Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates • Hacker News Board

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#11

Post by croon » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 1:59 PM UTC

dronechariots wrote: post #9

devoutsalsa wrote: post #5

I wonder if we'll ever have recharging drones that sense your car is running low, pull ahead of you, and just start towing your car for a ways so you don't even have to stop.

At that point, why not just have drone chariots that pull you the whole way

New headline: "Tesla reaches destination without expending any energy!"

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#12

Post by lapetitejort » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:00 PM UTC

Regenerative braking is so neat. I drove up a steep windy road to go on a hike with my plugin hybrid. On the way down I tried to let gravity do all of the acceleration and regenerative braking do all of the deceleration. At the bottom of the hill I had racked up +3 miles in total. Another fringe benefit is that brake pads wear out slower and produce less pollution.

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#13

Post by croon » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:01 PM UTC

temp0826 wrote: post #10

So basically teslas are wind-up toys. I wonder how efficient this could be made (I'm picturing something like a dyno)

Short answer: not at all. You're just moving the energy expenditure behind lossy generation.

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#14

Post by devoutsalsa » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:02 PM UTC

croon wrote: post #8

devoutsalsa wrote: post #5

I wonder if we'll ever have recharging drones that sense your car is running low, pull ahead of you, and just start towing your car for a ways so you don't even have to stop.

I assume this is tongue-in-cheek, but just pulling up close to you and springing out a charging cable arm would be more efficient.

Could you charge a car while driving it? I guess you can charge a laptop while using it. Why not!

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#15

Post by pcarolan » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:02 PM UTC

We have trains in chicago that reach whiskers up to charging lines above them. Same as the trolley systems in San Francisco. What if every major city to city freeway stretch had these in a lane for electric vehicles?

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#16

Post by unknown_error » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:03 PM UTC

lapetitejort wrote: post #12

Regenerative braking is so neat. I drove up a steep windy road to go on a hike with my plugin hybrid. On the way down I tried to let gravity do all of the acceleration and regenerative braking do all of the deceleration. At the bottom of the hill I had racked up +3 miles in total. Another fringe benefit is that brake pads wear out slower and produce less pollution.

Show HN: lapetitejort goes hiking, discovers perpetual motion

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#17

Post by rini17 » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

devoutsalsa wrote: post #5

I wonder if we'll ever have recharging drones that sense your car is running low, pull ahead of you, and just start towing your car for a ways so you don't even have to stop.

Or use horses or mules. Would be a sight to behold :)

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#18

Post by dhosek » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

Simulacra wrote: post #2

What if they had a Tesla merry-go-round where instead of charging your Tesla, you connected it to this giant horizontal ferris wheel that spun it around and charged the battery? It could be wind powered!

You said this as a joke, but I found myself (at least for a little while) wondering whether this might be more efficient than having the wind turbine generate electricity and then have that electricity power the charger. But then I remembered that there is the cost of moving the relatively heavy vehicle on the merry-go-round and realized it wouldn't actually work.

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#19

Post by unknown_error » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:05 PM UTC

dronechariots wrote: post #9

devoutsalsa wrote: post #5

I wonder if we'll ever have recharging drones that sense your car is running low, pull ahead of you, and just start towing your car for a ways so you don't even have to stop.

At that point, why not just have drone chariots that pull you the whole way

Add a few string lights and you have a poor man's Helios

Re: Towing a Tesla at 70 MPH replenishes battery at fast charger rates

#20

Post by Retric » Mon, Jun 21, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

croon wrote: post #8

devoutsalsa wrote: post #5

I wonder if we'll ever have recharging drones that sense your car is running low, pull ahead of you, and just start towing your car for a ways so you don't even have to stop.

I assume this is tongue-in-cheek, but just pulling up close to you and springing out a charging cable arm would be more efficient.

And even better just embed some wires in the road and charge everyone at highway speeds. Either ground-level power supply through conductive rails or inductive coils both work with different tradeoffs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_road