February 14, 2012 • 20 mins
Although it might sound crazy, several companies have partnered to create a car that runs entirely off compressed air. In this episode, Scott and Ben take a look at the benefits -- and drawbacks -- of an air car. Tune in to learn more.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Go behind the wheel and under the hood on everything
automotive with high speed stuff from how stuff works dot com.
Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I've been
here with how Stuff Works Auto editor Scott Scott. How
is your vacation? I was fantastic, Ben, Thank you. A
(00:22):
lot of our listeners probably, uh, haven't heard yet that
you just got back, right, Yes, I did. Yeah, it
was a pretty awesome trip. I went to Vegas and uh,
I guess I was just mentioning to you here in
the studio that I saw some authentic rat rods on
the on the road while I was there, and it
was pretty exciting. I was excited by the whole thing.
It was good. Yeah, yeah, I just hadn't really been
around them in Detroit, there are a few. These were Southwest,
(00:46):
really awesome looking rat rods. They were there for the
Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Show, a thing that was happening there,
and it was really cool. That's cool event. Didn't get
to drive one yet, No, I didn't, but you know,
just to see them on the road, it's it's totally
different than seeing you know, the just the images and uh,
it's really cool. Well, well, while you were away at
a lot of time to think about automotive related subject
(01:11):
I did. I did take a moment or two. Okay, yeah,
I've got a pretty I think I've got a pretty
good one. Are you ready? Can cars run on air?
It's a wild idea. I Uh, the answer is yes,
they can run on air. Just seems unbelievable, doesn't it. Yeah,
I guess I guess I should have made that a
(01:31):
more complex question, because now it sounds like thanks for listening, um,
and we're back. How does how does that work? No,
it's uh, it really, it's possible. And there's a company
that's doing it right now. Um it's a French company.
Or they're building cars that run on air. They run
and compressed air. Is it a French company people have
heard of? Possibly? I mean they're kind of tied into, uh,
(01:55):
the Indian company Tata Motors, which um you probably remember
very recently you're maybe not, I don't know. But they
they've developed the world's cheapest car, that's right. Yeah, and
this car is under two thousand bucks, I think is
what they said. And they're they're partnered with them or
actually they have the support of Tate Motors. The company
(02:15):
called m d I, which stands for Motor Development International.
And again I said, it's a French company and they're
developing these engines that operate on compressed air. And they've
got They not only do that, they make the vehicles
that these things go into. So they're they're creating the
entire package. That's super cool. I guess in some ways
it's almost like an indie car company. Now, yeah, it
(02:37):
kind of is. Yeah, what it really is. They're they're
more of a motor development company, is what. You know,
it's right there in their name. But they're designing, like
I said, they're designing the whole package to go with it,
because that makes sense, you know, they mean how to
how to apply the technology. Okay, so it's not it's
not as though this car is just rolling off of
air coming into the intake in the front. No, No,
(02:59):
it's not like. It's not like that. It's not like
a It just it regenerates itself as it drives through
the air. Nothing like that. It doesn't just gather ambient air.
I guess to operate you have to compress the air
and then use that compressed air to operate this this
while to change it into rotational energy, which is then
used to drive the wheels. Okay, okay, basically, you know
(03:20):
it's again compressed air in this in this big tank
again changes it to rotational energy drives the wheels. The
problem is, how do you compress that air? I mean
you do at home? And because okay, here's the problem.
All right, we'll get into this just well, we'll give
some advantages and disadvantages. Okay, here, here's one disadvantage right
(03:40):
now is that, um, you have to compress the air somehow,
and it actually takes quite a bit of time to
compress the amount of air needed to make one of
these things move, because you can imagine it takes a
lot of a lot of air to make a vehicle move. Vehicle,
I mean in comparison to other vehicles, it's maybe not
that heavy it's but it's still a lot of weight
to push. It is a lot of way to push.
(04:01):
They are pretty lightweight though they're they're on the light
side out. Um, I'll find it here somewhere I got
in my notes the other way of these things. But um, yeah,
the idea is that you know, you compress this to
this big, massive air a lot of air, large volume
of air. I should say it takes some time to
do that. It does. It doesn't happen instantly. It doesn't
happen in just a couple of minutes even, um, although
(04:22):
it might someday. Um. But if you plug these things
at home, it takes a typical compressor at home, like
a you know, something that you'd use to pump up
your tires in your car, small air compressor. It might
take as many as a couple of hours, two or
three hours even you have to plan ahead. Yeah, that's right,
and that and that fuel or that that fuel, that
compressed air is good for about I think they said
(04:45):
approximately a hundred and thirty miles between when you have
to charge this thing up again. Okay, so this is more.
