
Power harvesting shock absorbers increase mpg by 10% - vaksel
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/shock-absorbers-0209.html
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gravitycop
_Avadhany [...] adds, "it is a completely new paradigm of damping."_

The article neglected to mention the similar Bose [Amar G.; MIT 1951] system,
which also generates electricity:
[http://www.bose.com/learning/project_sound/bose_suspension.j...](http://www.bose.com/learning/project_sound/bose_suspension.jsp)

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tjic
> "This is a disruptive technology," Anderson says. "It's a game-changer."

It certainly is a slick hack, but "disruptive technology"?

...I do not think that that word means what you think it means...

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boredguy8
Of course it does: this is Industry 2.0!

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Gonsalu
Hmmm. Another piece of technology which increases the cost when buying the
car, increases the cost when you need to replace it, for a marginal increase
in efficiency ( _up_ to 10% -- more likely to be ~2%, and on urban routes, I'm
not betting on those gains on the highway).

Just like xenon headlights, huge starter engines for fast start-stop times,
complex injection systems, etc, these increase the costs of building and
maintenance, for little benefit, and huge profits for the auto industry.

When do we get mass-produced electric engines already?! They're not as complex
as Otto engines (thus lower maintenance costs), so when do we start producing
them in large scale to get lower prices?

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tocomment
I don't believe the 10% number. I would think energy lost to vibration and
lateral motion would be negligible compared to air resistance, tire friction,
etc.

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Jebdm
It did say "up to 10%", which I think is fairly believable since they were
testing with large vehicles.

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dattaway
Only problem is hydraulics aren't very efficient and waste much heat. They
claimed a recovery of 1 kilowatt, which is just over one horsepower (746 watts
by definition.)

Now if that vehicle has a 200 horsepower gas engine and is boosted by a 1
horsepower, a 10% claim might be stretching it. An older generation Toyota
Prius has a 10 horsepower electric motor, which can propel it over 30 mph. One
horsepower might be good for about 5 mph. I suppose there might be unusual
driving conditions that might realize a 10% increase in mpg, but not in our
world.

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Retric
The average car needs ~25HP to maintain highway speeds. So 1hp could be ~4% of
the car's energy needs. It takes a lot of energy and HP to accelerate quickly
but you don't spend a lot of time accelerating like that. At lower speeds over
bumpy roads I guess 10% might be possible.

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marketer
This is the same Zack Anderson that built the warcart
(<http://web.mit.edu/zacka/www/warcart.html>) and created the fiasco with the
charlie tickets. He is quite an impressive hacker.

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Shamiq
I remember tossing this idea at a friend, and being told that someone was
probably already working on it. I didn't have the drive and/or to follow up on
it anyway, but it's nice seeing a good idea being executed.

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DTrejo
My buddy lives down the hall from Zack Anderson and told me about this.

I remember chuckling when I heard that Zack parked his hummer w/ shocks in a
handicapped spot. He got some ugly glares.

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delackner
The code to detect reposts clearly needs updating. If a story submitted
contains a link to a previous post, shouldn't that raise a red flag?

