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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."

28 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting, but... by dadragon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yea, but in the UK an hour of sun is all you'd need to cross it :)

    --
    God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!
  2. This will revolutionalize transportation by jukal · · Score: 2

    ...for everyone who wants to travel across australia in less than 8.5 days ...when the sun is shining.

    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 jukal · · Score: 2
      > 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

      ...hehe :) I quess my joke was bad enough to not be considered as joke ;)))

    3. Re:This will revolutionalize transportation by MADCOWbeserk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You are missing the point of the whole exercise. I was involved in the construction of solar boat in college, (only the big schools can afford car programs now) Solar and electric etc car programs, develop alot of new technologies that enter the maintstream. Lightweight construction techniques and new motor technologies help industry as whole. Solar cells themselves get field tested under stressful conditions. Although solar cars will never be sold to consumers, things that look like them will. Cheap molded composite aerodynamic autos, powered by incredibly efficient gas or hybrid engines (130 mpg or so) are necessary to get the 3rd world on wheels.

      Right now we are seeing solar panels on some cars to power small vent fans and tickle charge batteries.

    4. 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. Wow! by Hilleh · · Score: 2, Funny
    That is the coolest thing since sliced bread. And I mean, that stuffs pretty cool. Because, you know, at first you're like "Oh I have to slice my own bread." Then you're like "Holy shit! No I don't!" Then some Ninjas jump out.

    However, I digress. Kudos to UNSW for taking steps to put environmentally sound cars on the market. Granted, this technology won't be applicable everywhere. For the forseeable future, people are still going to need gas-powered cars. Though, if these are cheap enough (once mass produced), it might be very economical to have one around for daily use and only bring out the gas-powered ones on long hauls/cloudy days. Anyone know how long (on a full charge) this car can go without a significant amount of light? That's going to be a make or break factor.

  4. A ha! by vectus · · Score: 2, Funny

    The original car took 21 days, Sunswift is expected to complete in less than 7

    If the original thingy took like, 21 days, and this new thingy is going to take 7 days, then that means that

    21/7 = 3

    The new one is like, 3 times as good as the old one.

    And people say us liberal arts students are good for nothing.

    1. Re:A ha! by tony_gardner · · Score: 2

      Or with a science degree you'd know that as energy goes with the square of velocity, that the car is producing 9 times the energy (ignoring drag), and I doubt if it has a very different mass to the original, so the batteries have 9 times the energy densities of the old cells. Take your pick as to whether this is 18 or 81 times better than the original.

      This is why scientists only trust liberal arts students to do simple maths like adding up McDonalds orders, or balancing the budget.

  5. Re:New business-model? by jukal · · Score: 2
    > 1: Write free software.
    > 2: ?
    > 3: Drive solar car.
    > 4: Profit!

    No, no, no! that's completely wrong!

    1: Sell free software.
    2: Sell free software.
    3: Sell free software.
    4: Profit!
    5: Drive solar car.

  6. So... by damiam · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How long would it take the average gas-powered car to cross Australia along that route?

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    1. Re:So... by rainwalker · · Score: 2

      Well, 4000km is about 1800 miles (for those of us who can't use SI units bigger than a meter easily), and at a normal highway speed of about 65 mph you are looking at about 27.6 hours of travel time. With the right amount of caffeine, it could be done in exactly 1.15 days, plus or minus gas station time and speeding. :)

    2. Re:So... by mduell · · Score: 2

      Actually its more like 2436mi (4000*.609), so it'd take 34.8 hours at 70MPH or 24 hours at 101.5MPH (I can imagine there being many cops in the middle of Australia...)

    3. Re:So... by thanjee · · Score: 2

      it is so much easier to work in metric and keep it metric!!

      The distance is 4000 KM. The speed limit in Australia is 100KM/H in most parts.

      That means it would take 40 hours non stop travelling at the speed limit. You are also required to slow down to 50KM/H when travelling through populated areas. I don't know how many populated areas you would travel through, but there would be a few. especially at the start and finish areas.
      Of course you will need to stop for eating and toilet breaks, and perhaps even sleeping :)

      I hope there is airconditioning in the car - it can get mighty warm :)

      --
      Saying your OS is the best because more people use it is like saying MacDonalds make the best food
    4. Re:So... by 198348726583297634 · · Score: 2

      Does this bicycle come with extra wheels when one goes flat? Or a stopwatch? Or a real neat horn? I want one that flies like angels, with wings and a trumpet.

