
The solar-powered bike-car thingy we’ve all been waiting for - ph0rque
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/2012/12/17/the-solar-powered-bike-car-thingy-weve-all-been-waiting-for/
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mchusma
Any thoughts on the enclosure? It seems to me that making it enclosed defeats
some of the most significant benefits to a bicycle: compactness. Once
something gets over the "too big for a bike rack or my apartment" threshold,
you run into parking problems. Also, with its size, you can't go around
traffic. Despite showing this on sidewalks, I would anticipate that you in
practice couldn't do it that often. It would be highly irritating to me as a
pedestrian.

So I do love it because it is cheap & electric. I like that because it is so
large and the range is short enough to be concerning, plugging it in would be
a pain and the solar cells solve that. I don't love it because it is not a
bicycle replacement, it is a car replacement with short range and little
space. This is because expensive enough to be a considered purchase (the price
of a 2005 Hyundai Elantra) and large enough that it needs identical
parking/road space. The niche for this is seems to be people in suburban areas
who live within a few miles of frequent destinations and want to bike but not
really.

I love that people are trying to reinvent transportation, and if this is a
really niche cool thing, that's great. I would be curious to see if anyone
thinks that could have broad appeal.

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stephengillie
It can't even do 25mph. That's a deal breaker for most car users, especially
when it costs as much as a used car. This idea feels more like "How far can we
extend a bicycle?" than "How can we make a smaller, cheaper, better way for
people to transport themselves?"

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stcredzero
At 25mph, it would fill the same sort of niche that golf carts fill in some
retirement communities. Although, there are compelling arguments for
reorganizing large parts of metropolitan areas with 25mph streets. Apparently,
traffic fatalities go down and pedestrian traffic goes up.

 _> I don't love it because it is not a bicycle replacement, it is a car
replacement with short range and little space._

It is not a replacement for car or bicycle. It's an attempt at an intermediate
niche.

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ChuckMcM
Heh, 750 watt motor is a 1HP btw, back in Junior High I convinced my dad to
let me buy a 'mini-bike' with a 1.5HP Briggs&Stratton motor, then later we
"upgraded" it to a 5HP motor which involved a small bit of custom welding on
the frame and an upgraded centrifugal clutch. It was a blast for driving
around in the desert but not really a 'utility' vehicle.

That said, if they put a Lemco LEM-200 [1] (Peak power 7.8kW aka 10hp and I
put two of them in my 220lb Battlebot for about 20hp of fun) into it you could
have something.

[1] <http://www.lmcltd.net/index.php?page=motors-and-generators-2>

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bradleyland
The problem with these types of vehicles is that there's nowhere (safe) to
ride/drive them. You're not going to be able to ride this on a sidewalk,
because it's illegal in most places, so you're forced to ride on the shoulder.
A bicycle, with its inline wheels, fits nicely on a shoulder.

With this, you're stuck on the shoulder, and you don't exactly fit well. The
physics of automobile accidents are immutable. If you get in to a collision
with even a sub-compact car while driving this thing, you're dead or very
seriously injured.

Accidents involving cars and bicycles, of course, occur, but you have a narrow
profile and you're out in the open, so you can bail pretty easily. In this
thing, you're more like a motor-vehicle. Other drivers will inevitably confuse
you for a motor-vehicle, and in some places, local laws will consider this
some type of motor-vehicle.

Creating a new class of transportation is as much about the infrastructure as
it is the product itself.

~~~
oftenwrong
Drive in a lane, not on the shoulder.

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bradleyland
I see this all the time with scooters. They're motor-vehicles. Riders are
supposed to drive _in_ the lane, but here's the rub: they don't. I see it all
the time. Scooter drivers hug the edge of the road. They do so at their own
peril. The drivers behind them are confused. Does the scooter _want_ them to
pass? Is it even _legal_ to pass right now; there's a double-yellow (no
passing in the US) line on the road?

Let's accept the argument here and say that drivers of this vehicle do drive
in a lane. They are, at that point, putting themselves on equal footing with
other drivers. Driving 20 MPH on just about any street where the speed limit
is above 25 MPH is a disaster waiting to happen. You can't simply tell other
drivers that they're allowed to and expect them not to be frustrated.
Frustration leads to aggressive driving, and aggressive driving leads to
accidents.

Accidents are highest when vehicles traveling at different speeds encounter
each other. That is a statistical reality. Putting a "car" limited to 20 MPH
-- with very, very little in the way of crash protection -- on the road with
other, much heavier, automobiles is a horrible idea.

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Shivetya
First, who is this we you are talking about.

Having watched the videos, I would not crash it. I could get no idea of
stopping power and the view from inside doesn't give me the warm and fuzzy
that a front on collision will be fun.

Throw in the fact that NVH levels are very high with this item. I really see
it was one of those obscure solutions that hints at the possibilities but
suffers too many compromises to be viable.

