New Concept Tire Could Recharge Car Battery 221
randomErr writes Goodyear Tire showed off its new BH03 tire that can partially recharge your electric car while driving. At the 2015 Geneva International Motor Show a new concept tire was displayed that uses heat generated while driving and converts the thermal energy to electrical power. The triple inner tube design changes pressure to maximize electrical output while adjusting to the road conditions.
Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Funny)
The friction from the road generates heat, which is converted by the tire back to electricity, which runs the car!
The faster you go, the better the mileage you get! In fact, cars like these can achieve near-infinite mileage! (YMMV.)
What's not to like?
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Insightful)
exactly
it's better to decrease inefficiencies in a simplified system than devise complex add-on contraptions that purport to recycle lost energy, but it's so fractional, it doesn't even make up for it's own extra weight, it's own extra cost, it's own extra maintenance
it stinks of rube goldberg perpetual motion machine
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Funny)
Or its own extra apostrophes.
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Funny)
apostrophe technology will recycle 20-30% of cognitive entropy in the existing forum
instead of babbling in incoherent monotone, the insertion of slight pauses allows the speaker to catch their breath, and listeners to reflect on the last statement
do not be fooled by cheap knock offs like semicolon, ellipsis, and hyphen- only our quality controlled and 5 sigma patented apostrophes, at a reasonable price, give you the rhetorical power, you want, and deserve
we do not condone overuse of our technology. apostrophe abuse such as by christopher walken and william shatner leads to rhetorical inversion, in which cognitive entropy is decreased only at the cost of increase in camp, a dangerous failure of influence
test drive your own apostrophe, today
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just Goodyear seeing that a bunch of people are gullible* enough to buy electric cars and hybrids. This gets them a piece of the action.
* They might not be gullible, but instead they believe that they are doing something for the environment or feel a need to appear so. Or maybe they are tired of their hard-earned dollars flowing towards hostile foreign regimes.
Re: (Score:2)
you got it: feel good PR "technology." the gadget doesn't matter, appearances do. it makes people feel good about the company, without actually doing anything truly substantial about the topic
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Electric and hybrid cars are better for the environment, and they already employ technology to charge the batteries with energy that would otherwise be wasted as heat (for example, the braking systems.)
It is not outrageous to explore ways of capturing energy from the flexing of the tires that also would otherwise be wasted as heat. As I see it, the challenge for Goodyear would be to show that the process is efficient enough to be worth adding to the tire design.
Re: (Score:2)
Electric and hybrid cars are better for the environment, and they already employ technology to charge the batteries with energy that would otherwise be wasted as heat (for example, the braking systems.)
It is not outrageous to explore ways of capturing energy from the flexing of the tires that also would otherwise be wasted as heat. As I see it, the challenge for Goodyear would be to show that the process is efficient enough to be worth adding to the tire design.
Electric and hybrid cars are only better for the environment when they aren't coal powered. Electric and hybrid sports cars and SUVs are obviously not very good for the environment as say a lighter more moderately powered car that will do the job adequately.
http://shrinkthatfootprint.com... [shrinkthatfootprint.com] this site is very very pro electric so if anything they are likely bias toward electrics. However in India and China a regular gas automobile pollutes less CO2/mile than an electric. In the USA it takes a fuel eff
Re: (Score:2)
USA: 202 grams CO2 equivalent per km. According to EIA, burning a gallon of CO2 produces 19.6 pounds of carbon dioxide. (8890 grams). So to equal the electric car you'd have to get at least (8890 gCO2/gal) / (202 gCO2/km) = 44 km/gal. That's 27 miles per gallon, which is in the mid range for passenger cars. My all wheel drive Subaru gets that, so I'm doing as well for pollution as driving an electric car.
I'd do better to drive a hybrid, such as a Prius. That gets 48 miles per gallon which is a little
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What diesel car gets close to 50 MPG?
Re: (Score:2)
http://m.caranddriver.com/reviews/2014-audi-a6-a7-tdi-first-drive-review
Also these:
http://blog.caranddriver.com/the-10-most-fuel-efficient-gas-and-diesel-cars-for-sale-today/
many get over 40 freeway and some get well over 30 city. Note that these are American style cars and not the better performing smaller European models.