This started starting to sound more like a city car. Yeah,
it it's really it's a it's it's a it's a
commuter type vehicle. Okay, well what okay, I'm sorry, I'm
stuttering because I'm trying to ask a bunch of questions
at once. I mean, what, how how would it work
(05:07):
if you drive half that distance, say sixty or something,
and then you want to recharge it, you would you
would simply plug the car and it has an onboard
compressor and plug it in and out. Okay, that that's
sometimes it's they're saying that some of these vehicles will
have onboard compressors, some won't. Eventually, eventually they probably will
(05:29):
have something different. Well, I'll talk about that in a moment. Okay,
I'm getting to do a lot of things that we're
gonna have to talk about. Remember them all, but we'll
go through them. The idea is that you drive this
thing to and from work, you come home, you plug
it in, and it charges itself in two or three
hours and you're done. You drive off the next day
and go to work. So it's never this is not
your drive to Vegas car No, no, no, this would
be um. You know, at long distances there would be
(05:49):
another disadvantage is that you know, you would have to
pull over refuel this thing with air I guess, and
you know, recompress the air and compress the air, and
it may take as many as two or three hours
if of the tank. Now, if you go to a
station that's purposely built for this, that the air is
already compressed, this may exist in the future. You know,
this is the kind of thing where, um, you know,
(06:09):
it may just take a couple of minutes to do this,
and I take two or three minutes at most. Now,
the same problem is kind of occurring with this or
the idea is that, um, let's say right now, we
don't have many electric we don't have any electric cars
fully electric cars that are mass produced. We have a
few that are you know, in independent companies that are
making them, but there's no you know, consistency in the
(06:32):
places that you can pull over to have these things
charged up or quickly charge them or or you know,
swap out batteries or whatever the whatever the way to
refuel these things. There's no infrastructure. That's right, there's no infrastructure. So, um,
the same thing with these air cars is that, you know,
until something's in place for you know, to make these
long distance travels, it's just not really going to be
all that practical. Well, you know, I am going to
(06:56):
raise a point that I think most people think is
an advantage. If you're okay with it, I think I've
I think I may have figured out why that's not
quite the case. You're okay with Yeah, what what is it? Okay?
All right? Um? So one argument, it sounds like one
argument would be that these cars would perhaps to be
(07:16):
more environmentally friendly because of course they don't use gasoline
in the vehicle. But the argument against that argument would
be that using the compressor, it really depends on what
is powering the compressor, right, that's right, Yeah, like probably electricity,
and electricity is generated at a big plant someone usually
(07:40):
a lot of coal power, a lot of coal power,
coal power, and that's right. So um, but you know,
it's not to say that it couldn't be you know,
created cleanly. Um. But yeah, there there's tradeoffs, I guess.
I mean you still you know you're you're in this
air car. It does have a compressor or or it
requires a compressor to fill it. Um, And that has
to come that energy to run that compressor has to
(08:01):
come from somewhere, and like you said, it could be
from a you know, a power source at home. There
could be a version. Now I think the early versions
of the US are talking about having Okay, see we're
getting to one of our one of our points here.
That's good. I remembered. Um, early versions may have onboard
compressors that can kind of operate on the fly, so
(08:22):
that may extend the range. And now they're talking. I've
seen numbers as high as you know, eight hundred miles,
a thousand miles or whatever. To me, I don't know.
It sounds like maybe you'd be able to go indefinitely,
but maybe not because an onboard compressor you wouldn't be
able to run that using electricity. You have to use
gasoline to operate that. It kind of would, yeah, and
(08:43):
in a sense it would. The gasoline would would power
the compressor that would then fill the tank. So you know,
eight hundred thousand miles sounds about right, I suppose, because
you know you're traveling a certain distance, the compressor kicks on,
compresses it or compresses it as it goes. You never
really run out. Um now probably I think the other
numbers that I saw said something about, you know, maybe
(09:04):
as much as eight gallons of fuel on board, So
you know that again that kind of gets into the okay,
but now how many miles are getting per gallon? And
so it adds another level to it, I said, another
another area of cut and then and then that does
create you know, of course, that's internal combustion really right,
(09:24):
So for some people might defeat the purpose, but maybe
but you're still talking about an extremely efficient vehicle that
you know, UM produces far less carbon emissions than than
would a standard vehicle that's operating only on UM internal combustion. Well,
let's go with let's let's go with the size of
these because you said the pretty lightweight. Oh yeah, I'm
(09:47):
thinking this is probably doesn't look like your average sedan,
does it. Know? Have you've seen have you you haven't
seen the photos that Okay, yeah, because it's kind of surprising, Okay,
Ben without being I don't gonna be sensational about this
or whatever. But to me, the vehicle that we feature
in our article on how stuff works dot com, uh,
(10:07):
the air it's called the air Pod one. I think
it's m d I's air Pod one. When you see
this thing, to me, it appears like a ride at
Chuck E Cheese is Yeah, it looks like a kid's
ride at Chuck E Cheese. And and it's because it
has round windows. It's it's it's called the air Pod one.
