Car of The Future ?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaShark @ Sep 19 2006, 06:02 PM) [snapback]321900[/snapback]</div>

WOW!!! That's SO Cool!!! I love those technological Gizmo cars of the future....I guess thats why I drive a Prius!!! I Love technology!!! Thanx for the video link!!!

Retro

 

Allen Alda drove that car on the Nat. Geographic Channel 2-3 years ago. It is really nice technology. GM put it in my hands and I will drive it. OK I will need on road refueling, or some where to get the hydrogen. BTW how far can I go between fill ups. In the end I do not want to trash this. It is great technology and the Left hand Right hand drive is not something I have seen before. Truly a world car. So put one in my hands and a place to fill it up!!! GM, Ford, et al are you hanging around here? Are you listening? I would like you to put America back in the for front of automotive technology. Just a hint it will not be Hummers and Excursions. Put America back to work! We have the engineers that can do the work. Give them money, set them loose and let them create. Be bold do not look at the next quarter cash flow look at tomorrow and put tomorrow in our hands today.

 

Just like the EV1. I want one and I'll never be able get one.

 

I love the technology. I can guaranty that the first ones on the market whenever that is will not look like that. They will be more like our cars with the pedals and all. People will not change that much that fast. I for one would love to have that car. No foot pedals and you can drive from ether side how cool. Plus the view and all the tech, I don’t go far from home so I could have a hydrogen tank in by garage. Oh and absolutely no pollution what so ever. Can you imagine the state telling you to have it smoged.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaShark @ Sep 19 2006, 03:02 PM) [snapback]321900[/snapback]</div>

Ug. Don't even get me started.

Stick batteries in the thing, and it could be available (and fuelable) today! In fact, the last car that GM officially called "the car of the future" was the EV1 - a battery car that was practical TEN YEARS ago. One of the main reasons we don't have any battery cars available today is because of the PROMISE of gee-wiz fuel cell vehicles like this. Take away what is possible today and pin everything on the hope of something better in the future. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

 

Hydrogen again? I thought we'd been through this already.

 

Anytime new technology is available, I get excited. I was a little concerned about the car running on sea water as I'm not too keen on releasing salt in regions where those quantities of salt don't normally reside. It would probably render a lot of our native plants and animals extinct. But, after watching the complete video, I now see that it runs on hydrogen and oxygen which is much more exciting to me. I see that water vapor is the only emission released but have to ask how much convential energy would be required to separate out the hydrogen from the salt water. If our cars don't pollute, but the harnessing of the energy that's required does, what's the point? One other concern, the transpiration of water vapor emitted by rain forests are known to affect wide spread weather patterns. Is there a possibility that billions of cars on the road emitting water vapor would adversely affect weather in a way that may be catastrophic?

 

Seems to me for an additional $10k, I should get a contraption that mounts to the wall in my garage that spends all day pulling hydrogen out of the atmosphere.

When I get home at night, I hook up the hose, fill up the onboard tanks and I'm good for another few days.

You'd think the thing would run forever with so few mechanical parts, you'd never need an oil change...

If GM can come to market with this at about $25,000 I think they'll be much like the Prius... Waiting list...

 

If the hydrogen is coming from water, why does it need to be salt water? Obviously, salt would be a by-product of hydrogen production. I suppose in the Northern States, we could save that salt for ice melt on the driveway :blink:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fatfenders @ Sep 20 2006, 12:29 PM) [snapback]322327[/snapback]</div>

good question! i'm feeling deathly ill today but could swear that they mentioned salt water. maybe it's easier to extract hyrdrogen from salt water????

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Sep 20 2006, 07:44 AM) [snapback]322292[/snapback]</div>

The problem is that it is NOT available.

Another problem is that the electricity it would take to extract hydrogen from water will take you several times as far if it was used instead to power your car directly. Besides, I have a delivery system already installed in my home (it's called a "plug") for electricity and there is no delivery system for hydrogen, yet. Add the power needed for storage and transportation of hydrogen to its market and it becomes overwhelming. On top of that Darelldd will describe to you how he makes his own electricity on his roof.

This is a distracting dream. What I want to hear is why they keep turning our heads with this dream.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Sep 20 2006, 09:44 AM) [snapback]322292[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for considering this aspect - as it is the nail in the coffin for H2. The amount of energy required to make/store/transport H2 is several times greater than for something more simple: The battery electric car.

