The Prius Pwns

While driving back from Toronto in the Prius today, I marvelled at the technical enginuity of the hybrid car. As traffic was stop and go on the Queen'sway in Ottawa, the Prius (and most other hybrids for that matter) had two distinct advantages:

1. No idling when stopped, which means the gasoline engine turns off entirely when the vehicle is stopped, gas is not being burned in "standby" mode like in a conventional vehicle. Merely Google idling and countless articles will elaborate on the indelible wastage of gas due idling in standard vehicles
   
2. Regenerative braking, so when you take your foot off the gas and coast or brake, mechanisms in the vehicle harvest the braking/slowing power to recharge the battery

I have immense admiration for these two features as they minimize gas wastage (as they do not idle) and more exitingly, make use of wasted energy with the regeneration system. In standard cars, when you brake, your brake pads heat up due to friction. In the hybrid, all of this otherwise wasted energy is put to work charging the battery which drives the electric motor saving gas. What a beautiful system! Thus as traffic was stop and go, and despite more time lived in still life than in motion, my car was sipping gas only when needed, unlike the sea of standards surging around me. I look forward to the day when hybrids become the new standard, or even better, full electric vehicles.

I doubt this vehicle has regenerative braking, but it is powered by biofuel!