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from the are-you-*sure*-that-will-scale-up? dept.
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.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday July 08 2015, @08:25AM
"The friction between the tire and the ground consumes about 10 percent of a vehicle’s fuel," said Xudong Wang, associate professor at Wisconsin-Madison, in a press release. "That energy is wasted. So if we can convert [some of it to electricity], it could give us very good improvement in fuel efficiency."
The friction is the *thing that makes the car go forwards*. Imagine slicks on wet ice - no friction, no freaking drive, just wheel-spinning.
"if we can convert some of it to electricity" - but you already said some of it's already being converted to static electricity, what's the "if"?
"very good" - give us a figure - make a concrete claim. That way we can kick you up the fucking arse with our heavy boots when you fail horribly.
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