Overview
A technical policy report surveying emerging automotive technologies, their engineering characteristics, economic implications, and potential effects on transportation.
This title is catalogued in Science, Space & Engineering. Its reading profile is Long and Advanced, with themes including automotive technology, transport, policy, engineering, science.
One-Page Summary
Advanced Automotive Technology examines how changes in vehicle technology could affect fuel use, emissions, safety, manufacturing, costs, and the wider transportation system. Produced by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, it approaches automobiles as a technological and policy problem rather than simply as consumer products. The report considers ways vehicles could become more efficient through improvements in engines, alternative fuels, materials, aerodynamics, and other technologies, while also confronting the trade-offs that determine whether a technically possible improvement can actually reach the market.
A more efficient engine may cost more; a lighter vehicle may raise safety questions; a new fuel may require infrastructure; a promising technology may take years to scale. The book’s value lies in making those interactions visible. Automotive innovation does not happen inside a laboratory alone. It depends on manufacturing capacity, fuel systems, consumer demand, regulation, economics, and the time required to replace an enormous existing vehicle fleet. The report therefore reads as a snapshot of technological decision-making at a moment when policymakers were trying to anticipate how the automobile might evolve.
Some specific technologies and forecasts belong to their historical period, but the framework remains useful. It teaches the reader to ask not merely “Can engineers build this?” but “What would have to change for millions of people to actually use it?” The result is a detailed look at the automobile as a system in which engineering, economics, environmental concerns, and public policy continually constrain one another.
Key Themes
Automotive technology: This title is tagged with automotive technology as one of its main themes.
Transport: This title is tagged with transport as one of its main themes.
Policy: This title is tagged with policy as one of its main themes.
Engineering: This title is tagged with engineering as one of its main themes.
Science: This title is tagged with science as one of its main themes.
Technology: This title is tagged with technology as one of its main themes.