No, this isn't a concern - at least no more than from the cars we drive today. About the same amount of warm water is emitted from a gasoline car's tailpipe today. A Battery EV emits NOTHING, though generation of the power is always going to be a concern of course.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Sep 20 2006, 09:48 AM) [snapback]322294[/snapback]</div>

I wouldn't want to pay for all the energy that's required to perform that task, however. Might as well just plug in a battery car for 1/4 the energy bill.

Tons of moving parts, actually. The fuel cell stack is amazingly complicated with tons of plumbing, pumps, coolant, etc. A Battery electric car has far fewer moving parts, and has proven to be for more reliable. A FCV at idle consumes about as much energy as my BEV consumes when driving at about 30mph.

Please... don't hold your breath!


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fatfenders @ Sep 20 2006, 10:29 AM) [snapback]322327[/snapback]</div>

It doesn't. And in fact today comes mostly from fossil fuels, of course. The reason we'd WANT to use salt water is because fresh water supplies in much of the world is very scarce indeed. Salt water is the only kind of water we have in abundance. And it'll take a LOT of water.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Allannde @ Sep 20 2006, 12:57 PM) [snapback]322402[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for this, Allan!

 

darelldd to the rescue! maybe you can answer another question that i've long had.....

why is it "good" to consider/purchase a battery operated car when you have to plug it in to charge it with an energy source that's largely comprised of a very polluting, dirty coal source?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Sep 20 2006, 01:16 PM) [snapback]322418[/snapback]</div>

There is no "good" here. EVs don't "clean" the air as some claim. What we're after is the better of all evils. We don't have a perfect solution to our transportation needs - what we have is a *better* solution.

Coal power sucks today. No question about it. But then so does gasoline power, and we seem plenty happy to continue down that path. Even when powered by coal, an EV is still cleaner than a gas car - well to wheels - for most of the commonly measured pollutants. The goal should be to clean up the power grid, not point fingers at EVs. If we have dirty power - we're already using that dirty power to cool/heat/clean/light our homes, and to pump our water and make our gasoline. Electricity is used to make gasoline, so you have this dirty electricity AND the gasoline to deal with in a gas car. In an EV, you only have the electricity to contend with. The best part - you can make electricity without using any coal. Electricity is the ultimate flex fuel. It can be made from just about anything - including burning gasoline as in the Prius...

I have more, but not enough time to write! Lots of this info is in the FAQs on my site.

 

Hydrogen power? Whatever happened to my turbine car? How about a turbine powered by hydrogen? Now THAT would be something.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Sep 20 2006, 11:41 AM) [snapback]322333[/snapback]</div>

If I'm not mistaken electrolysis is more efficent with salt water instead of fresh water. You'd also want to have really hot water to increase the efficiency, but salt water at 1000 deg C is pretty corrosive.

 

I saw an episode of Myth Busters they made hydrogen and it did not look to terribly energy consuming or complicated. Although the time and amount of water used to produce a very small cylinder full of hydrogen was incredible. Again they made it themselves so I doubt it was very efficient. The contraption was huge, it would fill a 2 car garage to the point that you would have to leave the car outside do to the water tanks.

My question is this if we all started using water-powered vehicles would the water vapor turn into rain and fall back into the ocean. Would we just lower the sea level and cause the earths humidity to rise turning the earth into a humid swampland.

 

There's a scientist who works for the aerospace museum at which I volunteer; he contends that individual, residentially-sized solar powered hydrogen extraction plants could be constructed using current (no pun intended) technology, and would be capable of providing enough to fuel a light-duty vehicle, used non-commercially.

He also says that he's building one at his home.

I checked; he lives a safe distance away from me.

 

thanks darell,

you state some obvious points on the benefits of EV over gas but i guess my brain doesn't always see the obvious. :huh:

i'm glad you mentioned your site. i'm working so don't have a ton of time to get through it all but i noticed the chilipepper thingy. i clicked on their site and this is exactly what i need to make me happy. i'm always concerned about wasting so much water by running the shower ahead of time to get access to hot water. it this thing works, it'll be a dream for me. i'll get thru the rest of your site later. darelldd to the rescue again!