Student Killed Driving Solar Car 847
Lev13than writes "Tragedy struck the University of Toronto's Blue Sky Solar Racing Team on Thursday when 21-year old student Andrew Frow was killed in a car accident. It appears that Frow lost control of the low-riding experimental car and was struck by a minivan head-on. The team was driving from Stratford to Waterloo (about an hour west of Toronto) as part of a tour of universities in Ontario and Quebec to mark the one-year anniversary of the 2003 Blackout. This is a big setback for solar power advocates, especially as the blackout anniversary will pass with remedial legislation stranded in Congress. More information on the accident is available here." The vehicle's design is not really street-safe - this will be a problem as more efficient, lighter cars share the road with Hummers.
It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)
bad design, not the power (Score:1, Insightful)
Maybe make more sturdy solar cars?
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hummers (Score:3, Insightful)
doesn't matter if it's a hummer or not. (Score:5, Insightful)
How can you compare the two (Score:2, Insightful)
R E S P E C T? (Score:3, Insightful)
I have seen plenty of accidents with 15 passenger vans, two ton service vans, semis (which seem more common than Hummers), etc, that have just as bad (if not worse) impacts with other vehicles.
Who's driving whom? (Score:5, Insightful)
What was the steering mechanism in that experimental car? Drive by wire? What failed? The story would more accurately have specified a collision of an "experimental steering" car, than a solar car, unless the steering was conventional.
It's not that sad (Score:2, Insightful)
When it's Bus vs. Bicycle, the bus ALWAYS wins.
Experimental vehicles (Score:5, Insightful)
He may not have been returning from orbit, or travelled at supersonic speed. But his shadow will always be a mile long.
WTF?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, lets blame the big, bad, SUV because your car is unsafe. I realize that the Hummer is the mortal enemy of solar car advoates everywhere but how is this possibly relevant? If you follow that logic we should ban Semi-trucks from the road as well. We've got to make it safe for experimental solar car vehicles, right?
Gimme a break. This is a tragedy, and you're trying to spin in into an anti-SUV infomercial.
Comment on University of Waterloo's general newsgr (Score:3, Insightful)
> > Solar cars from five university teams will be on display later today
> > at the Student Life Centre. The appearanace is part of the _Canadian
> > Solar Tour,_ an event sponsored by the Government of Ontario, and VIA
> > RAIL Canada. The cars are travelling from Windsor to Quebec, and will
> Apparently one of the cars didn't make it here. That must put a damper on
> the whole event.
And perhaps put a few people back in touch with reality?
Every time I see these solar car things, I'm reminded of the saying
"Little boys play with little toys, and big boys play with big toys.".
Supposedly the purpose of all these events is to promote solar
energy as a viable alternative to conventional energy sources.
That's certainly an admirable goal, but the whole point seems
to have been lost to the participants long ago.
As an exercise for engineering students, designing and building
such a vehicle can be a valuable experience, but solar energy
is only a small part of the project, and it seems silly to me
to think that these events, in any way but the most superficial,
actually promote the practical use of solar energy.
If that were the real goal, the projects would spend nearly all
their time working on the energy part of the task. But instead
nearly all the time is spent on making the projects look like
solar energy is practical. i.e. they have to completely design
and build the entire vehicle from the ground up, totally ignoring
a hundred years of engineering that have already gone into modern
passenger vehicles. Almost all the effort goes not into the
solar aspect of the vehicle, but into designing something that will
go faster and farther than other similarly designed vehicles.
i.e. extreme streamlining, removing as much weight as possible,
providing as little passenger and cargo space as possible, etc.
It becomes a contest to see who can design the most energy-efficient
vehicle, with solar power itself becoming the constant factor rather
than the variable that they really should be trying to improve.
If solar energy were the real goal, they would start with a
standard passenger vehicle (a mini, or a truck, or anything between)
and put 90% of the work into making that work with solar energy
as the primary power supply. That would be a true demonstration
of its practicality, and would put the experimentation back into
solar energy research rather than into aerodynamics, etc.
But instead, they spend most of the time reinventing the wheel,
and in the process throwing out such things as passenger and
cargo capacity, not to mention the safety and road-worthiness
with which modern commercial vehicles are packed, and with which
these toys are obviously not. I wonder why they are even allowed
to drive on public roads (except as a parade float).
