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Electric car that charges itself

sonomotors.com

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Re: Electric car that charges itself

#21

Post by liamkinne »

onethought wrote: post #14
dreamcompiler wrote: post #7

This idea will never be practical but it also seems it won't die. 69 miles per week of charging. Assuming the car is sitting outdoors all week and the weather is not cloudy. A Tesla can charge more than this in an hour.

A Tesla has solar panels? I’m pretty sure this car can be plugged in too. In fact it has bidirectional charging, so a parking lot of these things could (theoretically) be connected into a huge solar system charging all the cars

On their Twitter there’s video showing it getting 100W in full sunlight. That’s the equivalent to 0.5m^2 of rooftop solar. It’s just not worth the effort of putting the cells on the car.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#22

Post by onethought »

liamkinne wrote: post #21
onethought wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Tesla has solar panels? I’m pretty sure this car can be plugged in too. In fact it has bidirectional charging, so a parking lot of these things could (theoretically) be connected into a huge solar system charging all the cars

On their Twitter there’s video showing it getting 100W in full sunlight. That’s the equivalent to 0.5m^2 of rooftop solar. It’s just not worth the effort of putting the cells on the car.

So a car park of them would generate many kWs. Why isn’t it “worth” it... turning car parks into solar farms sounds pretty cool to me.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#23

Post by bobthepanda »

onethought wrote: post #22
liamkinne wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On their Twitter there’s video showing it getting 100W in full sunlight. That’s the equivalent to 0.5m^2 of rooftop solar. It’s just not worth the effort of putting the cells on the car.

So a car park of them would generate many kWs. Why isn’t it “worth” it... turning car parks into solar farms sounds pretty cool to me.

Because they'd barely charge themselves, let alone feed anything back into the grid?

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#24

Post by onethought »

bobthepanda wrote: post #23
onethought wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So a car park of them would generate many kWs. Why isn’t it “worth” it... turning car parks into solar farms sounds pretty cool to me.

Because they'd barely charge themselves, let alone feed anything back into the grid?

True. Much better to just not generate any power so that they don’t charge themselves at all and don’t feed anything to the grid.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#25

Post by fulafel »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #7

This idea will never be practical but it also seems it won't die. 69 miles per week of charging. Assuming the car is sitting outdoors all week and the weather is not cloudy. A Tesla can charge more than this in an hour.

That's enough for a lot of car use cases. And more cases if you do this in combination of a top up charge every once in a while.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#26

Post by Ekaros »

aemreunal wrote: post #9
BrissyCoder wrote: post #5

This may be a stupid question but given that these cars literally absorb light... do they pose a danger on the roads in terms of visibility to other motorists?

Hah, an interesting question and certainly not stupid at all! A quick Google search [1] suggests that a (standard?) solar panel absorbs ~2/3s of the light, so it probably reflects enough to make out the car on the road. But the question actually becomes valid and important once we discover solar panel material that can absorb even more light (think Vantablack-like absorption). Very good question! [1]: https://news.rp…

I wouldn't be worried at that point. Actual black blobs are very rare in nature and we would certainly notice them during periods when there is some light. Now, nights when they are parked is good example when likely good reflectors need to be mandated.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#27

Post by throwawayzRUU6f »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #7

This idea will never be practical but it also seems it won't die. 69 miles per week of charging. Assuming the car is sitting outdoors all week and the weather is not cloudy. A Tesla can charge more than this in an hour.

+ for the cost of these panels and assembly/maintenance complexity, you could simply get a few extra kWh of battery, helping with range, charging speed, acceleration or regeneration

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#28

Post by mike_d »

onethought wrote: post #22
liamkinne wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On their Twitter there’s video showing it getting 100W in full sunlight. That’s the equivalent to 0.5m^2 of rooftop solar. It’s just not worth the effort of putting the cells on the car.

So a car park of them would generate many kWs. Why isn’t it “worth” it... turning car parks into solar farms sounds pretty cool to me.

Around here many parking lots have covered roofs made of solar panels and electric charging stations. Much more efficient than trying to put panels at sub-optimal angles all over a car.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#29

Post by GauntletWizard »

onethought wrote: post #24
bobthepanda wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they'd barely charge themselves, let alone feed anything back into the grid?

True. Much better to just not generate any power so that they don’t charge themselves at all and don’t feed anything to the grid.

Much more effective than putting solar panels into the roofs of cars would be putting those same solar panels into solar roofs above parking lots. Much lower installation and maintenance costs.

Re: Electric car that charges itself

#30

Post by koksik202 »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #7

This idea will never be practical but it also seems it won't die. 69 miles per week of charging. Assuming the car is sitting outdoors all week and the weather is not cloudy. A Tesla can charge more than this in an hour.

For people using their cars once or twice a week to drive 10km to do groceries this will suit them and with having more housing estate with no basic amenities within walking distance this will defiantly fit families with a main car for work commute and second car for small trips like this while one parent is at work with fossil fueled car
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