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Toyota is Trying to Figure Out How to Make a Car Run Forever:
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.
That's the audacious motivation behind a project by Toyota Motor Corp., Sharp Corp. 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.
[...] But the current forecast is only partly sunny because there's still some work left to reach that level of efficiency.
"This is not a technology we are going to see widely used in the next decades," said Takeshi Miyao, an auto analyst at consultancy Carnorama. "It's going to take a long time."
[...] Toyota has been testing a new solar-powered Prius since July, though it acknowledges that cars running nonstop without connecting to a hose or plug are still far away. Even so, the Toyota City-based company said the research will pay off in other ways.
Indeed, there have been some breakthroughs, mainly due to advancements by Sharp. The prototype's solar panel converts sunlight at an efficiency level of more than 34%, compared with about 20% for current panels on the market.
[...] 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, NEDO's Yamazaki said.
Or only drive it on weekends.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday September 13 2019, @09:09PM (2 children)
If it doesn't work, then try it at scale. Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
But seriously, if you can average 50 km / day for 4 days into 5 days then it is 25 miles / day for 5 days. In my case, I have a super grueling commute to work that wastes ten minutes of my day! Twice a day! And it has gone from three traffic lights to five traffic lights.
Being in the midwest I suspect I could possibly get 5 commutes per week without ever plugging in.
If this were available. If I could afford it. I'm assuming it's massively expensive.
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(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday September 14 2019, @04:01PM (1 child)
It makes a difference which part of the mid-West. North Dakota is a lot different for solar power than Texas.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday September 16 2019, @02:18PM
Somewhere kind of in between those two extremes.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.