DailyDirt: Cool Vehicles That You Can't Drive

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Jan 13th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The popular modes of transportation we have today might not be the same in a few decades. Obviously, there will be more Hyundais and Kias on the roads, but there are plenty of other concept vehicles that don't make it to the auto shows. Here are a few interesting links that look cooler than a Volt or Leaf.

Hybrid air vehicles might look like Zeppelins, but they don't need special runways to land/takeoff. The US military has invested in them, apparently, but mainly as a surveillance ship. [url]
Some Australians broke a land speed record for a solar powered car -- 88 kph FTW. Neither 1.21 gigawatts nor a flux capacitor were required. [url]
If you're going to add a Segway mechanism to a car, this concept car looks like the way to do it. Make the two rear wheels into detachable personal motorbikes. [url]
There's a pretty big picture of almost all the different Batmobiles with wheels. Given that many changes, Batman's ride probably never lasted long enough for an oil change. [url]

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Filed Under: batmobile, hybrid air vehicle, zeppelin
Companies: segway

11 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2011 @ 5:23pm

"Hybrid air vehicles might look like Zeppelins, but they don't need special runways to land/takeoff. The US military has invested in them, apparently, but mainly as a surveillance ship. [url] "

If this is even a U.S. "innovation" (if it can even be called that), it figures that it has more to do with spying on its citizens (and others) than it has to do with serving the public good.

"Some Australians broke a land speed record for a solar powered car -- 88 kph FTW. Neither 1.21 gigawatts nor a flux capacitor were required. [url] "

This is actually surprising, given their patent on the wheel. and, as usual, no new innovations from the U.S. because we're too busy suing each other for IP infringement and all of our would be scientists have become IP lawyers instead.
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Mark Harris, 13 Jan 2011 @ 5:41pm

That Hybrid airship is soooo Thunderbird 2!
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scarr (profile), 13 Jan 2011 @ 6:03pm

I wonder
Was #3 inspired by #4?
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Michael Ho (profile), 13 Jan 2011 @ 6:09pm

Re:
This particular hybrid air vehicle is most definitely *not* a "US innovation" -- since the makers of it are in the UK.

Still, there seem to be some questions about the IP background for HAVs:
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/patentsblog/2011/01/hybrid-air-vehicles.html

Hopefully , the patent issues won't hinder this hybrid airship from taking off....
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2011 @ 6:24pm

Re: Re:
Figures. It's amazing, I don't really see new innovations coming out of the U.S. anymore. Very rarely.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2011 @ 6:58pm

Those hybrids could stay aloft a long time, some have hinted that they are cheaper and easy to service than communication satellites.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2011 @ 7:10pm

Maybe someday they will build an aerial landing field.

http://mytechnologyworld9.blogspot.com/2008/11/airship-dreams.html
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Jan 2011 @ 8:44pm

Re: Re: Re:
On the flip side, I do see a lot of ridiciulous litigation coming out of the U.S. I guess that explains the lack of innovation.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Jan 2011 @ 6:33am

Segway Mechanism?
I don't see how that segway car could possibly work. A 'Segway Mechanism' is not something that automatically balances an object on a single axis, regardless of weight distribution; it is just a feedback loop that keeps an object from un balancing by moving the wheels underneath it to rebalance it. Having the two back wheels of a car fall off, and expecting the car to somehow magically balance on the front wheels could realistically only happen if the car was going super fast in reverse or somehow flipped vertically.
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Valkor, 15 Jan 2011 @ 10:06am

Re:
I want one if it comes with cool steampunk goggles.
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Fast Eddie, 22 Sep 2011 @ 3:15pm

KIA's Are IN For Sure -
A really cool car that I'm really into right now is the new Optima. It's a sweet ride for the buck. The specs aren't half bad too. I found these great reviews on the 2011 Kia Optima
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