Comments on: The 3D-Printed Urbee 2 Hybrid Car is Light, Strong, and Nearing Production

By: nick aikens

nick aikens — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:52:36 +0000

Ethenol is alcahol, not a fossil fuel. If you were to grow a high sugar crop and ferment them yourself, that would be more envirnmentally consious than a pure electric car, which uses not only electicity, but large batteries. Both are environmental hazards. As for why the urbee might be better in other ways: what other car can you drive coast to coast without stopping? I’d take an urbee over a tesla any day.

By: Dean Miller

Dean Miller — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:13:08 +0000

Or you could buy a 40 kWh battery Tesla Model S and use no ethanol, have more room, and get it in 4 to 6 months for the same price.

By: Bernard LeVeque

Bernard LeVeque — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:53:21 +0000

@Noneya Biznazz “2500 hours each? Thats insane. Thats 104 days per car. Think about that. It’ll take 4 years just to put out the 15 or so for those already wanting one.”

Rally misses the point of the future applications of 3D Printing. You statement assumes there is only 1 3D printer working on 1 car at a time. What if there was a group of 2500 printers for example, the possibilities are endless using division of labor.

As for the inclusion of a combustion engine, in till a more portable, safe, permanent, reliable, and accessible technology becomes available; liquid fuel will be the standard for mobile power generation. Currently there is only two other options in that category, and the idea of every one driving around with a nuclear reactor freaks me out or getting stranded because the battery is dead and it is a cloudy day does not sound fun either.

By: Sueweus

Sueweus — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:22:52 +0000

@Noneya Biznazz, I think Pebble was referring to the consumption of fossil fuels in the production of ethanol, higher levels of VOC released than previously thought. Then there\’s all the fuels required to grow the corn itself. Still a valid issue that would need to be adressed.

By: Noneya Biznazz

Noneya Biznazz — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:05:35 +0000

And in response to Pebble, below, ethanol isn’t a fossil fuel. Its basically alcohol made from corn. It doesn’t come from underground. Please read and learn something before spilling your hippie juice all over the future.

The fuel isn’t the problem. Energy storage is the problem.

By: Noneya Biznazz

Noneya Biznazz — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:01:23 +0000

2500 hours each? Thats insane. Thats 104 days per car. Think about that. It’ll take 4 years just to put out the 15 or so for those already wanting one.

By: Steven Reid

Steven Reid — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:32:23 +0000

Pretty cool.. until a F-350 reverses on top of you.

By: bthinker

bthinker — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:05:43 +0000

Kinda wonder what kind of batteries they’re considering to propel this threewheeler. Air-Li or MITs porous Li wouldn’t be bad ideas. As the lightweight is already innate to it’s form it shouldn’t flaw it’s design carrying far too many basic Li batteries.If they make it radio free they could use that whole top window as solar semitranlucent glass to charge the car(slightly)maybe 2-5% daily. Brings me back to the cork car a bit, I guess we’ll see when they hit the prototype stage.

By: Pebble Haniford

Pebble Haniford — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:24:28 +0000

Here’s the problem: the issue isn’t that it uses fossil fuel MORE efficiently…it’s that it uses it at all! Seriously, innovation is NOT simply trying to find a better way to use an already faulty and failing system; innovation is the process of completely flipping a concept, efficient is no longer good enough. What we truly need is EFFECTIVE! And using fossil fuels, no matter how efficiently, is still…NOT EFFECTIVE!