Getting stuck in traffic sucks, but thanks to a couple of Kiwis you might soon be feeling a little better about yourself while muttering about the brake-happy commuter ahead of you. An invention called Powertread by Justin Robertson and Brett Kemp looks to do something positive with the unending shuffling of queued cars. It's literally a series of tubes filled with water that, when run over, force their contents through a turbine to generate electricity. One car driving over one of the things generates 580 watts of electricity at 36 amps. That's not an
awful lot power, but imagine a dozen of the things lined up at a busy off-ramp, run over by thousands of impatient drivers every day, and you can see the potential. The Singaporean government does too, providing grants to fund the project and two shopping malls there have already signed up to purchase the results. Who knows whether the things will follow our favorite folk duo over to North American shores, but until then you can at least get a similar feel at
your local Burger King.
posted July 16th 2010 9:07AM
Wouldn't that just steal power from the cars?
@cloud858rk Yes, they appear to have left out the part about conservation of energy.
However, they're targeting traffic prone areas, meaning people are jamming the breaks anyway. If these are setup correctly, they could reduce the need to hit the breaks by a bit, which would mean that the energy that would have gone into your breaks, instead goes back in the grid.
@Jf I find it hard to believe that you could actually set these up in such a fashion, since every car has to break at a different time.
Even if they could, it is not a very forward looking solution, since hybrid-electric and electric cars already save the bulk of breaking energy and put it back into their batteries anyway, so you /would/ be taking energy from them.
@cloud858rk
Don't forget that gravitational potential energy changes when the object is at different heights, and the loss of this energy as the vehicle moves down an off-ramp could be easily captured without the vehicle actually using more fuel. The point about this technology is that the vehicle should already be slowing down and this helps it do so.
@cloud858rk
Absolutely right. We're spending so much money on trying to make cars more efficient, while at the same time trying to spend money to steal away their efficiency. I would almost see it as being theft to put out one of these.
@cloud858rk
Yep, this is just an expensive (and potentially sneaky) way to implement a gas tax IMO.
@cloud858rk
Not to mention the cost of installing them in the first place, the cost of replacing the tubes after they're driven over for a couple months, the cost of replacing the tubes when someone drives over them too fast, the cost of replacing them when someone slams on their breaks and tears them out of the base, and the cost of replacing several machines when someone pays too much attention to their latte, and sideswipes the whole row.
@wraith404 Hahahaha, and a very inefficient manner to implement said tax.
It's actually more like a "weight" tax on cars, if you want to be a pure skeptic.
@bahgger
What about factoring in additional suspension wear and tear and the cost of producing, shipping and installing the systems? These ideas always need high subsidies to make any sense. A better idea would be to replace existing speed bumps with energy generators but Engadget has already covered that: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/10/motionpower-speed-bump-installed-at-nj-burger-king-mcdonalds-a/
@cloud858rk Yep, but, since I had some, otherwise not completely stupid people, tell me to put a wind mill on my electric car to power the batteries while driving, I'm not surprised.
@Canucker It still looks smoother than the average highway here in Ohio......
@HansImGlueck A windmill wouldn't be a bad idea if it only was raised when the car was standing still (i.e., in park)
Cody
@barry99705
Ohio roads are a heck of a lot better than New York state roads but you've got a point!
@cloud858rk
Why aren't we spending money on using piezoelectrics to harvest the already lost power from when a vehicle drives over a road? There are vibrations that will occur in a road regardless of the efficiency of the vehicle, at least until we have flying/floating cars. These inherent vibrations, as well as the distention of the road itself, have been shown to activate piezoelectrics. Granted, the resulting voltages are quite small, but in large arrays and in busy locations they should be able to run LED street and signal lamps.
@CodyTech That's why I said "while driving", as he insisted that *that* would be a great idea 8oP
@cloud858rk
After reading this first block of comments, does anybody here actually know the difference between break and brake? It is as bad as using loose for lose. Makes me want to punch somebody.
@cloud858rk I think the point is to put these in places where everyone always has to stop. Like, before stop signs, along freeway off ramps, etc. That gives the city electricity and drives more brake pads.
@cloud858rk If this is deployed instead of speed bumps, then no. It will have exactly the same effect on MPG as a bump in the ground, but instead of the energy going into your shocks and being dissipated as heat, this will harness the motion and dissipate it as usable electricity.
@bahgger
Don't forget that the gravitational potential energy that this thing captures would otherwise have been captured by the regenerative braking of a hybrid. So it's still stealing energy from the owner of the vehicle. With regenerative braking, any external device that "helps" a vehicle slow down is taking energy that would be better used in the vehicle's battery.
Sure, it means slightly less energy would come from a powerplant somewhere. But because there's less energy in the vehicle batteries, that energy will instead come from a large number of internal combustion engines. Engines that are less efficient and harder to control the emissions of than a powerplant.
@Jf a fair point, but what this also means is that your car will slow down in direct relationship to how efficient these things are. People get used to applying a certain amount of brake to slow a car. In this case people may find themselves stopping short, or if they get used to the presence of the things, rolling into traffic by accident if they break down or merely lose efficiency over time.
Extensive testing is needed.
@Jf
"However, they're targeting traffic prone areas, meaning people are jamming the breaks anyway."
Then they are stealing the energy your hybrid would get from breaking.
Can anyone tell wat car it us? Ford or Holden? It's easy..
Btw great idea
@pple is poo
Isn't it going to happen anyway? why not make some power and speed up natural selection.
unlimited energy for, say, electric city cars. being charged by the own power they generate by wasting their power in a traffic jam.
Holden or ford test car? It's easy to tell..reply with answer
@Nickmate looks like a HiLux .. Toyota :)
@Nickmate Looks like a Nissan Patrol.
@goseki I was wrong .. its a Holden ..
No. 8 Wire strikes again.
They could also develop some type of power mat to charge your electric car while driving. So you could be producing electricity and charging your car at the same time. How is that for sustainability.
@rhollon You've got a perfectly efficient way to convert energy from one form into another? Perfect.
@rhollon
Or they could make a bed out of this stuff, that way you could tell how good your night really was by checking how much the batteries have charged.
It's not "free" electricity. Making the car go over an obstacle "costs" energy. We're not going to get more energy out of this system than we put in to it. Save the gas, use it to power a generator, and you'll get a more efficient system.
@StaticDet5
Sssssssshhhhhhh! Your not supposed to think that far ahead. Just go with it. We'll deal with the consequences later!
@NHAnimator
Besides. We have all of this stimulus money sitting here waiting for "green jobs" to crop up. We have to spend it on 'something'. This at least 'looks' green.
@NHAnimator
I like your way of thinking. Are you in the US Senate?
@StaticDet5 The trick is making the energy used to cross the obstacle less than the energy that is produced. I am assuming that they already took that into account.
@StaticDet5 The post mentions "offramps" so I assume that means it will be used when vehicles are applying the brakes. Brakes only serve to transfer kinetic energy to heat (with the exception of regenerative brakes) so it shouldn't affect fuel economy as long as it's placed properly.
@StaticDet5 That's why I said "off ramp." Cars will be slowing down and braking anyway. Why not let them generate some electricity while they're at it?
@TimStevens
Great, Tim. You just screwed things up. We (in the Senate) were all set to implement this. Now you pointed out how truly good of an idea it is. Don't plan on seeing it any time soon now.
@NHAnimator Aww, c'mon. Line the entire downhill side of the Mt. Washington access road and you could probably power the entire state.
@TimStevens
Are you kidding? I think half the road should be enough for NH. Don't forget: We need to getting running water in some of our northern towns before we worry about electricity.
@NHAnimator True. You guys should really just give up and become part of Vermont. All you need do is pledge that our cheese and syrup are superior to yours and you're welcome to join in.
@TimStevens
Are you kidding? Then you'd have a coastline. We can't have that. Besides, while it has its flaws, I'd still rather be a part of the United States. (BTW: Cabot's Hunter is one of my favorites. They must use the milk from NH cows for it.)
@rhollon That would be impossible - conservation of energy and all that jazz. Otherwise you'd have an infinite energy perpetual motion machine on your hands.
@StaticDet5 it's nice to see some smart people in the comments for once. even the people in the first thread got it.
the only places where this would make sense is where you would always want cars to be decelerating, like on a steep downward slope. even then, i have my doubts that the costs would be worth it.
engadget posts stuff like this all the time; they need to learn the law of conservation of energy.
@NHAnimator Not a drop!
@maveric101 I see you missed the "off ramp" bit in the post...?
580W? Energy is measured in watt-seconds (joules).
@Ed T
What's your point? They are reporting it in terms of how much power is generated, a much more useful unit for this case.