It's a very small car as you can imagine real
(10:29):
UM rounded, I guess it's real tall, somewhat narrow. UM
has two wheels in the back that look, you know,
pretty big, kind of like big bicycle tires or something
like that. Um let me let me check this out.
Small car tires. I guess this is what you're talking about.
And in the front, in the front, they are two
very small wheels. You can't see them in that photo,
(10:49):
but you can find photos of this thing online. You
should take take a look. Very unusual seating pattern and
this thing as well. Um, they apparently I'm going by now.
The site that I saw this is MD I sight
all French, or at least the version I was looking at.
I probably should have looked around for, you know, the
English version. But um, I'm gathering that they're around they're
(11:11):
a little less than five pounds. Yeah, that's amazingly add
the people. You know, it's seats said it'll seat four people.
That's three adults and one child. There's a small seat
for a child, I guess. And here's this is really odd.
The driver sits alone in the front facing one way,
kind of like if it's like a triangle shaped vehicle.
(11:31):
He says, at the at the peak of the triangle,
I guess, the front of the triangle, and drives that way.
And there's a joystick that operates this car. It's not
a it's not a steering wheel. The whole front end
opens up kind of pop flips open. I'm making emotion
with my hand. Looks like a going door, like a
hatchback on the front. Yeah, that's right, that's right, and
you climb in and sit in that way, and that's
the driver. The two passengers sit facing a rear word
(11:53):
in the back, side by side, and I couldn't tell
where that third seat was. I couldn't see it. Where
they hiding. I don't know, I don't know. If there's
not much room in it. It's definitely a commuter car,
very small. Um, there's there's a whole group of cars
that this company makes that use this air engine air
compressed or compressed or engine rider and so it's not
(12:15):
the the air pod one is not the only vehicle
that they that they make. They make something called the
one Air or one Flow Air, the Mini Flow Air,
the City Flow Air, and the Multi Flow Air, and
the one Flow Air is a five seater. UM has
again the central driving position, which is the central driving position.
So you have two passengers on either side and then
(12:37):
two in the back. UM. Strange cars. I'll tight you
should you shoul really check out the m d I
site and and see the flots. There's this Mini flow
Air UM, which is similar to me. Looks similar to me.
There's the City flow Air, which has six seats and
has kind of like an open cargo area in the back.
And to me from the side, it looked like, um,
almost like a like a tiny little pickup truck bed.
(12:59):
But then there are other versions on the site that
had that cover that area covered as well. Okay, but
a six seater yeah, yeah, it is, it really is.
And then there's the this is maybe the most surprising
of all of me. I don't know why, UM multi
flow Air, which is kind of a bus train idea. UM.
It's it's one vehicle. It looks like a small busy,
(13:19):
and then you can hook wagons to that vehicle that
can carry additional passengers, so you could have as many
as four of these vehicles tied together. At least the
illustration had four. Um. It looks like a small train
at the things pointing. Of course, you know, powered by
compressed air. That's weird. Yeah, it really is. It's really
kind of interesting idea. And we we've examined alternatives to
(13:43):
gasoline engines in several other episodes. UM, let's see we've
done what have we done? We've done ethanol a little bit.
We talked about switch grass. There's there's maybe not UM
you can power car with switch grass. UM, ethanol, of course,
we've talked about that. Hydrogen. Ydrogen is another good one. UM.
We have an article that's called UM I think it's
(14:04):
five alternative fuels that never made it out of the lab.
We'll talk about that one. I mean, there's everything from
diapers to garbage to uh, there's there's something about cats.
I mean, it's it's odd. So that the listeners out
there please consider that a plug for an upcoming episode.
