California’s strategy for sustainable mobility is to run sixteen lane traffic jams on ethanol. In Sweden, Volvo have launched this hybrid-drive trash truck which I saw in Goteborg yesterday. It’s silent at low speeds when it’s collecting bins: the all-electric drive is for moving off from standstill and for acceleration up to 20 kph (12 mph); at higher speeds, the diesel engine kicks in. Both the machine that lifts the bins and the trash compactor are powered by liquid hydraulic rams – so it’s pretty near silent in operation, which is boon comnfort-wise. But, being a boring killjoy, I can’t help but wonder what the embergy of this chunky vehicle must be: a million pounds weight equivalent? More? The Pssst is a small silent step in the right direction; the step-change will come when we design away the need for it to exist.