~~~
sosuke
The first thing I looked for was the a safety cage or something, just a whole
lotta fiberglass.

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Toenex
Frankly I wasn't expecting the future to look like a French provincial postal
delivery vehicle from 1947.

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R_Edward
Living in Minneapolis/St. Paul, I'm thinking this is not likely to catch on
here. 4-5 months out of the year, the roads are icy; the air is cold, limiting
the effectiveness of the battery; and the daylight hours are short. Maybe
it'll catch on in the more temperate states.

~~~
benajnim
There are a surprising number of folks in the metro who do bicycle on even the
most brutal winter days. Typically armament includes studded tires and with a
"cabin" it would greatly cut down on the chill from the wind. If anything, I
think it would make cycling in colder weather more accessible to more people.
Also, keeping the battery indoors before going on a ride helps prevent the
"sag" in voltage experience when a battery does get cold. It could also be
kept in an insulated container and even heated with a heating element similar
to an electric blanket.

~~~
R_Edward
Oh, I've no doubt that some of the hard-core cyclists would latch on to it--
eliminating the wind chill effect would be a big score over riding on a naked
bike, but _hoi polloi,_ the people with a short commute who _could_ switch to
something like this without too much sacrifice, are going to think twice about
it.

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davidw
Looks kind of like a Piaggio Ape: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_Ape>
(pronounced AH-pay).

~~~
fernly
Ooh that's unfortunate... if you've spent any time in Italia you've seen the
ah-pay, probably been stuck in traffic behind one. They are as slow as they
are ugly and smoke and stink like the outskirts of Mordor. The less this thing
reminds anyone of an Ape, the better for it.

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brk
This looks even LESS practical than a Segway, and we saw how that went.

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Wingman4l7
Color me unconvinced, for all of the usual arguments that have been already
enumerated in the other comments. I'm beginning to think that this form of
personal transportation is akin to the flying car in terms of viability.

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stcredzero
Houston is ver hot, but very flat. I wonder if this would work with a cooler
chest air conditioner? It would be added weight, but like I said, there's few
hills in Houston.

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reedlaw
These kinds of vehicles are abundant in China and much cheaper.

[http://search8.taobao.com/search?q=%B5%E7%B6%AF+%C8%FD%C2%D6...](http://search8.taobao.com/search?q=%B5%E7%B6%AF+%C8%FD%C2%D6+%B7%E2%B1%D5&commend=all&ssid=s5-e-p1&pid=mm_14507416_2297358_8935934&suggest=0_1&source=suggest)

Most of these are under $2000. Like electric motorbikes, they can be rapidly
charged on the road all over China.

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fernly
There are dozens of velomobiles being made and sold, and some of them are the
sweetest, most beautiful little vehicles ever made. And just about every one
of them can be ordered with an aux electric assist.

For pictures and prices see velomobiles.ca, velomobiles.net, bluevelo.com,
velomobilesusa.com. And use google images "velomobile" for an array of some
truly bizarre shapes.

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SageRaven
A decade ago, I was eyeing up the "Lectra" (electric motorcycle) for work
commuting. With the price of solar panels having halved their per-watt price
in the same intervening decade, such a vehicle might make sense today.

Are there any current 100% electric motorcycles today?

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rmason
What the guys are doing at Current Motor seems way more practical but again up
North you're only using it at most six months of the year.

<http://www.currentmotor.com/>

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afterburner
The impracticality is well addressed by other comments, but the my first
reaction was: why did they choose the worst possible shade of green?

~~~
Wingman4l7
To be fair, that's just a render -- but you have a point.

Reminds me of the Microsoft Zune -- what genius thought that the best color
for a device competing with black and white iPods was poo brown? What was
wrong with, say, navy blue? Ruby red? Forest green? I always wondered if the
marketing guru who made that decision got fired.

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jstalin
I don't see how a 480w battery can power a 750 watt motor for 30 miles.

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nacker
It just needs one more ingredient to make it a must buy for its target market:
Hemp!

Introducing Kestrel, The First Road-Ready Car Built Out Of Hemp
[http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-02/introducing-
first...](http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-02/introducing-first-road-
ready-hemp-mobile)

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rorrr
Make sure you buy a life insurance with that baby, if you're planning to go on
US roads.

