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Solar Car To Retrace Cross-Australian Route

Posted by timothy on from the too-bad-about-the-ac dept.

Dave Snowdon writes "Its been 20 years since Quiet Achiever, the first solar car, crossed Australia from West to East (~4000km). Sunswift 2, the UNSW solar car is set to retrace the original route, in order to set a new transcontinental record. The original car took 21 days, Sunswift is expected to complete in less than 7."

3 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This will revolutionalize transportation by madenosine · · Score: 3, Informative

    not yet. These cars are actually nothing like the cars we drive yet. There are several obstacles to overcome before they become in widespread use

    1) These cars can only hold one person, and they can barely hold one person. It is really uncomfortable, barely tolerable. Weight is a huge factor; carrying many people is a big problem

    2) These things are expensive! (Mainly the solar panels)

    3) The maximum speed of most cars (which is actually rapidly improving) is barely high enough for the highway.

    4) You can only drive so far in the night. The batteries arent that strong

    5) The super-sleek designs cannot be used if these cars are going to cary more people/things. (they need more power to overcome the resistance of the air)

    for more info, here is the website of arguably the best north american team. it's full of info

  2. Re:This will revolutionalize transportation by ferds32 · · Score: 2, Informative
    not yet. These cars are actually nothing like the cars we drive yet. There are several obstacles to overcome before they become in widespread use snip 3) The maximum speed of most cars (which is actually rapidly improving) is barely high enough for the highway.

    Your other points are solid but... Our car has been `unofficially' clocked at 139 km/h (about 85 m/h) and can quite happily hold 120 km/h (about 73 m/h). Sunswift (the car referred to in the posting) is a good bit better than ours. There are no races where it is in our advantage to hold such speeds, but the cars can perform where necessary!

    Tom Rowlands
    (Sorry, I can't sign this.)

  3. too bloody long by blisspix · · Score: 3, Informative

    been there, done that. Perth to Melbourne in 3.5 days, taking into account sleeping at night and such. You'd be nuts to go any faster, it's too hot along the Nullabor.