In terms of energy efficiency, these vehicles are accompanied by
several support vehicles, all conventionally fueled. The result
is an expensive, slow, and unsafe vehicle that transports one person
with no luggage, and burns ten times as much gasoline as would a
small inexpensive car.
In terms of promoting the practical use of solar energy,
this project has just proven what a joke it always was.
It's just unfortunate that it had to happen in the way it did,
and we can only hope that it hasn't hurt its alleged goal too much.
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:doesn't matter if it's a hummer or not. (Score:4, Insightful)
True, including a wall if the vehicle is traveling at any speed. The problem here was not the minivan. The problem was un un-streetworthy vehicle that had to forego safety in an attempt to achieve efficiency. I'm sure the same vehicle traveling at 40mph that ran into a wall would have killed the driver just as effectively.
This is more evidence of why we still use "inefficient" heavy vehicles. It's not just the efficiency of the vehicle that counts, but survivability in a crash.
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:5, Insightful)
strong, fast, cheap. Pick two.
-1 Illegal Copyright Violation? (Score:2, Insightful)
For a fee. Which is perfectly alright - these "value added" services cost money.
What? Not worth it? But you claim that it is "The most detailed story I've read about this." Sounds like the Record managed to add value to me...
Bikes (Score:3, Insightful)
Dont know about america, but in the rest of the world we have 44 ton trucks, 3 ton vans, 2 ton cars, and 200lb bikes sharing the road, and we seem to cope pretty well.
Re:So .. do we get rid of... (Score:2, Insightful)
I agree. The big vehicles have their uses, like towing big loads through rough terrain. But for just going to pick up groceries, come on... Maybe SUVs should have their own class of vehicle, with a different type of licence. Then they could be only permitted in certain areas, where they are actually the right tool for the job.
Re:SUVs shouldn't really be a problem... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So .. do we get rid of... (Score:3, Insightful)
If your choice is HUMMER's then you should also ban vans, pickup trucks, single-decker and double decker buses, lorries, trucks, not forgetting Hackney taxi's, and anything else that's bigger than a HUMMER.
There's an interesting meta-point here! (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe the real answer is to get these SUVs and minivans off the road, and establish weight and bumper-height limits for cars.
Re:Hummers (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:woo (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)
Concern for his family, is worthwhile.
Concern for his concerns is worthwhile.
Concern for the car is also worthwhile, since it is a positive concept that may be damaged by this tragic accident.
Re:Hummers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So .. do we get rid of... (Score:4, Insightful)
One could even argue highways ARE for large cars and trucks, not for little experimental vehicles that can't even stay on their own lane
Re:survived (Score:3, Insightful)
exactly the opposite (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:3, Insightful)
(For you hummer drivers out there, a pushbike is a human propelled vehicle with two wheels that, in cities, is pretty much the fastest form of transport for A-B you can have, faster then Motorbikes)
Re:WTF?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
You need a better license, more inspections, a better driving record.
And the legal requirements for making a semi-truck require it to be built far safer.
One of the problems with Hummers, unlike Semi-trucks, is that they have high bumpers. These bumpers sometimes start ABOVE the bumber/hood of a small vehicle.
Semi-trucks are legally required to have lower bumpers that alway make contact with the small car bumpers.
Re:It's sad (Score:0, Insightful)
Anyway, the car could have changed the way that people live. Think of all the africans who can't afford gazoline...
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Bad taste (Score:2, Insightful)
I wish this story had been posted without the obligatory message thread. While the technical subject is a good source of conversation, it seems somewhat unimportant and disrepectful in this case.
I do not know anyone involved in the incident, but when posting to this board, please assume that someone who does will read your comment. Let's keep this place a little more sane and intelligent.
Re:WTF?!? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:5, Insightful)
This was a 2-lane highway (with typical speeds around 55mph, if I remember that area right?), and the solar car was hit when it swerved into the oncoming lane. That could be a fatal even for someone driving a larger vehicle.
So the more interesting question to me would be what caused the driver lost control.
