Google’s latest project brings plastics to the forefront, literally. According to a recent article on Plastics News, the Google self driving car project is designing small, two-person vehicles that are “fully autonomous.” The cars come sans steering wheels, gas and brake pedals, and they produce no gas fumes.
The car is built on a foam base and has a plastic windshield that provides impact resistance and safety features for low-speed collisions. Its top speed is currently limited to 25 miles per hour, which provides an added level of safety.
Google’s material selection follows a growing trend of using light-weight, high performance materials such as aluminum and composites, as noted in the article, “Ford using plastics, composites and aluminum to lighten up the Fusion,” also from Plastics News. Some of the changes and “lightweighting” methods noted here are: “carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for seats, instrument panel, wheels and oil pan, and aluminum for sheet metal, brake rotors and front subframe.”
If the idea of self-driving, plastic cars doesn’t seem too far-fetched, what if your next car had it’s roots in the garden? Researchers from H.J. Heinz Co. and Ford Motor Co. are studying the possibility of using tomatoes to make plastic parts for cars, as described in this article from cnet.com. In 2011, Heinz started packaging ketchup in the PlantBottle, a plastic container made with 30 percent plant material that was developed by Coca-Cola Co. Plant fibers have been used as a reinforcing agent in composite plastics for a few years now in an effort to become less reliant on petroleum.
What other applications are you looking to “lightweight”?
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