Larry Burns: Reinventing the car

http://www.ted.com General Motors veep Larry Burns previews cool next-gen car design: sleek, customizable (and computer-enhanced) vehicles that run clean on hydrogen -- and pump energy back into the electrical grid when they're idle.

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Autos & Vehicles

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• Burns
• TED
• TEDtalks
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• Alternative
• energy
• Cars
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[editorgay]

Sorry -- I stand by what I said. Shame Shame Shame. There is a difference between the sharing of ideas in an open and academic forum and the promotion of a capitalist business run amok at our expense.

[roidroid]

yes, unfortuantely our best batteries still come no-where near the huge energy density of gasoline.

Electric cars make up for a lot of that by the incredible efficiency of the motors. But even the best engineered electric cars still only go a few hundred miles between charges - which is ample, yet still well below how far gasoline cars can go between refills.

Still - now they can charge in only 5 minutes, so it's no biggy to stop off for a quick recharge every few hundred miles.

[slack7639]

No problem, thank you again for your critical analysis - I did not know how to figure this out! I will share with others . . . I show YT science videos in Second Life on Sunday nights at Space Frontier . . . I think you might be a better VJ than me! . . . it's all free, unless you want to do more complex stuff . . . there are a lot of science people in there, maybe you're already on it, if not and ur interested, please IM me and I'll show you around: slack7639 Gigamon

[soundofgeek]

@slack7639:

You've just restored some of my faith in humanity. Thank you for being able and willing to change your mind in the face of evidence :-)

Oh, and thanks for the summary. I didn't actually know how the scams worked - I just knew that the claims were impossible.

[slack7639]

NASA page says water could be used as fuel, in that: The lunar water could provide resources like oxygen for astronauts to breathe and hydrogen, which could be used as rocket fuel.

[slack7639]

Question for 'Water Car' True Believers: If some people had that technology, why would cars be the first thing they try to make? Why not make power plants right next to rivers (or just use tap water) and sell the power? They could start very small (less than 1 megawatt) to show that it works. Or even sell the technology to makers of portable electronics, which don't have vested interests in oil and cars.

[slack7639]

Ok, convinced the water car is a hoax, ty. Summary: Metal hydrides are being used to make a car look like it runs on water without breaking the first law of thermodynamics. They react with water to produce hydrogen, which is then used to power the car. But since these hydrides will deplete with time, they need to be replaced and so they're actually the fuel, not the water. More energy will go into producing them than will be taken out, making them an energy carrier, just like a battery.

[soundofgeek]

@slack7639:

Helium-3 is not a component of water. It's a very promising energy source, but it has nothing to do with this nonsense about using water as a chemical fuel.

Yes, the Japanese (Genepax) water car is a hoax. There's a section on it in Wikipedia's "Water-fuelled_automobile" article. As well as that section, I highly recommend that you read the first paragraph of the article.

[slack7639]

... NASA LCROSS said water could be used for fuel ... Yes, helium-3, check out the "Polywell" on Wikipedia, used for fusion, and Google video: "Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really)" ... So you think the Japanese water car is a hoax? Do you know any place where this is debunked, or re-confirmed?

[soundofgeek]

@slack7639:

Without knowing exactly what they said, I can't say for sure. Here are two possibilities:

-As well as water, we want to find helium-3 at the lunar poles. Helium-3 is extremely valuable as a fuel for clean, safe nuclear power generation.

-Water can be split into its component hydrogen and oxygen, which can then be useful as portable fuel if you have a central source of electrical power (eg. a central nuclear reactor or solar array).

There is no available chemical energy in water.

[slack7639]

I just watched the LCROSS impact on the moon on NASA TV, looking for water. They said water can be used to make fuel.  What are they talking about?

[soundofgeek]

@slack7639:

Hydrogen is indeed 'in' water, but it takes energy to get it out. The energy required to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen exactly balances the energy gained from hydrogen in an ideal fuel cell. I fear that you, like quite a few other people, have been duped.