Monday, September 24, 2018

Someone modified a Prius to run on MUNI power lines

TBI from 2014:
A couple months ago I was walking out of Golden Gate Park onto Fulton around 8th Avenue. I stepped onto the sidewalk just in time to see a Prius roll by with a pair of giant antennae mounted on the roof. At first I thought it was just some kind of art-car getup, but then I realized the antennae was the same power pole doodad that MUNI buses use (I later learned they’re called “trolley poles”). Not only that, they were actually running along the overhead power cables for the 5 line.

...

The car I saw wasn’t even his first Prius. The first one was a 2003 model that apparently wasn’t built as robustly as the later ones.

“She just couldn’t handle the juice, man. I was driving up Van Ness one day and the roof unit started buzzing real loud. The whole engine compartment caught on fire and all the plastic under the hood started to melt.