TRON Ride Testing in Progress

[HerRoyalHighness]

It's lit up tonight. This new?

 

[AprilsZoo]

<snip>
Part of the challenge with converting those Speedway cars to run on battery is the long recharge time and limited range. I can recall talking to someone from Disney about the cars used at Test Track and most people don't realize how much wear/tear that type of ride puts on the cars and they require constant maintenance to keep them operating.

True, there are challenges. But eventually (sooner than later) the gasoline engines are going to seem antiquated. It may not be in the next 2 years, or even 5… but I’d say that before the decade is out, the gas-based vehicles at both Speedway, and TT aren’t going to feel like they belong. Once there are more new vehicles made/sold that use electric than there are that use gas, people will for sure question the continued inclusion of these rides. TT won’t seem much like a testing facility for new innovation if the tech is behind the times. And Tomorrowland Speedway will seem more like Yesterday’s mini-cars.
Disney ought to be able to recruit Imagineers who could come up with tech that would be able to overcome at least the Speedway issue. Off the top of my head… it seems like they could in some way incorporate the tech that recharges all of the trackless vehicles in the newest rides. For that matter they could find a way to use the bones of the trackless system to create the bounds for the cars while still allowing for minimal steering of the cars similar to how the center rail keeps the cars in their lanes now.

 

[gharter]

Sad part is even if it passed all the testing, it won't open until Disney is ready for it to open. Just hoping it's before our next trip.

 

[_19disnA]

What Disney does on a small scale to have electrically powered cars doesn't necessarily translate into what is practical for the entire country. Many parts of the country currently struggle to meet the peak electric power demand on hot days in the summer. The grid would need to be significantly expanded to make enough electricity to recharge all of the EV's if widely adopted. Limited range and extended recharge times are still issues to be addressed. Sometimes a technology can only go so far. Obviously those making only EV's want to convince you this is the wave of future..........many of us refer to that as clever marketing.

I am old enough to remember when nuclear power was the answer to all of our energy concerns and the power generated would be so cheap they wouldn't bother sending out electric bills. Clearly that hasn't happened and we still have no answer to what to do with highly radioactive waste that will be around for 10,000+ years. New electric power plants would have to use something else to generate all of the electricity we would need.

 

[Scalemaster34]

What Disney does on a small scale to have electrically powered cars doesn't necessarily translate into what is practical for the entire country. Many parts of the country currently struggle to meet the peak electric power demand on hot days in the summer. The grid would need to be significantly expanded to make enough electricity to recharge all of the EV's if widely adopted. Limited range and extended recharge times are still issues to be addressed. Sometimes a technology can only go so far. Obviously those making only EV's want to convince you this is the wave of future..........many of us refer to that as clever marketing.

I am old enough to remember when nuclear power was the answer to all of our energy concerns and the power generated would be so cheap they wouldn't bother sending out electric bills. Clearly that hasn't happened and we still have no answer to what to do with highly radioactive waste that will be around for 10,000+ years. New electric power plants would have to use something else to generate all of the electricity we would need.

Agree that there are issues with the Grid....

But one good thing with the faster charging systems.... a few hours and your car is fully charged. So a smart charger at home would likly be set to only charge between say 1AM and 4AM or better it might be controlled by the Utility to allow them to pick the best charging time to help them even out demand. One of the real problem most Utilities face is the variance between low and peak demand is so great.

That said... who can afford gas if it's $10 a gallon?

 

[PinkPixel]

It's lit up tonight. This new? View attachment 675012

Is it still lit at nights or was this a test?

 

[_19disnA]

We also need national standards for recharging stations so they are compatible with all EV's. It makes NO sense to have ones specific to a certain type of vehicle. Have seen those Tesla fast-chargers in a few places and apparently you can't use them for any other vehicles. It wouldn't be cost effective to have every car company setup their own national recharging stations. It would be like having separate gas stations for a BMW vs. a Buick..........that would make no sense either.

Also don't see many articles on how the use of higher voltage 'fast chargers' might reduce battery life. The lifespan of all other rechargeable batteries I am aware of are reduced when forcing more voltage into the battery in an attempt to speed up the charge time. Replacing a battery on any EV would be VERY expensive.

While I think it is good to continue working on this technology, I don't think legislation is the right approach to magically force advancements to occur. It reminds me somewhat about how we did away with the incandescent light bulb and then you had to pay $5 for those new types of bulbs that saved maybe $.05/year of electricity.

 

[Sarahslay]

Agree that there are issues with the Grid....

But one good thing with the faster charging systems.... a few hours and your car is fully charged. So a smart charger at home would likly be set to only charge between say 1AM and 4AM or better it might be controlled by the Utility to allow them to pick the best charging time to help them even out demand. One of the real problem most Utilities face is the variance between low and peak demand is so great.

That said... who can afford gas if it's $10 a gallon?

My husband has our Tesla set up to charge during off peak times, and we're part of a lower rate plan because we installed a charger at our house so they gave us a chart to tell us what power would cost to use during what hours of the day/night during different times of the year. So we know that between 2-7pm is peak, and that costs us a lot of money to use in the summer (practically nothing during the winter, summer is the only time with a true peak set time period since I'm in the house and it gets HOT), so he sets it up to charge over night and be ready to go at 5:15am when he goes to work. The last few days it didn't start charging until 3am because the battery still had a good charge on it, and has so far only cost us roughly $4 to charge over the last week with him driving a decent amount, way cheaper than gas. If people could just charge at night, when it's a lot cheaper and there is far less demand, it solves a lot of problems with power supply when we need it most. As far as Tomorrowland Speedway is concerned, I am sure that with the right batteries those cars could go most of the day without a charge. They aren't heavy vehicles, they don't go particularly fast, and that track isn't so large that they'll run out of a charge any faster than the gas they use runs out.

 

[ccudmore]

Testing yesterday

 

[bakenatj]

What Disney does on a small scale to have electrically powered cars doesn't necessarily translate into what is practical for the entire country. Many parts of the country currently struggle to meet the peak electric power demand on hot days in the summer. The grid would need to be significantly expanded to make enough electricity to recharge all of the EV's if widely adopted. Limited range and extended recharge times are still issues to be addressed. Sometimes a technology can only go so far. Obviously those making only EV's want to convince you this is the wave of future..........many of us refer to that as clever marketing.

I am old enough to remember when nuclear power was the answer to all of our energy concerns and the power generated would be so cheap they wouldn't bother sending out electric bills. Clearly that hasn't happened and we still have no answer to what to do with highly radioactive waste that will be around for 10,000+ years. New electric power plants would have to use something else to generate all of the electricity we would need.

Nuclear power technology is better now and more stable and you can get an easy 50 years out of a core with little waste. That is the answer to the issue, but everyone is freaked out over that term, and lobbying won't allow for it.