And the reason I'm asking about this alternative fuel, you
know a lot of people, given the recents of building
(14:26):
gas prices, are looking for a light at the end
of the tunnel. And uh, okay, And I'm going to
ask you this question. I always ask you some version
of this UM and I want you to answer it
in two ways. The question is what do you think
of the air car? And the two ways I'd like
you to answer, and I feel they might be a
(14:47):
little different, first in your expert opinion, and then second
cool factor. Okay, okay, expert opinion. First expert opinion. First, okay, go,
then okay, got it? Um, Yes, I think that I
think it's for city city car travel. UM. We've seen
a lot of different cars like this for city car travel,
UM or city travel rather and UM, we've had some
(15:08):
of that are just outright called city cars. We've had
you know, these small folding car type things, and you know, uh,
like the MANI yeah, the mini well yeah, even smaller
than that. I'm talking like the the electric you know,
run about the city type cars, UM, even the ones
in the news recently, the Puma vehicle personal personal, urban motility, motility,
(15:30):
mobility something. UM. The interesting idea was the Segue GM
combo vehicle. UM. And I think that it's possible. I
think that, you know, something like this is is a
good idea for city travel now on the open road,
you know, highway travel clearly not. I mean, as soon
as you see this thing, if you you know, take
the time to take a look at a photo of it. UM,
(15:51):
I don't think that, UM, something like this would stand
up to UM the Insurance Institute of for Highway Safety
standards that you know, vehicles here in the United States
have to uphold. Um, it just I just don't think
that it would make it. And also this this is
sort of a minor point, but it goes back to
what you said about infrastructure. And it doesn't seem as
(16:13):
though it's really designed to be a long call. So
maybe there's maybe the technology in present form is not adequate.
You know, we can't replace all the sixteen wheeler convoys. No, no,
definitely not. These aren't really meant to haul heavy freight anywhere.
These are These are meant to get to and from work,
maybe the grocery store, but you'd have to have a
(16:35):
different model in order to be able to carry those
groceries back home. There's just not enough space really, I mean,
unless you pile them up, I guess. But um, yeah,
I think that it has its place, maybe not on
the highways, maybe the city travel sure, why not you know,
or you know, maybe one of these vehicles that you
rent in a touristy type town to drive up and
(16:56):
down the main strip there. And that's about it, which
is not necessarily a No, that's not a bad thing. Yeah,
I just don't think that really it has a mass
marketable appeal. What Okay, then how about this Scott coolness factor.
Would you drive one? I would like that. I think
it'd be kind of cool to have one, just almost
as uh well, it had to be a second or
(17:17):
even a third car. Really, it just couldn't be your
main mode of transportation. It just doesn't have the storage.
It's not very practical. Um, it's just a really really
odd carbon I mean, check it out and you'll see
what I mean. Look at the site, the NBA site,
and um, you'll see that. Like I said, it's just
not something that you would want to be your primary
(17:38):
form of transportation. But it is cool, yeah, I you know,
I don't know if I would get rid of the
car I have now for this one. I could see it,
as you're saying, as a second car maybe. Uh but
I think also you might not like it because it
doesn't it's not the fastest car. It doesn't look it
just it has a really I don't mean to be
(18:01):
you know, um of courser. You know, yeah, you know
what I mean. I don't mean to be um gets exactly.
I'm not trying to put it down or anything, but
it just has an odd look to it that I
don't think I could really see myself really buying one
of these. Okay, it's it's innovative though, and it's it's
I think it's a pretty good it's pretty good idea.
I'd really like to drive away. Yeah, it might be
(18:23):
cool to you know, have one in your garage and
hopping it to uh, you know, head down to the
pool or the tennis courts or something like that with
the joystick. That would be fun. And I always like
kind of different innovative ways to steer. That's kind of
a cool thing we could, Oh we could do something
on that. Yeah, maybe go all the way back to
Kit from night Writer. Oh, kind of that unique. Well,
(18:44):
anyways for getting well, well, you know, when a night
Rider reference comes up, that usually means that we're we're
wrapping up the show for the day. Um Scott, thank
you again for breaking down the science behind air cars. Yeah,
and uh for all our listeners out there, thanks so
much for tuning in. Uh. If you would like to
send us an email, please write to us at high
(19:06):
Speed Stuff at how stuff works dot com. And if
you'd like to learn more about some automotive related subjects
that we examine in more depth, maybe you should check
out the blog right it's got Oh yeah, the blog.
We um right, you know, work on it every day,
and um, a lot of stuff comes up on the
blog that you know, it's daily news, you know, that
type of stuff that's that's a little more current than
(19:28):
what we can do here on the podcast, where you know,
we're covering articles and you know past article topics. But um,
on the blog, we cover daily news and you know
what's happening. So it's a good place to go. Thanks
so much. We'll see you next time for more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is that how stuff works?
