Why 122 years later are we still....?

Question

using the same type of internal-combustion, gasoline powered engine?

Why do we not have anything better? We have electronic mail, space shuttles, cell phones etc but we still have to use gas to power our cars?

Answer 1

Because the oil companies are too powerful

Answer 2

To this point in the game, it has been such a cheap method of transportation and the advances in fuel economy (while not so astounding compared to hybrid statistic claims and electric cars and such) have made gas-powered cars just really cheap and easy.  

There hadn't really been much interest/need to move onto the better technologies that are out there/yet to be discovered.

Answer 3

In the beginning, steam, electric and internal-combustion engines were all on equal footing.  Electric cars soon dropped out because batteries couldn't store enough energy.  Steam cars disappeared because they took too long to start and used too much fuel.  Internal-combustion piston engines won out because they are light, efficient and easy to manufacture.  50 years ago automotive gas turbines were thought to be the next step, but they turned out to be fuel-hungry and not as flexible as piston engines.  Recent development of micro-turbines for cruise missiles and a new generation of small jets may eventually result in  practical automotive turbines - but don't hold your breath!

Answer 4

I was having a drink the other day listening to two guys griping about how gasoline was $3 a gallon.  In the 45 minutes they were there, they drank about 4 $3 beers each and a girlfriend showed up and drank 2 $6 glasses of wine.  

They were in no condition to drive. But they got more miles per gallon from gasoline at $3 a gallon than 12 ounces of beer at $3.  They consumed drinks that would have gotten them 12 gallons of fuel, which in my Jetta diesel is enough to go 480 miles.

I guess $3 a gallon gasoline is a good thing if people decide to change consumption habots and perhaps buy more fuel efficient vehicles. But the irony was almost too much to bear.

Answer 5

Cause progress is slow! I learned the other day that you have a better chance of becoming a pro basket ball player than a Vehicle Enginere. The field is so small and so tightly knit and so HARD to get into that there are just too few people to design the cars we need taht use the fuel we need and at the same time keeping it cost effective. In the not-too-distant future, I think we'll start seeing more electric vehicles and even hybrids and fewer and fewer internal-combustion engines.

Answer 6

thats a very good ?

Answer 7

Speaking for me personally, I would not consider using anything different than a combustion engine as long as I can avoid it. To me it is important to have gasoline powered engines because the loud engine noise and the aromatic blue haze coming from the exhaust pipe are important parts of the fun in motors. I think many people share my view, especially in motorsports events where the smell is just a very big factor of the fascination. The blue fumes and their stinging scent are something I could not do without, even if there were equivalent alternatives - I would never consider stopping to burn fossil fuels, because it's what I love to do and it makes me feel good!

Answer 8

Because even $3/gallon is still relatively cheap for what it lets us do.  And car companies until now were in no hurry to pursue anything besides what they knew worked as was reliable: gasoline powered internal combustion engines.

Answer 9

Because we have lost all of those adventurous entrepreneur, inventors willing to take a risk and make something new.

All the bright guys are waiting around with their hands out wanting the Government to steal from me and give it to them before they will take a chance.

Or they tried and big business bought them or their invention or more evil things.

thanks for asking

Answer 10

When someone invents a cost effective, satisfactory replacement, we'll be happy to get on board. Untill then even hybrids are a lot of hype. It's about profitability, right now the alternatives are not attractive enough to the majority of consumers. I like my 30 -40 mpg Mini Cooper. Most people still want a 15 mpg SUV.

Answer 11

We've built our entire transportation infrastructure around the internal combustion engine, so it's hard to switch to something else without a lot of risky investment. It's only in the last couple of years that we have begun to be concerned about gas prices. We will have something better when the price of gas is so high, other alternatives are cheaper. We may be almost there already.

Answer 12

One of the above users got close to what I think is the correct answer. We use internal-combustion engines simply because we haven't found a source of energy more efficient and abundant than hydrocarbon fuels. The story of the past hundred years would have been very, very different if there were no oil for us to use. We would quickly have run out of cheap, non-polluting fuels and the progress of industry would have been much slower. Since oil continues to be relatively cheap, no competitor has yet emerged to replace it, perhaps because research into alternatives has stagnated in the absence of a pressing need (environmental considerations aside).

A development that would probably rapidly result in the replacement of internal combustion engines would be the invention of a light, safe, long-lasting and easily charged battery. Electric motors are much better than gas ones - quieter, more efficient, more powerful. But there's nothing to run them. While that problem persists, we're stuck with internal combustion.

Answer 13

Because the oil companies and car companies are a multi-billion Industry and are partners. Why will they want to switch to something else, if there making a ton of money on the internal combustion engine. Day don't care about the Environment, as long as there making money. The oil and car company's are evil.

Answer 14

The simple answer is no one has invented anything better yet.  If they had, and it was affordable, we would be using it.  Remember, lots of things we use today were invented thousands of years ago.  Paper, fire, steel, bread, wine, many types of explosives . . . all invented hundreds or thousands of years ago.  I wish someone would come up with plastic that was more biodegradable, but plastic is a relatively recent invention also.  I think using oil for fuel is unnatural and a threat to the human race . . . but the fact is the things we've accomplished would hardly have been feasible without an abundance of cheap energy.  Now we have to deal with the consequences, and I think that's going to be a major problem future generations will face.  That is, if the whole situation doesn't come to a head before then.  The best case would be that the population would gradually decline and the majority of people would peacefully go back to farming and using animal power.  The worst case is a series of bloody wars before people realize that fossil fuels were a way to cheat and get out of the simple way of life.  Good night!