Today, when I picked up the newspaper to read, I was shocked to see the oil prices. $137 per barrel?! . My goodness! Just the other day, the Union just hiked the prices of all oil commodities. And few days later, the oil prices go up again. If this trend continues, the oil prices will be, at a point, Rs. 100 a unit! So, isn’t it high time we do something about this unearthly rise in such an essential commodity?  The prediction of the scientists that there won’t be a drop of oil left within the next 50 years, at this point of time looks like a possibility. Or, the reserves may even be exhausted before that! So, after the next fifty years or so, what are our cars going to run on? Air?

Well, this just might be possible. Welcome people, to the world of alternative energy sources. Where, absolutely anything is possible. Well, all most anything. We have cars running on air, hydrogen, ethanol, electricity, or even the power of the good ‘ol California sun. We have bicycles charging your cell phone as you pedal. We have solar powered cars that can accelerate almost as fast as a Jag. In this world, we even have a platform for all future car projects. Guess what it’s called. It’s called a “Skateboard”. Funny as that might sound to you, it is already in R&D. And there are hundreds of car designers, working day and night, on developing ergonomic cars, which can perform and can also have a style statement. New engines. New designs. New processes. New fuels. Or at least, new mixtures of fuels. New cells. So many new things are in design. But, the challenge is the implementation.

The research going on presently is not using a wind tunnel. Believe it; it isn’t using a wind tunnel. What is does use, is a 3-D software, that let’s them input their designs and engine specifications, and it runs the input, in a virtual wind tunnel. And the designs, can be dynamically altered while the run is going on. The direction of the wind, the interaction of wind with the car, all can be viewed visually and dynamically. This, therefore, can avoid a costly process of crash testing, and wind tunneling. Every aspect of the cars, the air bags, the seat belts, everything can be tested beforehand of constructing a crash test car, which therefore makes R&D a more economical process.

Let’s pray people. Let’s pray that before our oil reserves go into red, we can afford to forget that we need oil.