Rethinking Cars
I recently came across 37signals’ blog post about how the Wright brothers solved flight by breaking the problems into small chunks:
“Build something that flies = big problem. So the Wright Brothers broke it down into smaller chunks: 1) wings, 2) controls, and 3) propulsion. Nice historical precedent for the idea of dividing problems into smaller and smaller pieces until you’re able to digest them. “The Wright Brothers – Inventing a Flying Machine” offers more details.”
I’ve been thinking of breaking down the problem of building an efficient car; say one that gets 150 miles/gallon, or the electric equivalent (4.2 miles/kWh). Here are the smaller pieces of the problem:
- Minimize vehicle weight
- This problem has been tackled extensively by the HyperCar concept study, now morphed into FiberForge. Their take on it is using thermoplastic advanced composites to reduce weight.
- Minimize air resistance: reduce the coefficient of friction
- Design a car shape that has certain volume and dimensions that allow for comfortable passenger placement, yet maximizes the aerodynamics for the given set of constraints. This could be done with a genetic algorithm of some sort.
- Minimize things on the outside of the vehicle (sideview mirrors, etc) that might increase friction.
- Minimize rolling tire resistance
- This problem is being solved by low rolling resistance tires, which are actively being researched and manufactured by tire companies.
Of course, fuel efficiency is only one of the key metrics to consider when designing a car. Perhaps I’ll explore some of them a bit later…
