Why are we still using gas for our vehicles?

I was just trolling the net and came across this artical, It got me thinking that their are sooo many ways to power cars and automobiles nowadays. like this Chocolate powered car here:

www.businessweek.com...

Or Vegetable Oil as seen here:

www.ehow.com...

And Garbage powered:

loveandtrash.com...

man they even run on pop can tabs:

www.newsy.com...

We have all this technology at our disposal yet people will continue to kill each other over oil and make our planet more polluted. Any one of these technologies would be better for our enviroment. yet they will never make it to production.

Just goes to show the power of the governments to keep the oil monopoly in their hands. Im sure their are even more ways out there that would be cheaper and more efficient.

Efficiency is the key.

You can run a car on a water but it's not really that efficient.

Also, the oil industry is very well implemented and people are just used to it.

Originally posted by AxlJones
Efficiency is the key.

You can run a car on a water but it's not really that efficient.

I think that anyone of those ideas could be very efficient if they spent the time to work on them

Dark matter energy is the best I have heard about, unlimited energy no waste! (For us living in matter)

But with the number of types of energy that are more efficient then gas, it does stupid to be burning the best material we have to make electric cars or to make a lot of stuff that in turn require less energy.

reply to post by AxlJones


That's not true at all dude, some 'clean' methods are way more efficient than gasoline.

I don't know why we're not using alternative energy sources, solar panels could be on top of cars, cars could be hydrogen, vegetable or hemp oil powered, but instead we spend $4.00 per gallon on something that we could do for free or for very cheap.

Wile there is still a fee/price for as you will pay and use it. The oil companies buy up all the plans/patents to think of a better phrase.

OIL = MONEY

I had an argument with one of my professors who swears he knows people who are working on nuclear powered automobiles. I wasn't arguing that it was impossible, but rather, arguing that people are bad enough drivers as it is. I just imagine a bunch of little mushroom clouds going off over the Dan Ryan every morning during rush hour traffic.

Originally posted by R3N3G4D3
Wile there is still a fee/price for as you will pay and use it. The oil companies buy up all the plans/patents to think of a better phrase.

OIL = MONEY

I agree with that, they buy the patents so they will never see the light of day

reply to post by JusticeIsComing


I dont think i like the idea of a nuclear powered car.

www.hydrogencarsnow.com...

here is an article anyways

Because the people in charge are selfish money grabbing t***s!!!!

Road tripped across the US with my buddy in a 1982 Mercedes Benz Diesel which had a Vegi oil tank and could switch between the two. We would pull up out the back of Fast food shops with the oil bins which they pay to dispose of and pump into his boot using a simple electric motor and filter set up.

The converter was relatively Cheap and a DIY instal. People don't change because its still cheap enough not to. Those who have don't want their free resources to suddenly cost money or the tax man to start paying attention. Look the info is out there I can vouch that it works and people use it today. As long as your not to noisy about it you can do it to.

Educate yourself and start tinkering. Don't have any grand illusions about selling your invention or method that's when you start stepping on the monopolies toes. If you do it for you and maybe a few friends you'll do ok.
Really people need to stop complaining that there is no change and "be the change they wish to see in the world."

reply to post by Shirak


Thats what i was thinking, people should just make the change themselves. If you cant do it yourself im sure we all know at least one person that could. I dont know why i would start a thread like this. I dont even have a drivers license lol.

reply to post by jaycen420


Thanks for the link. I don't like the idea of nuclear powered vehicles either.

To the OP, part of the problem with pure electric cars is that we still haven't worked out all the kinks yet to make it feasible:

-Availability - vehicles like the Chevy Volt are still on waiting list only.
-They take several hours to charge and there aren't near as many charging stations as gas stations.
-You'll need to purchase a charging station to charge it at home for roughly $2500.
-Rechargeable batteries wear out. If the battery has a max of 100 miles before needing charged, in 5 years it may only go 70 miles... and so on. And they're pretty expensive to replace.
-Mechanics still don't know enough yet to work on them so maintenance is going to be a hassle.
-New electric cars are still very expensive.

The powers that be have gone out of their way to make it not feasible to switch from an oil dependent automobile. Maybe now that gas is $4 it will finally make the average consumer angry enough that they have to come up with feasible alternatives.

People in the cities would probably find an electric or alternative fuel vehicle would suit all their needs.
They would work fine for driving to work, socializing and just plain getting around.

I haven't seen anything yet (other than bio-diesel) that will allow me to use a full size truck to pull a heavy trailer for long distances or haul firewood or do many of the things I do in my job.

