Human-electric car; the wave of the future or just something to laugh at while we drive by?

It gets a whole whopping 30 mph going uphill IF you have yourself and all your passengers rowing away like they're on a Roman slave galley!

Look out world here it comes; the dumbest idea since voting an undocumented socialist into the White House, it's called the human-electric car. They even have plans to put these monstrosities into production and will charge $15,500 for one of these beauties.

'Human-electric' hybrid car goes 30 mph uphill

Fred Flintstone could only dream of such a car. The HumanCar Imagine PS, a four-seater vehicle that uses hand cranks, can take on hills at 30 miles per hour, exceed 60 mph on flat terrain and is expected to hit the market next year.

HumanCar is the self-funded brainchild of Charles Samuel Greenwood, an engineer who has been working on developing the perfect human-powered vehicle since the late 1960s. Now, it looks like his car is actually getting somewhere. According to Autoblog Green, the lightweight Imagine PS is street legal and, if four people are cranking inside, can run on human power alone. "PS" stands for "power station," naturally. Based in Eugene, Ore., HumanCar Inc. is preparing to start producing the car.

MSNBC


Currently, they have 100 pre-orders and plan on putting them into production once they get 800 pre-orders. I guess those loonies in California will blow their money away on anything these days.




I'm surprised none of the drivers who passed him didn't drive off the road from laughing so hard.

Thankfully that will never be street legal in Canada, we have laws against driving too slow.

What happens if your driving uphill by yourself and you have to turn? Does it roll backwards if you stop pumping it?

A bike is if you want to exercise, a car is so you don't have to.

reply to post by FortAnthem


Man..that is the goofiest thing i have ever seen...

But thanks for posting it...was a good watch...

Very cool, this car was on display in west palm beach about a year ago. I was blown away with how fast it was.

i want one, i know a couple of illegals who work cheap.
i'll be the gringo in the back seat.

Why does it have to be so long and ugly - no weather protection? Think I will stick with my bike. And yes I would LMAO if I saw one on the road.

reply to post by baddmove


Dear baddmove

You obviously did not see the Sinclair C5

There is another 100% all electric car out there, but it is not
human powered.

When they get some Super Capacitors Battery hybrids like
the paper battery perfected then we might seem them as viable.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Tesla Roadster:



And then if you want total insanity...The Ellica...



Just need that hybrid Super Cap - Battery and it is good to go...

Walking is even better for the environment. Just wait until someone points that out to Californians.

Originally posted by falige
Walking is even better for the environment. Just wait until someone points that out to Californians.

But how are they going to get them to shell out $15 grand for the walking shoes?



Oh, yeah, that's right, they're Californians...

Stupid question.

Originally posted by FortAnthem
I'm surprised none of the drivers who passed him didn't drive off the road from laughing so hard.

It may seem funny now but when oil gets to $1000 a barrel, and someday it will, it won't be so funny. I see there are solar panels but the crank might be a nice backup if it gets too overcast for the solar panels to work.

I have to agree that a bicycle would seem to be a better idea for human power, or something that uses the strong leg muscles to provide power. It looks like his design uses back muscles which aren't nearly as strong as the leg muscles, and people have some back problems as it is, so it would make more sense to me to put some pedals in the thing, maybe kind of like the pedals on a stairmaster.

Maybe I could cancel my gym membership if I could get my workout driving (and propelling) my car!? but there will be a small market initially, most people are too lazy. But once oil gets to $1000 a barrel......we'll see.

Hopefully by the time oil reaches $1000 per barrel, we would of long switched to electric cars, powered by safe, clean, reliable energy sources.

The “HumanCar 2011″ and Why It’s NOT the Future

Interested in your own Humancar 2011? They’re already taking deposits, which are just fifty US Dollars, although the actual unit will set you back more than fifteen grand! Unfortunately, a closer look at the concept shows it to be about as unrealistic as most “alternative transportation” concepts out there. Not only is it hyper-expensive, but the whole concept is unnecessarily complex and of limited utility.

depletedcranium.com...

[edit on 21/8/2010 by C0bzz]