X Prize For a 100-MPG Car

Heinen writes in about the X Prize Foundation, which spurred innovation by offering US $10 million for the first privately built spacecraft. The Foundation now plans to offer millions for the first practical car that increases mileage five-fold. The specs for the competition are out in draft form amd call for cars in two categories that are capable of 100 MPG in tests to be run in 2009. The categories are: 4-passenger/4-wheel; and 2-passenger/unspecified wheels. The cars must be manufacturable, not "science projects. The prize is expected to top $10 million. The X Prize Foundation says that so far it has received more than 1,000 inquiries from possible competitors.

Re:Key concepts

[clem]

Is there a market for super efficient cars that look like tampons with wheels?

I suppose if you drove through a lot of tunnels it might be of interest.

AMD You Say?

[quadra23]

amd call for cars in two categories that are capable of 100 MPG in tests to be run in 2009.

AMD calls for cars that are capable of 100 MPG? Meanwhile, I call for AMD to design a processor that is capable of 100 GHz by 2009.

Re:VW have beten them to it already

[Starburnt]

Fuel consummation?

I don't think I want to know what that means.

Re:Key concepts

[Opportunist]

Only to Mr. Freud.

Re:Changing percpetion

[Broken scope]

Oh but your a selfish jerk. You obviously don care about [insert group/cause of choice here]. You disgust me because [insert preferred emotion based reasons], you need to think about someone but yourself.

Does it specify petroleum?

[Peter Trepan]

Can I use a gallon of uranium instead?

Can I total the distance that each piece travels, or does it all have to be in the same direction?

Can the direction be "up"?

Re:Changing percpetion

[Lord Kano]

People really need to see cars as transport. Perhaps then they will start to think in terms of efficiency etc.

You sir, have obviously never gotten your dick sucked because you were driving a nice automobile.

LK

100MPG!? Whatever that is ..

[arcade]

First .. how long is a mile? In real units?

Then .. how much is a gallon? In real units?

When are 'merkins going to start using proper units?

Re:Changing percpetion

[flyingsquid]

Simple answer: reactive armor.

Your small, lightweight 100mpg car will have high explosive charges placed in its bumpers; when it crashes into something they detonate, negating the threat. This will (1) eliminate the need for expensive, heavy crash-proofing, and (2) cause the Hummmers to think twice before bumping into a Mini Cooper.

Re:Changing percpetion

[Anonymous Coward]

"People really need to start seeing clothes as something to prevent their reproductive apparatus from freezing."

Check. Next?

Parse Error

[tux0r]

I wonder how many "Slashdotters (who are likely also to be programmers are driven to the edge of insanity by our honourable editors' failure to close their punctuation...

Re:Key concepts

[rs79]

"Most "international" words are quite easy to translate, just replace every c in English with a k for German."

Fukk you?

Re:Metric

[bitt3n]

I am stunned to learn the average American vehicle gets 21mpg, or 8.9 lt/100km. Gosh. Do they have special oil burning jets out the back or something?

Well, wind resistance from Old Glory flapping off the antenna, plus the added weight of the gun-rack fully laden with automatic weapons, and the fact that we only drive on unpaved vertiginous mountain roads (see any SUV commercial) does cause us to burn more fuel, yes. I assume the X-Prize will require all participants to observe these standard requirements.

Re:Changing percpetion

[Dr. Eggman]

Sadly, Ford prototypes of this car proved only mildly successful [wikipedia.org].

Re:Light != dangerous

[polar red]

the perception that Real Men drive Hummers with gunracks.

Sure, but I call that compensation.

Re:Changing percpetion

[rjshields]

(not directed at parent, just society in general).

Not society, just the US. In Europe we have this thing called the bicycle. It can carry several pints of milk and several loaves of bread given sufficient panniers. We also have these things called legs, you can use them to walk to the shop and then put your food in bags and carry them home. Revolutionary, I know!

My solution gets me 1000s of miles to the gallon

[xoyoyo]

Simple:

1. Buy gallon of petrol/gas
2. Wait fifty years
3. Sell gallon of petrol to automotive museum for $50,000
4. Buy train ticket anywhere I damn well like

Where do I claim my prize?!

[Mr_Blank]

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/press/Lupo_3L_in_Guine ss_World_Record [volkswagen.co.uk]

    Looks like a production car to me. Where do I collect my prize for bringing this car to the world's attention? I could use the money to buy a nice Bugatti Verron.

Re:Key concepts

[TFloore]

Most "international" words are quite easy to translate, just replace every c in English with a k for German.

I assume you have heard this joke before, but just in case you haven't, I'm going to paste it in here. I think I first saw it almost 15 years ago, and I doubt it was new then...

This particular version came from http://www.twcenter.net/forums/archive/index.php/t -25152.html [twcenter.net] and was found with a simple Google search. Google sometimes scares me.

===

Five year phase-in plan for "EuroEnglish"

The European Commission have just announced an agreement whereby
English will be the official language of the EU, rather than German, which
was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's
government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and
has accepted a five year phase in plan that would be known as "EuroEnglish".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will
make the sivil servants jump for joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour
of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less
letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the
troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like
"fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be
expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always
ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of
the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

By the 4th year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th"
with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords
kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer
kombinations of leters. After zis fifz year, ve vil hav a realy sensibl
riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it
ezi to understand each ozer

ZE DREAM VIL FINALI KUM TRU!

all credit to... (http://egea.geog.uu.nl/viewthread.php?tid=1448)

Re:we allready had the 100mpg carb.

[spickus]

Yeah and those bastards killed Santa too!

Re:Changing percpetion

[spun]

First off, there's a macho intertwining of cars with manhood,

I tried to intertwine my manhood with my car once. It wasn't macho at all. I got blisters.

Re:Light != dangerous

[6Yankee]

Wow, a computer analogy to describe a car. There's a Soviet Russia joke here, somewhere...

Not impressed by prize

[pivlrs]

I own a Honda Insight. Lifetime average: 66 MPG. I routinely get 75 MPG on freeway commutes, 80 MPG every once in a while.

I read a story about a guy who drove around the British island in an Insight and averaged somewhere in the 110 MPG ballpark (setting a record).

The xprize should be a little more far-reaching.

Gallon?

[Kavli]

Gallon of what? Plutonium? Imperial gallon or US gallon? -- K