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Re:Electric car that charges itself by liamkinne on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @03:28AM (#26473924)
On their Twitter there’s video showing it getting 100W in full sunlight. That’s the equivalent to 0.5m^2 of rooftop solar. It’s just not worth the effort of putting the cells on the car.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @03:30AM (#26473936)
So a car park of them would generate many kWs. Why isn’t it “worth” it... turning car parks into solar farms sounds pretty cool to me.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by mike_d on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @03:48AM (#26474022)
Around here many parking lots have covered roofs made of solar panels and electric charging stations. Much more efficient than trying to put panels at sub-optimal angles all over a car.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by JoeAltmaier on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @05:51PM (#26483565)
Naïvely, "more panels == more electricity". But since we haven't run out of efficient places to put panels, that means any put in ridiculous places (on top of cars; under sidewalks etc) are not a good use of panels.

Panels must be positioned to face the sun, must be unobscured, must be in daylight during prime hours to make it worthwhile. Car roofs are often none of those things.

You want car parks turned into solar stations? Then mount them in the car park over the cars, angled at the sun permanently. Its a simple change, cheaper, and works many many times better. And gets crap off your car making it lighter and reducing drag.

Re:Electric car that charges itself by bobthepanda on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @03:32AM (#26473945)
Because they'd barely charge themselves, let alone feed anything back into the grid?
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Re:Electric car that charges itself by onion2k on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @03:53AM (#26474045)
It'd be a more efficient use of money and resources to put the solar panels on a roof to generate more electricity than they'd generate on a car, and make a car with a bigger battery rather than solar panels. So yes, your sarcastic remark is actually 100% correct.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by labcomputer on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @01:50PM (#26480310)
> It'd be a more efficient use of money and resources to put the solar panels on a roof to generate more electricity than they'd generate on a car

This is an under-appreciated point by the solar car advocates.

In order to get anywhere close to a practical self-charging car, you have to put panels on an area equivalent to covering the entire surface of the car (including the windows!).

For a conventionally-shaped car, approximately 1/3rd to 2/3rds of those panels (depending on the orientation of the car w.r.t. the sun) are producing essentially zero electricity. Either because they are actually facing away from the sun, or just at such an extreme angle to the sun.

In other words, you get between 50% to 200% more power by taking those panels off the car and slapping them on a roof. The difference in practice will be much greater in urban environments because buildings tend to shade the street (where cars park).

Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @08:07PM (#26484926)
But doing it is what drives innovation... Battery tech is improving at crazy pace because everyone is using batteries for everything now.

You don't think the same would happen if wide spread adoption of solar started happening?

Arguing: "Technology isn't good enough yet, so we shouldn't try"... how do you expect to make it good enough?

Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @05:02PM (#26482928)
Right because we don’t have enough panels for cars and roofs, and must choose one.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by bobthepanda on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @05:46PM (#26483508)
Presumably the car's solar panels are not getting any sun under a roof.

A car having anything remotely close to useful solar charging requires so many goldilocks conditions to be just right that it's not worth the complexity, and it's better to invest equivalent resources into more practical solutions.

Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @07:45PM (#26484727)
Combustion Engines require so many goldilocks conditions that it is not worth the complexity. Better to invest in more practical solutions: one big engine dragging carriages is vastly more efficient.

Just to make my point really clear, This whole thread is generally arguing: Don't do innovative things, because there are other known (non-innovative) things you could do.

Cars that charge themselves in the sun is a no brainer, is it going to replace needing to ever charge them, not yet... But if we don't try we won't improve that technology.

Re:Electric car that charges itself by bobthepanda on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @08:28PM (#26485060)
That implies that all innovation is created equal and has equal payoffs.

The ICE brought about big gains for its use case even as a prototype; ICE cars don't produce poop and they wear out a lot less quickly than a horse. In comparison, flying cars or amphibious cars never really made it off the ground in a big way, because the "innovation" there resulted in a hybrid machine that did two jobs poorly and impractically, rather than having two specialized machines.

If it is really easy to point out inherent problems, like, say, the fact that most of the surface area on a car is not generally oriented at an angle to the sun conducive for generating electricity, and those aren't problems that would be solved by "innovation", why try to squeeze water from a stone?

Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @09:13PM (#26485370)
Except that panel development has meant that more energy has been generated at wider angles. Battery tech had the advantage of advances in consumer electronics, Tesla (and everyone else) literally just connected laptop batteries together.

The same thing won't happen with solar, it needs active use in novel areas. Cars are out in the sun, why not collect it? Panels aren't exactly a super rare resource, we could and should make piles of these and stick them to everything, it's literally free electricity and basically 0 maintenance.

Re:Electric car that charges itself by bobthepanda on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @10:22PM (#26485766)
> Cars are out in the sun

Are they? Cars spend a fair amount of time under things that would block sunlight; there are garages in all sorts of buildings from your bare-bones detached house garage to multistory affairs, and even if they're outside they're often parked under trees, or in streets and lots shaded by buildings. So it makes already intermittent solar even more situational.

In fact, in hot climates, people take care to park their cars in shade, because the last thing people want is for their car to be baking in the sun.

Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @10:59PM (#26485998)
Zoom in on any satellite shot of a city, or a road... count the cars vs the solar panels you see. Yes cars are out in the sun... lots of them, all the time. The fact the satellite can see it means there is solar energy in that spot, right when that photo was taken. Multiply that by "All the cars outside in the world" and it's a lot of energy. (Even if they are all still plugging in at their destinations as well).
Re:Electric car that charges itself by GauntletWizard on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @03:49AM (#26474028)
Much more effective than putting solar panels into the roofs of cars would be putting those same solar panels into solar roofs above parking lots. Much lower installation and maintenance costs.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by thombat on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @05:46AM (#26474694)
And now the parking lot has a roof, giving a nicer environment for the drivers and cars.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by Robotbeat on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @03:54AM (#26474048)
Because bidirectional car chargers cost thousands more than regular L2 chargers.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @08:09PM (#26484934)
I'm confused by this... they are built into the car already. You just plug one car into another the cost of the charger is already realised.
Re:Electric car that charges itself by unionpivo on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @05:03AM (#26474433)
because neither solar panels, cables or charging network (to connect the cars) is free (money and emissions).
Re:Electric car that charges itself by onethought on Tuesday March 16, 2021 @07:59PM (#26484861)
But the alternative (a normal EV) still requires all the same cables and charging network.

Or the other alternative, the shipping of petroleum on huge trucks to millions of locations.

But yeah, I'd draw the line at solar panels on car roof tops too... the excess is too much.