Dot com m
Go behind the wheel and under the hood on everything
automotive with high speed stuff from how stuff works dot com.
Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I've been
here with how Stuff Works Auto editor Scott Scott. How
is your vacation? I was fantastic, Ben, Thank you. A
(00:22):
lot of our listeners probably, uh, haven't heard yet that
you just got back, right, Yes, I did. Yeah, it
was a pretty awesome trip. I went to Vegas and uh,
I guess I was just mentioning to you here in
the studio that I saw some authentic rat rods on
the on the road while I was there, and it
was pretty exciting. I was excited by the whole thing.
It was good. Yeah, yeah, I just hadn't really been
around them in Detroit, there are a few. These were Southwest,
(00:46):
really awesome looking rat rods. They were there for the
Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Show, a thing that was happening there,
and it was really cool. That's cool event. Didn't get
to drive one yet, No, I didn't, but you know,
just to see them on the road, it's it's totally
different than seeing you know, the just the images and uh,
it's really cool. Well, well, while you were away at
a lot of time to think about automotive related subject
(01:11):
I did. I did take a moment or two. Okay, yeah,
I've got a pretty I think I've got a pretty
good one. Are you ready? Can cars run on air?
It's a wild idea. I Uh, the answer is yes,
they can run on air. Just seems unbelievable, doesn't it. Yeah,
I guess I guess I should have made that a
(01:31):
more complex question, because now it sounds like thanks for listening, um,
and we're back. How does how does that work? No,
it's uh, it really, it's possible. And there's a company
that's doing it right now. Um it's a French company.
Or they're building cars that run on air. They run
and compressed air. Is it a French company people have
heard of? Possibly? I mean they're kind of tied into, uh,
(01:55):
the Indian company Tata Motors, which um you probably remember
very recently you're maybe not, I don't know. But they
they've developed the world's cheapest car, that's right. Yeah, and
this car is under two thousand bucks, I think is
what they said. And they're they're partnered with them or
actually they have the support of Tate Motors. The company
(02:15):
called m d I, which stands for Motor Development International.
And again I said, it's a French company and they're
developing these engines that operate on compressed air. And they've
got They not only do that, they make the vehicles
that these things go into. So they're they're creating the
entire package. That's super cool. I guess in some ways
it's almost like an indie car company. Now, yeah, it
(02:37):
kind of is. Yeah, what it really is. They're they're
more of a motor development company, is what. You know,
it's right there in their name. But they're designing, like
I said, they're designing the whole package to go with it,
because that makes sense, you know, they mean how to
how to apply the technology. Okay, so it's not it's
not as though this car is just rolling off of
air coming into the intake in the front. No, No,
(02:59):
it's not like. It's not like that. It's not like
a It just it regenerates itself as it drives through
the air. Nothing like that. It doesn't just gather ambient air.
I guess to operate you have to compress the air
and then use that compressed air to operate this this
while to change it into rotational energy, which is then
used to drive the wheels. Okay, okay, basically, you know
(03:20):
it's again compressed air in this in this big tank
again changes it to rotational energy drives the wheels. The
problem is, how do you compress that air? I mean
you do at home? And because okay, here's the problem.
All right, we'll get into this just well, we'll give
some advantages and disadvantages. Okay, here, here's one disadvantage right
(03:40):
now is that, um, you have to compress the air somehow,
and it actually takes quite a bit of time to
compress the amount of air needed to make one of
these things move, because you can imagine it takes a
lot of a lot of air to make a vehicle move. Vehicle,
I mean in comparison to other vehicles, it's maybe not
that heavy it's but it's still a lot of weight
to push. It is a lot of way to push.
(04:01):
They are pretty lightweight though they're they're on the light
side out. Um, I'll find it here somewhere I got
in my notes the other way of these things. But um, yeah,
the idea is that you know, you compress this to
this big, massive air a lot of air, large volume
of air. I should say it takes some time to
do that. It does. It doesn't happen instantly. It doesn't
happen in just a couple of minutes even, um, although
(04:22):
it might someday. Um. But if you plug these things
at home, it takes a typical compressor at home, like
a you know, something that you'd use to pump up
your tires in your car, small air compressor. It might
take as many as a couple of hours, two or
three hours even you have to plan ahead. Yeah, that's right,
and that and that fuel or that that fuel, that
compressed air is good for about I think they said
(04:45):
approximately a hundred and thirty miles between when you have
to charge this thing up again. Okay, so this is more.
