What is Digg?85 Comments
- DestroyFascism, on 10/13/2008, -1/+28lol and you can't register an electric in Australia because the bastards can't tax it...
- BigRedCube, on 10/13/2008, -3/+20funny little islands at the ends of the earth....leading the way as usual
- ChronicColonic, on 10/13/2008, -1/+15"Damn...our compressed air car stalled. Honey, can you get out and suck-start the car again?"
- Angostura, on 10/13/2008, -1/+8This new car should be called the "Whoopee"
- Jett3, on 10/13/2008, -1/+8i read "compressed air cans," got really confused, and legitimately pondered why new zealand wouldn't have them.
- hamobu, on 10/13/2008, -2/+8Yeah, but even coal plants are way more efficient than internal gasoline engine in cars. And not everything is coal. There is solar, nuclear, etc.
- Enchorito, on 10/13/2008, -3/+8Compressed air motors are very inefficient compared to electric motors. It takes electricity to compress the air. Energy is lost as heat both in the compression of the air and in the piston. Why the extra step?
Buried for a lame "green" idea that needs to die. - wendelgee2, on 10/13/2008, -2/+6You have a stunning lack of imagination. There are green ways of making electricity.
- cheezintern, on 10/13/2008, -1/+5They've been coming to America for the last 20 years...
- snafflepaffle, on 10/13/2008, -1/+5I'll probably be dug down for this, but air cars are vaporware (both literally and figuratively.) How many years have we been hearing about them? How many are actually on the road? It's all pipe dream BS at this point.
Not saying it can't happen, just that I'll only believe it when they actually show up on the road. - SmartfulDodger, on 10/13/2008, -0/+4It looks like something out of a Pixar movie. Why can't they make a eco-friendly car that looks like a Ferrari?
- timtimes, on 10/13/2008, -0/+4Business investment opportunity for those who flunked physics in high school.
Enjoy. - palmer, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3So what? Then use an electric car. You're ignoring the substantial waste of energy involved in mechanically compressing air. Have you ever operated a bicycle pump? It gets quite hot, and that's just a low-pressure application. That heat is LOST ENERGY, which will now not be stored in the compressed-gas chamber.
- didgital, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3and there goes the price of air...
- barstegry, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3NSFW - Compressed air motorcycle
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jxstone/TurboCharger.jp ... - angryfirelord, on 10/13/2008, -5/+8I read it as "Compressed Air Cans" and thought of Spaceballs. I need to get away from the computer....
- inactive, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3Pneumatic powered tools and machinery are actually more expensive and wasteful then electric or gas. You still need another form of energy to produce the compressed air and air tends to leak after a while.
- palmer, on 10/13/2008, -2/+5Relevance? NONE.
- palmer, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3Then why not drive a coal-fired car that uses steam? Instead, you're wasting a ton of energy incurring the mechanical and thermodynamic losses of air compression.
If you want vehicles to benefit from the economies of power-production scale and to benefit from changing power sources, they should be electric. - douglasr007, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3You're not the only one who thought this. Perri-Air
- jlimon, on 10/13/2008, -1/+4Holy *****, get out of the house! He's right behind you.
- palmer, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3Because the energy sapped from the engine to do this would be greater than the energy you stored. You realize that the compressor in your air conditioner reduces your gas mileage when you run it, right?
The lack of common sense in this entire thread (on a former tech-news site) is depressing. - inactive, on 10/13/2008, -1/+4NZ is not big. Why not set up air-charging stations with mini-wind turbines charging batteries attached to each compressor/storage tank setup? Small wind turbines are small enough that they won't be an eyesore to the skyline (for those stupid NIMBY types) and would be relatively self-sustaining.
Just add a swipe card apparatus to the storage/compressor unit, or even as something as simple as a quarter slot and a timer like we have here in the US at gas staion air compressors, and you're set.
EDIT: @vaccumpony - That's what I get for not reading all the comments before commenting myself. You hit the idea first, but on a smaller scale. - tubariceroni, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3New Zealand doesn't like nuclear power....
- onelikeseabass, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2Google is a wonderful thing...
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/12/mdis-airpo ... - grungemusic3001, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2I'm currently working on a miniature compressed air car at Texas A&M that uses compressed air.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB4PZalkdPo this year's car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hxQ6t3wEhM last year's car
where we got the idea:
http://home.ctlnet.com/~robotguy67/classic_cars/ai ... - rushiku, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2Why a joystick? I mean, really, what does that add to the car? Or is it a weight concern? Do 'fly-by-wire' steering wheels and pedals really weigh that much more than a stupid joystick?
Overheard in the Airpod boardroom:
Beyond using 'green power' to fuel our little darling, I think we also need to focus on safety. How can we convey to the end-users that our car will be safe on the road?
I have an idea, instead of using standard controls that everyone is familiar and comfortable with and has years of experience using, let's use a control system that guarantees that everyone who gets in the driver's seat will have at least one accident. The tremendous amount of data we gather from these...inspired crashes will no doubt show how safe our car is when involved in single car, multiple car, and car vs semi accidents! - veriix, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2It can run to get Crysis...assuming the store isn't farther then 70 miles away and you have a full charge.
