I'm sure having a cold gas thruster is going to be no problem at all for road approval. /s
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reply> That’s the European mind speaking.
replySwipes are not allowed on HN, and comments that invoke national/regional/cultural stereotypes are particularly out of line here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Somehow I feel like "putting highly explosive canisters all around a car" is not the best example for why regulation is bad.
replyNo, that's the mind of a person speaking that is thinking of the motorcycle standing at the traffic light just behind this car. Action, reaction, that sort of thing.
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replyAnywhere in the world you can effectively own a Tesla is a place that probably cares if you turn the bike behind you into meat paste.
replyHere's a crazy idea: rear facing radar. Anything present within 1000 feet, it doesn't fire. GPS geofencing, not on a track can't fire. Etc.
replyWoah there, this is a Tesla. You're only allowed to use cameras.
replyI would start by pointing it forward and improving FSD. Better for everybody else on the road too.
replyThey don't even do radar for parking sensors.
replyObserve how the response hasn't addressed the safety point at all, just went in for more EU bashing.
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replyNot like those genius Elon and American minds thinking "oh yeh rocket engines on cars makes a lot of sense", you're saying?
replyThe very first cars required to have a person walking in front of it with waving a flag as a warning.
replyRed flag thing was the UK's Locomotives Act 1865, which dated from before what we call cars were invented. More aimed at traction engines (steam engines that go on the road). Exactly the type of regulation people like to mock the EU for.
replyLast year I went to a steam show and had to share the street with giant steam tractors for the first time. That law suddenly made sense. The visibility and stopping distance aren't great.
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replyFunnily enough, he was also the first person to get a driver's license IIRC.
reply>So many things that were invented in Europe couldn’t be invented today
replyLike leaded gazoline, whose effects can still be seen presently...
That was invented in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
replyI can think of no better person to have been hoisted on his own petard than Midgley. He also gave us the ozone hole. Veritasium has a great hit piece on this utter maniac.
reply> That’s the European mind speaking.
replyNo. That's the road safety mind speaking.
How long is the US going to allow a car able to jump over Hostile Vehicle Mitigation barriers?
replyLike everything else we regulate.... right up until it becomes cheap enough that "undesirables" might get their hands on them.
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replyBest guess is that it's disabled for anything but track/trick stuff. There will be some cool videos eventually showing up with tricks people pull with this. I don't know what else it's for.
replyI can imagine the lateral thrusters helping it turn faster on the track. Although I wonder if the extra weight is going to net out positive for lap times.
But really, a few very rich people will buy the full-rocket version to impress their friends. They'll play with them on private property.
Solo track use at that. I can't imagine that other drivers are going to be all that happy if they get hit by the exhaust from one of the thrusters in a corner.
replyGases dissipate very rapidly, even moreso if doing pulsing or whatever. Probably very unsafe for a human standing literally right behind it, but it'd likely have 0 effect on another car at typical driving distance.
replyExcept for the bit where you can't see a thing.
replyGreat idea to use something like that in a tunnel or a garage. Suffocation - no breathing ... and probably some blown doors/walls from the pressure
replyHow are you going to suffocate when the thrusters are sending out compressed air?
replyCar tunnels should be able to handle that level of bad gasses.
replyWhat bad gases? It is literally air.
Do you see a lot of mechanics passing out in garages with all that compressed air being let loose?
replyThe crash photos are going to be Darwin-award-worthy
replyI could see a safety feature where it launches itself into the air to avoid an imminent crash (providing the area above is free)
replyThat depends on the landing zone being available in a way that's hard for the onboard safety system to predict. But if the car is, say, spinning out you could use these to restore stability or try to recover from the other sorts of disasters that overpowered cars can end up in even on clear roads.
replyThe Rocket model should never spin out - traction control using thrusters should make it impossible.
replyonce your wheels leave the road, its hard to slow down. Just getting to zero mph before flipping 100 times and rolling over would be immensely useful.
replyI suppose I can see this also. It sounds horrifying. A head on collision is a pretty terrible thing but having one of the cars suddenly fly 30 feet in the air and crashing into on coming traffic does not sound like a great option. Reminds me of the cybertruck "this would make the perfect post apocalyptic vehicle."
replyyou might have a better chance of surviving that 30 foot launch than a head on collision with a pole or a semi truck. don't get me wrong it seems wildly impractical but there may be rare situations where it's useful. ejection seats on fighters frequently injured their pilot but that is better than being dead.
replyThis whole thing is incredibly stupid and yet, people are bending over backwards to defend it. There is not a single traffic situation where the ability of a car to suddenly launch itself into the air doesn't have more downsides than it staying put. This includes overhead wiring, other people nearby, tunnels, bridges, overpasses, lampposts, traffic lights and other street furniture. With a little luck you will survive the impact of your toy when it lands but the party that you land on does not. People have a hard enough time predicting trajectories with everything constrained to 2D, if cars start jumping around like fleas that is not an improvement. From a standstill with other parties around you this is already a serious problem, if it were moving forward at highway speeds in traffic it would be utterly irresponsible to trigger this kind of launch.
replyWhat, you don’t think the solution to a situation with too much out-of-control kinetic energy is to inject a whole bunch more semi-randomly-directed kinetic energy?
replyYou are delusional if you think more than one Rocket Roadster will be within miles of another one on a public road.
replyYou see, when you are about to have a crash, and you only have a few milliseconds to react, the best option is to put more energy into the event.
replyWhat goes up...
replyI think every buyer should receive a complimentary nomination for the award.
replyThe award is reserved for people who actually died, you can only be nominated posthumously.
replyWell he does know a few people in govt now I think? I remember a Tesla showroom on thr white house lawn not too long ago
replyIt's for the ultra rich and a tech showcase, so probably will be classified as off-road use only.
replyHere's to hoping it will end up with the same reputation as the e-type.
replyI mean, Leno drives around with a jet engine motorcycle that can melt the guy behind him.
replyYes, there are other idiots.
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