SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
No more brakes for cars of the future:
Electric cars of the future could be able to ditch conventional brake technology in favour of powerful regeneration by battery-powered motors.
[...] Electric cars already use a combination of conventional friction braking and brake regeneration. The latter slows down vehicles using resistance from the same electric motor that propels the car, feeding that energy into the car's battery to extend its range.
DS, Citroen's luxury arm, said it is "exploring whether regenerative braking alone could eventually be the sole method to slow cars down, helping to better recharge the battery in the process, and doing away with conventional brake discs and pads".
[...] [Conventional brake pads and drums] produce "brake dust", fine particles of metallic material that separates from the pad and disc as part of the braking process.
[...] Dr Asma Beji, a non-exhaust particles expert, said in June 2021 that "the impact on health of brake wear particles is undeniable and cannot be neglected".
[...] Environmental researcher Dr Liza Selley, published a paper for the MRC Centre for Environment and Health at King's College London and Imperial College London in 2020 that suggested "diesel fumes and brake dust appear to be as bad as each other in terms of toxicity in macrophages".
[...] "Macrophages protect the lung from microbes and infections and regulate inflammation, but we found that when they're exposed to brake dust they can no longer take up bacteria.
"Worryingly, this means that brake dust could be contributing to what I call 'London throat' – the constant froggy feeling and string of coughs and colds that city dwellers endure – and more serious infections like pneumonia or bronchitis which we already know to be influenced by diesel exhaust exposure."
DS and other manufacturers including Jaguar and Porsche participate in Formula E electric car racing. The series will eliminate rear disc brakes from its next-generation machines in a bid to improve real-world research into the performance potential of purely regenerative braking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 12 2022, @09:04PM
this is all my assumption:
with three phase wiring and AC it should be possible to "recycle the electrons".
for DC, the electrons run one way only.
for AC, it should be possible to "capture" the energy stored inside the situation of "flowing electrons". that is, if the source of the electron flow is physically and geometrically a circle, the moving electron flow should be able to be "frozen" thru time ... whatever. the triangle is the only one where you can "tease" one side of a better, "lower energy" possibility on the next side only to break the promise and instead tease the next one ... thus freezing the flow thru time (with resistance loss of wiring ofc) blaming it all on the circle shape, which is "greatest volume with least circumference". 3-phase w/ neutral thingy? it should turn forever but for extraction of torque ...
it should be possible to use mechanical brakes to entice a electrical setup to flow in reverse without rewiring if it is moving as a whole. "a change in ..." and all that. however, rewiring (power mosfets and digital logic and all that) is prolly more efficient.
i have never driven "one pedal". however, i used to shift to neutral in my ice-only car when approaching a distant red-light (*) ... i think i would prefer a pedal to "go" and a pedal to "stop -and/or regenerate" ... i assume with "one pedal" i have to personally judge what a coasting distance should be instead of just plain turning the car into a "motorless buggy" slowing thru friction alone.
i had to re-learn "coasting distance" with my e-bike but i love it. it seems to coast forever :D squeezing the right-brake level will activate "regeneration" however. which funnily doesn't work very good (stutters) if the battery is close to full ... good thing the left-one is mechanical.
if a battery performance is at 99% to go from 0m to 100m in x seconds and then you use the same motor to charge the battery and it takes less then x seconds and a distance of 100m to full stop you will have exceeded the battery performance. so maybe it's a good idea to keep mechanical brakes ... or a super capacitor?
(*) some people say this is bad for gearbox/torque converter? i never got problems from it. however motor then uses benzin as in idle mode (minimum cylinder fillings -aka- RPM) and internal motor friction is removed from overall vehicle movement. but i can see that this "saving" is bad for some :P