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.
Sad, sad day. (Score:5, Interesting)
Rest in peace Andrew, and keep them strong Raja.
Re:Hummers (Score:5, Interesting)
NHTSA (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:2, Interesting)
In the pursuit of science, many men and women have given their lives. His death may yet save hundreds more. We should not let this setback restrain us from the further development of science and technology.
Early cars (in the 1920's and 1930's) were very dangerous indeed. Many people died before car companies finally decided to add safty equipment (like brakes). We have indeed come a long ways from that time. Eventually solar powered cars will be just as safe, if not safer than current vehicles.
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:3, Interesting)
Except by not allowing them on the highway you remove the possibility of long distance endurance type competition. These races are important because they present challenges you won't necessarily have on a closed course - like construction, road conditions, inclement weather, and oncoming traffic...
Re:WTF?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:It's sad (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:3, Interesting)
There are two issues in any impact, vehicular or not: The total impulse and the time over which it is applied. Decrease the first, or increase the second, and the maximum force applied at any given time is decreased. This is why crumple zones are a good thing (tm).
hummers, SUV's, Minivans, Freedom (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:5, Interesting)
the occupants of the giant SUV all died.
Small light solar car or giant SUV... an accident at 55mph is usually pretty darn violent.
Re:It's sad --need standards? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:WTF?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, the summary writer was political trolling. There was no SUV involved, a "minivan" is hardly an SUV. And striking any lightweight, cheap car at highway speeds would have ripped through this solar "car" and likely killed the driver.
And about the car. The specs seem to have been pulled from the site, but the Internet Wayback Machine pulled this page: http://web.archive.org/web/20040214072418/www.blu
"Chassis: Composed of hollow aluminium tubes with sides only slightly thicker than a pop can." They're bragging about this? And running it on a highway?
A little premature, I think.
Should not have been on the road. (Score:2, Interesting)
BC
Note: I'm not against this kind of research, just keep it off the highway.
Re:Bikes (Score:5, Interesting)
I know this sounds like a troll, but I have a valid point.
People who drive large cars with the ability to control large cars usually are not the problem. The problem are people who drive large cars and lack either the ability or the personality to control such a large vehicle are the problem.
In NSW, Australia, you can do your driving test on a 2 door 800c automatic suzuki, then go and jump behind the wheel of a hummer. Sorry, but that's just crazy. (I believe this is now under review, but its been under review for at least the last 20 years) Pilots have to retrain for each new model aircraft they manage, and similary there needs to be classes of vehicles based on transmission type, weight and size. Vans capable of carrying 10 passengers, even if not for commercial gain, should require testing. I get scared when I see a Mother with 10 kids (presumably not all her own) crawling unbelted around the car while she screams abuse at other drivers for every near-collision she's causing.
The other is a physcological test. If "big car" is a compensation for "small dick". Yeah, rice rockets are a pain in the arse, but when the choice is between contending with 1 tonne of dickhead propelled missile and 4 tonnes of dickhead propelled missile, give me the mag-wheeled Mirage anyday.
I'd also argue that people under 4'6" shouldn't be allowed to drive some of these big SUVs unless they are suitably modified. In jacking up the seat to see out the window means that they can't depress the brake in reflex time. That's just crazy. (Anybody who's driven between Turramurra and Gordon in the North of Sydney knows exactly the types I'm talking about). If little kids have to be over a height to ride a roller coster, people should have to be over a height limit to drive some vehicles. This isn't discrimination. Its public safety.
(Note: I am pretty short myself. I can't ride any model Harley except the FatBoy because my feet aren't close enough to the ground!)
I also agree that Hummers and their like shouldn't be allowed on certain roads. Note that some of the south-bound lanes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge aren't wide enough for the wheel-base of the Holden (Chevy) Suburban. The infrastructure of the city was never designed to cope with this sort of vehicle.
Re:Some observations (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:bad design, not the power (Score:3, Interesting)
They did, and they didn't. Car companies are happy to take government money, but when it comes time to actually market energy-conscious cars they dig in their heels and file lawsuits until the government gives up and goes away.
cool technology, but still a blind alley (Score:3, Interesting)
It sucks that the kid died, but this should be a setback for solar-powered motor vehicle on highways. The safety problems are very probably unsolvable. Bicycles have been on the roads for over a century and motorcycles for almost as long. No technological solution for what happens when car meets bike that keeps the bike or the rider intact has been found. This suggests to me that there isn't one. If a road-safe solar vehicle can't be built, there is no point in pursuing this technology as more than a dangerous hobby any further.
More to the point, this is NOT an environmental solution. Safety issues aside, every barrel of oil that is conserved by the industrialized countries will be burned by an industrializing Third World, unless carbon-neutral solutions to replace fossil fuel cheaper than the current ones can be found. Therefore, conservation-based approaches to either global warming or running out of oil are uniformly unworkable, no matter how cool the technologies are.
We need energy replacement, not energy conservation.
The place for solar cells is in orbital solar arrays as part of a solar power satellite [nasa.gov] network. Power availablilty 24/7/365, no concerns about weather, and no SUV will ever run into a cell array and take it offline. However, this is better adapted as a solution for central station power generation facilities.
The solution for motor vehicle power? Switch to diesel engines and grow crude oil in energy farms. Even food-grain crop based biodiesel is comparable to price to bin Laden's Finest Middle East oil product, and algae-based biomass grown as part of sewage treatment promises to be quite a bit cheaper than growing it from fuel crops. [unh.edu]
For more discussion of the implications of this, check my sig.
Re:Concern about the car is *not* misplaced (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
If my best friend died, you can be sure that I'll be out talking to his family. On the other hand, I'm not going to go through the motions of grief on Slashdot because someone is so wrapped up in tradition that they fail to realize the purpose of that tradition, and how ridiculous it is to expect everyone on Slashdot to drop other concerns and grieve.
Re:It's sad (Score:2, Interesting)
An advocate of lower Health System costs could statistically demonstrate that those 1000-1500 people killed each year would cost society much more if they lived longer lingering deaths (said people are those most vulnerable to the smog, they are the people using significantly higher than average healthcare resources).
I'm not saying it's good that said people die, just that your statistic lets you feel good about what you advocate, and not much more than that.