Electric avenues
Maybe a better solution to the problem of range in electric cars would be to provide motorways with power lines, as on electric railways. The return current could go through a metal conductor embedded in the road, which could also provide guidance so the car can drive itself, communicating with the cars in front and behind. This system could safely be operated at quite high speeds and high traffic densities per lane, and the cars would only need enough battery for the part of the journey that is on ordinary roads.
John Grant, Cambridge
Israel makes the switch
Alan A Brown’s idea of battery exchange stations (Letters, last week) will shortly become a reality in Israel, where stations are now being built and Renault is supplying the all-electric Fluence saloon. The infrastructure will provide 200 stations and 5,000 street charging points.
Arnold Cronin, Westminster, London
Turbine was a gas
Jay Leno’s piece on the Chrysler Turbine (“My bronze blowpipe’s shot at the future”, March 20) brought back many memories. I was the Chrysler International area service manager, based in Singapore, when one of these cars was being flown on its round-the-world introduction trip in 1963.
The big turn-off from the customer’s point of view was accelerator lag; and from the lawyer’s point of view, accident damage with the possibility of turbine blades letting go at 40,000rpm. Having said that, it was always believed that, had the industry started out with the turbine and continued its development for the past 100 years, the internal combustion engine would have been a dead duck a long time ago. Imagine coming to the market with a “new” engine that had a crankshaft, loose rods attached, valves, camshaft and so on.
Neville Talbot, Camberley, Surrey
Advertisement
Hit the road, tarmac
On the subject of omnipresent potholes, just as 21st-century humans don’t drive around in Ford Model Ts, why are we still using crumbly century-old technology (tarmacadam) to surface roads? Surely it is not beyond the wit of engineers to invent a more durable road-surfacing compound.
Alan Barstow, Melton Constable, Norfolk
I’m on the plane
Wi-fi internet on planes — yes (“Welcome aboard, folks, this is wi-fi airways”, last week). Mobile phones on planes — for the love of God, no, no, a thousand times no.
Charles Harris, Camden, northwest London
Email letters for publication to ingear@sunday-times.co.uk, or write to InGear, The Sunday Times, 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1ST. Please include your name, address and phone number.