[BIRDS CHIRPING]
DEREK MULLER:
in life, and sometimes the most impactful ones,
can only be achieved as a member of a team,
a synchronized group of highly focused minds,
dedicated to a common goal,
particularly when that goal
is one of the biggest problems facing humanity.
As teams rise on day two of the World Solar Challenge,
the real purpose behind this race
is never far from their minds.
Climate change is a big issue in the world.
We can see in many different places.
Many things are changing because of climate change.
And we feel with our solar car,
we are working on the technology that can help
change this.
We, of course, want to win
and that's drives a team to create new technologies,
technologies that are not yet on the market, sometimes.
And I think the beautiful thing about that is
this technology has really high potential
in more sustainable mobility.
On the first day of the race,
team Twente from the Netherlands amassed a shocking lead
and is starting day two 30 kilometers ahead of the pack.
We're in first place and we expected the other teams to be bit closer to us,
but I don't know what they are planning today.
they might have their own strategy here.
We'll keep doing our thing
and they'll keep doing their thing and yeah, let's see.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
DRIES KETELSLEGERS:
together with three others teams.
There's just one team ahead which is Twente.
They're half an hour ahead, I think,
but that doesn't really matter at the moment
'cause the race is 3,000 kilometers
so maybe they burned up too much fuel yesterday
and they're gonna run out of energy at the end. So we don't know yet.
MULLER:
which they spent two years meticulously designing and simulating.
SIDD BIKKANNAVAR:
you are spending most of that morning in the back seat of a chase vehicle
behind a whole row of computers,
running last minute calculations,
taking into account the day's weather forecast
which is now much more accurate.
KETELSLEGERS:
and now we know what time we're gonna arrive today
and where we're gonna be and at what percentage in battery.
Everything is a test of the car but it's also test of the team.
It's a very strategic, calculated and methodical thing.
ALL: [CHANTING] Blue fight, blue fight, blue fight.
-So exciting today. -Good luck to you.
Thank you.
MULLER:
The heat is blistering and all the teams have their eye on Twente.
Running second is Vattenfall followed by Top Dutch.
The three trailblazers are all Dutch teams.
Behind them is Agoria, Sonnenwagen, and then Michigan.
But not everyone is off to such a good start.
MULLER:
since the beginning of the race.
were just not sure at the moment.
The mech team's having a look.
There was something sounding funny, so we had to stop.
MECHANIC: No... Oh [BLEEP]
MAX MAMMONE:
After charging, we ended up
realizing there was a big software glitch in the car.
MULLER:
With hours of delay ahead, it's safe to say Western Sydney
is out of the running to win this race.
MAMMONE:
and myself know that that car is one of the top ones out on the grid.
Just unfortunately this time it didn't kind of work out
but there's multiple other races coming up
and maybe we can make it work there.
[CHEERING]
[MAN SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MULLER:
based on constantly evolving conditions.
When we're out in the outback, we're always watching the weather,
'cause sun is the most important thing,
that's what we wanna be at all times.
So we have a car
that gets in a satellite feed with the weather.
And, for example, we can see... Oh, there's a cloud coming in.
Well, what will we do now? Will we slow down to not waste too much energy
or will we speed up to get out of the cloud as fast as possible?
That's strategic decisions we have to make every time.
MULLER:
a constant juggling act between the car solar panels,
the battery
and the motor that propels it down the road.
In a perfect world,
the cars use the sun's energy alone to maintain their speed.
This is called running energy-neutral.
VAN HAM:
during the race where we take in
exactly as much energy as we're using
so the solar panels brings in everything.
But if you wanna drive faster than that,
let's say to over take another team,
we have to used energy from our battery storage
which then drain the battery.
MULLER:
including a dip in the sun's energy from cloud cover,
fighting headwinds, or simply making up time in the race.
But it always comes at a cost.
VAN HAM:
we can run out of battery power.
Then we have to stop right then and there and charge the car.
ANDREW DICKINSON:
you're always trying to use the energy in the best way
that you possibly can to get you
to the finish line as fast as you can.
MULLER:
comes from overtaking other teams,
making passing one of the most critical
strategic maneuvers of the race.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MULLER:
is knocking on Top Dutch's door.
DICKINSON:
in order to overtake someone,
you're losing energy, you're going faster than you want to be.
And so teams will generally pass each other at a crawl
and sometimes that can get kind of dangerous.
So it's very important
procedurally that everyone is watching for oncoming traffic
that your lead vehicle is in the right place and right time
in order to make sure that happens safely and smoothly as possible.
We are driving behind Top Dutch right now
and they are driving at 95 kilometers per hour.
We will drive 100 kilometers per hour so we'll overtake them.
That's really nice.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
MAN: He's passing.
-[CLAPPING] -[MAN SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
We are here at Tennant Creek.
This is the first stop of the second day.
We are now nearly
1,000 kilometers away from Darwin.
That is one third of the distances to Adelaide.
Control stops are mandatory checkpoints along the route.
All teams must punch in and out for a 30-minute break.
And for safety, change drivers.
So far, the story has been the team Twente.
They've pulled out to an enormous lead.
On day one, they were ahead by half an hour
and now is trying to maintain that lead.
There is the arrival of the team Twente vehicle,
the first car to arrive here in Tennant Creek.
So, I'm wondering if there's something about the stability
of the car or just their solar panel,
something about the way they're designed
that is leading to this advantage.
Vattenfall has arrived.
I have to say, I wasn't expecting to see them this quickly.
How did you feel about the way the car was driving?
Occasionally we drive doing a 100-plus kilometers an hour
and we're energy-neutral, and that's an amazing feelings to experience.
That's extraordinary.
Agoria, the team from Belgium, is in next.
