Toyota Hybrid Roller Coaster
Hardware Design & Development, Reverse Engineering, Digitally-controlled Lighting
Made for the Ideas for Good Campaign, Deeplocal designed and built a roller coaster track and cart using Toyota Prius parts. The coaster utilized Toyota’s regenerative breaking system to power lights from an amusement park.
Deeplocal took apart a 2011 Prius, removing the engine, front brake system and axle, electrical wiring system, and all of the guts. Additionally, we designed and fabricated a 70' coaster track and car from steel and dropped the engine, wiring harness, and braking system into it. Using lights from Kennywood amusement park, we simulated the amount of energy we were able to measure being generated from the regenerative braking system. While this was used in a coaster scenario, it could also be used in any situation where power is lost to braking.
