Motorauthority.com reports that Chrysler will be teaming up with NASA to engineer the cars of tomorrow. The three-year partnership, announced on Tuesday, April 13, will explore the merger of advanced technologies. Areas on the “to do” list include battery systems, robotics, radar, and advanced materials use.
So what will NASA get out of the deal? A better sense of how to build vehicles for use in other environments. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen crossover development between the two industries. In 1961, Chrysler engineers worked with NASA to build the Redstone rockets used in the Mercury Project.
That resulted in the first American being launched into space and was followed by a similar collaboration on the first two Apollo capsules to orbit the planet. Chrysler continued to work with the space agency through the Saturn rocket series used into the early 1970s.
The likely results of the latest collaboration for the car maker will be more fuel efficient and potentially lighter vehicles. Hybrid technology, which depends on advanced battery technology will definitely be a focus, as will the increasing push to make cars more actively intelligent.
Systems already exist to give vehicles night vision, with data displays embedded in the windshield. Blind spot monitoring via camera feeds to dash mounted displays have become increasingly common, as have computers to automatically brake under hazardous conditions or those that monitor passing in heavy traffic.
Any technology that raises a car’s efficiency rating and safety performance will have a corollary influence on insurance rates. Discounts for hybrid drivers are becoming an industry standard, with new price cuts sure to emerge for vehicle monitoring and automation systems. Automotive technology is rapidly moving toward a new generation of smarter cars — smarter insurance coverage will, by necessity, have to follow.