Howzabout…

I was speaking to a friend about the idea of having the proposed blinds that would cover an automobile’s windows made out of some form of solar power material. We took it a step further and wondered if car manufacturers couldn’t embed a material like this in the roof of a car. That way we would each be consuming our own energy, which would at least offset the amount of fossil fuels each driver would consume.

UPDATE MAY 6, 2007
Earlier today I ran across this interesting snippet on ESPN.com in the Motorsports review of a car show:

Nissan Bevel Concept
There may be no better definition of a box on wheels than the Nissan Bevel concept – a bread van comes close, but it’s a tie at best. The wheel wells are slightly flared and the nose is pointy, but the majority of the body appears as a block rolling on 20-inch chrome wheels. Mmm, sexy. Up top is a solar panel, which comes in handy when it’s time to power up those circular saws and drills, and forward of the driver is a customizable and moveable console and gauge structure. All that, and it’s still one of the most disturbing visions we endured throughout the 2007 auto show season.

Seems like at least this one reviewer doesn’t see much value in a self-powering car. Too bad, I find it hard to conceive of a downside. Looks like I need to do some reading to get a sense for the overall reaction to this aspect of the car. If you refer back to the original Howzabout idea, you’ll see that in the open letter I address a Mr. Ghosn because he is the innovation-embracing head of Renault. What I didn’t mention was that he is also the CEO of Nissan Motors. A good sign, I should think….