Converting the energy of a moving automobile into an efficient power source for that same automobile is one of the Holy Grails of motor transport, and new research suggests an important part of the solution could be to look at the friction generated between car tyres and the road itself.
Engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US have developed a nanogenerator that’s capable of harvesting the energy produced by the friction of a tyre rolling along the ground.
For those aren't going to RTFA no matter what: Their test vehicle was a toy car, so I've got some concerns about whether or not this will scale up to full-sized models. But if it does, it could potentially vast increase the range of electric cars, or allow them to use smaller batteries.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by BigJ on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:28PM
Ughh... yes this is a dumb idea. If the net result is to decrease rolling resistance (road-tire friction), there are proven ways to accomplish this:
1) return to hard compound rubber
2) increased tire pressure.
3) lower vehicle weight.
I understand that you could possibly just turn this feature on during deceleration, but isn't this what regenerative braking is already doing? Using the friction between the road and tire to spin the tire and thus the generator? How could this technique be additive?