No, an EV is still better. (Score:2)
You may be doing as well on average right now, assuming you're in an area that matches the average in terms of mass generation emissions, but one of the key advantages of an EV is that because it takes its power from the mass generation system after conversion, it is 100% fuel-agnostic. It doesn't know, and it doesn't care. In an area that is generating power from hydro, for instance (as is the case wher
Re: (Score:2)
It is not outrageous to explore ways of capturing energy from the flexing of the tires that also would otherwise be wasted as heat.
You are right, but after 10 minutes of scribbling basic thermodynamic equations down on paper and realizing how little energy is available for recovery, any further effort is outrageous. That Goodyear mentioned this at all would be outrageous, except that there is a demonstrated market for people who care little about the economics of certain car technologies. The system will quite obviously never pay for itself, but perhaps there are people who would pay to save some fraction of a percent of energy for phi
Re: (Score:3)
Exactly. You lose the least energy to the tires when you simply run them at nominal inflation pressure. So measure the amount of electricity from the battery while running a defined course and speed with conventional tires at their specified pressure. Then replace the conventional tires and do the same thing again with your high-tech electricity-producing tires. How many amp-hours did you save? Enough to eventually pay for the tires?
If I had to bet, I'd bet that they cause a net loss of energy by allow
Re: (Score:2)
Goodyear does not specify typical power output of these tires. But let's say your tesla model S gives 300 miles/charge and adding these tires gives you a 330 to 360 mile range. Also, and more importantly, since you're running the car directly off a power source (tires), for 10%-20% of the distance, you're increasing battery life by not constantly charging/recharging
Re: (Score:2)
You are more likely to get less than 3 extra miles, if that.
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Insightful)
we'll have flying cars when
1. it is energetically manageable, so fusion
2. taking off and landing is easy, which both helicopters and airplanes, existing technology, make complicated dangerous and noisy, so a new kind of engine
3. there is coordination with other flying cars, which means centrally controlled/ effortlessly intercommunicating AI, because people would just fucking crash into each other all the time
Re: (Score:2)
Takeoff and landing are easy to the point where a computer can do it. You don't have to have any human interaction at all in those events. Many aircraft are already capable of automatic landing.
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Takeoff and landing are easy to the point where a computer can do it. You don't have to have any human interaction at all in those events. Many aircraft are already capable of automatic landing.
That's exactly what the crew of Asiana thought when they landed at SFO :)
You will still need a pilot who understands aviation in case the computer fails.
Re: (Score:2)
airplanes are loud and need a long runway
helicopters are extremely loud and have blades that cannot touch a single thing or instant explosive cuisinart
do you have a solution for every suburban house needing a giant runway or a meticulously clear landing pad, and to only have deaf neighbors?
sorry: you need a new kind of engine. quiet, safe, small, convenient: capable of vertical take off and landing
Re: (Score:2)
The clear landing pad can be solved. You just paint the landing pad with a detailed pattern. This serves both as an alignment marker when landing, and an obstruction detector: Any break in the pattern indicates something on the pad, and landing can be aborted. You might need to land at a neighbors pad and ask his forgiveness while you clear your own and curse the delivery people who dumped their parcels there.
Still doesn't solve the issue of noise or power though, so it isn't practical. Without those solved
Re: (Score:2)
exactly
they need to use these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... [wikipedia.org]
to modify the engine like this:
http://electronics.howstuffwor... [howstuffworks.com]
or do away with blades altogether, say some sort of instant one of these (i'm not saying this is easy or even possible):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R... [wikipedia.org]
Ramjets cannot produce thrust at zero airspeed; they cannot move an aircraft from a standstill.
well then figure it out damnit!
Re: (Score:2)
Takeoff and landing are easy to the point where a computer can do it.
That is only done by fixed wing aircraft on ILS runways that guide to aircraft down a predetermined glide slope. It can not be done on most small airports. I also do not think it has ever been done in a helicopter. Flying cars would need to take off and land anywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
cloud cities
on venus
Re: (Score:2)
Has anyone asked Venus about this? Because last I heard, she didn't even like it if you touched her g-string.
Re: (Score:2)
good point. yet another reason this technology is a joke
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Interesting)
Unless your destination is higher than the place you started, every single bit of energy used for driving is waste. So you can get arbitrarily close to zero expenditure.
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless your destination is higher than the place you started, every single bit of energy used for driving is waste. So you can get arbitrarily close to zero expenditure.
Myself, I prefer to ride a spherical horse in simple harmonic motion on a frictionless plane. It gets me where I need to go with zero energy expenditure. Traveling through the perfect classical vacuum is somewhat unpleasant though. The key insight though was the spherical horse, because normally there would be inevitable losses due to friction when compressing the hooves, even steel wheels like on trains have rolling friction from their compression.
