Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Endurance is a relatively simple problem to solve: just add more batteries. It's already a 14-ton vehicle, adding another ton or two of batteries probably won't be a dealbreaker. Worst-case scenario you put them in a trailer for long-endurance scenarios - they often already need one to bring a variety of buckets to the work site.

There's a more interesting question, in my opinion: what happens when it inevitably runs out?

Diesel is of course absolutely trivial. It can be refueled from any petrol station, you can bring your own barrel with a small pump, or even use a jerrycan. Easy to use both in urban areas and out in the boonies. Battery is a bit trickier. Worksite electric hookups and superchargers are viable urban options, and in remote areas you could use some kind of generator.

Hydrogen, on the other hand, is a bit of a nightmare. Demand for hydrogen is unlikely to be high enough to warrant a very dense network of fueling stations, so even in urban areas it's going to take a significant amount of time to refuel. And in rural areas you're screwed: a fueling station could be hundreds of miles / kilometers away, and you're not exactly going to fill up a jerrycan with hydrogen either! There's no way you are refueling it on-site, having a regular worker messing around with hundreds or thousands of liters of hydrogen at 600x atmospheric pressure or cryogenic temperatures is just waiting for an accident to happen.



There's work done on storing hydrogen in special liquids. If that works, there still are a lot of issues, but maybe it could fit heavy vehicles.


which drastically reduces its energy density




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: