German wind powered car crosses Australia

[Dedhed]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

-Kites and turbines are different things.

-The turbine is not deployed when the car is moving. Doing so would only lose more energy than was gained, per the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

-The kite is used to pull the car only by the force of the wind, it is not connected to the electric system at all.

-The 20% charge per hour is only when the car is plugged in, that's what "the grid" refers to.

Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that footsteps is under the impression that the kite is the turbine. ...not so much.

The kite has nothing to do with the charging of the battery. It's simply an alternative way of moving the car.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by broncocalijohn

So you have to hold a big ass kite sometimes to generate power? Cant wait to see another dude coming down the other way and their kites get tangled. BTW, so if you buy this thing, do you get the wing man/benjamin franklin as part of the package or is that considered a luxury and an add-on?

For some reason I find this mental image absolutely hillarious.

Glad to see I wasn't alone in thinking someone hadn't understood the article correctly.

[Kaylore]

Yeah the tangling kites image was actually the first thing I thought of. And having to plug your car into a big windmill is really stupid. I guess if you house on the Utah salt flats it's a sound investment.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Yeah the tangling kites image was actually the first thing I thought of. And having to plug your car into a big windmill is really stupid. I guess if you house on the Utah salt flats it's a sound investment.

Well where I'm getting caught is I thought it was goofy to be driving around with a huge mast sticking out of your car but thought the car was as much conceptual and showing that it could be done than truly practical. If the mast can't be used during driving and you'd be stopped anyways, why not plug it into the grid and just move on? If need be, affix the turbine to your house for constant power, use the grid power to power the car, and you'd make it out ahead overall. I think they should focus on making a practical car for city driving and leave these silly gadgets to once the car itself has been figured out.

[Beantown Bronco]

I only drive 3 miles to and from my commuter rail station each day and could really use some alternative mode of transport like this that is electric but doesn't require grid electricity (charging up all of the current plug-in electric vehicles out there would cost me more than filling up with gas, given today's prices). The weather here doesn't really make biking (or motorcycling) to and from the station year round very do-able, and driving a car is really a waste of gas, given that most cars get their worst mileage with such short trips. Hopefully, they can advance wind technology to the point that it's practical in the near future.

[Jetmeck]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Yeah the tangling kites image was actually the first thing I thought of. And having to plug your car into a big windmill is really stupid. I guess if you house on the Utah salt flats it's a sound investment.

Stupid ? Maybe but we need stupid people like this trying new things till one of these so called STUPID people has that Eureka moment and we can all give the middle east, big oil companies and my favorite....stock market speculators who are really ****ing us right now the big high hard one....F... you a-holes !!!

[MagicHef]

Originally Posted by Beantown Bronco

I only drive 3 miles to and from my commuter rail station each day and could really use some alternative mode of transport like this that is electric but doesn't require grid electricity (charging up all of the current plug-in electric vehicles out there would cost me more than filling up with gas, given today's prices). The weather here doesn't really make biking (or motorcycling) to and from the station year round very do-able, and driving a car is really a waste of gas, given that most cars get their worst mileage with such short trips. Hopefully, they can advance wind technology to the point that it's practical in the near future.

I don't know the specifics of your situation, but I would find it extremely surprising if it cost more to charge an electric car than it did to fill a gasoline car up. Are you including the cost of buying the car?

[Chris]

How dare you make me read about cool stuff

For shame.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Kaylore

Yeah the tangling kites image was actually the first thing I thought of. And having to plug your car into a big windmill is really stupid. I guess if you house on the Utah salt flats it's a sound investment.

Plus anytime a hot girl rocks by I will deliberately tangle my kite with hers and stunt kite her boyfriend into the abyss.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by Jetmeck

Stupid ? Maybe but we need stupid people like this trying new things till one of these so called STUPID people has that Eureka moment and we can all give the middle east, big oil companies and my favorite....stock market speculators who are really ****ing us right now the big high hard one....F... you a-holes !!!

While it is cool that they're trying new things, the comments by others have pointed out the uselessness of this particular concept. If the turbine were a product of a more efficient machine or something, yeah that technology could convert over.

The current concept for powering it is about as practical as lasso'ing a pterodactyl and having it tow you around in the grand scheme of things. Innovation and experimentation are awesome but why even power the thing with a freaking kite? What good could it possibly contribute to say, "look at this completely impractical means by which we power this vehicle!"?

[Bronco Yoda]

There's a stupid Polish joke somewhere in all of this.

[MagicHef]

Originally Posted by That One Guy

While it is cool that they're trying new things, the comments by others have pointed out the uselessness of this particular concept. If the turbine were a product of a more efficient machine or something, yeah that technology could convert over.

The current concept for powering it is about as practical as lasso'ing a pterodactyl and having it tow you around in the grand scheme of things. Innovation and experimentation are awesome but why even power the thing with a freaking kite? What good could it possibly contribute to say, "look at this completely impractical means by which we power this vehicle!"?

I agree. Also, this trip took 18 days. People have ridden bicycles across Australia in less than 12 days.

[bronclvr]

Originally Posted by Bronco Yoda

There's a stupid Polish joke somewhere in all of this.

Joke? did I hear Joke? Here you go-

She was standing in the kitchen, preparing our usual Soft-boiled eggs and toast for breakfast, wearing only the 'T' shirt that she normally slept in.

As I walked in, almost awake, she turned to me and said softly, You’ve got to make love to me this very moment!"

My eyes lit up and I thought, "I am either still dreaming or this is going to be my lucky day!"

Not wanting to lose the moment, I embraced her and then gave it my all; right there on the kitchen table.

Afterwards she said, "Thanks," and returned to the stove, her T-shirt still around her neck.

Happy, but a little puzzled, I asked,
"What was that all about?"

She explained, "The egg timer's broken."

[cutthemdown]

It's a cool adventure. Maybe someday they can make it practical for something. People will never accept needing to wait many hours to drive again. Its not practical in a busy world where we go go go go all the time.

[Houshyamama]

Originally Posted by footstepsfrom#27

This took 8 seconds for me to find on Google.



See...wasn't that easy? You're questions are answered and now you don't have to make an ass of yourself anymore.

That's not a wind powered turbine, that's a sail... something we've had for thousands of years. The car is charged by the turbine when it is parked, thus recharging the batteries so it can drive again. The turbine is not operational when the car is driving, that would increase drag and make the turbine recharger useless. This is not a perpetual motion machine.

[Chris]

Wind power out the back

[chadta]

so how do you get under overpasses ?

[Chris]

Originally Posted by chadta

so how do you get under overpasses ?

you surf over them

[broncolife]

They should build a fart powered car

[Dedhed]

My favorite part about this thread is that Footsteps has vanished after starting it, lambasting people for not reading the article, and then utterly misinterpreting the article and realizing he looks like a total douche for telling people they're douches for not getting the article.

That is classic OM stuff!

[footstepsfrom#27]

This thread is a good example of why text driven discussion forums usually deteriorate into mindless arguments over nothing. First off, I didnt' say the sail was the turbine...in fact I posted both a pix and a Youtube video of this damn thing from the start which makes it obvious how it works and it obviously doesn't show a flying windmill. Nobody who watches the video would think it did.

The point I was trying to make, albeit not well I suppose, was that this thing carries a portable turbine so you can crank the battery without plugging into the power grid...I see now I also used the word "tow" so I probably had the kite on the brain and yeah that's probably a poor choice of words but like I said in the beginning, the original story says the turbine is carried on board the car between the two seats...carried, towed, transported...whatever. The point is it carries it's own power generation system. I don't think it actually states whether it can be used while the vehicle is moving but I drew that conclusion by virtue of the fact that it doesn't have to use the turbine's energy while it's moving. Since the kite is capable of moving the car by wind power alone, it seems apparent that the portable turbine could theoretically be used to charge the battery at the same time, assuming it doesn't flip the thing over. That seems like a very problematic issue, a 20 foot pop up turbine rising from a lightweight vehicle might easily cause it to capsize. But yeah, it's probably only used when the car's motionless...I don't know or care because that really has nothing to do with the point.

The point to this story (and what's alot more significant than how I wound up wording a single post) is the fact that two dudes managed to drive what looks like a glorified go-cart 3100 miles across freaking Australia without using a drop of gas. I said this has nothing to do with where you live because obviously nowhere in this entire story is there the slightest indication that the two guys who invented this thing had any intention of marketing this as some kind of practical car you can drive around town in, yet most of the posts are arguing the impracticality of this. No kidding really? A car pulled by a huge kite isn't gonne make it on the freeway or let you take the kids to soccer practice? Duh...who said it would? It's not about that. Cripes even the headline tells the story; it's about two adventurous sorts who trekked across Australia in this contraption. I'm guessing they chose Australia since it's probably the only place they could have driven that distance without encountering insurmountable obstacles like cities and traffic, power lines, etc..

The story has nothing to do with a marketable vehicle, and it's a complete head scratcher that anyone thought so. It's a human interest thing, nothing more, and the story as well as the video make that clear. But instead this got turned upside down and made into "footsteps is a prick" and "footsteps thinks it's powered by a flying windmill". Whatever...I just decided to point out that the story itself has the answers so why not read it? Or in this case, why not watch the video? I can't imagine anyone watching the video of this thing and coming away with the impression that this is meant to go in your garage, yet people came away thinking exactly that. Why...I have no idea beyond what I've said before....people don't freaking read **** before they post.

[footstepsfrom#27]

Originally Posted by Dedhed

My favorite part about this thread is that Footsteps has vanished after starting it, lambasting people for not reading the article, and then utterly misinterpreting the article and realizing he looks like a total douche for telling people they're douches for not getting the article.

That is classic OM stuff!

Yeah, I'm obligated to post when you want me to.

[sirhcyennek81]

Originally Posted by footstepsfrom#27

Why...I have no idea beyond what I've said before....people don't freaking read **** before they post.

Balls.

[OABB]

Originally Posted by footstepsfrom#27

This thread is a good example of why text driven discussion forums usually deteriorate into mindless arguments over nothing. First off, I didnt' say the sail was the turbine...in fact I posted both a pix and a Youtube video of this damn thing from the start which makes it obvious how it works and it obviously doesn't show a flying windmill. Nobody who watches the video would think it did.

