Where Are They Now? Part Three

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants Leave a Comment

One team has reached its destination, although belatedly, and another is closing on its goal as two electrically-powered epic journeys reach their final hours. Vislab’s orange Piaggio vans and their retinue of support vehicles entered Shanghai, China on October 28, 18 days after their anticipated arrival date; and the Racing Green Endurance (RGE) team from Imperial College London has passed from Chile into Argentina on its home stretch to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Vislab’s goal of testing autonomous vehicles on the two-continent expedition, with the possibility of one day establishing a modern silk road from Italy to China and applying lessons learned from this journey to making everyday driving safer, had its share of problems, but the expert team managed to overcome these and press ahead in grand adventure style. Their press release marks the notable accomplishment.  “The first intercontinental expedition in history composed of driverless vehicles left Parma (Italy) last June 26 and, after traveling for …

Where Are They Now? Part Two

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants Leave a Comment

This blog has been following two intrepid groups exploring new geographical and technical terrain.  Both have been slowed by mechanical difficulties and sometime bureaucratic entanglements, but are making up for lost time. London’s Imperial College Racing Green Endurance (RGE) team is driving an electric supercar from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, the world’s most southernmost city.  Their trek down the Pan-American Highway is about 70-percent done and mobile again following their recent enforced layover in Quito, Ecuador.  They have been stopped 29 times by police in North, Central, and South America, with many stops more to satisfy the curiosity of the local gendarmes than to enforce repentance of  negligence toward the traffic code.  Their Thunder Sky batteries and EVO motors have been performing reliably, pushing the car 250 miles or more per day on their eventful voyage.  To make up for time lost in repairs, they are pressing on, as attested to in their latest Twitter tweet, “We are in Machala! 320 …

Where Are They Now?

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants Leave a Comment

Two automotive teams on epic journeys we’ve reported on previously are making great progress toward their goals. The Vislab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge is in Samara, Russia, a few hundred miles north of the Kazakhstan border.  An ostensibly driverless tour from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China is planned to arrive at its destination on October 10, 2010, 21 days before the end of the World Expo being held there.  On the way, two pairs of vehicles are testing Vislab’s goal “to move goods between two continents with non-polluting vehicles powered by green energy and with virtually no human intervention.” As noted in this blog, the Italian team is running two pairs of Piaggio vans on a route emulating but not duplicating Marco Polo’s 13th century trek to China and back.  Polo spent much of the first part of the voyage on a ship and docked near Iraq’s western borders before setting off inland.  After 24 years on the road, he returned to …