Here’s why we don’t have solar cars
If you spare a moment to think about things that are logical but non-existing, you’ll probably come up with a long list:
- Perpetual motion machines
- Infinite storage (based on the concept of a mathematical infinity)
- Teleportation (quantum entanglement)
- Artificial intelligence with consciousness.
These are all logical. But they don’t exist.
Same applies to solar-powered cars.
We’re mining all of the world’s most precious resources creating massive batteries (and making some inroads into more efficient batteries and those requiring different, but also rare, metals) seemingly oblivious to the fact perovskite is demonstrably better as a solar panel material than the shit we currently use that’s about 20% efficient at best.
We’[ve all been sat in a sweltering hot car on any given spring or summer day.
Cars are heat traps. And that heat has got to come from somewhere, Einstein.
So why the fuck aren’t solar-powered cars a proper thing?
So far:
- European innovators Lightyear and Sono Motors have gone to the wall
- Toyota’s Prius Prime solar roof modification was heckled for being largely a bit sub-par in doing its job
- Well what the hell have YOU done about it?
Here’s the logic:
- We ain’t gonna replace batteries or combustion engines with solar power. It can keep things topped up, but it’s no match for atomic explosions or wtaf happens inside those things
- Y’all need to lose some lumber. Cars will have to get ‘weigh’ lighter and that means you’ll need to do more HIIT, chubby cheeks. We all need to pull together to get this done
- Maybe we should get real and focus on bikes instead. You can happily pull a 40-miler on one of those “pedelec” two-wheelers with a relatively small battery. If you pulled behind you a massive — but light — trailer featuring an array of solar panels, who’s to say you couldn’t, in like 2176, go indefinitely. Like one of those perpetual motion machines, but that moves beyond its fulcrum. Editor’s note: I don’t know whether the word fulcrum works, here. But neither do I care.
I’ve just started wondering whether you could have a solar farm at your house and use the perfectly logical teleportation concept to parlay the resultant energy to your car. I’m guessing it’s hypothetically logical but I’m sure boffins would push back on it because they were lacking the vision and ambition.
So what’s realistically possible then, assuming we begrudgingly agree that teleporting energy isn’t a viable option?
- Well, there’s maglev. That’s like a tram thing where you hover over a massive length of magnetic stuff. To make that viable, we could apply some urgency — maybe the 21st century version of thumbscrews — to whoever it is lied about the discovery of superconducting material at ambient temperatures. That, or we go back to what’s actually real and whack a dome over, well, the entire world, and turn it into an ice bar.
- We could walk. Everyone’s banging on about getting fitter. So cancel cars, and have a word with yourself.
- Fly everywhere. I’m thinking if you follow my earlier advice and work on the timber, we could strengthen paper with graphene — that stuff that pretty much changes the structural integrity of everything — and make your own planes to sail through the air.
- Vacuum pumps. I haven’t given proper consideration on how you’d power the pumps, but once you had a vacuum, and providing you had some kind of reverse vacuum thing inside so you didn’t get sucked off, I reckon you could get from A to B quickly and energy-friendlyey. There are some caveats here that I’m sure the brainiacs have already ruminated, but it’s that bit about getting on and off that’s causing the greatest friction for my inner monologue about not being an authority on moving around without penetrating the earth’s surface for goodies. I’m guessing this same existential angst is wracking Elon which is why that Hyperloop concept, while superficially a great idea, is in reality utterly shit.
This is all food for the soul and I urge you to consider your own version of what efficient, sustainable transport looks like. But I can almost guarantee it won’t be a patch on any of these four.
This article was written with no help whatsoever from AI. But I did get a bit inspired by this article you should read, and then sign up to its IEEE’s newsletter.
