Technology

Well, the original Li-Ion batteries by John Goodenough are Goodenough

We just need a Dr. John BetterBatteryMan for solid battery tech

What no nanobots? What sort of product is this.

Fueled by FSD SpaceX xAI. /$

I bet someone from HN is already "generating" that brilliant idea thanks to their SOTA meta-harness right now using Claude Fable. Or something.

Critical thinking is a dying concept. Most of humanity has no concept of reality any more. There area few points of hope in the younger generation but it's not looking promising from where I'm sitting.

The problem is there are multiple tech companies involved, all bullshitting each other. It starts with a German screening technology company claiming they can screen produce the solid state electrode, when they never made a single battery ever. if company A can develop the tech then company B can assemble the battery to do into the motorcycles in company C.

Formula E racing uses the state of the art in batteries, and for 2027 they sourced a lithium battery even though cost was no object.

Two Chinese companies claim to be making solid state batteries, put the performance is only equal to classic lithium.

Toyota got burned on this. They were promised SS batteries delivered by 2025. Never happened.

That's how its done now thanks to assholes like this.

It's worked for their channel so far.

Reading the article, the investigation isn't a case of independent labs getting hold of the battery and definitively disproving Donut's claims. It's battery experts and researchers looking at the data Donut has released and saying, "these claims are extraordinary and the evidence doesn't yet convince us. Here's what we think the battery actually is." That's a very reasonable scientific position, especially when you're talking about 400 Wh/kg, 5-minute charging, and 100,000 cycles all at once.

But without independently tested samples, there are still a lot of unknowns and inferences involved. That's not to say the skeptics are wrong, but it's still arguably a case of skeptics being skeptical... reasonably so, but based on analysis of the available evidence rather than direct examination of the battery itself.

The running theory I had seen was that they were licensing out someone else's tech, and then claiming it as their own.

And now this article shows that to be more true than I had thought.

Meanwhile, there's a company out of Taiwan doing this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQFVIs4leig

The guy cuts a cell in half with a pair of scissors, and as soon as the scissors are pulled away the little LED light comes back on.

They didn't need to keep it secret forever, just long enough to grab more money.

If they are really a fraud, how did they think they wouldn’t get caught??

That's how Ponzi schemes work. See this thing?

Under $50,000! All carbon fiber! Solar powered! 1,600 km range!

This thing has been vaporware since 2009, company started 20 YEARS AGO -4,000 suckers signed up.

It went chapter 11 in 2011.

Bought by a Chinese company, " company stated it would manufacture 5000 vehicles by the end of 2012".

total to date: 0.

On December 8, 2020, the company presented a driveable prototype and started accepting reservations. By December 14 the company had over 3000 refundable preorders for $100 each. Aptera released its 2021 annual report in May 2022, stating they had 103 employees and over 18,000 reservations for their solar electric vehicle. By mid 2022, the company raised a total of $40 million, planning to get to production by the end of the year.They acquired three buildings in Carlsbad, California, with a combined space of over 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2). In November 2022 Aptera announced they have redesigned the structural components of the vehicle, and it requires more funding before they can get to production.

total to date: 0.

Aptera announced in April 2025 the company raised a total of $130 million through crowdfunding and $10 million from other investors, and the company requires an additional $60 million before it can start low-volume production.

total to date: 0.

Aptera announced in March 2026 it has raised a further $17M, and plans starting low-scale production no earlier than March 2027 pending raising a further $50 million.

It just goes on and on and no one is questioning the utter bullshit claims of range and solar charging and the lack of a single vehicle in 20 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptera_Motors

But when Elizabeth Holmes did this...straight to jail.

Now in 2026, there are serious safety concerns about vehicles that look like cars but are actually motorcycles. There is a Federal bill to ban these on the table.

Edit : Great day to discover !dungeoncrawlercarl@lemmy.ca exists!

There are several companies making great leaps right now. It is still far from commercially viable yet.

Which is why it seemed so far fetched for Donut to claim they had this battery without anyone knowing they were working on it. It was immediately suspicious.