FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 8, 1996

Contact: Robert Q. Riley
P.O. Box 14465
Scottsdale, AZ 852678-2294

Phone: 623-872-8010

AUTHOR OF "ALTERNATIVE CARS IN THE 21ST CENTURY"
TO SPEAK AT "WORLD CAR CONFERENCE ‘96"

Future Cars Will Be Lighter, Safer, and Cleaner

SCOTTSDALE - Robert Q. Riley, author of "Alternative Cars in the 21st Century: A New Personal Transportation Paradigm" (Society of Automotive Engineers, 1994), will speak at the Opening Plenary Session of the "World Car Conference ‘96" at the historic Mission Inn in downtown Riverside, California, on Monday, January 21.

The conference is sponsored by the University of California, Riverside’s College of Engineering - Center for Environmental Research and Technology. It is the West Coast’s most widely attended gathering of educators, policy makers, and auto industry planners and executives. Monday’s session is entitled: "The Vehicle of the Future: Integration of Safety, Fuel Economy and Emissions Standards Worldwide." Mr. Riley’s talk will focus on the most likely technologies for future cars, and how these new technologies will impact automobile safety.

"One of the most elementary ways to get better fuel economy and reduce emissions is to make cars lighter," said Riley. "And significantly lighter cars burn significantly less fuel. Lighter cars also turn out to be naturally less polluting because emissions are roughly proportional to the amount of energy (fuel) consumed. There is an almost intuitive relationship between weight, energy consumption, and pollution," said Riley.

A popular drawback to lighter cars is the widespread idea that lighter cars are more unsafe. Statistically, a correlation does exist between reduced vehicle weight and increased risk of harm. "But statistics also show that cars built today are four times safer than those built in 1969, and they are 10 percent smaller and 20 percent lighter," said Riley. "That’s because of better engineering and modern safety features. Any decrease in safety due to lighter weight can be countered by better design. Over the next 25 years, a new generation of intelligent transportation systems will revolutionize automobile safety and virtually eliminate crashes," said Riley.

"Smart restraint systems, devices that sense the weight and position of occupants and adjust airbag deployment or tighten seat belts just prior to a collision, will soon begin to show up on new cars. Looking farther out, say to 2005, we’ll begin to rely more on devices that warn drivers of unsafe conditions, such as making a lane change in front of another car, or when two cars are approaching an intersection on a collision course. By 2020, we’ll be able to avoid most automobile crashes with advanced systems that take control of the car and automatically brake or steer around an impending collision, " said Riley.

According to Riley, cars will become increasingly smaller on the outside without affecting interior room. This will be due to more power-intensive engines and compact powertrains that do not take up as much of the car. "Ultimately, the one-box design will prevail as the traditional hood and trunk projections are eliminated. In effect, the outside of the car will shrink around the passenger area until the hood and trunk projections entirely disappear," said Riley.

Robert Q. Riley is President of Robert Q. Riley Enterprises, LLC. , a product design and development consulting firm in Scottsdale, Arizona. More information on transportation, energy use, and the environment is available at Mr. Riley’s web site at: http://www.rqriley.com.

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