Re: (Score:2)
Have you considers just using perfectly elastic horseshoes?
Re: (Score:2)
Eureka!
We've succeeded in making the world's first perpetual motion machine!!!
Re:Just recycle the energy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Tires actually get more efficient as they get hot. You don't want to be cooling your tires. Heat raises the internal pressure and it makes the rubber more flexible, both of which reduce rolling losses. Really, really stupid idea, taking the heat away for a tiny bit of thermoelectric power.
That said, the OTHER tire mentioned in the article - the concept multitube tire that can change its drive characteristics based on conditions - actually could be a major improvement if paired with a smart control system. If you could have a tire that runs on 100 PSI in smooth, high traction conditions, but can have you riding on super sticky studded rubber in bad conditions / cornering / high accel / decel, gives you the best of all worlds - a tiny rolling drag coefficient most of the time but high safety right when it's needed. Rolling losses are the largest loss factor for in-city driving and make up about a quarter to a third of highway losses, so the ability to dramatically reduce them means no small gain for vehicle efficiency.
Re: (Score:2)
"Tires actually get more efficient as they get hot. You don't want to be cooling your tires. Heat raises the internal pressure and it makes the rubber more flexible, both of which reduce rolling losses. "
If tires get too hot then they wear out quicker, and you will lose traction, and have to box and change them.
Re: (Score:3)
Tires actually get more efficient as they get hot. You don't want to be cooling your tires. Heat raises the internal pressure and it makes the rubber more flexible, both of which reduce rolling losses. Really, really stupid idea, taking the heat away for a tiny bit of thermoelectric power.
Tyres get hot under normal operation, so tyre manufacturers create rubber compounds that perform best at the expected operating temperature. If for whatever reason this operational temperature was known to be reduced, then they can simply change their compound to suit the new temperature.
Re: (Score:2)
You got it unfortunately backwards ;D
Hotter wheels mean softer rubber, Yes. And that *increases* grip on the road ... good! But also increases loss by rolling on the road. So your idea that hot wheels will conserve energy is simply wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
That is incorrect. [thecartech.com]
Re: (Score:2)
That is "relative drag".
The absolute drag only can increase with temperature as the tire is "melting" and becoming "more sticky".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
For once, a literal YMMV.
Well done.
Re: (Score:3)
The turbocharger doesn't extract energy and turn it into shaft power. The turbocharger uses energy in the exhaust to spin a compressor (aka turbocharger) which shoves more air into the engine, which lets you burn more gasoline. That's where the power comes from.
Please be an Onion link please be an Onion link... (Score:5, Insightful)
[clicks on link]
Rats.
I have to assume that any actual engineers at Ford understand Carnot efficiency, and that this is simply an effort on the part of marketing to generate social-media buzz. It's depressing, but not surprising, to see that they're succeeding.
Re: (Score:3)
Uh, what? In theory, a car would go any distance at constant speed ignoring air resistance and friction except the curving of the earth as it's not really a straight line. But in the real world, you will have friction against the ground and that will generate a lot of heat. Part of that heat can be converted into more engine power. Unlike regenerative breaking you're not adding a resistance to the wheel, you just siphon off what's already happening. Sure if you could reduce friction that'd be nicer, but phy
Re:Please be an Onion link please be an Onion link (Score:5, Informative)
A theory that ignores friction isn't especially interesting in this context.
Rolling friction is a pretty small contributor to energy loss for a moving car. Of this initially small amount of lost energy, some heats the road, and some heats the tire. As someone else observed below, the change in tire temperature is typically around 30 F, or 15-20 C, much less than a 10% change in absolute temperature. That means that a perfectly efficient heat engine could reclaim at most 10% of the thermal energy from the warm tires. In practice, the efficiency would be lower still.
Here's an infographic [fueleconomy.gov] breaking down energy loss for an internal-combustion vehicle. Even if we assume that the electric vehicle has zero engine loss, rolling friction still represents at most maybe 20% of your energy loss. That means that you'd be reclaiming less than 2% of your total lost energy. In practice, considering the efficiency of the recapturing engine, it would probably be well under 1%; considering the added weight and mechanical loads of the recapture equipment, you might well end up losing net efficiency.