--Bruce Fields
Bad things keep happening to Bluesky (Score:4, Insightful)
As the CTV article stated, one of Bluesky's cars was T-boned just south of U of T campus two years ago. But also, at the end of last summer a pickup driven by a Bluesky member with their solar car in tow flipped somewhere in the northern states, resulting in a hospitilization.
The fact that Bluesky is having an accident every year, to me, indicates that these people are perhaps being pushed a little too hard, and perhaps the cars are not being designed with the driver's safety in mind (and I'm not just talking about the durability of the vehical but also such things as the driver's visibilty of the road and reliability of his control systems).
[This is a repost of an AC post I made; didn't realise I was logged out]
Some observations (Score:5, Insightful)
As an out of control vehicle it could have has easily been hit by a truck as a Hummer and had the same outcome, perhaps even an impact with a small hybrid Prius would have had the same outcome (but been far more ironic).
The need to sacrifice weight to gain performance obviously led to some bad design choices. That said, solar power contests should probably be split into 2 categories:
1. No minimum weight, but only on closed courses.
2. Well-defined minimum crash worthiness, minimum weight for vehicle, still require lead and chaser vehicles on public roads. Some well established roadworthiness test by some officiating board before vehicles are taken on public roads.
Breakthroughs in Solar efficiency and conversion to actual horsepower are what this competition should motivate, not design of balsa wood enclosures to hurl down public highways.
I feel for the team and student who lost his life. I'm sure they didn't think they were taking undue risks, but they probably were.
I doubt this will have real long-term negative impact on Solar Power development. It's not like this out of control vehicle also took out a sideline of spectator Nuns. Nor is it hard to imagine the corrective action to keep this safe (as outlined above).
It isn't about the weight of the car. (Score:5, Insightful)
In the US, poeple believe that SUVs are the safest, but the fatality record of SUVs is only about as good as that of a mid-sized car. While a heavier vehicle may be more "survivable", the mid-sized car, with its better braking, lower center of gravity (less roll-over potential) and better handling can better avoid getting into an accident in the first place.
Re:How can you compare the two (Score:2, Insightful)
And hummers were?
Not that its realy the issue, as stated before a small solar car would loose to just about anything. It is interesting to note though that the conversation has evolved to compare the 2 most extreme cases. Hummers get an average of 10 miles to a galon, are the largest vehicle on the road (not countinig comercial or construction vehicles) and were specificly designed for rugged off-road use. Solar cars on the other hand, are designed to fight energy and polution problems. As research continues and more effecient designs emerge it will not be long before they are available to the public. Call it flame bait, and off topic, but truly the solar car has more right to the road then the hummer.
people who hate hummers [fuh2.com]
Re:It's not that sad (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:It's sad (Score:5, Insightful)
Needs of the few etc. etc.
Linkage? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't see what the two have to do with each other. Was he carrying the sponsoring Senator/Congressman in the car with him? And I don't know that the anniversary has anything to do with the bill...in fact, I'd overwhelmingly prefer as few arbitrary deadlines as possible when legislators are working on laws that affect my life, thank you.
Re:It isn't about the weight of the car. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's because Japan is one big traffic jam. Cars in cities rarely exceed walking speed.
Re:doesn't matter if it's a hummer or not. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:But they are safer (Score:3, Insightful)
Got proof for that? 'cuz it sound pretty counter-intuitive to me. See, in case you didn't know, the kinetic energy of one of these vehicles is equal to their mass times their velocity. IOW, a heavy SUV carries a great deal more energy at speed compared to a smaller vehicle. So, in an accident between two SUVs, more energy must be dissipated in the collision. Tell me again how this somehow makes the situation better?
By contrast, smaller vehicles carry less total kinetic energy, meaning that things like crumple zones, air bags, seat belts, etc, can be more effective, since there's less total energy to dissipate in the event of an accident. Moreover, it's silly to disregard rollover issues with SUVs. After all, if an SUV t-bones another SUV, and that SUV rolls over, the passengers are probably much worse off than if it had been two smaller vehicles. And I'd be surprised if you could find any SUV without an increased rollover risk, simply due to their design (the center of mass is moved up much higher than on traditional vehicles).
Sorry, but IMHO, SUVs are only designed to give the illusion of increased safety.
This is getting a little out of hand... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm as green as the next tree-hugging dirt worshipper, but I don't see how we can blame this on GM for making disgustingly huge wastes of resources or on the people who buy them. If this guy had been on a bike, would this have made it to the front page? Of course not.
Let's stow the "Hummers are wasteful" arguments and just recognize that a brave person lost their life in an experimental vehicle. Let's save these arguments for a topic where it actually matters.
Inherent Risk (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm curious to see how this will affect solar racing rules. It's not like they're going to require crash testing of your half million dollar prototype that you bring to the race. Personally, I think there's probably a lot more room to be stricter with accident avoidance stuff, like making sure your steering and suspension is REALLY secure. My team nearly lost its car to a suspension failure, while going 65 on an interstate down a hill towards a bridge over a very deep chasm. The driver kept it kinda under control, but we got lucky. Turns out there was nothing inherently wrong with our design, aside from the fact that it wasn't sufficiently redundant to resist the force of miniscule human error in construction, followed by 1000 miles of road wear. Point is, wheels just don't fall off of modern production automobiles, but things like that happen with experimental prototypes.
On a personal note, driving a solar car that I built myself was one of the greatest thrills of my life. I was too big to drive our team's car with the top on, but even taking it around the parking lot on battery power was a great thrill. I can't imagine how taking that out on the road feels, but I imagine it compensates somewhat for the very real danger that exists whenever people strap themselves into unorthodox moving objects for the sake of enhancing the body of human knowledge. Whether it's a solar car developed and built by college students or a multi-billion dollar space shuttle designed by one of the largest engineering teams ever assembled, there is no substitute for experience, as NASA has tragically learned twice.
If anyone who knew Andrew is reading this, I hope you realize that he took a risk in pursuit of something greater than himself, for the benefit of everything on Earth.
Re:-1 Illegal Copyright Violation? (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone who reads the record knows that they rarely add any value to [blah blah blah blah].
Doesn't change the fact that it's infringement.
Had the poster taken a couple of minutes to read, understand and restate the facts in his own words, it would have been perfectly legal.
Copyright law may be all out of whack, but this is clearly infringement under even the mildest copyright regime. We who want our copyrights to be respected should have more respect for others'.
Re:WTF?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Semi trucks are the backbone of this country. How do you think freight is carried from the rail yard to the destination? Or from the air port? Or the grove? You say you would like to see less semis, well are you willing to pay 2x for everything as a result? I bet no.
As for Hummers having a good reason to exist...How about their being an important part of our military's mobility?
Hero is overstating things (Score:4, Insightful)
Simpson's quote:
Homer: That Timmy is a real hero!
Lisa: How do you mean, Dad?
Homer: Well, he fell down a well, and... he can't get out.
Lisa: How does that make him a hero?
Homer: Well, that's more than you did!
Re:michael, you tree hugger (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:michael, you tree hugger (Score:3, Insightful)
[*] Semi-trailers - deliver enough food to feed a whole district.
[*] Busses - carry 30 people to work or school
[*] Dump trucks - allow you to build houses and such-like
[*] Garbage trucks - Collect the rubbish for a whole town
[*] Hummers - take one woman to work
Okay, so you've "proved" that the danger is larger. Now how about the "danger to usefulness ratio"?
Re:And just how is this a setback...? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the thinking is crystal clear. When a massive vehicle collides with a puny, composite solar car, death is a certain result.
Therefore, these massive vehicles will, in fact, deter the acceptance of solar technology. Solar cars by nature must be extremely lightweight, and nobody in their right mind would drive one on the same road as trucks and SUVs.
Perspective from another solar car team (Score:5, Insightful)
This won't be the end of solar racing, although it will be a significant setback for the Toronto team. They have lost a friend, a teammate and many, many, many hours of work, spent not only building their car but also convincing people that their cause is worth supporting. The team has a solid history--they placed 11th in the 2003 American Solar Challenge (and won the saftey award), 12th in ASC2001, 14th in WSC2001, and they were the top rookie team in SunRayce 1999 (info from their website [utoronto.ca]).
I imagine that the future will see a serious review of solar car saftey rules, which will result in changes to the specifications for solar cars as well as the conditions under which they should be driven. Even though solar powered cars are not the way of the future, the sport has led to the develompent of new technologies that are nevertheless important (the world's most effiecient electric motors and maximum power point trackers), and it teaches young engineers far more about engineering than they could possibly learn in any other way.
A public show of support (and /. counts as these days) is really what the BlueSky team needs right now. Then, after the incident has been properly observed, a respectful review of the causes and solutions should get underway.
Jeff Thompson
Yale Solar Racing
why was it on the road to begin with. (Score:2, Insightful)
The articale makes no mention of the school, the students, or anyone involved working with local law enforcement agencies to setup a safe route of travel. MAybe they could not close the entire highway but a police escort with the lights flashing could have made people more aware, of the car and maybe the wreck could have been avoided.
A bit of both! (Score:2, Insightful)
The one and only real answer in my mind.
IMPROVED INFRASTRUCTURE!
We really, really, really need a transportation network developed for alternative vehicles up to say maybe 1000 lbs. I build ultra-effecient light weight vehicles, but they will never share the road with any large vehicles because the turbulence generated by a large vehicle is enough to flip a little one right off the road. We really need something like a souped-up bicycle trail network.
Big vehicles are inefficient, no 2 ways about it. The only way to a sustainable transportation network is small, light and efficient vehicles.
Check out my racing stuff!
http://www.easyracers.com/racing
Gabriel DeVault
Re:It's sad (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Kitchener-Waterloo Record Story (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to mention saving a lot of fuel, since a 1/2 HP engine would be plenty for the largest car.
Re:WTF?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's fine. Now we just need those needless SUV drivers to properly compensate society for the extra damange done to the roads and the environment, and require them to pass more stringent driving tests due to the extra safety risk they pose to everyone else on the road.
SUVs are fine, just stop making everyone else pay for them.
Deepest Condolences (Score:3, Insightful)
For those that debate the safety of the car design, the wisdom of highway regulations and current practices, keep in mind that this group isn't a company with vast resources trying to market a solar car. This is not the finished product boing foisted on you to buy. This is an exhibition and competition car. It's an experiment made by students. They do it because they love it.
perhaps (Score:3, Insightful)
I can see, if he died while researching say, the perfect doughnut recipe, then I'd totally agree with you. Given the implications of solar, though, well, it's just my 2c.
>>hopefully those testing solar powered cars will learn from the tragedy so it never happens again.
I agree in principle, but the same thing would've happened if he was riding a motorcycle and hit a slick spot. Light vehicles are inherently dangerous. The only way to eliminate the risk is to eliminate the benefits of being lightweight. :(
Concern about the car is *not* misplaced (Score:5, Insightful)
To get a slightly more extreme example: If a doctor announced that he had discovered a cure for influenza or a way to purify water cheaply without engergy requirements, and then was promptly killed be a mugger, I'm sure that everyone would feel bad about his death, but I think that it's more than excusable to place as a higher priority finding out what happened to his work than making noises to make his family feel good. They *know* that his dying sucked already. And, honestly, I've never met or heard of the guy. If every person in the world was told "this guy died", should they all be obligated to lay down their tools and bow their heads for a moment? Of course not. The cost would be phenomenal.
If you want grief, let it be the grief from those who can grieve, the people that knew him. Not random, anonymous strangers on Slashdot.
As another example, every day CNN prints up stories about Iraqis dying. Should I stop and express a list of sympathetic things for an hour? No. People die. The fact that this guy had his name printed instead of just being a statistic, increasing a fatality count by one somewhere does not change that fact.
Those who push humanity forward (Score:3, Insightful)
One of the Wright brothers died in an airplane crash.
Astronauts have been killed.
Those who push forward humanity's knowledge for the rest of us often assume greater-than-normal risks willingly.
Should the team now be crippled, forced to use regular-car safty regulations? Should we slow research for the sake of a few potential lives?
I realize that you're not proposing anything so extreme, but things like the grounding of the shuttle because of the insulation problems (come *on* -- astronauts have flown many times without insulation killing them, and have had many more risks) is ridiculous. People skydive, cliff dive, street race. They know what they're doing. We send soldiers, many younger than the young man that died, to Iraq to die and kill others. Surely this man died in the most noble pursuit imaginable -- forwarding the cause of humanity? The percentage of scientists that die in the line of duty is certainly smaller than the percentage of soldiers that die in the line of duty. Why is it that we demand that science now take no risks? I would not want people to ever be forced to take risks that they don't want to take or lied to about known risks, but none of the Bluesky people were likely to be unaware of the earlier mechanical problems, which I'm sure they had worked on fixing.
