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From: ems@Apple.COM (Mike Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.energy,sci.electronics,sci.med
Subject: Electric cars?  Start with wheelchairs.
Keywords: electirc cars wheelchairs batteries
Message-ID: <3659@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 17 Aug 89 20:20:13 GMT
Organization: Circle C Shellfish Ranch, Shores-of-the-Pacific Ca
Lines: 64

There has been a bit of discussion about electric cars
and their future use.  I would like to suggest that 
there is a clear and present market of 'electric cars'
and they could benefit from improvements.

A friend is in an electric wheelchair.  It is, in all
important respects, a miniature electric car.  It has
steering, batteries, electric motors, etc.  It also has
a rather old an crude level of technology.

It has no built in charger.  Why?  If she is at school (she
teaches) she must monitor her power usage.  If it get's too
low she is stuck.  There is no small portable WEATHERPROOF
battery charger that could be tucked under the chair for use
in such a problematic situation.  It cannot be recharged from
her van.  She has a fully custom driving station built into
her van, yet it has no provision to charge the chair while 
in motion.  On at least one occasion she 'ran out of juice'
on the way to her van.  A kind passer by wheeled her into
her van so that she could drive home.  Then she had to wait
for someone to notice her in the van to wheel her into the 
house to the battery charger.  This is barbaric.

It uses plain old lead acid batteries.  I would think that
a safer and more effective battery could be identified ...
At the very least lead-acid gel cells would be less prone
to acid leakage.

To get real exstream, there is a fixed (and rather small) range
to the on-board battery.  Why is their no 'power trailer' that
could be pulled behind the chair with either more batteries
or even a small generator?  (Come-on you 'hybrid electric'
folks, surely you can come up with a small, QUIET generator
or fuel cell).

Yes, I'm frustrated to watch a friend deal with limitations
of technology that seem to me to be bogus.  There are so
many known technologies that could be used to make the
electric wheelchair more functional.  It is an excellent
place for the electric car folks to prove their concepts.
After all, the customer is already sold on electric vehicles
and would love to have ANY improvements! 

So tell me, why are electric wheelchairs at the trailing
rather than the leading edge of electric vehicle technology?

-- 

E. Michael Smith  ems@apple.COM

'If you can dream it, you can do it'  Walt Disney

This is the obligatory disclaimer of everything. (Including but
not limited to: typos, spelling, diction, logic, and nuclear war)


-- 

E. Michael Smith  ems@apple.COM

'If you can dream it, you can do it'  Walt Disney

This is the obligatory disclaimer of everything. (Including but
not limited to: typos, spelling, diction, logic, and nuclear war)