I'm not an engineer, but I have a basic understanding of thermodynamics. This story appears to be pitched at people who don't. If the engineers behind this want to convince people who know anything about physics or engineering, they're going to need something a lot better than this press release.
Re: (Score:2)
TFAs don't say that the heat of the tire is captured to create electricity. Rather, the energy from the flexing of the tire (that would otherwise produce heat) is instead harvested to create electricity.
I remain a bit skeptical, but let's wait and see where Goodyear goes with this.
Re: (Score:2)
Let's not, a new set of good tires for my car are already close to $2,000 how much will these things cost.
Re:Please be an Onion link please be an Onion link (Score:5, Insightful)
They only need to convince people who already made the very uneconomical decision to buy an electric or hybrid.
Again? Your sound like a broken record. Anyway, buying _any_ new car is uneconomical, so you are left with no point whatsoever.
Re: (Score:2)
New car? Who said anything about a new car?
Anyway, buying a hybrid/electric new car is less economical than buying a gasoline (or even diesel) new car, which was in fact my point. There are people who drive a lot of city miles (like a taxi) who can benefit from a hybrid, and there are philosophical reasons to drive an electric - but there are also a large number of people who ignorantly think that they are somehow saving money.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I did mention philosophical reasons. I can't judge people who do things that they like with their own money, but I can judge people who think that they are saving money when the objectively are not.
Diesel electrics would pay three cost penalties: 1. Diesel engine compared to gasoline, 2. Extra complexity of a hybrid drivetrain, 3. Battery or capacitor. Hybrid gasoline engines are already too expensive for most people to recoup costs - add diesel to the mix and the cost is even higher.
When battery cost
Re: (Score:2)
Not if you have to replace a battery pack that costs more than a new (gasoline) car.
Re: (Score:2)
First, I'd mod you up if I could for posting numbers.
Having said that, though, most of the efficiency [wikipedia.org] breakdowns [fueleconomy.gov] I've seen indicate that aerodynamic loss is higher than rolling-friction loss, especially at highway speeds -- drag goes up as the square of velocity.
Looking at the page you linked, I'm a bit surprised that it says rolling resistance is two to three times higher on "tar or asphalt" than on concrete surfaces. I didn't think there was that much difference between standard, mature asphalt surface an
Re: (Score:2)
But then again, Goodyear is in the tire business.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not in the car, no... that bit goes back at the gas-fueled power station.
Coal plants use external combustion.
Re: (Score:2)
Technical details of these tires aside (of which the 'article', if you can call it that, had essentially none): How do you think everyone is going to feel about it costing $4000 to put tires on your car, just to squeeze a little more efficiency out of the equation? Also, triple inner-tube? Sou
Re: (Score:2)
To which I say, "Derp". Not sure where in the world I pulled "Ford" from, but I probably ought to wash my hands.
regenerative braking (Score:2)
This guy has a better idea (Score:5, Interesting)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
This Russian fellow ran short of battery reserve to reach home so he hooked his Tesla up to a truck. Besides getting a tow towards his destination, you can see that the car is charging the battery at 60 kW rate!
In Russia, car charges you!
Re:This guy has a better idea (Score:4, Informative)
This is actually relevant to the OP because the biggest bang for the buck in capturing wasted energy in modern electric cars like the Tesla is the inability to do full regenerative braking in the winter when the battery is too cold to receive the full charge rate. When the temperature is low regen braking in the Tesla is limited (ranging from almost nothing up to the full 60kW) based on how cold the battery is. The car actually makes strategic decisions about when to spend power to *heat* the battery because the energy put into warming the (large) battery mass will at some point be more than outweighed by the gains in regen braking recouped energy.
It must be very frustrating for the Tesla engineers to have a 60kW "free" energy source and limit it because the batteries can't take the charge rate. It seems naively like that energy could be put directly into heating the battery, but I'm sure there are a lot of engineering issues (you probably can't just dump 60kW into a point heating source, etc.)
So, solving *that* problem would probably make Teslas 20% more efficient than they are now in the winter... and that would add up to a *lot* of energy.
Re: (Score:2)
If you can afford a Tesla you can probably afford to keep it in a warm garage on cold winter nights.
And in other news, gasoline engines don't like well below zero temps either.
Re: (Score:3)
The Tesla is fine in the cold (it's the most popular car in Norway). My point was just that there is lower hanging fruit to be had in terms of increasing car efficiency (another one is getting rid of side mirrors for aerodynamics) than waste heat in tires... I tend to agree with other posters that the tire heat thing sounds like nonsense.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd just like to note that while electric cars are doing well in Norway I believe that Teslas are not the most popular cars in Noway.