    5. Re:So... by lovebyte · · Score: 2

      Well, 4000km is about 1800 miles ..
      You are working for the NASA?

      --

      I'll do it for cheesy poofs.

  7. the audi A6... by thanasakis · · Score: 2, Insightful

    has a small solar cell fitted to its roof. When it is hot (e.g. during the summer mostly) the energy is used to power a small air-condition unit (not the car's regular A/C) to keep the interior cold. Perhaps through gradual steps like that could the automobille industry move to a more ecologicaly sound era. It wouldn't be bad if my car could draw energy from the sun, even only or non-essential systems such as the car stereo. I personally do not believe that solar-only cars are anywhere near in the future. Perhaps hybrid cars, like toytota prius are the best bet for today. They can use both gas and electricity so one could use the first to travel long distances and the second to move inside the city.

  8. It's been 20 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    a 3-fold improvement in 20 years means a 3^(1/20) = 1.056 improvement per year, or log(2^(1/1.5))/log(3^(1/20)) = 8.41 times slower than Moore's Law (doubling every 18 months). That's what you could compute with a math degree.

  9. Re:20 years by Chairboy · · Score: 2

    Really? Where do you live? Even in the US, we have electric cars. Are you in Afghanistan or something?

  10. Re:New business-model? by jukal · · Score: 2

    > "1: Sell free software."
    >
    > To bad thats not practically possible.
    > Why would I buy your free software when I can download it for free? :-)

    Because I put in a fancy package, bundle it with some bells'n'whistles and 24 hour customer care line? ;)))

  11. Re:The Sponsors by ParisTG · · Score: 2

    Hungry Jack's is the Australian franchise of Burger King. It even says so right on their website!

  12. Re:The Sponsors by awol · · Score: 2

    Actually the BK HJ relationship is vastly more complex than that http://hsc.ozlpn.com/courses/arts/legal/2002_Legal _A_Law_Society_Guirguis.pdf

    --
    "The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
  13. Re:The Sponsors by cscx · · Score: 2

    The only difference is that you can probably order oil cans of beer with your hamburger at Hungry Jack's.

  14. Unfortunately, by all reports there are... by Goonie · · Score: 2
    Back in the old days, the only speed limit out there was what speed you were prepared to risk (it wasn't even sealed till the 1970s). Nowadays, whilst the road is quite good and gunbarrel-straight, it is policed by Australian cops who generally have a zero tolerance towards speeding. Backroads, you ask? There aren't any out there. There isn't anything except the road out there. "Nullabor" apparently translates as "Nothing" from the local Aboriginal dialect...

    If you *do* want to experiment with warp factor nine, there *are* plenty of backroads in other areas of Australia, or there is the Adelaide-Darwin road. Once you cross the Northern Territory border, there's no speed limit whatsoever :)

    --

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
    --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
  15. Re:Interesting, but... by timeOday · · Score: 2

    Ok, so let's figure this out... how many minutes of sunlight does the UK average each year?

  16. Re:The Sponsors (p.s.:) by ParisTG · · Score: 2

    Sorry if it seemed like I was trying to chew you out :). It's just that Hungry Jacks is also a former sponsor of my solar car team. The owner of the franchise is a graduate of my school, so he helped us out quite a bit in the past. I was just trying to clear up the misinformation (and include a shameless plug while I'm at it :)

  17. Re:Flexible Solar Cells by Jeremi · · Score: 2
    Yeah, actually the closest thing I can imagine to a production solar-powered car would be something like this: take a standard (erm, future-standard) fuel-cell car, coat the entire body with nice flexible solar cells, and use the solar cells to recharge the battery and/or hydrolize water to refill the hydrogen tank. The solar cells wouldn't provide enough power to run the car on, but they might save you some money at the gas station, especially if you keep your car parked in sunny parking lots all day...


    Or maybe not, perhaps even then the energy generated wouldn't be significant. Depends on the efficiency of the cells and the car, I suppose.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  18. 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.