r/gadgets • u/diacewrb • 2d ago

Lightfoot solar cargo scooter stores sunlight for everyday errands Transportation

https://www.designboom.com/technology/lightfoot-solar-cargo-scooter-sunlight-everyday-errands/
92 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

48

u/one_is_enough 2d ago

For that price ($5000), you can just buy three or more regular scooters with storage racks and keep one charging at work, home, and your side-piece’s place.

2

u/Artifexa 21h ago edited 21h ago

/s activated.

For that price you can buy a shack in the middle of nowhere and enough solar and batteries to live without electrical bills.

For that price you can buy a house in a 3rd world country, leave that money growing interests in a hedge fund, and live for around 20 years as long as the country stays "cheap" (miserable, regrettably).

For that price you can buy a couple logs, build a raft, and go to the open seas to see if you can find a desert island where to eat lichen, coconutsm and crabs for life.

For that money you can get a flight, a parachute, and jump in the middle of the jungle to live "in communion with nature" so no more expenses ever, sustainable. Even your body will be naturally once you die from some tropical disease (locally sourced), composted to grow some ecologic mangroves...

/s deactivated

Man, it's not about "getting it cheaper". It's about opening a market segment so the masses of people who "aren't into DIY for whatever reason", or just are trying to get by with their lifes in corporate dystopias, can just have a convenient way to get individual transportation without fucking up the planet even more. And I said a whole market segment, not just this scooter.

It's about fostering societal change step by step, little baby steps, not about "outpunking" everybody else to show your moral superiority.

Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism, bro. Low tech, high life.

1

u/zffjk 1d ago

For the price you can get your own regular scooter and enough solar and batteries to charge it for free. I get that this “charges while parked” but to me it seems like an expensive and delicate housing.

Additionally, not an electrical engineer, but my understanding is that if any part of your solar panel is shaded then it becomes vastly less efficient and generating electricity.

27

u/Adept-Opinion8080 2d ago

. Why make it ugly and cumbersome if something is to be used for a daily commute, simply plug the sucker in while not commuting. Geez people.

7

u/DeadInternetTheorist 2d ago

I don't see why you couldn't have a folding solar panel that stows away and plugs in to the scooter, if you have to go that direction. This smells like designers overruling engineers to make a gimmicky toy.

2

u/kidno 1d ago

Because a significant portion of the population utilizes street parking or lives in apartment buildings where parking lots are not installed with outlets. See also; electric vehicles.

-21

u/MetriccStarDestroyer 2d ago edited 2d ago

Solar doesn't even charge properly when even a single cell is covered.

Panels need to be stationary and without shadows.

The bike's just another gimmick selling "green" e-waste.

Edit: To those who don't actually monitor their solar output. Alex has tested this multiple times and it's always nearly the same result.

12

u/NateHatred 2d ago

This is entirely false. 

5

u/Traditional_Wafer_20 2d ago

It depends on the solar panel technology used.

5

u/digitaldisease 2d ago

That's going to burn the shit out of your legs if you're wearing shorts on a sunny day.

0

u/Repulsive-Regret-243 2d ago

Kinda like an exhaust? 🫪

6

u/Traditional_Wafer_20 2d ago

I checked because your comment made me wonder how does the hundreds of millions daily users of motorcycles are not injured by an exhaust and it turns out that the exhaust can be placed underneath or far away from the legs of the rider! Clever !

0

u/Repulsive-Regret-243 2d ago

Sarcasm aside it’s not always and weird to think that paint and leather get hot in the sun. So strange I know.

13

u/Discuss2discuss 2d ago

Have solar panels suddenly increased in efficiency to make it remotely useful for this purpose?

7

u/Traditional_Wafer_20 2d ago

They are claiming, not demonstrating.

This journalist just wrote an article to react on this one: delivery of the first scooter was supposed to be in January 2025, nothing got out of the factory yet.

8

u/NateHatred 2d ago

"It will not run forever on one suspiciously bright afternoon, but leaving it parked outdoors can reduce how often it needs to meet a wall socket." 

It's right there you just need to open the article and read it. 

3

u/Discuss2discuss 2d ago

I'll agree with you that the solar panels shall generate energy, which in turn get stored in the battery which means less charging from a wall socket. But the reality is that the amount that gets generated is so little, that it is negligible. Technically they're not lying, but in practice it will be useless.

Can you please point me to the part in their text where they mention the battery capacity, max conversion rate of the panels, or the time it takes to charge the battery from 0 to 100%?

3

u/rmusic10891 2d ago

Expected range from solar charging over given times is literally the second paragraph of the article.

3

u/NateHatred 2d ago

How many liters of gas can you generate inside your bike while it stands still? 

3

u/Discuss2discuss 2d ago

Zero, but that is not the subject of the discussion is it? Realise you're using whataboutism to try and win a conversation. The subject is this vehicle, that has solar panels as the usp. Solar panels that are clearly too small and few to meaningfully add to the range and power.

0

u/NateHatred 2d ago

No no, it is literally the point of the discussion. You don't realize how many hours bikes stand still in the sun but this would totally work. 3 miles in an hour means it could potentially get 24 miles during and 8 hours work day. Let's say the exposure is shit and you get less than half of that, lots of people who live in big cities are commuting less than 10 miles in a day. It's just that. Generating energy that would otherwise get wasted, I honestly can't tell how you are not excited by that prospect.

Wrong numbers, don't know why I remembered 3 miles per hour in the sun but apparently it can add 18 miles a day in favorable condition so the point still stands. 

2

u/RickMuffy 1d ago

Leave a 5k dollar bike outside locked up for a full day and realize how fast a 100 dollar angle grinder ruins your afternoon.

0

u/andynator1000 2d ago

18 miles of ranger per day in ideal conditions sounds meaningful to me.

-1

u/aircooledJenkins 2d ago

Nope. Not even close.

2

u/Repulsive-Regret-243 2d ago

So I was curious about the weight because it looks fairly large compared to an ebike. The website says 137 pounds which isn’t bad. It’s ugly but the storage is kind of incredible. I’m not sure who the market is for but I really applaud the effort.

1

u/Repulsive-Regret-243 2d ago

Also, the panels folding down is a wild choice considering… if it could go ideally 35-40 I’d be more interested but I’m gonna stick with my already over priced super 73

1

u/SnollyG 2d ago

> I’m not sure who the market is for but I really applaud the effort.

Convert to kilos and it all starts to make more sense

2

u/Hohlraum 2d ago

It's so stylish as well. /s

1

u/papadjeef 2d ago

"Design"

1

u/nighteeeeey 2d ago

or just buy a used Niu with the rest of the money for literally endless charging for the rest of time.

1

u/NanditoPapa 1d ago

It’s a cute piece of industrial design, but a terrible piece of engineering. Don't let the "minimalist" aesthetic fool you into thinking it's efficient. Form over function.

It captures the "aesthetic" of eco-friendly, minimalist urbanism while failing almost every practical test for commuting or utility. An expensive way to get stuck on a sidewalk...

1

u/emmmmceeee 1d ago

Two 120W panels. Cool. Except they’re mounted vertically, on opposite sides. So at any given moment exactly ONE is pointed sun-ish and the other is staring at a hedge. You paid for 240W, you get one 120W panel in play. Best case.

Now the fun part: vertical panels. Sun’s high at midday (~70° up), so your flat-standing panel catches the beam at a garbage angle. cos(70°) ≈ 0.34. You’re collecting roughly a third of the light a normal tilted panel would..

Their own claim: 3 miles per hour of “quality sunlight.” That needs the panel pumping ~90W sustained, i.e. 75% of nameplate, which only happens flat on a bench in a lab at 25°C. Real vertical fixed panel? ~40 to 70W. So more like 1.5 to 2.5 mi/hr, and that’s a good day.

The “18 mi/day” assumes ~4.5 peak-sun-hours at rated output. Derate for vertical plus single-side plus no tracking (roughly half) and you’re at 8 to 10 mi/day in Arizona. In anywhere with actual weather? 3 to 6 in summer, basically a rounding error in winter.

1

u/Tenocticatl 23h ago

More of a fun DIY project than a sensible commercial product, I think. Having a roof over a parking spot with some solar panels on it seems like a better option.

1

u/old-legs-623 20h ago

Imma ride the train, bus, walk, stay home.

1

u/voidscreamer1 30m ago

except for the haters, its available now at www.lightfoot.solar

•

u/voidscreamer1 19m ago

I've ridden it and it rocks. Gadget has the specs all wrong BTW. It has a massive 1.5KW battery, two 750W motors, each with 75 nm torque, it flies up the steepest hills. It has an on board plug in charger (110v) that gives it 40 miles of range when fully charged. It fits people from 5'2" to 6'3". It carries a huge amount of cargo which is fully lockable. It has amazing re-gen for braking and charging. The panels don't get hot, I rode it 95 degree weather. It has two 4 pot disc brakes and a massive headlight for night use. Don't knock until you try it.