SINGAPORE STUDENTS CREATE A 3D-PRINTED SOLAR-POWERED CAR

Posted By Simon Montford on April 27, 2015

I came across this solar-powered car that is entirely made from 3D-printed parts! It was created by a group of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University undergrads in February. It has around 150 3D-printed parts, and it took 4 months to assemble. It has a top speed of 40 km/h (25 m/h), so I'd imagine it's intended exclusively for urban use.

The car's battery takes two days to fully charge, and can only use a conventional power outlet but it is a proof of concept after all, so I think we can forgive it for those shortcomings. The important point here is that 3D- printing is being increasingly used to produce larger, and more complex objects. Like home computers and conventional ink printers, we will all soon have 3-D printers in our homes, and offices. 

Although it's unlikely that we'll all be printing and assembling our own cars any time soon, we will certainly be able to print out a very wide range of physical objects. Companies like Amazon, will definitely see a drop in sales as an increasing number of people print out things like fashion accessories, replacement parts, and furniture. Even better than that, our domestic robots will be able to stitch the components together, so flat-pack-furniture-assembly-haters rejoice! Bring on the Singularity, I say.