OT: UM solar car "Generation" test run
No arrests were made and I thought it would be great to just have happy news.
http://annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-team-takes-its-solar-ca…
The car will go 105 mph which I think is pretty cool for an electric car that is charged by the sun.
As do I, Mr. Rodgers.
this is the future of personal transportation!
I don't know about that. There's no room for my childrens' car seats to be installed.
Thanks for sharing that, OP. Very interesting read.
If anyone is interested, the video playlist for Generation" has some pretty cool stuff from development to now. Here is some of the track testing, for example:
Wish I'd known about this when they started. I live about 20 minutes from Logansport, IN. Would have been cool to drive up and take a look.
I was remiss in not posting this earlier. The route and a twitter feed of updates is available here: http://umsolar.com/
Note that the dates/times listed on the left of that page are no longer valid due to a day off in Grand Haven for some debugging.
The best place to see the team is at their "control stops", one hour stops to charge, swap drivers, etc (the race in Australia will include these stops).
Remaining control stops:
Petoskey, MI - ETA 1:30PM today
Pinconning, MI - ETA tomorrow morning?
Novi, MI - ETA late Wednesday / early Thursday?
Or is that Urban Meyer's recruiting pitch?
They are starting to pop up around where I live.
Bloomberg this week had a nice article where it talked about Tesla and how they are expanding their charging stations network. IIRC you get to charge your car for free (nice perk), and after only 20 minutes your car will be at 50% (if fully depleted) or you can pay the "cost of a tank of gas" and a robot will change out the battery pack in your car, swap it with fresh batteries and off you go in under 90 seconds. Pretty slick IMO.
They are also supposed to be launching a lower cost model (30-40k) in the near term.
I don't know if this is the future of individual transportation, however it has great examples of the technology, both in terms of battery capacity and solar cells.
I think that the internal combustion engine is going to be quite hard to kill, what with the energy density of fuels, efficiency and pollution gains, etc. However, if you ask me the future of transportation is very similar to the Volt or the BMW i3. Electric cars with gasoline (or diesel) range extenders. The main issue with modern electric cars are cost and battery energy density. Once the tech has a chance to really develop, we'll see many trips with no gasoline, but they'll have gas in reserve just in case. Cars for a long time have gotten lots of "bonus" from their engine: heat, AC, electricity for radios and such. Current electrics only have the 1 power source: turn on the seat warmers and you'll lose range. That's part of the issue.
Tesla is a good thing IMO, I can't afford one but they did what you have to do: they made a great car that just happens to be electric. It'll be interesting to see what happens with their dealer network issue as well as future products. I was glad to see they got GM's attention, making quality products is the best way to move the whole auto industry forward.
They've got more issues to sort out with the production process before they need to fret about not having the dealer network to move their volume, and this is after they took over a Toyota manufacturing facility with assistance. Tesla Model S is by order only still as far as I can see. We'll see how long Toyota wants to prod Tesla along here with contract extensions if the Rav-4 EV continues to struggle like it has.
What I meant is that currently US law doesn't allow auto manufacturers to sell direct to customers. If you want a new car you go to a new car dealer.
Tesla has factory owned "stores" that they're using to sell in various states. States' dealership associations have been challenging Tesla's legal standing based on current laws. We'll see what happens with it.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20130624/RETAIL07/306249942
This doesn't have much to do with foreign vs domestic - it's all local. Sounds like it was entirely driven by lobbying from the car dealers. A protection racket basically.
Again, attempting to skirt politics, there is a petition that has reached the required number of signatures for the white house to reply regarding Tesla's ability to sell direct nationwide.
Also, I think Dealers have lost just about every lawsuit so far. We'll see where this goes.
Stopgap technology at best. Of course, batteries aren't sustainable either, with the limited quantity of LI-On available (most of it Chinese). People jumped the gun on Fuel Cell tech, which was a long way off when it first hit the public eye 5 or 6 years ago, but it's coming. That's renewable, clean, fast to fill and cheap. Best of all, your "current" electric vehicle could be easily refitted with fuel cells instead of a battery pack.
The solar car team is fun to follow. They have people in charge of marketing and updates, so you can stay in the loop. You wonder how it can be so fast carrying awesomeness by the tonnage, but there you have it.
Passed it on 131 the other day. My boys yelled Go Blue. The brainwashing has taken hold much earlier than anticipated.
Properly raising your kids to be Michigan fans* is not brainwashing.
*Yes, I know, that's redundant.
January 11th, 2014 at 6:16 AM ^
a robot will change out the battery pack in your car, swap it with fresh batteries and off you go in under 90 seconds. lawyer for car accidents