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As we reported earlier, the X-Prize (of "paying people to shoot themselves into space in home-built rockets" fame) is bringing its "Revolution Through Competition" approach to the lofty goal of the 100mpg car. Well, they finally got the money together, thanks to title sponsor Progressive Insurance. And they even have a Senate resolution praising them for their bold, visionary whatever. So let the games begin! Oh, but first your garage-built go-kart must pass safety, cost, features and business plan inspections to ensure that only production-capable, consumer-friendly cars compete. Yup, they said business plans. Sorry Tesla!
“Sorry Tesla!”
SMACK!
In Tesla’s defense, better to have no plan at all, than to have one that is just gibberish without any meat. Yes, GM, I am talking about YOU.
I think their money is safe. CNN reports:
The purse will be split between two categories: mainstream and alternative cars.
Mainstream cars must carry four or more passengers and have climate control, an audio system and 10 cubic feet of cargo space. They also must have four or more wheels, hit 60 miles per hour in less than 12 seconds and have a minimum top speed of 100 miles per hour and a range of 200 miles.
Alternative vehicles will be required to carry two or more passengers and five cubic feet of cargo, have a top speed of at least 80 miles per hour and have a range of at least 100 miles.
Why do you think their money is safe? There are already several alternative cars that meet or exceed the stated criteria. Aptera and Allé to name 2. As for business plans, I think Aptera may have the edge so far.
Dancote –
Keep in mind that the “range” is “range between fillups.” They still have to go 3000 miles in order to win. I know the Aptera still claims to do 130mpg with the batteries completely drained, so if they can really pull that off in real life driving, they should be legit to win. But the batteries and electric motor won’t really help them any.
It is hard for me to hide my excitement for this “X” prize. The outcome of this could be life changing for a lot of folks.
They laughed when Burt Rutan set out to build “home-made rockets,” too. It’s so easy for non-achievers to snort-snort-chortle-chortle from a safe distance.
We’ll see what comes of this, but it certainly is a better idea than government funded research and a heck of a lot cheaper.
I don’t see how the prize itself will generate “revolution through competition”. It costs one hell of a lot more than $10M ($5?) to make such a vehicle and plenty of profit could be made if you could actually make a profitable mass production version of it.
They ll laughed at Christopher Columbus … ,but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
That “top speed of 100MPH” requirement is just about enough to guarantee that it’s not gonna happen… unless the “four passengers” are lying flat.
A cynic would note the irony of an insurance company sponsoring this event. Experts in risk accessment, they could weigh the probability of payout vs the mountain of positive public exposure such an event would create. Any cynics here?
John
I love this type of competition. I just wish I could watch development (drama-free) on TV as a reality series, along with intelligent, insightful commentary from the folks who work through the barriers they encounter. Maybe one of the less shitty networks could pick that up and boost the prize.
Oh wait, sorry, I was dreaming. That would require brainpower to absorb! The private rocket XPrize was pretty fascinating to read about; most of the teams had good blogs, and chronicled what happens when people from all sorts of backgrounds approach a subject very, very few people have been involved with.
Also, for $500k, sure, it’s pretty small compared to the cost of entry, but I *THINK* the funding you can obtain isn’t very regulated, so typically this will be for exposure and advertising, and the prize is just icing. Avoiding entry because “the prize is simply too small” sounds like a GM PR defecation.