I found the statement surprising and was hoping it was true but the claim seemed to be from news articles with cherry picked statistics over a short time period -- supposedly when batch orders were being delivered. Basically if a whole year's deliveries are in a few months then it it will be the post popular for those few months but not overall and not for the whole year.
Elect
Re: (Score:3)
The problem is that Norway is not that cold. 90% coastal population. Coast is gulf stream. And coast basically is inland to the first mountain range, or first mountain range beyond large river or lake.
And its a modern car, with good ABS and Anti Spin, on modern tires. Its fun to drive if you go far enough inland to experience the real winter snow.
Re: (Score:2)
How about using supercapacitors to convert 5 seconds of 60kW into 15 seconds of 20kW (less losses)?
5 seconds of 60kW = 300kJ. Supercapacitor energy densities are in the range 0.5 to 15 W-hour/kg according to Wikipedia. Say 5 Wh/kg, = 18000 J/kg, so you'd only need a few kg of supercapacitor to make this work. The only price I find is US$2.85 per kJ in 2006, putting the cost at around $1000, probably much less now (but there will also be costs beyond just the supercapacitor.)
You could also make this an optio
Re: (Score:2)
I love this idea. If you discharge 300 kJ in a quarter second, that's 1.2 megawatts.
They need to continue working on these until we have pocket-sized grenades. I'm sure a megawatt or two could be used to coax some shrapnel into substantial acceleration. Or they could easily generate high power Xrays to irradiate everyone in a certain radius.
"Welcome to the future. It's just like your time, except our suicide vests are made of supercapacitors, and while our phones are paper thin now they don't fit in your po
Re: (Score:2)
It must be very frustrating for the Tesla engineers to have a 60kW "free" energy source and limit it because the batteries can't take the charge rate
Is there no love for KERS [formula1.com] at Tesla?
Re: (Score:2)
So get get 2 Teslas and have them tow each other around. Never need a charging station again!
Awesome (Score:5, Insightful)
Making electric cars even more expensive will really help them get market penetration.
This is absurd (Score:5, Funny)
It will never work. It's not 3D printed, using the internet of things, or an Elon Musk company. How can it expect to succeed?
Re: (Score:2)
It will never work. It's not 3D printed, using the internet of things, or an Elon Musk company. How can it expect to succeed?
By using the cloud and "hacking" a raspberry pi to run Windows 8 under Wine?
Exhaust (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize this "tech" is designed for electric vehicles but if you had the ability to convert heat into a meaningful electrical source you would start with the exhaust system of a standard car and do away with the alternator. If they can't do something with that rather significant and easily accessible temperature differential (+300F) I am pretty dubious about them utilizing the relatively minor temperature differential (~30F) of tires.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Recycling exhaust is not new. BMW calls their system Turbosteamer [wikipedia.org],
They have never put it in a production machine. And as a steam turbine engineer, I can say they probably never will. The engineering problems are too difficult to solve in a cost-effective and worthwhile manner for small vehicles. Trains, large trucks, and busses? Maybe. But not in passenger vehicles.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree with you that humankind has reached the limits of technological advancement about a decade ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Back a few years ago(like 15) Ford and Chysler were testing storage tanks full of anti-freeze on their vehicles that were heated using exhaust. The idea was to speed up the warming cycle for both the cabin and engine and reduce wear problems. Of course it didn't end up being much of anything either since it had all kinds of technical problems, and heated sensors and temporary electric high-flow oil pumps solved the problem in a more cost effective manner.
Re: (Score:2)
The Toyota Prius has been doing this for a few years. Previously they pumped the hot coolant out of the engine and into a thermos. Now they just use the exhaust to heat the coolant to warm up the engine faster.
Re: (Score:2)
I realize this "tech" is designed for electric vehicles but if you had the ability to convert heat into a meaningful electrical source you would start with the exhaust system of a standard car and do away with the alternator. If they can't do something with that rather significant and easily accessible temperature differential (+300F) I am pretty dubious about them utilizing the relatively minor temperature differential (~30F) of tires.
