I think wireless charging will be a complete game changer. I already think plug in charging is better than filling up but if your tank is always full and you never have to think about it due to wireless. Just drive over a spot in your garage and a roomba like charger moves under and hooks it up is something I imagine, I know there is wireless as you drive charging but I’m thinking a little simpler. I will definitely loose garage storage when that happens.
Interesting, I’m sure a simple robotic solution for plugging in at home would work, rather than the heat/loss which I wasn’t aware of. The convenience as you say of 20 seconds is great but some gas gurus say plug in hybrids rarely get plugged in but maybe they are full of… I’m not a fan of the robotaxi/autonomus car senario where Elon solves transportation by adding millions of vehicles to the road looking for passengers or chargers.
Yeah, they are impressive. I'm thinking of something a little simpler that could be up-running for consumers now, just an articulating arm. At the event some people thought the "robots" were being controlled by tesla employees and employees were the ones doing the talking. I don't know if it was the self driving timeline that was the big disappointment but the stock is down 7%
The premise behind the Edison logging trucks is just simple genius. Log trucks climb up a mountain and pick up a bunch of weight, making speed control on the steep downgrades a real problem. Electrifying the truck solves the braking issues and harnesses the free energy inherent in the load.
That's the thing about the USA, they have the money and cahonas to make stuff happen. I hope a deep pocket Canadian firm steps up or an American is watching his youtube videos. Would love have our own Canadian Musk, making stuff happen and disrupting the industry.
Be careful what you wish for!
We both agree that access to capital is the critical issue for Edison. If they don't expand and become a volume seller, it doesn't necessarily mean their product is bad or doesn't do the job. It means they didn't connect with the right sources of capital.
Access to talent is also an issue. I have friends who talk about how many stem and high tech employees we have in Canada and it is almost laughable. I spoke to a PM who lives in Tijuana and used to run a company in San Diego who explained to me how many global manufacturers there are in Tijuana and it is a metropolitan area of 5M. Hiring people in person in this country is so hard, especially ones who could work on and engineer hybrid logging trucks. I know where they all are but getting them to move for under 200k a year all in is next to impossible. The mission of the company seems excellent but you need the $$ and lots of it these days, running a business in 2024 is like thermal runaway for cash.
Do you have a picture of this car to share?
Unfortunately I don't. I found this video from the 1995 HEV challenge. Our school (UofA) competed in 1993/94/95 in the Ford Escort category. We placed 1st/3rd/1st. I was on the 3rd place team.
I graduated from ECE (Electrical and computer engineering) in 2021, and the EV program is now a Formula EV race car. Really cool stuff. I ended up on the Rocket team woking on avionics, but had some classmates working on the EV project.
www.ubcformulaelectric.com
