THE END OF MECHANICAL ERA IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY

" Switching ourselves from fossil fuel era to hydrogen fuel era will be having technological hurdles, the difficulty of creating a new energy infrastructure will be money swallowing and mind boggling, but could provide health, environmental, climatic and economic benefits and reduce the reliance on diminishing oil supplies and to establish a perfect platform ".

Does vehicles conversion from gasoline to diesel advisable even with advanced emissions and particle control technologies?

This would actually increase photochemical smog. The reason is that even advanced diesel vehicles may emit more oxides of nitrogen than do gasoline-powered vehicles, and these oxides spur ozone production.

Companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel cell research with the ultimate goal of removing the auto from the environmental equation, because we believe the automobile leads the way to the hydrogen economy and a truly sustainable future.
HYDROGEN AS FUEL
A combination of electricity and internal combustion of gasoline, as in hybrid vehicles; hydrogen generated from wind electrolysis; hydrogen generated from natural gas; and hydrogen generated from coal gasification are the various forms of generation of hydrogen fuel.

While the production of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is undesirable, the process produces about 55 percent less carbon dioxide than the internal combustion.

ADVANCEMENT IN BATTERY STORAGE

Eliica Battery Electric Car with 370 km/h top speed and 200 km range…

Advances in lithium based battery technology, in large part driven by the consumer electronics industry, allow full sized, highway capable electric vehicles to be propelled as far on a single charge as conventional cars go on a single tank of gasoline. Lithium batteries have been made safe, can be recharged in minutes instead of hours, and now last longer than the typical vehicle.

Another improvement was to decouple the electric motor from the battery through electronic control while employing ultra-capacitors to buffer large but short power demands and recuperable braking energy.
FAST FORWARD
Innovators and dealmakers descend to soak up the hottest technologies that will blow minds, break barriers and fly off shelves in the years to come. By the implication of Robotics, Biometrics, Voice recognition devices, Audio networking solutions, Disposable technology, Nanotechnologies, Flexible computing devices and GPS etc will take automobile industry to the next dimension.
a deafening roaR
* As the fuel cell technology and usage of batteries has emerged with a roar, engines will be replaced in near future completely…

* Implication of fuel injection system in bikes has already ruled out the carburetors life…

* Robots have already overtaken the large part of assembling & manufacturing section long time ago…

* Steering systems will get replaced by joysticks/joy pad/remote control…etc

What's new now is that inexpensive semiconductors are available to provide the extraordinarily precise control of very large amounts of electric power, at very low cost, in very compact controllers.

The side stick, being tested by Mercedes-Benz, is part of a fully computer-controlled car handling system .

The transformation is already well under way in the car's peripheral systems. The belts and pulleys that drive water and oil pumps, and radiator cooling fans, are giving way to electric motors. The best brakes are already electro hydraulic, all electric brakes will follow. With electronic throttles, the gas pedal sends electrical instructions to a microprocessor that controls the fuel injection system electronically. Passive, reactive, energy dissipating springs and shock absorbers are being displaced by an active array of powerful linear motors that move wheels vertically as needed to maintain traction beneath and a smooth ride above.

And electric actuators will displace the steel camshaft on every valued engine. Put each valve under precise, direct, digital-electric control, actuated independently by its own compact electric motor open and close each valve as dictated by current engine temperature, terrain, load, and countless other variables and, in effect, you continuously retune the engine for peak performance. Belts, shafts, and chains melt away. Everything shrinks, everything gets lighter, and every aspect of performance improves dramatically.

Cheap in the Gearbox

This will set the stage for the last big step the one already taken in monster trucks. Silicon and electric power will knock out the entire gearbox, driveshaft, differential, and related hardware, electric drives powers the motors that turn the wheels. Power chips now make it possible to build high power motors the size of a coffee can, and prices are dropping fast. When such motors finally begin driving the wheels, the entire output of the engine will have to be converted immediately into electricity before it is distributed, used, or stored throughout the car. It will take heavy duty wiring and substantial silicon drives and electric motors to propel a hybrid electric sport utility vehicle down a highway at 70 mph but they'll be far smaller than the steel structures in today's power train. Cars will shed many hundreds of pounds, and every key aspect of performance will improve considerably.
CONCLUSION:
The era of Draftsmen came to an end by the introduction of software’s like AUTO CADD, PRO-E, ANSYS, CATIA, SOLIDEDGE etc…

In the same way there will be no need of people who are specialized in engines, steering mechanisms, carburetors and other systems which is gonna be outta f no where… We are currently studying systems which are going to be outdated in near future…everything is gonna be ruled by pre programmed microchips… simply just as your PC… so what will we(the present generation of mechanical engineers) do by having such outdated shit in our syllabi...

So what will be the future of mechanical engineers in the automobile industry as mechanical era is getting converted into electronics era???

NOTE: I went through various websites for my analysis purpose on this topic. The points which i thought would add spice to this post were included in various parts of this post.