Electric cars, self-driving cars – where is auto industry going?

By Alana Norris

As executive director of the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies, Bharat Balasubramanian is tasked with envisioning the future of the automobile. Speaking at Birmingham’s 10th annual Southern Automotive Conference today, Balasubramanian presented an amusing “news story” from the year 2037 to show how auto technology may evolve over the next two decades. The story deals with a rare auto accident on Interstate 20 near Tuscaloosa between two vehicles, which both drove themselves to the sheriff’s office to report the accident. Both vehicles provided differing versions of how the accident happened – one in super sports driving mode, the other downloading new song software and possibly distracted. However, both car owners were asleep during the accident and uninjured.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became one of the first five universities in the nation to offer engineering classes. Today, UA’s College of Engineering has more than 5,200 students and more than 170 faculty. In recent years, students in the College have been named USA Today All-USA College Academic Team members, Goldwater, Hollings, Portz, Boren, Mitchell and Truman scholars.


Author: Alana Norris    /    Posted on: October 7, 2017    /    Posted in:   Center for Advanced Vehicle Technologies, Faculty and Staff, In The News, Research    /    Features: