Toyota Is Trying To Figure Out How To Make a Car Run Forever (bloomberg.com) 154
Put together the best solar panels money can buy, super-efficient batteries and decades of car-making know-how and, theoretically, a vehicle might run forever. From a report: That's the audacious motivation behind a project by Toyota Motor, Sharp and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan, or NEDO, to test a Prius that could revolutionize transportation. "The solar car's advantage is that -- while it can't drive for a long range -- it's really independent of charging facilities," said Koji Makino, a project manager at Toyota. Even if fully electric cars overtake petroleum-powered vehicles in sales, they still need to be plugged in, which means building a network of charging stations across the globe. The sun, on the other hand, shines everywhere for free, and when that energy is paired with enough battery capacity to propel automobiles at night, solar-powered cars could leapfrog all the new-energy technologies being developed, from plug-in hybrids to hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, in one fell swoop.
Use the time-tested ... (Score:3)
... push pedal.
Travelers will be fit and obesity will decline.
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... push pedal.
Travelers will be fit and obesity will decline.
How about the "Fred Flintstone" style car? An open floor and you run with your feet to propel it.
That would make folks really fit. And that would provide an incentive not to be obese, because it would mean your legs would need to work harder to move your fat around.
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How about the "Fred Flintstone" style car? An open floor and you run with your feet to propel it.
That would make folks really fit. And that would provide an incentive not to be obese, because it would mean your legs would need to work harder to move your fat around.
If we are propelling the car we need energy. We get energy from food. Growing food can be a challenge for the environment.
In the past Human "efficiency" for running is a 200MPG equivalency.. Newer electric cars are getting around 120MPG... that means we're 60% of the way to making it equally efficient to drive as it is to move ourselves manually. It's conceivable that in 20 years time it will be better for the environment for us to drive somewhere rather than walk. Indeed, already in countries which get
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We have very little problem buying large cars and running them on gasoline. We have lots of problems with physically exerting ourselves, regardless of the cost of food. Human-powered transportation will always be more efficient than non-human powered transportation because we're lazy.
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... push pedal.
Travelers will be fit and obesity will decline.
How about the "Fred Flintstone" style car?
My car is an EV (Nissan Leaf) and if someone asks me if I've ever been stranded (I haven't) I tell them that I just open the Fred Flintstone Flap on the bottom and keep going.
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I still ride the same bicycle nearly every day that I've had for 18 years now (an IF Crown Jewel, steel frame). It is a thing of wonder to ride, and I wouldn't trade it for anything--except maybe a new one. It is *perfectly* balanced. I used to race, until I broke my collarbone and decided to get out, and one thing you notice after a long time on a bike is that any imbalance to either side, left or right, will force you to continually exert energy to keep it aligned. Not so with the IF: I can simply sit on
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+1. A large proportion of commutes are very easily done with a non-sexy commuter bike. It is hard to believe that 99.9% of commuters are either physically unable to, or don't have time to ride a bike to work, yet gym parking lots overflow with bloated SUV's.
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You haven't thought this through, and clearly live in a large city, in a southern latitude.
Biking to work isn't possible for nearly 6 months of the year in Michigan, so say nothing of thunderstorms and high wind days.
People who live live really close to their workplace is a small minority. My short commute is 22 miles.
It used to be less, but I changed jobs. I'm not about to sell my home & move every time I change jobs.
Oh, and what about my wife's job? Must she quit and look for jobs withing biking dist
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I used to bike 15-20km each way in Edmonton winters. My cutoff was -25C, but I've been out commuting as low as -36C. I have friends that bike with their kids to work in the winter in Montreal, too.
Don't use weather as an excuse. There are plenty of other better ones.
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Any advice for people in the south? It was 112F (44.4c) with the heat index last week, and while I would love to ride a bike to work, my supervisor says I am not allowed to show up with heat stroke.
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I doubt that. I used to commute to work in Calgary, Canada, all year. One other guy did as well. We looked pretty cool walking into meetings with frost from the -40 weather slowly melting off our gear.
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As others have said, there are plenty of crazies in the world that prove you wrong. Around my area there's a dedicated probably 10% of bikers who go all through the winter until the windchill gets too far below zero. A bunch get monster bikes which have 3"-4" diameter dirt-bike style tires with studs so they can ride on snow and ice.
Now most of us don't want to do that, but it's far from impossible. I see people biking in blizzards every winter.
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+1. A large proportion of commutes are very easily done with a non-sexy commuter bike. It is hard to believe that 99.9% of commuters are either physically unable to, or don't have time to ride a bike to work, yet gym parking lots overflow with bloated SUV's.
It's chicken and egg. The streets in most small/mid-sized towns and cities in the US are not safe for cycling on. There is no special bike infrastructure most places. And towns and cities aren't going to waste money putting them in if they don't think there are any cyclists. I pass far more white bicycle monuments where cyclists died on the sidewalks on my way into work that I do cyclists. I don't know how all these dead cyclists got into the city, I never see any on the road.
That said, even if I had
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It is kinda funny the decline of the bicycle for transportation over the automobile. Is the fact the quality of the roads back in the early 1900's made it difficult to bike everywhere, thus relying on horse power (expensive, and environmentally unsound), where the automobile with its big wheels can ride these dirt roads and relatively clean engine (compared to everyone having horses) made it a popular choice.
Then with the rise in popularity of the automobile, it pushed towards better roads, to a point where
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Are you a member of the anti-creimer alliance [slashdot.org]?
We had private contacts with CaptainDork and Stealth Finger and they are now parts of the anti-creimer alliance so, they are allowed on Slashdot while you're not.
My position has evolved over the last few hours and I have come to appreciate creimer, seeing as I am he.
Since I failed to show up to the anti-creimer alliance rally, I did not read the brochures, attend any lectures, infomercials and did not leave with a swag bag of swell parting gifts and stuff.
Forever is a long time (Score:2)
Can it survive the heat death of the universe?
Re:Forever is a long time (Score:5, Insightful)
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The Sun is going to run out of fuel in a few billion years anyway
Forever is a long time in financing (Score:2)
Toyota's biggest challenge is not technical... it's selling bonds with no call date to offer 0 percent interest loans for infinite months.
Forever means no more sales (Score:2)
I know I know what the author means by forever is a car with unlimited range. But for that you have to read beyond the headline and this is slashdot.
When I read the article my thought process went - Toyotas are already so reliable that they last half a million miles. Have they upped the reliability game so that the vehicles last for ever. Next thought was if noone needs to buy a new car ever than what happens to existing car manufacturing companies.
And of course if a car is going to last forever than the ca
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A car that lasts forever really wouldn't be a fatal problem to sales in developed countries. The vast majority of consumers replace their cars because they want a new car, not because the old one broke. The people who do only replace their car when it breaks are used car consumers, not new car consumers, so it's really only the secondary market that would suffer -- the used car dealers more than the manufacturers.
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With proper maintenance, a HiLux/Tacoma truck can.
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And proven to take a lickin [fandom.com]
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Can it survive the heat death of the universe?
Man made galactic warming will prevent the heat death of the universe.
Get the Logo in Photo (Score:2)
Vaporware whoosh!
High latitudes (Score:2)
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that "enough battery capacity to propel automobiles at night" doesn't mean everywhere. When night lasts 16 hours where I live (even worse at higher latitudes), and a low-angle sun in the daytime, solar isn't going to charge the car much.
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Besides, who the fuck is going to buy a car you can only drive at night?
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Besides, who the fuck is going to buy a car you can only drive at night?
Great for avoiding work.
"Sorry, I can't come in to work today, I need to work from home I'm having car troubles. My car won't drive during the day."
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No matter where you are, solar isn't going to charge a car much.
Let's use a Tesla Model X as a ballpark estimate. It is 198" x 79", or about 10 square meters. At 100% efficiency, the sun only provides 1120W per square meter. That's 11.2 kW. Let's optimistically say that the car uses 300 Wh per mile. In one hour, that's only 37 miles. So even a perfectly
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That is about what they are claiming no? Get to work, leave the car on the parking lot all day, get back home? Car for a small niche? Maybe get through the winter by charging at home every day?
Your math (and assumptions) are fallacious (Score:2)
No division with 5 is necessary. You seem to think that values you're using are for 100% efficiency. They are not.
1.65 square meters of your garden variety 18% efficient solar panels gets you ~300W per hour. [wholesalesolar.com]
I.e. Around 180 watts per square meter, or 1.8 kWh if you would cover a Tesla Model X with regular solar panels.
Toyota uses 34%-plus efficient solar cells for the Prius in TFA.
Also, values you seem to be thinking of are per meter squared PER MINUTE. [wikipedia.org] Measured in orbit, by satellites.
And then some other th
Hype and nonsense ..... (Score:2)
I mean, sure -- everyone loves the goal here. Make a car that I can just buy once and use for as long as I'll ever want to drive it, with zero expenses for fuel because it runs off the sun!
Stepping back for a moment? You realize that:
1. Solar panels need lots of square footage of sun-facing surface area to generate decent amounts of energy. All of the space on the roof, hood and trunk of a passenger car isn't nearly enough for panels to generate enough electricity to get a battery charged up that can power
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Not arguing with most of your post, but - I doubt “run forever” means “without regular maintenance”. Batteries may need occasional replacement, just like the tie rod ends and whatnot. However the vehicle would not need to refuel.
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But if that is the criteria, then any car could run just about forever. The thing is that for all cars eventually enough stuff is so worn out it stops making sense to repair them and/or they stop being trustworthy enough to get you to your destination without croaking.
My Nissan Leaf needs new batteries at only 63k miles, but the replacement costs a lot more than a new engine for an equivalent gas car. There is a good chance that we will not pay the $8500 for a fresh battery for a care that will only have
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Ouch. $8500 would pretty much replace the entire powertrain on my truck, with some left over. Having to do that after only 63K miles is insane - you have my sympathies.
Re:Hype and nonsense ..... (Score:4, Interesting)
My Nissan Leaf needs new batteries at only 63k miles, but the replacement costs a lot more than a new engine for an equivalent gas car.
Yeah. Nissan made a very affordable car, but one of the things that makes it affordable is that Nissan didn't add active thermal management of the battery pack. I've seen a lot of discussion of dead battery cells in Nissan Leaf cars.
In the future the cost of swapping the battery pack will come down a bit, but that's not much comfort now.
There are a lot of Leafs out there, so maybe you can find one in a junkyard with a usable battery pack? Good luck.
If you ever buy a new electric car, maybe look at the Tesla Model 3. It's more expensive but holds its value much more, and it doesn't fry its own battery cells.
P.S. I found this link; I hope something in it helps you.
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1111264_new-life-for-old-nissan-leaf-electric-car-battery-replacement-and-what-it-took [greencarreports.com]
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But if that is the criteria, then any car could run just about forever.
Did you miss this rather important part of the criteria? However the vehicle would not need to refuel.
It was the big distinction, and "any car" certainly can't do it.
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My Nissan Leaf needs new batteries at only 63k miles,
And people wonder why Tesla is outselling every other EV on the market...
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Not arguing with most of your post, but - I doubt “run forever” means “without regular maintenance”. Batteries may need occasional replacement, just like the tie rod ends and whatnot. However the vehicle would not need to refuel.
What if you can change all the parts without stopping the car... A fifth wheel that drops down so someone running alongside you car can change a tyre as you drive.... battery pods that you can change without stopping the motor... All you need is some really fit service mechanics that don't smoke or eat doughnuts all day long.
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Their first prototype had autopilot. They have no idea where it is now.
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I'd skip the PR talk about revolutionizing and going forever without plugging in and put the question differently. Is there a niche for a car with short autonomy which can reload in the sun part of the time and plug in the rest of the time. Then the answer would be yes.
Re:Hype and nonsense ..... (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean, sure -- everyone loves the goal here. Make a car that I can just buy once and use for as long as I'll ever want to drive it, with zero expenses for fuel because it runs off the sun!
Stepping back for a moment? You realize that:
1. Solar panels need lots of square footage of sun-facing surface area to generate decent amounts of energy. All of the space on the roof, hood and trunk of a passenger car isn't nearly enough for panels to generate enough electricity to get a battery charged up that can power a vehicle to drive at highway speeds for any length of time. 2. Even if you made this work? (Perhaps with some kind of solar panel system that would fold out from the vehicle itself and expand to take up a lot more horizontal space over the top of it?) You're now limited as to where you can park the thing, including NO parking garages or anyplace covered in shade by trees or tall buildings. 3. Unless there's some big revolution in battery tech? The batteries themselves pose a challenge if you want a car that "runs forever". Cars that don't include a whole battery climate control system (like the Nissan Leaf, for example) have issues with the batteries degrading in capacity over time and mileage. The ones that undergo higher demands (such as owners who live on steep hills) often lose almost half their charging capacity within only 3-4 years. If you add all the battery cooling and heating functionality? Now you added more complexity with systems liable to break down (such as A/C compressors and cooling fans) - and it draws more energy to keep that running, so you're going to need a larger capacity battery that requires more power to recharge it.
The headline of the summary is sensationalist and very misleading as you would know if you had read TFA. They are not trying to create a perpetual motion engine that will run like clockwork from now until the end of time. What Toyota is aiming for with this ***experimental*** vehicle is:
... If the car is driven four days a week for a maximum of 50 kilometers a day, there’s no need to plug into an outlet ... While the car’s greatest potential markets will be sunny climes, such as California and western China, NEDO will evaluate whether it’s also suitable for cities such as Tokyo, a key assessment for deciding whether to mass produce the vehicle ...
So, basically, if you live in a reasonably sunny place, probably a bit farther south than Japan, and you don't drive more than 50 km per day you'll not have to charge the thing from the mains most of the time. That performance goal is just one day short of my own normal usage pattern for my car which is commuting less than 50 km to work five days out of the week. Unfortunately I live in a very un-sunny place.
Re: Hype and nonsense ..... (Score:2)
This is just a reaction to Tesla announcing a million-mile design spec. Everybody be like, "my Toyota barely got 200K".
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There isn't enough surface area on a car to provide even a fraction of the energy needed to charge the battery. Period. Not even close.
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Yes, but there is enough volume under some car hoods to host a miniaturized version of a naval nuclear reactor with the required shielding. Coupled with electric hub motors that car will run forever .
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Yes, but there is enough volume under some car hoods to host a miniaturized version of a naval nuclear reactor with the required shielding. Coupled with electric hub motors that car will run forever .
That sounds more believable than a solar powered car.
I know that nuclear powered cars will not happen any time soon, as much as I know solar powered cars won't happen.
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Yeah, but what is our other option - a pickup truck resembling vehicle pulled by a horse with the truck bed growing alpha-alpha with solar energy and the hoarse eating it. With some kind of waste transport system from the horse back to the truck bed?
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Yeah, but what is our other option - a pickup truck resembling vehicle pulled by a horse with the truck bed growing alpha-alpha with solar energy and the hoarse eating it. With some kind of waste transport system from the horse back to the truck bed?
WTF? The other option is to dispose of this fantasy of a car that doesn't need to plug in or fuel up.
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Check out the 'Ford Nucleon' [wikipedia.org]
The Ford Nucleon is a concept car developed by Ford in 1957 designed as a future nuclear-powered car, one of a handful of such designs during the 1950s and '60s. The concept was only demonstrated as a scale model. The design did not include an internal-combustion engine; rather, the vehicle was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle, based on the assumption that this would one day be possible by reducing sizes. The car was to use a steam engine powered by uranium fission similar to those found in nuclear submarines
They won't be able to patent it ... (Score:4, Funny)
... because perpetual motion machines are not accepted.
We have that... (Score:2)
"which means building a network of charging stations across the globe"
We have those, we call them "plugs" (no matter how inaccurate that terminology is).
They're talking about solar panels which might supply on a day about the same as 30 minutes of a 115V plug. These cannot replace charging stations.
We would still need a network of high-speed charging unless you're willing to wait a few weeks to recharge to get to the next town.
Car of Theseus? (Score:2)
Historical Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Unless you're replacing virtually every active part of it, entropy is going to win, even on scales like a few dozens of years.
Longer term, I prefer the 'fleet of automated vehicles' approach.
The reason vehicles are crazy expensive now, compared to the base materials cost is because of the economy of scale. Like with insurance and other manufacturing, if you can get a large enough blob of car manufacturing together and focus on that, you could make the c
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People keep talking about it... but I just don’t see this idea of a fleet of on-call individual vehicles working. You’d basically need as many cars in the fleet as you find on the roads at rush hour. The subscription cost is almost certainly going to rival the cost of individual ownership, so there’s be no real advantage to subscribing rather than owning.
Now if you get rid of the individual-sized vehicle and turn it into autonomous transit vehicles... then maybe that could work. But a sign
This is easy ... (Score:2)
British Street cleaners understand the concept of triggers broom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Need a level set (Score:3)
It's run forever in the sense of never needing to be charged, not that it mechanically can run forever.
The other piece people will point out is range. This kind of car won't be able to go on long trips. But for a "city car" that only needs a range of 25-40 miles or so, solar charging might be enough to never realistically need a plug.
Inevitably there will be a compromise model that allows for grid charging when necessary, but for the most part is self sufficient.
Think of the Chevy Volt as a model, Volt owners can go for months without fueling up with gas if they are charging at home, charging at work or at the public charging stations that have popped up in US cities.
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The other piece people will point out is range. This kind of car won't be able to go on long trips. But for a "city car" that only needs a range of 25-40 miles or so, solar charging might be enough to never realistically need a plug.
If we were to combine modern materials with a disregard for comfort and a willingness to drive a flat, low vehicle, we could certainly achieve this goal. But what you'll wind up with is a claustrophobic little shit can that you can't take very far, and which cannot reasonably coexist on the roads with poorly trained drivers piloting multi-ton vehicles while using their cell phones and disciplining their offspring.
Given that this goal is really not achievable without either magically efficient solar panels o
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If you want solar panels to be positionally related to cars, the best thing to do after roofing parking lots is probably SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS, except instead of putting the solar panels under the roads, put them over the roads in places where cars are often stuck in traffic, and would benefit from shade.
Any road that sees normal speed vehicular traffic can not be covered in solar panels from above. Solar panels are heavy enough that the supporting structure will involve steel beams by the side of the road. LOTS of steel beams. Far more than street lights or utility poles. At which point the whole thing just becomes too dangerous. There are too many things to collide with.
Now commercial roofs, yeah, that's becoming blindingly obvious, to the point Walmart is buying them for their roofs. If SolarCity h
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Any road that sees normal speed vehicular traffic can not be covered in solar panels from above. Solar panels are heavy enough that the supporting structure will involve steel beams by the side of the road. LOTS of steel beams. Far more than street lights or utility poles. At which point the whole thing just becomes too dangerous. There are too many things to collide with.
Guard rails.
Yes, it will increase the cost, but roofing big stretches of highway isn't going to be cheap anyway.
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The other piece people will point out is range. This kind of car won't be able to go on long trips. But for a "city car" that only needs a range of 25-40 miles or so, solar charging might be enough to never realistically need a plug. Inevitably there will be a compromise model that allows for grid charging when necessary, but for the most part is self sufficient.
While that's true the cost of setting up charging points grows exponentially with the charge you're delivering. Granted, here in Norway solar charging will never be a thing because the sun is barely up in the winter (and not at all up north) but in addition to the rapid/supercharger stations we also have rows of simple EV street parking [oslobyvenn.no] chargers. Like long rows [kolbotn-elektro.no] of them where you can stand all day, no quicker than you'd charge at home and at relatively low prices since it's nothing exotic. Many similar secti
I misread the headline (Score:3)
I was thinking to myself, self, you have a Toyota that runs forever. It's a 1996 Camry that used to belong to my dad. It has been around over half my life. That's not what the article was referring to.
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Launch it into Mars orbit (Score:2)
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I hear Elon's roadster is getting great mileage.
His chauffeur is a little cold and stiff though. In hindsight they probably should have told him he could get out of the car before they launched it.
Simply suboptimal (Score:2)
A moving, aerodynamic frame vulnerable to accidents is simply not the best place to put solar panels. Parking lots, on the other hand, are just begging for a lot of them.
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Solar paint is where its at. Electrodes wired into the metal body of the vehicle at production. "Solar paint" applied in layers. Clear coat on top.
The entire surface area of the vehicle becomes a solar panel, nothing is wasted.
And don't solar panels still work if it's cloudy? My solar calculator still works when it's cloudy.
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Hugely dependent on a charging resource - Sun. (Score:2)
It is not correct that solar is "really independent of charging facilities". Solar requires... the Sun to shine on the panels.
Charging would be weather-dependent (and therefore geography-dependent). "Sorry, can't run forever in the next 2 days, it's raining."
When in a sunny zone it will also limit your parking in covered spaces (to avoid heat), as they shield from exactly the type of weather that the solar technology depends on. Quite often the shades/roofs are covered by solar panels themselves, so various
The goal is not important (Score:2)
Every other comment I see here is talking about how impractical the goal or approach is. Just FYI, it's also not practical to land a person on the moon for a few hours, but we did it and it is sti
This is a LONG way off (Score:2)
The Fisker Karma came out just a few years ago. The whole roof is covered in solar panels, which "is capable of generating a half kilowatt-hour a day and was estimated to provide up to 4 to 5 miles (6.4â"8.0 km) of additional range a week assuming continuously sunny days." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
So, recent solar tech gave less than one mile per day in the best case. This literally needs to be thousands of times better to be useful at night, after a cloudy day, to go a long distance.
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Rough estimate: Assume a solar panel 150 watts per square meter. Lets assume a generous 6 square meters, so that's 0.9KW. Assuming 8 hours of sunlight, that's 7,200 KWh. Assume a car needs
With all the charging losses losses and various inefficiency it might be closer to 15
Late to the party? (Score:2)
Sono Motors has been taking orders on their upcoming Sion for months. It's a pure BEV basically covered in solar panels;
https://sonomotors.com/ [sonomotors.com]
They're advertising up to 35km/day additional range from solar charging. Not much, but not nothing either. First deliveries are slated for 2021.
=Smidge=
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There are a few problematic issues with the car, but, for the most part, the people behind it have a solid grasp on the issues.
First and foremost, it is designed for the European market, where the average daily round-trip distance for 95% of commuters is under 23 km. Contrasted with North America, where the figure is just over 50 km round trip. Meaning the current model would not, even under ideal circumstances, provide sufficient recharge for the North American market.
Of course, there's also the question
ridiculous (Score:2)
Current photovoltaic tech is nowhere near the efficiency necessary.
Assuming remarkable new solar tech; then the biggest problem for urban transport is the big soft rubber wheels that cause much resistance to movement. Replace the rubber wheels with steel wheels on rails and you might have a vehicle that can go to certain places in a practical manner.
Not likely to get you to work or the grocery store though.
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"Current photovoltaic tech is nowhere near the efficiency necessary"
Without qualifying that statement, you run the risk of sounding like an ignorant a$$.
If your commute is less than 35 km, then the solar panels on the Sion (a European electric car) would be sufficient.
If you were concerned about the total cost of an IC engine, including environmental damage, and were willing to pay for the most efficient photovoltaic cells cells, the range of the Sion would roughly double to 70 km, (the Sion uses 24% effici
Production model gonna have to be black (Score:2)
Transparent Garages? (Score:2)
I live in the city, in an apartment with underground parking - no photons.
If I drive to work, I park in an indoor parking garage - no photons.
So the only folks who can use such tech are those who park outdoors, likely in suburbia, but they have greater range needs than us city-dwellers.
Frankly, until transparent parking structures are commonplace, I don't this ever working in a city.
And the cost will be... (Score:2)
One meeeeeeeeeeellllllion dollars. Puts pinky over lips. That's the problem with eco-friendly vehicles still to this day. They are too expensive. Obama even realized that with the "cash for clunkers" program. I said this many years ago. You want people to drive only eco-friendly cars eh? Then, make them CHEAPER than the ones you don't like. The problem will sort itself out really fast but I've yet to see a company figure it out and instead try to convince people it's worth burning a hole in your poc
Simple math (Score:5, Insightful)
With current technology you might be able to fully recharge your EV -- if you only drive it once a week -- but not every day, not by a longshot.
