Stanford Luminos – 10,000 Safe Miles and 4th in the World

Stanford's solar car Luminos on the road

The Stanford Solar Car Project has built solar cars since 1986, and it is proud of one rule: it is completely student-run. Faculty members help with fundraising and advice, but every design and race decision is made by students. Any Stanford student can join.

The team’s eleventh car, Luminos, was unveiled in the summer of 2013. Before shipping it to Australia, the students focused on reliability and drove it 10,000 miles without a safety incident. It paid off: in the Challenger class of the 2013 World Solar Challenge, Luminos finished 4th, the best result of any team made up of undergraduates.

Luminos racing through the Australian outback in 2013. Photo: Mark Shwartz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Luminos built on its predecessor Xenith (2011), a 170 kg car with three-wheel steering, glass-protected solar panels and a chassis only 10 cm thick, made of carbon fibre, titanium and aluminium. Xenith could cruise at about 88 km/h on solar power alone. The team also wrote software to model sunlight and shadows along the race route to plan its strategy.

Rolling through a town during the World Solar Challenge. Photo: Mark Shwartz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

After Luminos came Arctan (2015), designed to be a little more aerodynamic while staying just as robust, and Sundae (2017). If you like to compare: on the same 2013 roads the Dutch Stella family cars started their run of Cruiser class wins, and Australia’s Sunswift team was preparing its record cars.

Its predecessor Xenith (2011) during test runs in California. Photo: Sam D'Amico / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Technical data

Builder	Stanford Solar Car Project (USA), student-run since 1986
Car	Luminos, 11th car, 2013
Testing	10,000 safe miles before the race
Result	WSC 2013 Challenger class: 4th, best undergraduate team
Predecessor	Xenith (2011): ~170 kg, three-wheel steering, glass-encapsulated panels, 10 cm carbon/titanium/aluminium chassis