I would have no problem using an electric car to get around but most things I do require a vehicle with power and driving range that these vehicles don't offer.

Even if we could get ALL personal vehicles from the group your talking about you still need large commercial trucks and about the only option there is still diesel fuel.

We could convert all our trains to be electric or electromagnetic but then we would need lots more electricity and people would complain about nuke plants.

It is wise...... no....very wise to explore ALL avenues of alternative fuels but right now they just are not able to make something cheap enough, reliable enough and powerful enough to fulfill all needs.

When they have an electric FULL SIZE pick-up that will tow a trailer and have a range of 500 miles between charges AND be affordable, I will buy one.

Diesel vehicles are WAY WAY more efficient than 10 years ago and get great fuel mileage. The VW diesels get around 45 MPG and are nice cars. They have small pick-ups in other countries that get great MPG but they won't import them here in the USA.

I would buy one of these in a heartbeat.

Ford offers a 4 cyl diesel and a V6 diesel in Europe but here in the states.

Sure it's still using petroleum products but till something better comes along why not get 30-50 MPG instead of 15?

how many acres are needed to produce the < insert biomass of choice > to fuel < insert number of cars > in < insert country >

reply to post by jaycen420


If they would spend as much money on researching new energy sources as they do on the military budget, we wouldn't still be driving around using gas and the internal combustion engine. Having said that, the oil industry and economy is so tied into oil, any new technology is a threat to both the industry and economy. Our government never ratified a real energy plan even during the 70's oil crisis. Still to this day, our corporate bought politicians have ignored its importance for our country to be self sufficient. Yet, they feel the need to send our young men and women into harms way because of corporate pressure and buy-offs to preserve the wealth of the oil elite.

For all of you who think that there are patents for more fuel efficent engines out there, I invite you to look at the Patent Office website.
If you can't find it there then there isn't a patent on it.

We can power anything with about everything. As for instance hydrogen,magnetic generators,fuelless engines,compressed air,you can even power your grill with horse manure this was on larry the cable guy show only in america can't find the video though. here's some links
www.youtube.com...(Power your house)
www.youtube.com...(HHO Gas)

heres a website to search for alternative energy patents www.freepatentsonline.com...
Im also in the process of building my own Hydrogen generator

The question is cost-effectiveness, availability, and practicality.

Solar power is one of the more sought-after - but it's simply not practical for the type of driving most people do. Solar cars squeeze every ounce of power they can out of radiant sunlight and use most of it to try and overcome the air-resistance and bearing-friction of the car. Acceleration is agonizingly slow. Cargo capacity is limited. Passenger capacity is non-existent. And none of them have conveniences like air conditioning, stereos, etc.

Sure - with the right application, it can be useful. It's just that you're not going to see solar-powered cars driving around all over the place simply because of the limitations of the power source.

Electric runs into similar problems. Conveniences like air conditioning and stereos really cut into the power demands of a car, on top of actually driving. They are fine for trips around town and short hops between places you can stop and jack-in ... but not too good for making a trip to a mall in a nearby city, theme park, etc.

Further - let's say you have a car that runs off of hydrogen... where do you fill it up with hydrogen? Who is going to pay to put up all of those new hydrogen vending stations? ... And here's the real kicker - why build a bunch of hydrogen-stations if there are so few people with hydrogen cars... and who is going to buy a hydrogen car when there are no places to fill up?

You also have the problem of "where does the hydrogen come from?" "Can we produce enough to supply the demand? Can it compete with gasoline in cost/effectiveness?"

In many cases - such as ethanol - it is simply not realistic to try and replace gasoline. The ethanol enriched gasoline is a more practical approach, and the ethanol from that is often made from the 'waste' parts of crops - but to try and create "cars that run off of alcohol" and put them on the market would be pretty silly - as there's no way to ever produce enough alcohol to replace gasoline - or even lessen our dependence on it by a measurable amount.

That is why we still have cars that run off of gasoline - because nothing else can be so widely produced and distributed in a cost/effective manner.

Perhaps with gasoline in the U.S. projected to reach 8 dollars a gallon sometime in the next several years, we'll see some new up-and-coming markets that will really address the issue.

More than likely, we'll see bike sales skyrocket and obesity levels plummet. You will either be riding your bike to work and back or driving instead of eating.

You can produce your own hydrogen and store it yourself. You can actually run a solar panel and the leftover electricity can produce hydrogen from water. Crude oil,Gasoline have hydrocarbons hmmmmmmm.