This started starting to sound more like a city car. Yeah,
it it's really it's a it's it's a it's a
commuter type vehicle. Okay, well what okay, I'm sorry, I'm
stuttering because I'm trying to ask a bunch of questions
at once. I mean, what, how how would it work
(05:07):
if you drive half that distance, say sixty or something,
and then you want to recharge it, you would you
would simply plug the car and it has an onboard
compressor and plug it in and out. Okay, that that's
sometimes it's they're saying that some of these vehicles will
have onboard compressors, some won't. Eventually, eventually they probably will
(05:29):
have something different. Well, I'll talk about that in a moment. Okay,
I'm getting to do a lot of things that we're
gonna have to talk about. Remember them all, but we'll
go through them. The idea is that you drive this
thing to and from work, you come home, you plug
it in, and it charges itself in two or three
hours and you're done. You drive off the next day
and go to work. So it's never this is not
your drive to Vegas car No, no, no, this would
be um. You know, at long distances there would be
(05:49):
another disadvantage is that you know, you would have to
pull over refuel this thing with air I guess, and
you know, recompress the air and compress the air, and
it may take as many as two or three hours
if of the tank. Now, if you go to a
station that's purposely built for this, that the air is
already compressed, this may exist in the future. You know,
this is the kind of thing where, um, you know,
(06:09):
it may just take a couple of minutes to do this,
and I take two or three minutes at most. Now,
the same problem is kind of occurring with this or
the idea is that, um, let's say right now, we
don't have many electric we don't have any electric cars
fully electric cars that are mass produced. We have a
few that are you know, in independent companies that are
making them, but there's no you know, consistency in the
(06:32):
places that you can pull over to have these things
charged up or quickly charge them or or you know,
swap out batteries or whatever the whatever the way to
refuel these things. There's no infrastructure. That's right, there's no infrastructure. So, um,
the same thing with these air cars is that, you know,
until something's in place for you know, to make these
long distance travels, it's just not really going to be
all that practical. Well, you know, I am going to
(06:56):
raise a point that I think most people think is
an advantage. If you're okay with it, I think I've
I think I may have figured out why that's not
quite the case. You're okay with Yeah, what what is it? Okay?
All right? Um? So one argument, it sounds like one
argument would be that these cars would perhaps to be
(07:16):
more environmentally friendly because of course they don't use gasoline
in the vehicle. But the argument against that argument would
be that using the compressor, it really depends on what
is powering the compressor, right, that's right, Yeah, like probably electricity,
and electricity is generated at a big plant someone usually
(07:40):
a lot of coal power, a lot of coal power,
coal power, and that's right. So um, but you know,
it's not to say that it couldn't be you know,
created cleanly. Um. But yeah, there there's tradeoffs, I guess.
I mean you still you know you're you're in this
air car. It does have a compressor or or it
requires a compressor to fill it. Um, And that has
to come that energy to run that compressor has to
(08:01):
come from somewhere, and like you said, it could be
from a you know, a power source at home. There
could be a version. Now I think the early versions
of the US are talking about having Okay, see we're
getting to one of our one of our points here.
That's good. I remembered. Um, early versions may have onboard
compressors that can kind of operate on the fly, so
(08:22):
that may extend the range. And now they're talking. I've
seen numbers as high as you know, eight hundred miles,
a thousand miles or whatever. To me, I don't know.
It sounds like maybe you'd be able to go indefinitely,
but maybe not because an onboard compressor you wouldn't be
able to run that using electricity. You have to use
gasoline to operate that. It kind of would, yeah, and
(08:43):
in a sense it would. The gasoline would would power
the compressor that would then fill the tank. So you know,
eight hundred thousand miles sounds about right, I suppose, because
you know you're traveling a certain distance, the compressor kicks on,
compresses it or compresses it as it goes. You never
really run out. Um now probably I think the other
numbers that I saw said something about, you know, maybe
(09:04):
as much as eight gallons of fuel on board, So
you know that again that kind of gets into the okay,
but now how many miles are getting per gallon? And
so it adds another level to it, I said, another
another area of cut and then and then that does
create you know, of course, that's internal combustion really right,
(09:24):
So for some people might defeat the purpose, but maybe
but you're still talking about an extremely efficient vehicle that
you know, UM produces far less carbon emissions than than
would a standard vehicle that's operating only on UM internal combustion. Well,
let's go with let's let's go with the size of
these because you said the pretty lightweight. Oh yeah, I'm
(09:47):
thinking this is probably doesn't look like your average sedan,
does it. Know? Have you've seen have you you haven't
seen the photos that Okay, yeah, because it's kind of surprising, Okay,
Ben without being I don't gonna be sensational about this
or whatever. But to me, the vehicle that we feature
in our article on how stuff works dot com, uh,
(10:07):
the air it's called the air Pod one. I think
it's m d I's air Pod one. When you see
this thing, to me, it appears like a ride at
Chuck E Cheese is Yeah, it looks like a kid's
ride at Chuck E Cheese. And and it's because it
has round windows. It's it's it's called the air Pod one.
