technology keeps changing fast and Aptera probably cant just buy the latest and greatest drivetrain tech ex. batteries, and owners of previous models may want a updated drivetrain even just 5 years away(like thishttps://www.wired.com/story/quantumscape-solid-state-battery/) and depending on teh power source of te local grid, sometimes electric drivetrains arnt so environmental especially considering teh lack of and weaknesses of battery recycling systems https://www.climatecentral.org/news/a-roadmap-to-climate-friendly-cars-2013-16318. Also maybe is monetarily cheaper to have hybrid powertrain rather than all electric. plus sometimes people rent trucks for temporary heavy duty needs.
To tackle these, have a platform car that can fit different types of drivetrains that can be swapped for at a convenient place like like a grocery center/gas station or just by mail delivery for ex. a new battery technology makes a dramatic change in range people are willing to pay for, so isntead of selling a totally new car, sell teh powertrain itself and design it so it can fit in teh platform, and ideally it would be nice if installation was a "do it yourself" thing like IKEA furniture build guides and maybe a kiosk and a lifting machine (like a engine block air compressor chain lift) in case new drivetrain tech stuff is too heavy for owner to lift, maybe eliminating cost of having someone payed to do the installations, which will probably happen too uncommonly for someone to install such things for a living (maybe engien swaps will happen more often b/c some people dont spend weekdays not doing uber/lyft and spend weekends doing it). The space uneeded due to smaller drivetrain can be used as increased storage/leg space etc.
Such powertrains maybe also be a small powertrain that covers most needs, another heavier thus less range drivetrain for higher towing capacity, another is a combustion piston generator linked to a small battery/ supercapacitor linked to the battery (b/c such setup maybe be still lighter and give more driving range than relying totally on heavy batteries esepcially if batteries run on dirty grid energy and especially considering batteries have short life due to battery degradation, making it harder to make up for emissions through production cycle and especially considering shortage of raw materials like cobalt etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4b0_6byuFU), another maybe methanol based hydrogen fuel cell drivetrain, especially considering the lack of clean energy through the national grid and the possibility of capturing carbon from the air and recycling it into fuel https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/news/a27412/catalyst-turn-co2-into-methane/https://phys.org/news/2020-02-method-carbon-dioxide-methane-temperatures.html . This need and demand based drivetrain modularity can also apply to modularity in the use of a trailer to carry more passengers and stuff instead of having a larger car where there more weight due to demand for more space costs less driving range most of the time considering that most people drive alone or with only 1 uber/lyft passenger plus they don’t use much of all the space normal cars accommodate for. (https://cleantechnica.com/2016/10/14/common-mode-transportation-work-us-driving-alone-private-vehicle-us-census-data-reveals/) So have 2 seater cars or , 1 seaters cars for normal use, and a trailer system for carrying extra passengers/stuff. It may even pay off to have different trailer sizes. To make driving with trailer easier to use for inexperienced people use driver assist stuff like a self trailer hicth connecting program similar to self parking, or a camera and range displaying system like parking backup cameras, or software on the interior screen to remind the driver about how to drive with trailer every time the hitch is connected to a trailer, and maybe even even have guidance accoding to the real time situation as detected by cameras. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYRwV9byYT4 . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKY31IFSQA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-LbFyL14S8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhFsu-eGzoQ&list=RDCMUC2kdho_ZtBTwDKSgfbrczlA&start_radio=1&t=2)
To make it even easier, especially if you fear the driver is too lazy to learn something fairly simple for the sake of staying competitive in the market (which shouldn’t be a problem ), The trailers should probably also have braking systems built in, or maybe a way to make the trailer push against the car itself when slowing down to a stop more suddenly so that the cars braking mechanically pushes against the movement of the trailer itself, this can be done with two trailer hitches on either edge of the trailers behind, and these hitches are pistons that are kept at a air pressure that is not too much, so the trailer can turn naturally when the car is turning, but just enough to require minimum air pressure buildup for when the pistons are to be filled to maximum pressure when needed. The need to fill the pistons with a proportionate amount of air pressure is to prevent the trailer from sliding out of its course of natural turning in the case driver is slowing down too suddenly.
The trailer maybe should have passively moving wheels for smoother steering turns for less tire erosion etc This is similar to electrically filling up braking pads with hydraulic pressure when braking, and the system may not have to be electronic to minimize range decrease.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TlJ9Kg8OsY capturing energy from shock absorbers and they could also be electronic body roll control to prevent or minimize the damage of accidents with more weight distribution control like in the 2020 Audi A8 https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/2018-audi-a8-game-changing-suspension-explained
https://www.aptera.us/forum/aptera-design-discussion/motorcycle-trailer-hitch-then-custom-trailer
instead of having privately owned cars that sit around when unused, yet individuals pay for the whole car https://www.reinventingparking.org/2013/02/cars-are-parked-95-of-time-lets-check.html publicly usable, ride sharing rental cars can be parked in neighborhoods and heavily visited areas, payed for a little at a time by many people rather than the burden of cost being high for every car owner. There is probably demand for car ridesharing given people don't want to be mobility limited to bus availability times per location, and even in larger neighborhoods away from traffic heavy cities can have some cars of they are encouraged/incentivized to share cars, and people could pick up other people who are going on a common route if it is practical to do so , and determining whether its practical to do so can be made easy by users entering their destination data and algorithms telling how much time it will take to reach their destinations for user on the road and user looking for a ride given map data, across the user community in the users locality.
