A group of students from Kansas City has built a car that runs on Tweets, Facebook likes, Instagram shares and other social media updates. This time, these students re-built a 1967 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and converted it into an electric car.









These students replaced the original Volkswagen engine with a lithium-ion battery pack and electric motor. Following this, they installed a tablet PC into the circuitry of the car, which monitors the social watts derived from Minddrive's social media accounts including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and accordingly controls the power flow




In other words, the car is powered by social media interactions like hashtagging 'MindDrive' on Twitter, liking MindDrive's Facebook page or posts and commenting on their Instagram photos. For instance, a new Twitter follower brings five watts, liking something on Facebook adds 1 watt. 

It starts with a tweet, this sends a signal into the little box in the car, that lets it know that it has social fuel and can start running. Every tweet, or Facebook like, and Instagram share gets routed through a server. So, if they don't have enough social media buzz - that little black box can actually cut power to the electric engine.

So now when the car has been built, the team is planning to test it out themselves by road tripping from Kansas City to Washington, DC.

Reference: #IBN Live