Electric Motorcycle Inventor Crashes at Wired Conference 337
not5150 writes "The inventor of the electric 'KillaCycle" motorcycle was taken to the hospital for x-rays after demonstrating the vehicle to reporters. Bill Dube, a government scientist during the day and bike builder at night, attempted a burnout in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center during the Wired NextFest fair. Fueled by the "most powerful" lithium-ion batteries in the world, the bike accelerated uncontrollably into another car. There's a video interview (thankfully before the crash) and footage of Dube crashing."
some pictures (Score:5, Informative)
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:4, Informative)
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:5, Informative)
Of course you can. Do you have an electric fan? Does it always run at full speed? Or is there a little switch that lets you adjust the fan speed?
My understanding is that when you turn an electric engine on, that's it, full power full torque.
No. Electric motors can do that (which is nice in many applications), but they don't have to do that. It depends on how much voltage/current goes to the electric motor, and it's pretty easy to control voltage & current.
Just needed stiches (Score:5, Informative)
from the comments on the linked page:
I wasn't wearing a helment, because we did not intend the bike to even move!
We were spinning the tire in soapy water. The tire unexpectantly gripped, (water ran out?) and launched the bike. I couldn't get it shut down as quickly as I would have liked. I had to release the front brake to fully untwist the throttle. I then managed to slow it down to about 20 mph.
The positive message here is that when we crunched the battery pack, NOTHING happened. No smoke. No flames. Not even sparks. Not only are these cells more powerful, they are are the safest possible for automobiles.
Also, there was NO ONE in front of the bike or in the possible trajectory of the bike.
Bill Dube
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:5, Informative)
As to the time, 0-60 in 1 second is standard for drag cars or bikes running in the 7s on the quarter mile.
1/4 mile times like that are pretty good for an electric vehicle though.
Other Videos (Score:5, Informative)
There are a lot of videos of the thing in action at http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=KillaCycle [google.com]. The thing is clearly [google.com] not [google.com] a scooter [google.com]
It's really a bummer that he decided not to wear a helmet.
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:5, Informative)
You can vary the amount of power sent to the motor, it is also possible to have motors with switchable windings to give different torque and speed settings. In the case of a vehicle such as a car or motorbike an electric motor can be connected via the same sort of gearbox you'd use with an internal combustion engine. Indeed the only real difference between a regular motorcycle and an all electric one is that the latter wouldn't need a starter.
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:5, Informative)
You can't easily apply gradually more power with high-power engines running on AC.
There are numerous tricks like switching configuration of the coils, using high-power thyrystors etc. You can't just put some resistance because it would be enormously wasteful. Some railway engines use "convert 1-phase AC from the wire to DC, then convert back to three-phase AC of desired frequency" making them actually more efficient than running on 1-phase AC straight from the wire.
But not in this case. The batteries produce DC. They can be switched one at a time to limit voltage(->torque) if it's a DC motor, or the conversion to AC can be freely configured providing frequency (->RPM) just as desired if the motor is AC.
(also note using all kinds of resistors, pots and other "power drains" for limiting current/voltage when such powers are in use, are useless - they would have to dissipate (and waste) enormous amounts of power. Devices that limit the "average" voltage by dutycycle method ( x% of a milisecond on, 100-x% of a milisecond time off => x% power) are much better but not every kind of end-target device can accept this kind of power, plus it generates lots of electromagnetic noise from all the instant on-off action )
Simply put, getting limiting voltage by a half in a 5V 10mA DC configuration is trivial - wasting 0.25W of power is not a problem. In 500V 10A DC configuration is very tricky. Dissipating 2500W is not really an option.
Re:More seriously, though (Score:5, Informative)
On diesel railway locomotives, they have a diesel engine that generates electricity, which is then used to power electric motors on the wheels. One reason for this arrangement is that using electric motors like this means you don't need a clutch and it's more compact than a fully mechanical transmission for such huge power would be.
Re:Other Videos (Score:2, Informative)
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:3, Informative)
pulse width you increase or decrease the speed of the motor.
Re:More seriously, though (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Best wishes, but come on buddy, common sense (Score:3, Informative)
And your comment about being a "role model" is inane. Are you saying no one should take any risks because stupid people might copy them? Berate the man for endangering his own safety if you wish, but get off your high horse.
Re:Killa-Minivan (Score:5, Informative)
I got a twelve day stay in an ICU, four major surguries, four months in the hospital, a year of rehab, more than a half million US dollars in medical bills, and pain that I would never wish on anyone. She got a ticket for failure to yield right of way and a new SUV.
If you want to ride a bike on the highways in the U.S. beware that the consequences of the bad judgement of the drooling idiots you share the road with is extremely high. The helmet will ensure that you remain concious throughout the ordeal... if you are lucky... and if you aren't, at least your wife, kids, parents, or whatever will be able to have an open casket funeral.
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:2, Informative)
Ke= M* (V^2)
so it takes 4* as much energy to go from 0-120, as to go from 0-60. Assuming constant power wouldn't 1 sec 0 to 60, would be 4 sec 0 to 120.
Traction limit would go up (same torque*2 speed, ie twice the power allowed through the tire, but 4* needed to maintain accell rate), which was probably his limit to 60.
Re:Just needed stiches (Score:4, Informative)
The Slashdot crowd is already familiar with exploding laptop batteries, and electric RC news groups are filled with horror stories of houses and cars burning down from LiPo batteries that "randomly" burst into flame. Just this weekend my brother-in-law and I flew our electric RC planes with LiPo packs in them. On the way back into the house, he dropped a battery pack on the sidewalk from about 3 feet in the air. It instantly started spewing smoke and flames, and kept going for about a minute. We were lucky that it was sitting on concrete.
The moral of the story is, I wouldn't trust anything as volitile as the LiPo's that I use for RC sitting between my legs or in the trunk of my car. While the injury is unfortunate, the publicity of a safe LiPo might do good things for the KillaCycle.
Re:More seriously, though (Score:4, Informative)
Complete myth. I can attest to this. We used to be free in Louisiana to choose to wear a helmet or not. New Gov. Blanco (aka Blank-Stare after katrina) repealed the law.
We now have to wear helmets. However, the insurance rates for motorcycle riders (or even auto) did not go down one cent.
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:3, Informative)
It's storage that's the problem, and on such short distances
Re:More seriously, though (Score:3, Informative)
Key Phrase... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:0-60 in less than a second (Score:3, Informative)
An electric car at high speed is still going to emit a fair amount of noise. Modern gasoline and even diesel engines are very quiet even at low speeds.
For the motorcyclist's 'being noisy is safer', well, you still have to worry about deaf people, even half-deaf elderly who are running around in a relativly soundproofed car. With the radio turned up.
Re:Electric Motorcycle + Wired (Score:3, Informative)