AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS RACE INTO FUTURE

While whizzing around in a small aircraft like George Jetson isn't in our near future, the advancement of technology will change the way we go from A to B.

Many changes drivers will see will be alternative fuel and power sources, but we will also see many automated devices that will shift the responsibility of driving more from the driver to the computer that controls the car.

Sensors are already being placed in the front and rear bumpers of cars that can tell the driver when he is too close to an object or is about to crash, said Bob Neff at Ford Groves.

These sensors are also being tested with a computerized highway in southern California.

The highway has transmitters every few feet that are in constant communication with vehicles traveling that highway.

The sensors on the front and rear bumper pick up the transmissions and keep the computerized car driving safely and in conjunction with thousands of other cars on the same freeway.

This is only in the testing stage, but someday the technology may be here, and we can enjoy hands off driving.

Neff said car lots of the future may not have to have as many models at the lot because car manufacturers are working to shorten the time it takes to deliver an ordered vehicle.

Ford's Project 2000 has a goal of two to three weeks delivery time for a vehicle that has been ordered instead of the eight-week wait of today, Neff said.

Jerry Wieser of Wieser Honda said that Honda is beginning to sell an electric car and a car powered by natural gas that may someday take the place of gasoline-powered cars.

Wieser and Neff agree electric cars have a long way to go.

Neff said one problem with electric cars is the expense. You can get a $30,000 electric car that can only run so long before it needs to be charged or you can buy a gasoline-powered car for $12,000 and not have to worry about charging it up.

Wieser thinks electric cars will get better, but hybrid electric cars may be the way of the future.

A hybrid electric car is a car that has another fuel source that powers a generator that in turn keeps the battery charged.

But Wieser is more excited about the natural gas-consuming Honda that will be on the market in the spring.

These cars will run just like gasoline-powered cars except they use natural gas, much like the cars and trucks that have been converted to propane gas for fuel, Wieser said.

The benefits of natural gas are many, its cheaper, it burns cleaner and it is an abundant resource that is constantly being produced in nature.

Other improvements will involve security features. Neff said that voice activated door locks and ignition switches could be a thing of the future.

How people buy cars is constantly changing, and Wieser and Neff think the trend will continue.

Neff said there will be more secondary financing markets opening up to offer more opportunities to people with blemished credit.

Wieser thinks there will be more cars leased and more new-purchase plans available to the customer.

But Wieser said pride of ownership will keep leasing from taking the place of buying a car outright.

"There will be more trucks than cars in the future," Neff said.

Another future characteristic of automobiles will be a feature in some of the new Ford concept cars where the instrumentation is projected onto the windshield in front of the driver in a way that the driver can see the road and his instrumentation at the same time.