Instead, it would not surprise me if the university cancels the program -- they are a business that has to sell their services to many parents of students.
If I could conduct an project that, if successful, would give mankind the ability to build things with nanites, but if failed, would kill me, and my chances of death were 15% (and the alternative, slower, safer methods would delay this knowledge by another 50 years), I'd take it in an instant. Why is it that people in the United States would likely consider this unacceptable, but once *forced* young men to die in the jungles of Vietnam? Where are our priorities?
Re:Comment on University of Waterloo's general new (Score:5, Insightful)
Nonetheless, large heavy vehicles on the road should be last resort, not a standard. And it is equally true that as long as big heavy vehicles are on the road smaller light-weight vehicles are going to be dangerous to drive- THIS IS OBVIOUS, and it annoys me to all hell that advocates of big vehicles think the solution is to drive bigger "safer" vehicles. The road need not be the spot for our national Darwinian drama. The road is not a place for an arms-race.
Let's face it: the reasons people want bigger vehicles (for the most part) is because a)They think they're cool b)they think they're safer, or at least they think they make themselves feel safer, c)having an expensive SUV broadcasts their financial success (a mating call, no? -for the males of the species, primarily), d)because the SUV is an attractive option because it is largely functional (if wasteful) because of its size AND because it carries an attractive image of independence, ruggedness, sportiness, etc. (look at those SUV commercials of vehicles driving through the wilderness (a morally dubious thing to do (the destruction caused is more than negligible), but hella fun).
The thing that we tree-huggers need to realize is that SUV's and other large vehicles actually serve a function in society, and the individuals who own/use them are acting rationally in the sphere of things that they think are important. HOWEVER, those things are the wrong things, the things that really aren't that important.
Unfortunately, our human species is not well equipped to take the long view of things. In fact, we are exceedingly poor at doing so- and this makes evolutionary sense- although taking a limited long view is evolutionarily adaptive, focusing on the long view is not because our powers of prediction were/are still exceedingly poor- more important to see the tiger about to eat you than to wonder how we could set up the environment so that there wasn't any conflict between humans and tigers, so to speak.
This is essentially a problem of "The Tragedy of the Commons", but in this case the Commons is not some field, but all of our planetary resources (including good air to breathe and fair weather), and each person's taking away of from the Commons, no matter how ridiculously abusive, is only a miniscule portion of that Commons. We, in fact, have a difficult time seeing the impact of our behaviour, or the scope of the situation. And because we do not see so clearly (and I mean see individually in everyday life) the impact of our behaviour, we do not feel compelled to act to change how things work- certainly not as compelled as we may feel to have the glorious feeling of bringing home that gorgeous SUV (I, like others, think that SUV's (minus the HUMMER) are often designed in a pleasing way). And because some of us are so enamoured with that vision of the good life, of independence, of manliness, of success, of Big Americanness (I am a proud American), and perhaps enamoured of actually having that good life (and I believe that it is probably true that a lot of anti-advocates of the SUV are simply suffering from jealousy because they cannot afford such a vehicle), yes, because of all these things, that many of us refuse to believe, sometimes consciously, but often unconsciously, what our scientists continue to tell us about the destruction we are causing, and the deep problems we are getting ourselves into. It is, in fact, a deep rabbit hole- and it is easier to fall than to climb
and in the real world... (Score:1, Insightful)
And in related news it was revealed that, additionally, such "not really street-safe
Finally, we get truth in advertising from the "lighter, efficient at all costs!" crowd - these things suck for real-world applications. Have fun driving them in a lab though!
(Score:-5, Non-/.-eco-groupthink)
Reading The Article (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry, but RTFA. The solar car was lacking in bumpers, and the vehicle he hit was not an SUV, it was a minivan, which has standard bumpers.