There are practical reasons why we don't use this energy. In large power stations the exhaust isn't allowed to drop below about 300-350F. There is a very small percentage of sulfur in all fuels. It passes through combustion without being chemically changed, but if it is allowed to cool, the sulfur vapor combines with water vapor, condenses, and forms sulfuric acid. It is only a small amount, but over time it causes huge problems. It is cost prohibitive to try to make an exhaust system that can handle on
Re: (Score:3)
Marketer who read an article on the 128,000th high school student who discovered peltier chips in 2014 who went on to "invent" some sort of AC/heater/generator
"Wait I have a brilliant idea we can use waste heat to generate electricity and make cars more efficient, but where would the greatest source of heat be on a car. Don't tell me it'll come to me...hmmm this is kind of hard.....yeah the tires that's it the tires!"
Re: (Score:2)
Collecting the waste heat of the exhaust is a great idea. Except in a standard car you wouldn't particularly care about getting electricity out, so you would want to feed that energy back into the propulsion system somehow... hmm, sounds exactly like a turbocharger [wikipedia.org].
Not just for Corvettes anymore (Score:2)
$1200 for tires?!
No. $1200 for A Tire.
You too can have the same experience as the USAF when their $85 million fighter is brought down by a guy with a rifle. Except it will be your $1200 tire flattened by a $0.0006 roofing nail. Same principle though. Welcome to the firstworldproblems club. Hope you brought that black AMEX card.
Laws of thermodynamics don't apply at GoodYear (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They are just making use of what is normally waste heat which would result is some small increase in efficiency of the total system.
But of course the amount of waste heat energy they can recover is limited by thermodynamics. On a hot day you won't get much.
It is a ridiculous idea. Cool looking tire however.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Mod parent up. Too many posts here assume that it's the heat of the tire that is being converted to electricity. In fact, it's the flexing of the tires that is being converted, flexing that would otherwise show up as heat. I'm not sure whether it will work effectively, but let's wait and see.
Re: (Score:3)
The flexing of the tires is helping to make the ride more comfortable. If you harvest energy from that, they'll get stiffer, and you'll feel more bumps and vibrations. People don't want that. Otherwise, they could have stiffer and more energy efficient tires already.
Re: (Score:2)
many posts here assume that it's the heat of the tire that is being converted to electricity. In fact, it's the flexing of the tires that is being converted
That is not what TFA said :-
The concept “BHO3” tire “offers the possibility” of helping recharge the batteries of electric cars by transforming heat from a rolling tire into electrical energy, Goodyear officials said
I'm not sure whether it will work effectively, but let's wait and see.
Save the wait; it won't.
What about a windmill on the roof! (Score:5, Funny)
What about a windmill on the roof! The windmill spins as the car drives, and produces electricity to charge up the batteries. Modeartors: Please mod this comment up as 'funny'. And if you dont get why, mod it up as 'insightful', then dont moderate slashdot anymore.
Re: (Score:3)
Not if you use a quantum critical airfoil. Se earlier slashdot article.
OMG I can't wait. (Score:2)
OMG I can't wait... to have to pay for a replacement when I get a puncture. These things sound cheap.
Great idea, until you see what it costs. (Score:2)
Taking a basic easy to find, easy to replace thing like a tire and tripling or quadrupling its cost to replace is generally not a good idea from a consumer perspective. Who wants to be told that it's going to be 1500+ to get new tires for their commuter vehicle every year?
Let's see... (Score:2)
tires heat up a little, so this tire converts the increased temperature to electricity to recharge batteries. How much does a tire heat up? How much energy can be extracted from that heat? How complex is the mechanical coupling that moves that recovered energy to the battery?
Sure you can get some electricity from a temperature difference. It might be enough to run your wristwatch. Recharge an electric car's battery? Yeah, sure, youbetcha!
Perpetual Motion Machine. (Score:2)
Great idea (Score:2)
Some cheap way of harvesting enough energy to power TPM sensors would be swell.
I have an idea! When I pull off my sweater I get (Score:2)
a LOT of static electricity. Why not use that to charge the car's battery? When the car is running low on juice, I can just pull off my sweater and harvest the power to recharge the battery!
I'd explain more, but I have to go to a meeting with a patent attorney...
The Geneva "Motor" Show (Score:4, Informative)
Minimize heat? (Score:2)
Instead of trying to harvest it.
The internal pump idea isn't bad. Optimize tire pressure for operating conditions is a pretty good idea. But one that vehicles with portal axles have used for many decades.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But believe it or not eventually that magical flammable liquid won't come out of the ground anymore
You keep worrying about imaginary places and times and let the rest of us deal with today.