So let’s double the speed - 1.2 Ma. You need half the mass now - 25kg/sec. If you want to have 10 seconds worth of hover - that’s 250kg of gas. Plus the weight of the storage tank. Plus - this is the amounts for hover. Not for any extra force on top of that.
replyIt still doesn’t make much sense to me. And that’s before considering what happens when you get rocket stream hitting a tarmac road. Never mind public roads, this sounds like a major hazard anywhere. Plus the quantity of compressed gas son board (if that’s how it works)… not a pretty crash. At these numbers, imagine 10MJ released all of a sudden - apparently that’s about 2.5kg of TNT.
Surely I’m missing something… as I say, I can’t make sense of it.
Your math is pretty good, Tesla actually gave the storage tank capacity as 250kg
replyETA: this is a horrifying amount of energy to be sitting on top of.
Can't wait to see the crash test video.
replyI guess on the plus side SpaceX has been trucking much worse around in and out of orbit verrry reliably for years now in tough conditions.
reply1% failure rate for space rockets might count as very reliable, but if 1% of all cars explode then we are in for a ride.
replywhat's there to miss? if these ever make it to market their only purpose will be conspicuous consumption for vice-signalling ding dongs
replyThe "pin to a wall" part uses fans, not the cold gas thrusters. It can probably stay there until the battery runs out. The gas thrusters are only needed if you want to go 0-60 in .8s (with the Thrust version), or if you want to fly (with the Rocket version). Probably those only last a few seconds before the air tanks need to recharge.
replyMach diamonds in a compressed air jet aren’t surprising. You can get them from a canned compressed air duster: https://hackaday.com/2024/02/18/canned-air-is-unexpectedly-s...
reply> phase one - you drive around, and excess energy goes to compressing air.
replyIt's an electric car - unless you've got an incredibly long charging cable, there is no "excess energy" when you're driving around.