The
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| Cradle chairs and 3D bird's eye nav system are amongst the highlightsin this ultra-cool lounge-like interior. (Photo: American Honda) |
interior is also spacious, and pretty spacey, too, like it might be an interior set left over from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clean, wide-open surfaces in light colors picked out with organic shapes and optical illusion floor surfaces, with cradling chairs and integrated unseen technology. One feature that blew me away when I saw it in action at the Detroit show was the nav system, which renders in full 3D, tilting down to street-level perspective for upcoming turns, then floating up overhead for long straights. Apologies to Honda's show stand people who had to wipe down all the fogged up windows as I had my face pressed to the glass to get a better look. Another feature that stood out from the press release are sensors that detect eye movement to specific menu icons, and then activate the switches accordingly, for truly hands-free and silent operation of onboard functions.
I also really like the 'living' room they have the FCX parked in front in
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| Sleek car, sleek refilling system. Heck, sleek chair and speaker system too. (Photo: American Honda) |
one of the press photos, with one chair, a stand-up CD player and stand-up speaker with a shiny reflective floor, bare white walls [the future, where white is the new color], and a super-panoramic seamless window, outside of which is parked the FCX, right by its home hydrogen-generation refueling station.
And
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| HES - your own private gas station. Unfortunately, it's only available in 'self serve'. (Photo: American Honda) |
that brings me to the last item relating to this revolutionary concept: Honda's Home Energy Station (HES). The HES is an all purpose energy station for home and vehicle energy needs. When fed a steady diet of natural gas (which, at the molecular level, consists mostly of carbon and hydrogen) that is readily available in most residences, the HES converts the gas to straight hydrogen. The hydrogen is then stored for future use, piped into your hydrogen-powered car, or used by the HES for its own set of fuel cells to generate electricity for the home. The system not only reduces carbon dioxide emissions by some 40 percent, it also is expected to lower the total running cost of household electricity, gas and vehicle fuel by 50 percent. Who wouldn't want to save 50 percent on their gas bill? [Crazy people, that's who, and maybe the guy that who just bought Exxon stock, and probably the Saud family!]
That just about wraps up the FCX news. As I mentioned earlier, it
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| Ribbed aluminum floor. Much more intersting than carpet, or even carbon fiber. (Photo: American Honda) |
won't be hitting North American shores any time soon, but it is definite progress, and the Home Energy Station is a great solution to the lack of hydrogen fuel stations to refill hydrogen cars of the future. I doubt the concept could be patented, only the specific technology in it, so any company selling hydrogen cars can sell its own stations if they develop their own technology or through partnerships with home energy suppliers. Prices will be stratospheric to begin with, but that doesn't come close to how much Honda, and other companies intensively researching hydrogen fuel cells (GM, Ford and BMW come immediately to mind, not to mention Ballard), have invested in this technology. And when the time comes, they will be poised to make a killing as the leaders in the hydrogen race, just as Toyota is ahead of the pack with hybrids, and when that happens, the other car companies that lag behind will be feeling, well, green with envy.