It's a very small car as you can imagine real
(10:29):
UM rounded, I guess it's real tall, somewhat narrow. UM
has two wheels in the back that look, you know,
pretty big, kind of like big bicycle tires or something
like that. Um let me let me check this out.
Small car tires. I guess this is what you're talking about.
And in the front, in the front, they are two
very small wheels. You can't see them in that photo,
(10:49):
but you can find photos of this thing online. You
should take take a look. Very unusual seating pattern and
this thing as well. Um, they apparently I'm going by now.
The site that I saw this is MD I sight
all French, or at least the version I was looking at.
I probably should have looked around for, you know, the
English version. But um, I'm gathering that they're around they're
(11:11):
a little less than five pounds. Yeah, that's amazingly add
the people. You know, it's seats said it'll seat four people.
That's three adults and one child. There's a small seat
for a child, I guess. And here's this is really odd.
The driver sits alone in the front facing one way,
kind of like if it's like a triangle shaped vehicle.
(11:31):
He says, at the at the peak of the triangle,
I guess, the front of the triangle, and drives that way.
And there's a joystick that operates this car. It's not
a it's not a steering wheel. The whole front end
opens up kind of pop flips open. I'm making emotion
with my hand. Looks like a going door, like a
hatchback on the front. Yeah, that's right, that's right, and
you climb in and sit in that way, and that's
the driver. The two passengers sit facing a rear word
(11:53):
in the back, side by side, and I couldn't tell
where that third seat was. I couldn't see it. Where
they hiding. I don't know, I don't know. If there's
not much room in it. It's definitely a commuter car,
very small. Um, there's there's a whole group of cars
that this company makes that use this air engine air
compressed or compressed or engine rider and so it's not
(12:15):
the the air pod one is not the only vehicle
that they that they make. They make something called the
one Air or one Flow Air, the Mini Flow Air,
the City Flow Air, and the Multi Flow Air, and
the one Flow Air is a five seater. UM has
again the central driving position, which is the central driving position.
So you have two passengers on either side and then
(12:37):
two in the back. UM. Strange cars. I'll tight you
should you shoul really check out the m d I
site and and see the flots. There's this Mini flow
Air UM, which is similar to me. Looks similar to me.
There's the City flow Air, which has six seats and
has kind of like an open cargo area in the back.
And to me from the side, it looked like, um,
almost like a like a tiny little pickup truck bed.
(12:59):
But then there are other versions on the site that
had that cover that area covered as well. Okay, but
a six seater yeah, yeah, it is, it really is.
And then there's the this is maybe the most surprising
of all of me. I don't know why, UM multi
flow Air, which is kind of a bus train idea. UM.
It's it's one vehicle. It looks like a small busy,
(13:19):
and then you can hook wagons to that vehicle that
can carry additional passengers, so you could have as many
as four of these vehicles tied together. At least the
illustration had four. Um. It looks like a small train
at the things pointing. Of course, you know, powered by
compressed air. That's weird. Yeah, it really is. It's really
kind of interesting idea. And we we've examined alternatives to
(13:43):
gasoline engines in several other episodes. UM, let's see we've
done what have we done? We've done ethanol a little bit.
We talked about switch grass. There's there's maybe not UM
you can power car with switch grass. UM, ethanol, of course,
we've talked about that. Hydrogen. Ydrogen is another good one. UM.
We have an article that's called UM I think it's
(14:04):
five alternative fuels that never made it out of the lab.
We'll talk about that one. I mean, there's everything from
diapers to garbage to uh, there's there's something about cats.
I mean, it's it's odd. So that the listeners out
there please consider that a plug for an upcoming episode.
