Prius Turned Into a Roller Coaster for Giggles
Remember that Toyota ad where they detailed all the different ways you could use Toyota research to make a difference? And how one guy said he'd create an entire green amusement park with that technology? Turns out Toyota is willing to put its money where its mouth is.
Toyota teamed up with an engineering team, Deeplocal, and built a rollercoaster out of a Prius. Seriously. The Prius was completely gutted and the hybrid system and electrical components were used to create a rollercoaster, while a track was made out of steel. Which means that, for the first time, something both awesome and legal happened in a warehouse in Pittsburgh.
Admittedly, it's not the Tower of Terror: the Priuscoaster only goes about 15mph from a height of about ten feet. But that's only because it's a proof of concept. All the lights you see in the video? They're actually powered by the braking of the coaster car as it comes to a complete stop.
Next step? Scaling the system up so it can actually be implemented in rollercoasters not assembled by engineering collectives in Pittsburgh. It's only a proof of concept, but it might mean that in the future, you can feel better about tossing all your trash in one bin at the amusement park. Hey, they're being green for you!
Source: Deeplocal
