DailyDirt: Crazy Cars That No One Drives
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
We’re on the verge of a transportation revolution with autonomous cars and electric vehicles about to become mainstream means of mobility. Various concept cars make the future of transportation look more bubble-shaped or like spandex, so the roads are really going to look a bit crazy if we allow 40-year-old muscle cars to drive along with surviving K-cars and futuristic-looking Tron-like hypercars. Check out a few more crazy cars that aren’t quite practical in the links below.
- The Rimono is a 2-seater electric car from Japan with an all cloth exterior. Drivers will need a motorcycle license to use it, and it’s not clear how often it should be laundered….
- The classic yellow taxi cab isn’t manufactured any longer, but a company that still makes parts for these iconic vehicles has a couple of funky-looking prototype vehicles based on its cabs. The A888 limo is basically a stretched out 6-door, 12-passenger version of a yellow cab, and the “Sport Pick-up Crossover” is a yellow cab in front and Chevy El Camino-style pickup in the back.
- Maybe you’ve heard of cars that run on compressed air — well, those cars aren’t exactly efficient. Surprise!? One study says compressed air cars score worse than electric vehicles on energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and life-cycle costs — but that maybe a hybrid electric and compressed air car might be more practical somehow?
After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
Filed Under: a888 limo, checker cab, concept cars, electric cars, hybrid cars, hypercars, rimono
Comments on “DailyDirt: Crazy Cars That No One Drives”
Compressed air cars for the Amish......
Compressed air cars makes sense for people who refuse to use electicity…… as long as the compressors are run on biodiesel
Two more crazy cars
The Rimono reminded me of this, the PodCycle. Technically a bike with electric motor assist, but close enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lKq1fGtXFM
The Peel P50, the smallest production car in the world!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfSS0ZXYdo
Vapor
> …and the other companies haven’t said a word on when (or whether) their air cars will be ready.
Sure they have. In 1998 MDI announced that Mexico City had purchased a fleet of 40,000 compressed air taxis, hitting the streets in two years.
Here they are in 2000 announcing production in South Africa. There were already two factories in France, with the first models expected on the streets later that year. There were also five factories planned for Mexico and Spain, with three in Australia.
They actually had a factory running in Italy with 90 employees from 2003 to 2005. Except that employees were “paid” via state benefits – a payroll to employees who, for special reasons due to the employers, are unable to perform their jobs. No cars were ever built by the factory.
Those examples were already well into their grand tour of the planet, with other production deals announced before and since in many other countries.
As the first link mentions, they weren’t so much selling cars as they were selling priority rights ($300,000) for investors to invest MORE money into the franchised turnkey factories that MDI would soon be selling.
pink elephant
electric motors are efficient in stop and go city traffic…
diesel motors are efficient in highway traffic…
When will we see a diesel-electric hybrid for sell in the US?
Correction: Will big oil companies and bought politicians ever allow diesel-electric hybrids to be sold to the public in the US?
Re: pink elephant
Re: Re: pink elephant
I believe there are such cars. But for emissions sake it doesn’t make much sense. You don’t need the torque diesel offers to move an electric engine and gasoline/ethanol ones are better in higher speeds (where the electric engines become less competitive). An hybrid approach seems pretty reasonable. I still would like to see fuel-cell cars using standard hydrocarbons instead of hydrogen. You already have the infra-structure to support such cells, much easier to make it scale.
pink elephant
pick up a clue, Anonymous Coward. Oil companies are international, and thus, have influence in other countries too. The US isn’t the center of the universe.
I think that if a person refuses to drive a car then there is something wrong with the car itself. Maybe it is a stolen one, who knows. That’s why you should do a VIN check at https://www.faxvin.com/vin-check/audi when you get a car. Believe me, it will come in handy and will provide you with all the info that you need to know about your car.