Imagine cars that drive 250 miles without refueling, lack pedals and have removable frames to protect against winter’s rust. It may sound like a fantasy now, but General Motors could put such a car in driveways within ten years.
Christopher Borroni-Bird, director of design and technology fusion at General Motors, teased imaginations with his Friday lecture on GM’s new fuel cell automobiles, called AUTOnomy and Hy-Wire. His lecture was sponsored by Northwestern’s Institute for Design Engineering and Applications department in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.
With AUTOnomy and Hy-Wire, GM hopes to make fuel cell technology less costly and more accessible to the automobile consumer by molding hydrogen fuel cells into a car’s frame, Borroni-Bird told the audience.
NU professors and students thought of their future as they learned of the new innovations.
“We want to become a leader in this,” said computer science Prof. Don Norman. “That’s why we established (the design institute), and that’s why we brought GM (to campus).”
Borroni-Bird, a graduate of Cambridge University who did his post-graduate work on physics and fuel cell technology at the University of Tokyo, described the differences between GM’s two projects.
First introduced at the Detroit Auto Show, AUTOnomy created a buzz with its unique design that allows the vehicle to function without an engine. Borroni-Bird said GM hopes to unveil the car within the next five to 10 years.
Hy-Wire, on the other hand, already has been test-driven and claims to be the world’s first fuel cell vehicle, Borroni-Bird said. It also has no engine and uses drive-by-wire technology to accelerate without the use of pedals. In addition, Hy-Wire boasts a frame that can separate from the rest of the car.
“Up to this point, fuel cell vehicles have been shoe-horned, with the internal combustion engine taken out being more of an environmental statement than anything else,” he said.
The Design and Technology Fusion Department at General Motors hopes its vehicles can be more than just eco-friendly.
The ultimate goal is to make fuel cell vehicles affordable to everyone, Borroni-Bird said.
But he also maintained that the process of commercializing fuel cell technology is far from complete. The Hy-Wire model still is limited in function, far from cost-effective and doesn’t meet the safety requirements required for sale, Borroni-Bird said.
“We still have to meet federal standards for safety — you can’t put a paper bag over a skateboard,” he said.
Although some of the professors, graduate students and undergraduates who came to hear the lecture gave suggestions on how to make fuel cell cars a reality, others were content just to learn about the new technology.
“This is actually why I came to Northwestern,” said Cody Hansen, a McCormick freshman. “I want to work for GM in the future and help develop this type of technology.”