Virg
Re:A bit of both! (Score:3, Insightful)
There is a middle ground between the 6000lb crush all vehicle and 500lb speeding balsa model. No, weight alone doesn't make you safer, but adding safety features adds weight. You are more likely to survive running into a wall in a camry than you are a motorcycle, weight differential isn't why, its because you have a "cage" around the driver that makes the force destroy car rather than person.
Even if the two vehicles are the same size (no weight differential) the safety features of two heavier cars (crumple zones, airbags, etc)would make the crash more survivable than 2 cars stripped down to minimal weight forgoing safety.
You, sir, are a fucking idiot. (Score:5, Insightful)
You are placing human life above everything else, assigning infinite value to human life (and not even human life, but the direct life that you can see being lost). You don't know how many lives solar power would *save*. More lives have been lost over oil wars in the last *year*, and more men have died working on undersea oil rigs than will probably ever die working on solar power.
What are you doing right now? Posting on Slashdot. If you really, truly believed in what you were saying, that human life comes above all else, you wouldn't be posting on Slashdot. You'd be out volunteering to help consel suicidal people on a hotline. Or any number of other things that might save a life. But you know what? You aren't -- you're placing a bit of your short-term *enjoyment* (not even an advancement of human knowledge) over someone else's life. I'll bet you speed too, to get where you want to go five minutes faster by gambling with other people's lives. By your standards, you are one sick fuck. Instead, you are quite comfortable criticizing *other* people because they didn't place human lifes (including *their own*) above all else. Yes, they had to try out new designs. Yes, probably they will make a mistake or learn that something doesn't work when they were sure that it did. You are probably sitting in an air-conditioned house with all the food you want handy. It was shipped to you on trucks, which countless lives were lost in perfecting, running internal combustion engines, the development of which cost more lives. Your AC is powered by electrical power produced (if you live in the United States) almost entirely by coal. Do you have the remotest concept of how many people have been killed in coal mines?
But instead, you jab at anyone who is pushing the envelope, every time something goes wrong. It's comfortable for you to attack them. "Safety first". Christ. There is research going on. The people that blazed trails across America, Madam Curie inducing radiation burns on herself, the men that built bridges (and died doing so, as better techniques were learned), they didn't have soft rubberized surfaces and rounded-off corners. People *died*, you ass. But you can ignore them now, because they're in the past and you can just enjoy the fruits of their labor. You can sit supreme in your self-superiority ("If *I* was running that project, not only would nobody die, but we'd get just as much research done"). You don't have any idea what you're talking about. You haven't worked on any of the systems, or have the faintest grounds to talk about the risk factors involved. If you think that this guy's fellow researchers didn't give a damn about him and sacrificed him because they just didn't care about safety, you're a complete idiot. It's armchair quarterbacking of the worst kind, the kind that damages our advancement of knowledge to make you feel a little more warm and fuzzy inside.
Re:It isn't about the weight of the car. (Score:2, Insightful)
If two small cars hit each other, nobody dies.
If a small car and a SUV hit each other, the person in the small car dies.
Clearly, the SUV is safer, since the person in the small car dies and the person in the SUV survives. Surviving is better if others did not, apparently...
Re:Perspective from another solar car team (Score:3, Insightful)
This leads me to wonder, is the research on these ultralight vehicles being misdirected? If the goal is to make better vehicles for the general public, than why aren't they making protypes of vehicles for everyday use with real world safety standards? Sure, your spectacular headline making mpg ratings will drop, but the real world exploitability of the tech being developed will rise. Isn't that the point?
It's a bit like hybrid motors in economy class cars, if you really want to be more enviormentally friendly you'll start putting hybrid motors, regenerative braking systems and the like in those giant SUV's. Please bear in mind that I support the research that is being done and think the drivers death was not in vain.
Re:It's not that sad (Score:3, Insightful)
That's why this "vehicle" should have never been allowed to drive on a road in the first place.
Built by students with no (or low) security on their minds, I wouldn't have driven it for the world, on a regular road!
Would you set your life in the hands of a school project that don't built the engine to be secure (because it's never been meant to drive on a road or pass any kind of driving safety checks)? I wouldn't.
Research? (Score:3, Insightful)
How does driving a solar powered car on public roads further research? Is there some unique interaction between photons and trucks that needs to be investigated? If so where are the research papers?
