Down on powah, hit a pot hole!
 

Genshock active suspension system and its regenerative hydraulic/electromagnetic generators to convert variable/repetitive pump frequencies to useful power for the vehicle's electrical system. Combined with other regenerative systems, EVs or hybrids could go down the road a little further. ZF & Levant Power Genshock | Best of What's New 2013 | Popular Science

I got to talk to a couple of the folks at Levant Power, at the MIT Energy Night, several years ago. It was essentially a science fair for undergrads and post grads - some pretty intense stuff.

Their shocks (at the time) were engineered for trucks or vehicles with long suspension travel. I.E. pretty heavy duty, and I raised the possibility with them to make a smaller shock that would be able to take advantage of more and much smaller suspension motion.

useful if you cannot avoid a lot of potholes, but like braking it is better to avoid them. Not perpetual energy :)

Yeah, pot holes are bad for tires, rims, control arms, tie rods, etc, etc, etc. Hell, they can even cause most hybrid vehicles to stop regen braking as it triggers one of the abs or skid control systems.

I think a better one would be to recover exhaust heat for power or go to a mechanical hybrid system like was tested on garbage and ups trucks.

In Edinburgh I would never need fuel again...

Nor in most of Pennsylvania...

Vehicle with regenerative suspension versus power-generating road humps... who wins? :D

Don't get your hopes up, I cannot see how this avoids the whole theory of relativity & conservation of energy thing.

Ie, you cannot get out more than what you put in.

So the amount of energy that it took to put a tyre into a pothole is equal to the amount of energy that it takes to get it out again.

So if these shocks are all-electric I cannot see how it would work as you would need to expend energy to stabilize the up and down motion of the shock absorber.

Just my 2c.

You're not putting energy into the wheel from the suspension when the wheel falls into a hole. Gravity accelerates it into the hole. You expend forward moment and power from the engine to pull it out. The suspension recovers energy from both strokes. Not a whole lot, but enough of a percentage (one hopes) to make it worth doing so.

No one is claiming that you get something for nothing. Any changed in the level of the road surface that displaces the suspension slows the car down, so having regenerative shocks allow you to get *some* of that lost energy back.