maintainence is done by anyone willing to clean a car for profit as opposed to hiring someone full time b/c people may leave trash in the car like in taxis. Also some repairs maybe easily done by anyone by buying generic parts specified by manufacturer and screwing them on ex. mirrors, screen replacements, etc. verification of work quality can be done by having a ID number paint job on the car so its easy to send pictures of done work and physically identify which car it is from afar, and people who report a issue which gets addressed b/c its a legitimate issue, can be rewarded with occasional discounts to encourage quality reports by users so that a need for maintenance can be advertised on the phone app/website, where customer community can fix it if problem is simple or the car is located and picked up by manufacturer with car location data. to minimize maintainence costs, data like time of rental purchase and identity of user by purchase data, as well as object identification software and a in cabin camera can be can be tracked to charge people for leaving objects not a part of the car in the car ex. trash, water bottle etc or for considerably damaging something. the camera can see through storage areas using net materials and tighteners(like in hoodie cloth tighteners https://www.google.com/searchrlz=1C1CHBF_enUS844US844&hl=en-US&biw=1360&bih=600&ei=wdrsX6CDKYuG5wKM9qhI&q=hoodie+toggle+spring+clasp&oq=hoodie+toggle+spring+clasp&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIFCAAQzQIyBQgAEM0COgQIABBHOgQIABANOggIABANEAUQHlCs6QFYwPEBYJP1AWgAcAN4AIABT4gBpQOSAQE3mAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpesgBBcABAQ&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjg59bnvfbtAhULw1kKHQw7CgkQ4dUDCA0&uact=5) instead of solid structures for storage like in the storage places built into teh doors of normal cars and Aptera, this will also save weight and manufacturing/repair costs. transparent/minimalistic dashboard can also help the sensor program monitor teh space under the dashboard, or a second sensor can be there. To prevent users from being afraid of a camera in the cabin b/c privacy concern, u can have the camera be not clearly visible and physically blocked out until a individual leaves teh car, and even then the camera doesnt have to be based on normal human vision, it can be something like RFID layer in the cabin interior https://www.explainthatstuff.com/rfid.html so that when radio detects objects that do not reflect back the signal the RFID paper reflects, then a object not apart of the car exists or if a missing part of teh car didnt reflect the signal in the geographical way its supposed to according to where teh part should exist, the warning system program starts and record of teh occurrence is kept with the object misplacement description in case customer complains about a claimed false accusation by the program. maybe a cheaper solution is a ultrasonic sensor that can detect objects, then the mapping data of the cabin can be differentiated from any other object, thus identifying that the user has left something, and a voice through speaker can remind user to clean up after theirselves and that if they dont they pay a penalty price to incentivize to keep it clean to minimize need for manufacturer maintenance.
to encourage more users onto teh user community despite a shortage of cars and to decrease nessesary number of cars to manufacture/maintain for cost risks vs potential profit, the user who may be a late to destination if they share a ride can be incentivized to sahre rather than drive solo or not use teh service if there arnt many users conviently around. incentive can be discounts/profit by changing money flow if they share with the service. this is especially profitable for commercial transportation from city transport to freight semi trucks. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freighttech-25-uber-freight-has-solid-year-but-will-it-remain-part-of-uber
about monetary costs consider that product is more attractive b/c of cheaper upfront costs (less debt over time and costs of debt), monetary savings from efficiency especially given the fact that smaller battery car are more efficient than bigger battery cars given difference in weight of battery (more driving range per mass of battery.)
https://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/publications/Does-sharing-cars-really-reduce-car-use-June%202017.pdf
https://www.riversimple.com/batteries-hydrogen-wrong-question/
https://www.riversimple.com/making-efficiency-profitable/
some people fear of a dystopian future where if they dont legally own a product they rely on, the company of teh product can be payed to punish them for political reasons by taking away the product unexpectedly. this fear can be taken away by making the legal purchase of service contract establish promise that company wont do that, given if company does that they can loose in court over it.
I think it's likely most of this is impractical. They haven't even delivered a production vehicle. Suggesting they develop a IKEA assemble it yourself transformer is a bit ambitious. All this stuff would add substantial complexity, weight and cost. It seems precisely the opposite of the goal of optimizing efficiency,
its a long term vision, someone if not aptera can use it. its important to not lose sight if the vision b/c one day it may become practical, and it would be unfortunate to have forgotten the vision by then.
Updating tech doesn't have as much effect on Aptera, since it's SO light & aerodynamic:
- It's about 250% as efficient/environmental as any other EV. On the dirtiest 100% coal powered electricity, even my current EV emits the equivalent of a 57mpg gasoline hybrid. Aptera on coal-only power is equivalent to about 143mpg, not even including its solar.
- Technology improvements don't matter as much. It already goes 0-60 in 3.5sec, & 1,000 miles between charges, on the same size current-tech battery that only takes a Tesla 400 miles.