Solar Race Cars, A High Risk Proposition - October 20th, 2007
As we start looking at building cars in new and improved ways, new and improved safety standards will need to evolve as well. Popular Mechanics is carrying an interesting article entitled, “Anatomy of Solar Car Crash: How Eco-Racing Buckled Up.”
The article opens with the story of August 12, 2004 when the Blue Sky Solar Racing team from the University of Toronto lost Andrew Frow in a head-on collision between one of its cars and a minivan. Frow’s death was the first and to date, only, fatality in solar racing, but there have been many, many crashes.
Now granted we are talking about highly experimental vehicles here that depend on being as light as possible to achieve any degree of performance. The hope, however, is that this technology can be incorporated into the consumer vehicles of the future. Even at this early stage of designing such a forward-looking technology the question of now just how but if it can be safely used by every day drivers is a major concern.
Certainly I was never aware of the high risk at which these students place themselves to drive their solar-powered racers. With no pun intended, this is a highly illuminating article and one of interest to anyone watching the future of automotive design and propulsion.
Posted on October 20th, 2007 by Shorty
Filed under: alternative fuels |
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