It has been a long time since our last update, and work slowed considerably while we were waiting for suspension parts to be manufactured. But things are moving again now.
Recent progress includes:
- all of the components for the front suspension and steering have been fabricated, and installed for testing
- we have manufactured a jig for making the rear suspension swing arms, and made one of the two rear swing arms
- we have designed the Taxi electrical systems
- we have pulled apart the off-the-shelf motors so that we can rebuild them to mount inside the rear wheels
- we have developed software for the dashboard, which will be based on an Android phone
- we have got the battery management system talking to the dashboard using Bluetooth
- we have developed software that interfaces to the Buddy web service so that we can monitor the Taxi location and battery state remotely
- we have started designing the solar charging stations that will collect the energy necessary to run the Taxi.
African Solar Taxi 