And the reason I'm asking about this alternative fuel, you
know a lot of people, given the recents of building
(14:26):
gas prices, are looking for a light at the end
of the tunnel. And uh, okay, And I'm going to
ask you this question. I always ask you some version
of this UM and I want you to answer it
in two ways. The question is what do you think
of the air car? And the two ways I'd like
you to answer, and I feel they might be a
(14:47):
little different, first in your expert opinion, and then second
cool factor. Okay, okay, expert opinion. First expert opinion. First, okay, go,
then okay, got it? Um, Yes, I think that I
think it's for city city car travel. UM. We've seen
a lot of different cars like this for city car travel,
UM or city travel rather and UM, we've had some
(15:08):
of that are just outright called city cars. We've had
you know, these small folding car type things, and you know, uh,
like the MANI yeah, the mini well yeah, even smaller
than that. I'm talking like the the electric you know,
run about the city type cars, UM, even the ones
in the news recently, the Puma vehicle personal personal, urban motility, motility,
(15:30):
mobility something. UM. The interesting idea was the Segue GM
combo vehicle. UM. And I think that it's possible. I
think that, you know, something like this is is a
good idea for city travel now on the open road,
you know, highway travel clearly not. I mean, as soon
as you see this thing, if you you know, take
the time to take a look at a photo of it. UM,
(15:51):
I don't think that, UM, something like this would stand
up to UM the Insurance Institute of for Highway Safety
standards that you know, vehicles here in the United States
have to uphold. Um, it just I just don't think
that it would make it. And also this this is
sort of a minor point, but it goes back to
what you said about infrastructure. And it doesn't seem as
(16:13):
though it's really designed to be a long call. So
maybe there's maybe the technology in present form is not adequate.
You know, we can't replace all the sixteen wheeler convoys. No, no,
definitely not. These aren't really meant to haul heavy freight anywhere.
These are These are meant to get to and from work,
maybe the grocery store, but you'd have to have a
(16:35):
different model in order to be able to carry those
groceries back home. There's just not enough space really, I mean,
unless you pile them up, I guess. But um, yeah,
I think that it has its place, maybe not on
the highways, maybe the city travel sure, why not you know,
or you know, maybe one of these vehicles that you
rent in a touristy type town to drive up and
(16:56):
down the main strip there. And that's about it, which
is not necessarily a No, that's not a bad thing. Yeah,
I just don't think that really it has a mass
marketable appeal. What Okay, then how about this Scott coolness factor.
Would you drive one? I would like that. I think
it'd be kind of cool to have one, just almost
as uh well, it had to be a second or
(17:17):
even a third car. Really, it just couldn't be your
main mode of transportation. It just doesn't have the storage.
It's not very practical. Um, it's just a really really
odd carbon I mean, check it out and you'll see
what I mean. Look at the site, the NBA site,
and um, you'll see that. Like I said, it's just
not something that you would want to be your primary
(17:38):
form of transportation. But it is cool, yeah, I you know,
I don't know if I would get rid of the
car I have now for this one. I could see it,
as you're saying, as a second car maybe. Uh but
I think also you might not like it because it
doesn't it's not the fastest car. It doesn't look it
just it has a really I don't mean to be
(18:01):
you know, um of courser. You know, yeah, you know
what I mean. I don't mean to be um gets exactly.
I'm not trying to put it down or anything, but
it just has an odd look to it that I
don't think I could really see myself really buying one
of these. Okay, it's it's innovative though, and it's it's
I think it's a pretty good it's pretty good idea.
I'd really like to drive away. Yeah, it might be
(18:23):
cool to you know, have one in your garage and
hopping it to uh, you know, head down to the
pool or the tennis courts or something like that with
the joystick. That would be fun. And I always like
kind of different innovative ways to steer. That's kind of
a cool thing we could, Oh we could do something
on that. Yeah, maybe go all the way back to
Kit from night Writer. Oh, kind of that unique. Well,
(18:44):
anyways for getting well, well, you know, when a night
Rider reference comes up, that usually means that we're we're
wrapping up the show for the day. Um Scott, thank
you again for breaking down the science behind air cars. Yeah,
and uh for all our listeners out there, thanks so
much for tuning in. Uh. If you would like to
send us an email, please write to us at high
(19:06):
Speed Stuff at how stuff works dot com. And if
you'd like to learn more about some automotive related subjects
that we examine in more depth, maybe you should check
out the blog right it's got Oh yeah, the blog.
We um right, you know, work on it every day,
and um, a lot of stuff comes up on the
blog that you know, it's daily news, you know, that
type of stuff that's that's a little more current than
(19:28):
what we can do here on the podcast, where you know,
we're covering articles and you know past article topics. But um,
on the blog, we cover daily news and you know
what's happening. So it's a good place to go. Thanks
so much. We'll see you next time for more on
this and thousands of other topics. Is that how stuff works?
Dot com m
CarStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Scott Benjamin
Ben Bowlin
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.