In addition to replacing the transmission, there are many other uses for our drives in a conventional gas powered automobile.
Automotive applications for the Rolowitz Drive are not by any means confined to the drive train. It may well be difficult and take a long time to persuade auto manufacturers to replace the automatic transmission with the Rolowitz Drive in any significant way. However there are several other applications in automobiles that may be easier to penetrate.
These applications benefit from an important feature of infinitely variable transmissions. We have mostly talked about accelerating loads to speed, and the energy saving benefits under these conditions. Another important ability of infinitely variable transmissions is that they can be used to keep a load rotating at the same speed (or faster) even when the motor driving it slows down.
Several subsystems of automobiles are served by pumps or other devices driven by the engine; these include the alternator, the water pump, the air conditioner, the vacuum system, power steering and power brakes. All of these systems have a common issue. When the engine is rotating faster they are driven faster, and when the engine is idling they are driven slower. This is the exact opposite of what is desirable. You need more power steering help when moving slower and less when moving faster. The cooling system is needed much more when moving in slow traffic, or idling, than when cruising at high speed, but when the engine is running at its slowest the cooling system is also slowed down.
The same applies to all of the system listed above. All of them are most needed when moving slowly, yet that is when they are least able to respond to the challenge. By adding a Rolowitz Drive to each of these systems, their speed could be made independent of that of the engine, which would result in a great improvement in their effectiveness. When scaled for these kinds of uses, the Rolowitz Drive would be extremely compact and inexpensive to build in quantity.
The best part of promoting these kinds of applications is that we would be selling to the makers of the subsystems, rather than the auto makers. The drive would be built into the alternator, and the water pump and so forth. The auto manufacturers would just be buying an improved subsystem, rather than signing on to a new technology. Also we could start out by approaching the aftermarket sellers.