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The Automotive Sector: Future Challenges and Opportunities

Daniel Roos '61, SM '63, PhD '66

Future Automotive Technology and Fuels: The Options and Their Impacts

John B. Heywood SM '62, PhD '65: June 5, 2004; Running Time: 1:16:41

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

The Automotive Sector: Future Challenges and Opportunities

We pay a stiff price for our car addiction. Daniel Roos starts with the plight of American auto manufacturers, whose market share is dropping and whose plants close as foreign makers move to the U.S. They are victims of their own overproduction. Roos recommends a build-to-order system to reduce inefficiencies. What happens when too many people drive too many cars? The Chinese, recent converts to combustion, boast 24 million vehicles and a tragic, new statistic: 107 thousand auto fatalities, more than twice as many as in the U.S. Some measures for car-clotted areas may be high occupancy toll lanes (aka Lexus Lanes), where solo drivers pay more for less trafficked roads; fees for entering densely traveled urban areas; and computer-run, intelligent transportation systems.

Future Automotive Technology and Fuels: The Options and Their Impacts

While "too many of us use too much stuff too often," says John Heywood, cars may prove the worst commodity of all. They are responsible for a steady degradation of the ecosystem, from greenhouse emissions to biodiversity loss. What's worse, even if we improve vehicle efficiency, turn to fuel hybrids such as the Prius, or make rapid advances in hydrogen-based fuel technologies, the scale for slowing down the degradation may run to the decades. We have 130 million cars on U.S. roads right now, and add 15 million more each year. "Turning the curve won't be easy," says Heywood. "Human beings simply won't do as much as they can." Recommendations: an integrated policy approach, including better mileage standards and a stiff gasoline tax.

Lecture Details

Location: Kresge Auditorium

About the Speakers

Daniel Roos '61, SM '63, PhD '66

Japan Steel Industry Professor of Engineering Systems and Civil and Environmental Engineering

Daniel Roos became the founding Director of the Engineering Systems Division in 1998. Previously, he was Director of the Center for Transportation Studies, and Director of the Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development. Roos serves as Founding Director of the International Motor Vehicle Program and as Director of the Cooperative Mobility Program. He is co-author of The Machine That Changed the World, which has been published in 11 languages and has sold more than 600,000 copies.

John B. Heywood SM '62, PhD '65

Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering Director, Sloan Automotive Laboratory Co-Director, Lab for 21st Century Energy

Heywood has authored or co-authored 171 publications in journals and conference proceedings, in such areas as automotive technology; energy and transportation, air pollution and combustion.

He started at MIT in 1968 and became director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory in 1972. He was co-director of the Leaders for Manufacturing Program from 1991-1993. He was appointed co-director of the Ford-MIT Alliance in 2003. He received a B.A. from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. from MIT. He is a member of the National Academy of engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

About the Host