I'm actually an advocate of EVs. I think they're the future, and I think it could be a bright future, solving many of our current environmental problems. But thinking they can be solar recharged, stand-alone, is pure fantasy. We'll need charging stations. Having one installed in your garage is a trivial one-time expense compared to the benefits of full-power charging of your EV at home, overnight. Current petroleum fuel stations can be converted over, first adding the EV charging posts, then later completely replacing the pumps at the islands. Oh and by the way we need nuclear power, so you greenies just need to put on your big kid pants and get over it already, okay? It can be done safely, no worries.
Everybody keep breathing normally, we'll get there.
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Current petroleum fuel stations can be converted over, first adding the EV charging posts, then later completely replacing the pumps at the islands
This is a waste as long as charging times are so much longer. More likely the current gas stations will get converted into Starbucks and the EV charging stations will wind up in the parking lots of existing businesses like supermarkets, Wal-mart, etc. In fact, that is already happening.
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Solar FREAKIN' roadways! (Score:2)
I found this gem in the article.
China also has explored efforts to tap the sun for transportation purposes. China tested an âoeintelligent highwayâ that buries solar panels, mapping sensors and electric-battery rechargers under transparent concrete, with the photovoltaic cells generating enough electricity to power highway lights and 800 homes.
They just can't leave this stupid idea behind. Solar freakin' roads are not going to work.
Leave solar power for pocket calculators and communication satellites. Solar is a terrible idea for just about anything else.
Obligatory... (Score:2)
What about sun damage? (Score:2)
Park a car outside all the time, and it looks like shit after only three-four years or so due to sun damage and weathering.
I park mine inside, and have had people ask if my 12 year old car is new (I also have the advantage of covered parking at work).
So it might run "forever", but the resale value will suck. Not to mention you have to deal with rain and snow/ice removal because you can't park in your garage.
The Prius is a bad choice (Score:2)
I have had a dislike of the Prius for a while now as it is a prime example of the wrong way to make a hybrid. Basically take a complicated design, the typical ICE vehicle, and make it more complicated by adding a token battery and parallel electric drive. While you can get better fuel consumption you also have the worst of both worlds. The proper way to do a hybrid is to start with
We had a Prius... (Score:2)
...loved it. Wanted and waited for Toyota to grow the battery and shrink the ICE... never happened, they just sat on their hands. Silly buggers had an enormous head start in the transition to pure electric...
Then they were sucked in by big-oil into the hydrogen route... (natural gas produced and sold through a gas station). Poor suckers.
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I guess it will really depend on how much driving you are going to do, and how much sunlight your car is exposed too.
Also you will need to keep your car out of the Garage, which will intern lower the expected life of the car.
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The REAL challenge is going to be getting a meaningful amount of energy off of sunlight being picked up by a vehicle.
With the typical size of a vehicle roof; you could possibly fit perhaps 3 or 4 100 Watt solar panels; assuming top of the hood
and trunk are part of the roof that can accommodate them as well.... You might get 300 Watts on a good day.
So 10 hours of charging, and you have 3 Kilowatt hours.
That's about 3 percent of a Tesla's battery capacity, or in other words... 10 hours worth of
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Since when do you need to hire an intern to keep your car out of the garage?
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Since when do you need to hire an intern to keep your car out of the garage?
I'm very picky about how I want my coffee brewed. If I can't trust the intern to make my coffee she needs something else to do. Can't have her sitting around playing tetris all day.
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there isn't enough sunlight. (Score:2)
Good luck with reading comprehension. We're talking about a solar powered vehicle, so there will continually be new energy entering the system.
There isn't enough sunlight. High noon is only depositing about a kilowatt per square meter, and averaging it over a day only gives you about 5 hours equivalent to that - and current panels struggle to capture about a fifth of tha. How much surface does this thing present to the sun? A horsepower is 3/4 KW. With 100% efficient batteries, charge control, and motor
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Not everyone works for Thermodynamics corp.
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They're not talking about the car running on solar power, they're talking about the car charging on solar power. And that will work. Eventually. As long as you don't need to drive more than a few dozen miles a day, it's very practical.
(I suspect it will also charge in a more conventional way, and the solar will only be to supplement it.)
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