The point I was trying to make, albeit not well I suppose, was that this thing carries a portable turbine so you can crank the battery without plugging into the power grid...I see now I also used the word "tow" so I probably had the kite on the brain and yeah that's probably a poor choice of words but like I said in the beginning, the original story says the turbine is carried on board the car between the two seats...carried, towed, transported...whatever. The point is it carries it's own power generation system. I don't think it actually states whether it can be used while the vehicle is moving but I drew that conclusion by virtue of the fact that it doesn't have to use the turbine's energy while it's moving. Since the kite is capable of moving the car by wind power alone, it seems apparent that the portable turbine could theoretically be used to charge the battery at the same time, assuming it doesn't flip the thing over. That seems like a very problematic issue, a 20 foot pop up turbine rising from a lightweight vehicle might easily cause it to capsize. But yeah, it's probably only used when the car's motionless...I don't know or care because that really has nothing to do with the point.

The point to this story (and what's alot more significant than how I wound up wording a single post) is the fact that two dudes managed to drive what looks like a glorified go-cart 3100 miles across freaking Australia without using a drop of gas. I said this has nothing to do with where you live because obviously nowhere in this entire story is there the slightest indication that the two guys who invented this thing had any intention of marketing this as some kind of practical car you can drive around town in, yet most of the posts are arguing the impracticality of this. No kidding really? A car pulled by a huge kite isn't gonne make it on the freeway or let you take the kids to soccer practice? Duh...who said it would? It's not about that. Cripes even the headline tells the story; it's about two adventurous sorts who trekked across Australia in this contraption. I'm guessing they chose Australia since it's probably the only place they could have driven that distance without encountering insurmountable obstacles like cities and traffic, power lines, etc..

The story has nothing to do with a marketable vehicle, and it's a complete head scratcher that anyone thought so. It's a human interest thing, nothing more, and the story as well as the video make that clear. But instead this got turned upside down and made into "footsteps is a prick" and "footsteps thinks it's powered by a flying windmill". Whatever...I just decided to point out that the story itself has the answers so why not read it? Or in this case, why not watch the video? I can't imagine anyone watching the video of this thing and coming away with the impression that this is meant to go in your garage, yet people came away thinking exactly that. Why...I have no idea beyond what I've said before....people don't freaking read **** before they post.

Fart.

[Houshyamama]

Originally Posted by footstepsfrom#27

This thread is a good example of why text driven discussion forums usually deteriorate into mindless arguments over nothing. First off, I didnt' say the sail was the turbine...in fact I posted both a pix and a Youtube video of this damn thing from the start which makes it obvious how it works and it obviously doesn't show a flying windmill. Nobody who watches the video would think it did.

The point I was trying to make, albeit not well I suppose, was that this thing carries a portable turbine so you can crank the battery without plugging into the power grid...I see now I also used the word "tow" so I probably had the kite on the brain and yeah that's probably a poor choice of words but like I said in the beginning, the original story says the turbine is carried on board the car between the two seats...carried, towed, transported...whatever. The point is it carries it's own power generation system. I don't think it actually states whether it can be used while the vehicle is moving but I drew that conclusion by virtue of the fact that it doesn't have to use the turbine's energy while it's moving. Since the kite is capable of moving the car by wind power alone, it seems apparent that the portable turbine could theoretically be used to charge the battery at the same time, assuming it doesn't flip the thing over. That seems like a very problematic issue, a 20 foot pop up turbine rising from a lightweight vehicle might easily cause it to capsize. But yeah, it's probably only used when the car's motionless...I don't know or care because that really has nothing to do with the point.

The point to this story (and what's alot more significant than how I wound up wording a single post) is the fact that two dudes managed to drive what looks like a glorified go-cart 3100 miles across freaking Australia without using a drop of gas. I said this has nothing to do with where you live because obviously nowhere in this entire story is there the slightest indication that the two guys who invented this thing had any intention of marketing this as some kind of practical car you can drive around town in, yet most of the posts are arguing the impracticality of this. No kidding really? A car pulled by a huge kite isn't gonne make it on the freeway or let you take the kids to soccer practice? Duh...who said it would? It's not about that. Cripes even the headline tells the story; it's about two adventurous sorts who trekked across Australia in this contraption. I'm guessing they chose Australia since it's probably the only place they could have driven that distance without encountering insurmountable obstacles like cities and traffic, power lines, etc..

The story has nothing to do with a marketable vehicle, and it's a complete head scratcher that anyone thought so. It's a human interest thing, nothing more, and the story as well as the video make that clear. But instead this got turned upside down and made into "footsteps is a prick" and "footsteps thinks it's powered by a flying windmill". Whatever...I just decided to point out that the story itself has the answers so why not read it? Or in this case, why not watch the video? I can't imagine anyone watching the video of this thing and coming away with the impression that this is meant to go in your garage, yet people came away thinking exactly that. Why...I have no idea beyond what I've said before....people don't freaking read **** before they post.

Ok. So... is the windmill, like hanging from the sail? Where does the flux capacitor go?