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In a classic example of the blogosphere's knack for Chinese whispers, it's emerged that vacuum designer James Dyson is not building a solar car. Missed the story first time round? Here's the background and the truth.
An interview in the Independent kicked off the rumours with the oversold headline, "Dyson working on new generation of fast, electric cars." Except Dyson isn't, as the Gas 2.0 blog has pointed out this morning. To check, I've just chatted to Laura over at Dyson's press office and been told that no, Dyson really isn't making a solar electric vehicle.
The problem was the Indy headline. Read the actual story and you'll notice a very big qualifying 'could' in the first sentence. "Sir James Dyson is working on a project that could lead to the creation of a fast, green car," the story says.
The project in question is the electric motor in the vac-maker's Airblade hand drier. Dyson said that a similar motor could power electric cars, which he noted suffer from poor top speeds and range. He suggested a solar panel might help.
Still, that didn't stop dozens of sites running with the story, which hit the front page on Digg.
There are, of course, some Brits working on a solar electric car. It's just that Dyson isn't one of them.
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