It's very important for our team to prepare
for our control stops as good as possible.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Because in 2017, the difference between
the fourth and the third position was only seven minutes.
There are 250 kilometers until the next control stop.
What you can see up here
is that team Twente is getting their ballast ready.
They're getting ready to jump back in the car,
whereas Agoria has basically just arrived.
So, there's maybe 25 minutes separating these teams.
That gap is narrower than it was yesterday.
So, really looks like the things are tightening up at the front of the race.
Ooh!
MULLER:
strategy is that they have an interchangeable motor,
one for high speeds and one for low speeds
when they need more acceleration.
This gives them the ability to adapt their gearing from day to day.
MULLER:
is going on in the fourth and fifth positions.
As they predicted, team Tokai from Japan has closed the gap
on Michigan from the us.
It can take hours to plan and achieve a pass in this race,
and Tokai has had their eye on Michigan all day.
With the traffic finally clear, the Japanese team makes their move
Tokai accelerates through
what seems to be an effortless pass,
and continues far out of Michigan's line of sight.
Holding on to considerable speed a quarter mile up the road,
Tokai has approached the Michigan lead convoy car, looking to pass.
[MAN SPEAKING OVER MIC]
Thank you.
[MAN SPEAKING OVER MIC]
MULLER:
to any solar car looking to pass.
MULLER:
[TEAM MEMBERS TALKING OVER MIC]
MULLER:
Michigan slows way down, impeding Tokai while they cannot safely
or legally pass.
[TEAM MEMBERS TALKING OVER MIC]
MULLER:
But the Michigan car speeds up once more,
not allowing the solar car to get around.
[TEAM MEMBERS TALKING OVER MIC]
MULLER:
and tuck back into their lane.
MULLER:
allowing the Michigan solar car
to recoup all the distance that Tokai had pulled ahead.
[TEAM MEMBERS TALKING OVER MIC]
MULLER:
or the ethics of this race.
That will be up to Tokai and the race officials.
MULLER: Oh, it is hot, here in Barrow Creek
at the second checkpoint for day two.
And what's remarkable to me is just how much Twente
has been able to maintain it's advantage over these other cars.
You know, on day one, they could have been bluffing,
they could have been draining their battery to go extra fast
but towards the end of day two,
it's hard to believe that they can still be bluffing on battery.
I gotta believe that Vattenfall and Agoria are trying as hard as they can
to pull back that lead.
Well, Vattenfall is second to arrive here
and by the looks of things, it's just on time.
Basically they are holding Twente's lead.
So important for these teams to get that solar panel position
exactly correct so that they're getting the best angle
on the sun and maximizing the juice that they can recover
during this stop.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
During the race, I'm the one who will guide
our solar car into the control stop.
We know at what time we will be at the control stop,
based on the hours that we will be there
and that we think our solar car will be there.
I can check the angle of the sun.
With our tool, I can try to position the car
as optical possible to gain
the most out of our charging at the control stop.
[SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
It is incredibly impressive to see these guys
run out in their sock feet
to hit that button.
Every tiny edge is what's gonna make the difference
who wins this race.
[CEDRIC D'HAEYER SPEAKING]
MULLER:
in front of Tokai and Michigan.
That episode on the road might have helped the German team catch and pass them both.
On the last 40 kilometers up here,
we managed to overtake both of them,
so we are in a good position, place four, to leave Barrow Creek
and end today somewhere between Barrow Creek and Alice Springs.
MULLER:
It just isn't Tokai's day 'cause they get hung up getting the car situated.
And Michigan gets to the button before them.
As we came into this control stop here at Barrow Creek,
Tokai pulled in ahead of us,
but they had to turn around and line up to point it left
whereas we could pull straight in, point to the right
and now were in front of them for free.
Meaning we're back in the driver's seat
and if they wanna have to pass us again, they're gonna have to build up
and waste the energy to do so.
MULLER:
Sidd, the driver for Tokai, is not exactly happy with how that last leg went down.
[BIKKANNAVAR SPEAKING]
MULLER:
a complaint with the officials.
And they are assured a review, but they still have a race to run
and it's a long way to Adelaide.
As teams get back on the road,
the intensity is definitely picking up.
You can feel it.
I think we were five to six cars here, which means it's super close,
super exciting.
We're five minutes from second place
and it seems like we put some pressure on them still today,
so looking good, and we're gaining on first place as well today,
so, good day.
MULLER:
the top five teams are all holding their positions...
[CHEERING]
...maintaining a blistering pace.
[CHANTING]
BIKKANNAVAR:
The high headwinds will slow down the solar car,
so it will cause us to drain the battery, use more power,
so maybe some teams are burning a little hot to beat the weather
and get out in front of it.
MULLER:
the story is still team Twente from the Netherlands.
With the smallest car in the race,
they are comfortably out in front, looking almost flawless.
It's been another great day and you guys
have shown again that you're a formidable team out there,
very difficult to catch and just growing this lead.
Yes, we're really happy about that process, progress.
It's really cool to see. We have been working
for more than a year on this project
and now you finally see your car performing
may be even better than you expected it to do.
So yeah, were really glad about today.
-That's gotta be really rewarding. -Yes, it really is, really is.
INE VERHAEREN:
on our Facebook page
to show all our supporters how we're doing in the race.
THIERRY GARRITSEN:
and why what we're doing is important for the future
and for renewable energy overall.
Yeah, we're now focusing on the high school kids
because they show a lot of interest
in terms of technology
and the future and the importance of it all in the race.
MULLER:
And what's interesting to me
is the weather is forecast to get even worse tomorrow.
So if we get wind and cloud cover over these cars...
Well, it could change everything.
Strengths can turn into weaknesses and vice versa.
If I had to guess, I'd say day three might bring some mayhem
to this race.
[WIND HOWLING]