Jericho: More Solar Power
Anybody else seen the ads for this Auto Cool Solar Car Fan? This is a cool little product. This is such a simple concept, I can't believe someone hasn't come up with this before.
This is such a cool product, I think it should be standard equipment. I mean, a small solar panel on the dash powering a secondary fan activated with a cheap thermometer. How expensive could that be to add to a car?
This kind of thing just keeps cycling in my head. Why not add a solar cell to a hybrid? A large one, maybe on the roof. Even if it's in a garage with over head light or a window, some light will hit it and charge the battery. Every trickle of solar is a little less fossil fuel - and how much more could it add to the price of a car? Auto manufacturers make it sound impossible to change or update a design. No wonder the third party market is multibillion dollar and the major manufacturers are losing market share.
If the big guys aren't careful, the little guys are going to come up with an open source protocol for manufacturing a modular car. Order the bits, assemble in your drive way with included tools, like a table from IKEA. Then what will the big guys do? Will they make little third party bolt on modules?
This is such a cool product, I think it should be standard equipment. I mean, a small solar panel on the dash powering a secondary fan activated with a cheap thermometer. How expensive could that be to add to a car?
This kind of thing just keeps cycling in my head. Why not add a solar cell to a hybrid? A large one, maybe on the roof. Even if it's in a garage with over head light or a window, some light will hit it and charge the battery. Every trickle of solar is a little less fossil fuel - and how much more could it add to the price of a car? Auto manufacturers make it sound impossible to change or update a design. No wonder the third party market is multibillion dollar and the major manufacturers are losing market share.
If the big guys aren't careful, the little guys are going to come up with an open source protocol for manufacturing a modular car. Order the bits, assemble in your drive way with included tools, like a table from IKEA. Then what will the big guys do? Will they make little third party bolt on modules?
posted by Jericho Brown at 7/30/2006 11:28:00 PM
7 Comments:
Good idea.
You get a degree in structural engineering and I will get one in mechanical engineering and we'll make it happen.
To a degree it's already happening. I thought that a modular car was a great idea a few years ago. This way, instead of upgrading the whole car, you could just upgrade bits, you wouldn't lose your investment.
When I began to look around, I saw that the custom motorcycle and custom car markets were already doing this. Sure, there wasn't an "open source" movement, but a "Custom Harley" will frequently have very little "Harley" to it. Most of the engine will be Harley Davidson, but several bolt-ons and most of the body are likely to be someone else. The average home user isn't doing this, but a dedicated hobbyist could.
In the 80s, a friend of mine told me that the third party market for the VW Beetle was so active, that certain customisers were building new "bugs" entirely out of third party parts. This would mean a much more expensive vehicle, but considering this was the only way to get a "new" bug in 1986, it may have been worth it.
I saw the results for the Michelin Design Challenge this year. One of the entrants was also thinking modular. It's true that his power plant module has a giant USB connector, but I still think he might be on the right track.
I don't think it will take a room full of engineers to make this happen. The "PC Revolution" wasn't started by a group of PhDs - it was started by some kids that didn't know they couldn't do what they did. One of those kids is now one of the richest men on the planet. With this, we're dealing with 100+ year old technology ... some dedicated gear heads might be able to start this revolution.
It's a shame that we know what we can't do.
I read a while back about a owner of the Toyota Prius who added solar panels to his car. Hood, roof and trunk. Gets 75 to 100 MPG depending on weather if I remember correctly. I will look for a link to the info I found.
Not that this in entirely relevant, bt according to my research, a company called Pope Manufacturing was builing electric cars in the 1890's, over a century ago, and were also working on a prototype gas/electic hybrid just before they folded, around 1907.
Well, I can only find various info on this one: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/solar-powered_t.php
Not the same as I saw before.
Early on, cars powered by kerosene, steam, electric and gas all competed. Electric faced the same problem then that it faces now; batteries. Back then, chemical batteries had very short lives and needed to be filled with water on a regular basis. By the time WWI ended, gasoline had won out - then cars got bigger, heavier and faster - far beyond what electric at the time could provide. Research into tanks and piston prop engines for WWII pushed gasoline engines even further and later filtered into the car market.
Gasoline made sense then. Research into alternative fuels has progressed and needs a little research and time to perfect. Hybrid and electric alternatives have had research - now they need development into products.
Fossil fuels no longer make sense for several easy to point to reasons.
I find it interesting that several people and groups have modified the Toyota Prius, making it even greener. Toyota, as far as I can tell, keeps fighting this. I can't understand why Toyota doesn't step up and say: "Hey! Wanna be even greener? Buy these bolt-ons!" They should take these other people's ideas, run with them and make even more money. Backwards thinking from an otherwise progressive company.
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