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New Concept Tire Could Recharge Car Battery
randomErr writes Goodyear Tire showed off its new BH03 tire that can partially recharge your electric car while driving. At the 2015 Geneva International Motor Show a new concept tire was displayed that uses heat generated while driving and converts the thermal energy to electrical power. The triple inner tube design changes pressure to maximize electrical output while adjusting to the road conditions.
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Rats.
I have to assume that any actual engineers at Ford understand Carnot efficiency, and that this is simply an effort on the part of marketing to generate social-media buzz. It's depressing, but not surprising, to see that they're succeeding.
exactly
it's better to decrease inefficiencies in a simplified system than devise complex add-on contraptions that purport to recycle lost energy, but it's so fractional, it doesn't even make up for it's own extra weight, it's own extra cost, it's own extra maintenance
it stinks of rube goldberg perpetual motion machine
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I realize this "tech" is designed for electric vehicles but if you had the ability to convert heat into a meaningful electrical source you would start with the exhaust system of a standard car and do away with the alternator. If they can't do something with that rather significant and easily accessible temperature differential (+300F) I am pretty dubious about them utilizing the relatively minor temperature differential (~30F) of tires.