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"Batteries will never be greatly improved no matter how much wishing goes on."

Think "fuel cells". Hydrogen and air in, water out. Range limited by tank size.

"This piece of metal and guano does 15 miles on an overnite charge? I can drive my Jeep 15 miles on the Diehard in it now (of course, the starter burns out)

"This has to be one of the most impractical, dumbest inventions I come across since I met a guy working on an asparagas harvester."

Translation: "Get a horse!"

Some things never change, I guess.

BTW, I've been working on (in my head) ideas for an asparagus harvester for several years now. If I can come with one that does "almost" as good as migrant pickers, I'll be retiring in luxury shortly thereafter. I live in "asparagus country", and let me tell you, it's been rough for the asparagus farmers the past few years, thanks to NAFTA and Clinton's Chinese friends. For the past two years, quite a few farmers didn't pick at all, they just mowed their crop down. It would have cost more to pick than they'd be able to sell it for.

It used to be that asparagus was the crop that lifted farmers out of "dirt poor" condition into very comfortable income. People with 40 acres lived like kings. All it took was sandy, well-drained soil and the right climate.

Those asparagus fields are still there, and if they can be economically harvested, a lot of farmers will be able to once again make decent livings.

Amazingly this only uses NiMH batteries right now. I imagine in the next few years they'll evaluate other types that are being developed like Lithium-metal-sulfide or Lithium-Sulfer dioxide

"The United States Advanced Battery Consortium has a budget of $260 million dollars focused on the development of new battery technologies such as Lithium-Iron Disulfide, Sodium-Sulfer, Lithium-Polymer, and Lithium-Iron."

There's even batteries you can print out on paper: Power Paper

I understand the asparagus picking problem. And, I studied the guy's combination of knives and rubber bands and provisions for the mounded planting style.

But, he was on the Mark III version of his invention that would do umpdedump acres a day. At that point he had spent over $300,000 in development costs (this was in 1968-real money then). When I researched the acreage of asparagus versus his stated capacity, there was a market for about six machines on the whole West Coast.

Hardly the market to spend so much in development, support marketing costs, etc.

But, being the pleasant and aimiable guy that I am, I went to the first field trial of Mark III and watched for an hour as it chopped,destroyed and made mush of a couple acres of expensive veggies.

His only comment was that the Mark IV would perform better!