Call me cynical, but I doubt the benefits of any such dramatic breakthrough would last long. As soon as the battery ability expands, the hardware and software will begin to expand their battery demands as well.
New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
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Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good thing we have VR phones and 4k displays right around the corner to "take advantage" of this increase in battery capacity! Oh, and all the Pokemon Go-like games.
If battery life is really what people care about, even over features, then everbody would be using dumbphones instead of smartphones. So as much as people cynically complain about companies, battery life isn't what people value after all.
I don't see many people claiming they want battery life over features, generalized like that.
There are plenty of people claiming to want battery life over thickness. And I don't even think a 1 cm thick phone will sell - there's a limit in that.
Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#63Call me cynical, but I doubt the benefits of any such dramatic breakthrough would last long. As soon as the battery ability expands, the hardware and software will begin to expand their battery demands as well.
Maybe in software, but I doubt that the efficiency of motors in drones or cars would change. It's not like there are abstractions to chase in hardware, are there?
Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#64Is it the case that the research was publicly-funded, but the profits are now being privatized?
This has always been the case. Researchers are free to take the results of their publicly-funded research and run. The govt. sees it as a win-win.
It's money well spent because of the jobs created. Taxes from those jobs and profits from the corporations is the ROI.
Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#65It seems like we're always hearing about the next big thing in battery technology, but they seem to stay in research forever, and never hit the consumer market. The most exciting part of this, is that they say the'll be in consumer devices early 2017. I'd love to have one in my quadcopter!
Note that having a compressed energy ready for rapid release is exactly equal to handling an explosive in your laptop :) There are a lot of experimental batteries that have like 5x capacity of the current Li-ion ones, but melt and explode when heated or crushed, which makes them effectively useless. This is one of the hardest problems in high-capacity batteries - to avoid "rapid unscheduled heat dissipation" and the…
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Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#66It seems like we're always hearing about the next big thing in battery technology, but they seem to stay in research forever, and never hit the consumer market. The most exciting part of this, is that they say the'll be in consumer devices early 2017. I'd love to have one in my quadcopter!
This one seems more plausible because it's not about making rechargeable batteries denser, it's making lithium-metal batteries rechargeable. We already know they can achieve this density.
Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good thing we have VR phones and 4k displays right around the corner to "take advantage" of this increase in battery capacity! Oh, and all the Pokemon Go-like games.
If battery life is really what people care about, even over features, then everbody would be using dumbphones instead of smartphones. So as much as people cynically complain about companies, battery life isn't what people value after all.
I don't think this is true. I've never been given a true option about batteries.
It's not like I get to choose two different versions of the same model of phone, where $a has a bigger battery, and $b has $feature. It's usually a funky mismatch between two different models, with different specs, some of which make it faster, and some of which have a bigger battery.
But I've never seen phones with a 1-to-1 comparison for batteries.
Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#68Call me cynical, but I doubt the benefits of any such dramatic breakthrough would last long. As soon as the battery ability expands, the hardware and software will begin to expand their battery demands as well.
Maybe in software, but I doubt that the efficiency of motors in drones or cars would change. It's not like there are abstractions to chase in hardware, are there?
It will decrease. Making 99% efficient engine is order of magnitude more expensive than 90%. Double the battery density and suddenly the case for lighter and expensive parts disappears.
Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#69I'm not in any way trying to undermine the research here, but I feel like it's a bit disingenuous to use the term "could" in your description.
Batteries are a difficult thing to engineer, and all this does is provide fodder for the 24-hour-news-cycle to give false hope.
Re: New batteries could make phones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long
#70The answer here isn't batteries with more capacity. The answer is:
* more areas to lock your bike/scooter/moped (electric or otherwise)
* coin-/card-operated charging stations (as in, "plug in while you shop")
* charging stations where you work (to charge your EV during the day)
I don't think swappable battery stations would be useful, since batteries are damaged by deep-discharging them, and swap-stations would end up with too many damaged batteries that way.
As more people start using EVs, it will be a no-brainer for companies (or even local electric utility companies) to start placing EV charging stations all over town.