john-belmonte
Forum Replies Created
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What they need to do seems pretty clear: add some further incentive to counteract late bidding, such as offering some vehicle option, exclusive event access, or official collectable to anyone on the leaderboard at the 1 month mark.
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Scaling the Aptera up to 4 seats and 4 wheels has been discussed a lot, but I haven’t heard much about scaling down. As a follow-on model, advantages would include keeping the 3-wheel classification, identical design, greater urban accessibility, and perhaps lower cost (less batteries if power per mile could be reduced).
The Aptera has decidedly American proportions for a model with global aspirations. It’s the same width as a modern Lamborghini including side mirrors. People have mentioned European cities, but it would be difficult to manage the Aptera on Tokyo side streets– I find enough challenges with a 70″ wide compact minivan. So I propose a model that is scaled down at least 15% in all dimensions– otherwise same design. That includes wheel width, assuming the wheel motor options allow it.
I wonder how efficiency would land given the changes: lighter, less rolling resistance, Cd (higher or lower?), reduced solar area, etc.
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https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/stella-vita-solar-campervan-netherlands-spc-intl/index.html
- 60 kWh battery
- 373 mile range
- 81 free miles per day in full sun
- solar surface area: 8.8 sq meters
- solar surface area, parked and extra panels deployed: 17.5 sq meters
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> I am aware that Aptera is going to offer their own level 2 system but OpenPilot is very high level and it would be nice to have it ported to Aptera
Aptera isn’t going to build L2 assist from scratch. They’ll integrate something existing based on their business and technical requirements. I wouldn’t assume they aren’t aware of Comma or are not considering it.
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https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-aptera-solar-ev-first-look-review/
The article is skeptical about the car’s ability to dissipate heat from the A/C cooling system. Anyone following that closely?
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I know solar cell efficiency decreases with increasing temperature. It will be interesting to learn how wind cooling affects the cells while driving– they may get more efficient as your speed increases.
Conversely, on a hot day the cells on the dashboard would presumably do better than exterior cells when the car is stationary and interior cooling is on.
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The right way to solar power your car is to put solar panels on your house
Campervanning is a thing. People who enjoy that would appreciate solar for all the reasons we do the Aptera. In fact solar makes even more sense when you don’t have a “home”, or aren’t regularly parked at one.
