope you will be as well!