Science and Society

At first glance, it all sounds kind of Rube Goldbergian. One could assume that a prudent driver would always have a passenger or two to help out on hills, cloudy days and other times not conducive to unaided battery-charging. One could also feel that eliminating the motor and batteries would make the vehicle even lighter and thus make pedaling that much easier.

I have a better suggestion. A combination of mass transit, taxi cabs,
bicycles, leisurely walks can deliver much better bang for the buck and may also clean up those clogged arteries. It is pretty expensive to go through a bypass surgery (mostly lost income assuming your insurance pays 100%)unless you don't make it to the surgical theater.

Oh yeah, I want one! Get me off of the oil teat! The diesel engine can be converted to bio-diesel if it already isn't. Do they make an off-road, rural version? I'd be more interested in that as I live around some rough roads.

I would buy one of those in a heartbeat!

I would want one except for the fact that SUV's and Hummers would crush me. That's not a good car for American highways. Seriously, have you ever been stuck in a Sentra while an impatient road-rager in an SUV is on your rear? I would like very much to save energy, but I'd also like to live. I long for the day when we can have electric cars or hybrids that can haul groceries, seat people comfortably and allow the driver to see traffic clearly when turning out of an intersection. Am I asking for too much?

What good is a car that you could end
up pedalling. I want a car that gets
excellent mileage. If I wanted to pedal
I'd buy a bicycle.

Ok, I read about the batteries, solar charging, and pedals, so where does the fuel come in?

Is there a tiny gas engine to use just in case there are no passengers, a cloudy day and a low battery?

SOme ore details would be nice. Does it come with air and a heater? And, how about acceleration and cruising speed?

Didn't Fred Flintstone have a similar type of car?

$10,000 max.

MJ Parlier, I drive a Civic on southern California roads and find SUV's to be only mildly intimidating. Why? Well, I was rear-ended on an icy road by a truck at fairly low speeds. My car had a cracked tail light. The front end of the truck looked like it had run over a land mine. SUV's and trucks do NOT have to have the same body or bumper strength as a passenger vehicle (by law, actually) and though they are touted as 'tough', they're tissue paper. They're also easier to produce, which is why the US auto makers started foisting them off on the American public - they didn't want to be bothered making vehicles that had to conform to safety standards for passenger vehicles.

As for the car in the article, where do I get one? Oh, and rich, I agree completely, but I still want one.

It's way too small to be safe on our highways. If you were hit at highway speeds by even a midsize truck, you may not survive. I drive an F-350, and even the little Cooper Mini's scare me. I don't like being near them when I drive. They're too small and if something happend and I hit them, they could very well die. That's not something I'd wish on anyone. So, no for me. Don't want one. Besides, it can't carry three carseats in the back. Which is one of the reasons for me to drive such a large vehicle. And before you tout gas prices to me to try and get me to change vehicles, I don't think their too high, I think their too low.

Does anyone remember the Messerschmit, or the BMW Isetta, or the Gogomobile? All were tiny, for shopping only vehicles. I think they disappeared for reasons of safety. All three were death-traps except under the most ideal circumstances. It could also have been because no one wanted one. Of course, today, at $5 a gallon for gasoline, they'd sell like hotcakes.

Looks like a cell phone...or a PC mouse on wheels. Awesome.