Car of the Future

NARRATOR: Eight hundred million cars. If you put them bumper to bumper, they'd circle the Earth about 100 times. That's how many cars are on the road today. They come in all shapes and colors, but have one thing in common.
DAVID L. GREENE (Oak Ridge National Laboratory): Our transportation system is almost entirely fueled by petroleum, more than 95 percent. A quarter of all the petroleum ever consumed in the history of the world was consumed in the last 10 years. So we're consuming it at an accelerating rate.
JOHN B. HEYWOOD (Sloan Automotive Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology): What is scary is that projections suggest that by 2050 there'll be two billion vehicles, two and a half times as many as there are today.
NARRATOR: Many experts agree there's an energy shortage and soaring gas prices looming in the future, not to mention, melting ice caps from global warming and national security threats from dependence on foreign oil.
TOM MAGLIOZZI (Automobile Mechanic/Co-Host, Car Talk): Can I change the station?
RAY MAGLIOZZI (Automobile Mechanic/Co-Host, Car Talk): No, you can't. This is important stuff.
TOM MAGLIOZZI: This is scaring me. I don't like it any more.
RAY MAGLIOZZI: Oh, come on. Don't be such a sissy.
NARRATOR: Two brothers have embarked on a quest.
TOM MAGLIOZZI: Where are we?
RAY MAGLIOZZI: I don't know. We're not in Kansas any more, I can tell you that.
NARRATOR: They want to find out what's being done right now that will keep our cars moving in the future.
RAY MAGLIOZZI: Stand back!
NARRATOR: They're testing new technology and alternative fuels, and they're getting behind the wheels of vehicles that might take us down a new and different road.
Join Click and Clack, the guys from Car Talk, on their search for the Car of the Future, right now on NOVA.PBS Airdate: April 22, 2008