- snafflepaffle, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2Great. Run the cars on the green electricity directly without wasting the energy that it takes to compress the air and then run it through a motor.
- palmer, on 10/13/2008, -1/+3Making ELECTRICITY. Then use an electric car. Why incur more losses after that through the mechanical process of compressing air?
The guy is absolutely right. - palmer, on 10/13/2008, -1/+3"compressed fuel" != compressed air
"Also, the energy needed to compress air is a slight percentage of the energy we use with oil-based fuel."
But it's LOST through mechanical resistance in the compressor. Not only that, you haven't stored all the potential energy of the air, because a bunch of it is lost as heat during compression.
THINK IT THROUGH. - inactive, on 10/13/2008, -2/+4Awesome news. Take that Saudis. And New Zealand is a small enough country compressed air could actually work.
I'm just waiting for the USDA to release the new form of biofuel they're working on: http://tinyurl.com/6rfgca - inquebiss, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2Picture of the car?
- SmartfulDodger, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2I've heard of a car that can do this, but I can't find the article about it. I believe it was a concept car built in Germany.
My first guess would be that its an issue of adding too much weight. Compressed air cars don't have the muscle that you get out of a Hemi. To get around that issue, manufacturers typically make these cars as light-weight as possible. Air compressors tend to be pretty large and heavy, and it might make the car too sluggish to be practical. - hamobu, on 10/13/2008, -0/+2Have you ever touched cars engine? It gets quite hot. That too is a wasted energy.
- prometheanspark, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1The main loss in the compressing/decompressing of air is due to the temperature change of the air. The air heats up when compressed, the heat in the tank dissapates, then the air is very cold when it's returned and displaces the piston less than it otherwise would.
Unfortunately, at the very high pressures needed to attain an at all reasonable range in the vehicle, the losses from this effect become severe. For this reason, compressed air is most efficient at low pressures where there isn't sufficient energy density for a useful on-road vehicle.
Compressed natural gas suffers less from this effect because the final temperature is much higher (making the losses a smaller percentage), and a heat exchanger can be used to pre-heat the incoming fuel with waste heat from the engine. - SmartfulDodger, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1Palmer, while it's true that compressed fuel doesn't only refer to compressed air, my points are still valid.
I would also point out that all engines loose efficiency to mechanical resistance. Today's automobile engines typically only use 25% of the original energy to power the car. And while I believe that some efficiency is lost in a compressed air car, I highly doubt its so much as to make the car more energy intensive than a gasoline car.
Think that one through. - GeorgeTirebiter, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1All they have to do now, to actually make it efficient, is to tap into some of those large underground compressed air deposits.
- hamobu, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1There are engineering, economic and environmental chalenges with both electric and compressed air car. It is not clear which one is better at this moment.
- davidlt, on 12/31/2008, -0/+1Good one. George! lol!
I love new technology, but will this ever get off the ground?
Heating/Cooling Installation, Furnace Central Air Conditioning Installation, Install Quote
http://duct-911.com/install.php http://hoffmanheating.net/gas-furnaces.html http://www.cleanmyfurnace.com/custom/index.cfm?ID= ... - hamobu, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1Coal fired cars that use steam? I guess I will drive and my wife will operate furnace.
- gixxer600, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1lol surprised not a lot of thumbs up
- rushiku, on 10/14/2008, -0/+1Motorcycles have standard motorcycle controls, and yes, if you choose the to take the highly recommended route of earning your motorcycle license through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's weekend course, they will show you how to use them - the course assumes you had never seen a motorcycle until you showed up to the class and starts from there.
Also, driver's ed is a _car_ driving class during which you are taught how to use standard car controls. Pass the class and you may drive any vehicle, as long as it is a 4 wheeled vehicle under a certain weight or a motor-driven cycle with a motor under 50ccs (moped, scooter, etc, not really any faster than you could go on a bicycle) - BufordT, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1Air Jammer, Road Rammer!!!!!
- yosserhughes, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I can just see me thrashing down the 405 in this.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/12/mdis-airpo ... - TVarmy, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1Agreed. It's only as efficient as the machine compressing the air, and the transmission that takes the energy of the escaping air. It could get that energy from a carbon-neutral energy source, like wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, or solar panels, but I'm wondering if this has the range or efficiency of a lithium ion or even NiMH battery pack.
- BlaqReaper, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1@SmarftfulDogder
http://www.teslamotors.com/design/gallery-body.php - inactive, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1Car Ramrod
- jhoogy, on 10/14/2008, -0/+1Yes I know going through a energy conversion step is not the most efficient use of it. Maybe its a weight issue though. The weight of carrying compressed air to heavy batteries may in fact make it more energy efficient. Not sure if this is case though. Just a thought for the reason they are planning on going through this process.
- TritonX, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1Are those ugly things really faster than walking or a bike ?
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