Designing and building a solar car is an interesting project suitable for a university engineering department's students. Designing a very light weight car that can be driven safely on public roads in normal traffic, by students, is not. In my opinion the university has failed in their duty of care.
Re:Inherent Risk (Score:3, Insightful)
You never expect your steering system to fail on the road. It just happens a little more often with an experimental device. There doesn't need to be something fundamentally wrong for this to happen, just less resistance to natural entropic effects. As for inertia, see motorcycles. Certainly more dangerous than cars, but still street legal.
According to another post here, U of T won a safety at on of their recent events. Obviously the car met criteria for racing. Why did they need to take it on the road?
Awards like that are generally given out for excellent design. Unfortunately, there's a difference between robots programmed to weld one joint to certain precise tolerances, and a human with a wrench adjusting things to make room for some change in the experimental system. It's not a shortcoming of the human so much as an advantage of the machine. Things are a little more likely to go wrong.
Anyway, many solar car races are on the road. The American Solar Challenge and the World Solar Challenge are both road races. You want to get road experience when your driver and support team are not under the stress of the race, which often involves getting 4 hours of sleep for more than a week straight. If you don't get some road experience when you're not racing, you're probably increasing your risk of accident, not decreasing it. Anyway, track racing is much simpler than road racing, and just doesn't stress the technology as much. Less is learned from it. That's why we take them on the road.
Bull crap! If the cars are safe for the road, then drive them ther, and if no then keep them off. If this was not caused by a mechanical failure, then it was because the car should not have been on the road. It is a terrible shame that someone had to die, but hopefully from now on people will think twice about taking their experimental cars on public streets. The U of T team (and any one else who has been taking this risk) should revisit their policies regarding transportation between events.
Solar car racing has been going on for a very long time. This is the first fatality. Driving a solar car is safer than having cosmetic surgery. It's safer than taking a ride on the space shuttle. It's still not as safe as driving a Volvo. You take many safety measures, like making cockpits easily escapable, having lead and chase vehicles, having a scout vehicle to warn of road hazards, etc. After all this, it's still a risk. I wouldn't call it an irrational one, but it's certainly one greater than some people have the nerve for.
Re:Perspective from another solar car team (Score:2, Insightful)
Commercial vehicles can rarely survive a 60 mph head on crash. In fact, I don't think it's possible; this is the equivalent of hitting a stationary object at 120mph.
This is not the first solar car collision with a regular vehicle. Many cars have been in accidents, but this is the first time someone has died and the second time someone was injured in any serious way. And this is over 20 years of solar racing. I think this only highlights how safe these cars are. Every solar car has 5 point restraints, roll cages, drivers wear crash helmets, and because of the car's light weight, they carry much less kinetic energy when they hit something (they stop much easier). I don't want to sound callous, but two serious incidents in 20 years of solar racing is not that bad of a track record for any racing sport.
The research of solar race-cars is not towards the end of making better vehicles for the general public. It is a sport that promotes environmentally safe, alternative-energy vehicles. It also is a chance for college students to learn hands on what engineering is all about and to apply their studies in a fun way. One thing solar racing is not is practical. And one thing that is certain is that it is impossible to be practical on only 2kW of power (roughly 2.5hp). These cars function only because they are ultra-light and have extremely low aerodynamic resistance. The sun simply does not put out enough power to make the cars larger and heavier and still have them drive over 30mph.
In the end, I suspect that the rules and standards we follow we become stricter because of this accident. This may or may not be misguided, though; no car is designed to withstand a 60mph head on collision. And even if they could be, no human body could handle that kind of deceleration anyway. Whenever things like this happen, then reaction of the public and lawmakers tends toward changing rules in insane ways to ensure that this never happens again: (i.e. if someone is burned by a firework, they want to ban fireworks). I could see new rules coming out of this tragedy limiting speeds of solar cars to 40mph or some such thing. Some might even go so far as to say driving any vehicle 60mph is too dangerous. These "knee-jerk" reactions are illogical and unfortunate. Risk is a fact of life.
Again, I don't mean to sound callous. I just don't want to see needlessly restrictive rules created (or, god forbid, a band of experimental vehicles on public roads) in response to this.