Get your thinking caps on -it's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog! Do you have any idea what this contraption is? Can you come up with an interesting guess?
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop!
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!
Update: Once again, the very first comment had the correct answer! Berhard knew the device is a stanchion, to hold cattle still for milking or veterinary procedures. The funniest answer was from Stephen Bishop, who said it was an early prototype for a mammogram! However, he didn't select a t-shirt.
Comments (36)
T-shirt - largest you got
"You're Not the Boss of Me ... My Cat Is"
You can deal with the economic portion of that somewhat by adding a battery wear and tear surcharge onto the swap cost, but it would have to be part of multi-station system in order to balance the wear on the communal battery packs evenly.
While convenient, I'm not sure it swapping is ultimately necessary. Newer vehicles can do quick charges to 80% capacity in less than 30 minutes. While not as quick as gas, newer models are looking at 300 mile ranges in theory, so 20-30 minutes every 4 hours on the freeway isn't horrible (probably better for your body too).
The bottom line is that a battery swapping station couldn't send out bad batteries any more than a gas station could sell bad gas.