Picture the scene - the sun is shining and the idea comes into your head that it might be quite nice to go for a scenic drive through the countryside. You dial a number on your mobile phone and within seconds a car appears outside your house.
You climb in, recline the seat back as far as it’ll go and quietly whisper ‘drive.’ Then, as the car glides smoothly along, you pour yourself a long cold drink and admire the scenery, occasionally barking out the odd instruction like “left at the lights,” “faster,” or “turn the MP3 up.”
Sounds like a nice dream? Well, if Dutch-US design team Mike and Maaike have their way that dream could one day be within the reach of every driver.
The duo have created an all-electric concept vehicle, known as the ATNMBL, (short for ‘Autonomobile’) that could revolutionize the way we interact with our cars, by controlling them with our voices (more pics after the jump).
Segway inventor Dean Kamen is developing a hybrid electric scooter that can run on almost anything that burns.
According to the patent, the bike has a small two-piston Stirling engine right under the seat. Though with an engine of that size, it really isn’t going to provide much juice - not much more than 5bhp.
A Stirling engine is based on tech which predates internal combustion engines by almost 100 years. It’s kinda like a steam engine in the sense that it uses external combustion. They use pistons for the crankshaft, but unlike the alternatives they have no valves for no gas ever enters or leaves the cylinders.
Tony Parker Has Built An Electric Bike Made From Junk. He Also Made A Solar And Wind-Powered Charging Station For The Bike.
Tony Parker has built an electric motorbike completely from found junk.
Why? The laid-off worker found himself with a lot of time and just began tinkering around the house.
Have you ever wanted to drive a golf ball? And no, I don’t mean hit it with a driver down the fairway in hopes of a hole-in-one. I mean get behind the wheel of a car covered in dimples which replicate the skin of a golf ball.
That’s the idea behind the Fastskinz MPG-Plus car wrap, which claims to increase gas mileage by as much 20% and in the process reskins your car to look like a four-wheeled, car-shaped golf ball. Popular Mechanics decided to put the Fastskinz MPG-Plus to the test and see if the claims of greater fuel efficiency are for real, or just a bogus marketing scheme.
A Ford Motor Company engineer has built a 3-wheel motorbike capable of getting 125 mpg.
The fuel economy expert crafted the vehicle at his home shop in Belleville, MI. It’s a street legal, two-passenger, 3-wheel motorbike that is made from aircraft materials. Oh, and it is capable of a top speed of over 100 mph.
By Andrew Williams •
April 23, 2009
A team of British designers have created a new racing car made entirely of vegetables and powered by … chocolate.
The car, named the ecoF3, has a steering wheel made of carrots, a body made of potatoes and a seat made of soybeans. The team, from World First Racing, hope that environmentally-friendly technology used in their car will be adopted by Formula 1 teams such as McLaren and world champions Ferrari.
It took 10 years, but Richard Jenkins — a British engineer from Hampshire — has broken the land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle.
The Ecotricity Greenbird, on the dry plains of Ivanpah Lake just south of Las Vegas, hit a record breaking 126.1 mph. A speed which is 10 mph faster than the previous record which was set by American Bob Schumacher in 1999, driving his Iron Duck vehicle.
Any one out there care to try this? The UK’s Register Hardware this week features a video in which Blake Farrow, a US “boffin” (for “eggead”), as they describe him, shows how to make a working solar cell using such odd ingredients as powdered donuts, Starbucks tea, a pencil, cellophane tape and Everclear. It might sound crazy at first, but the science [...]
By Andrew Williams •
March 4, 2009
Rock legend Neil Young has never made a secret of his radical eco-credentials. Now it seems he’s putting his (non-fossil fuel based) creative juices to good use by releasing an entire concept album about … electric cars.
The album, called Fork in the Road, focuses on the singer’s most recent obsession - a retooled 1959 Lincoln Continental that runs entirely on alternative energy. Its main themes are inspired by Young’s involvement with the Lincvolt Project, a collaboration between the singer and biodiesel innovator Johnathan Goodwin to develop a commercially viable electric power system for automobiles.
Following the earlier release of a single, also called Fork in the Road (video), Young’s label Warner Reprise have announced that the album will be available on April 7, and revealed the full tracklist (after the jump).
