You did say "consumer tech" - so you're probablt aware of the BT-46. But this has been done a few times before... though it's probably more dangerous than ever with up to 1MW (1000kW) output from electric motors. Some of these were actually sold afair.
replyI'm not sure about those thrusters though, I doubt they'd be legal?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabham_BT46
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Murray_Automotive_T.50
>> There’s no engineering advancement here?
replyNo advance. Its engineering gimmicks to hide the fact self driving is 15 years late, and all recently announced Tesla models are worst, and more expensive, than any Chinese alternative.
The jumping car used a 600L canister of 10 kPSI compressed air behind the seats. Musk claimed the car will be able to refill the canister itself, but he didn't demonstrate that. In reality, the size of a multistage compressor to reach those pressures and the heat dissipation for compressing that much air to 680 atmospheres makes that impractical and would use several times more energy than the batteries store. You would have to get filled up at whatever specialized system they used for the demo. The weight of the compressed air in that canister alone is over 750 pounds. It's a fun one-off trick, but I wouldn't worry about this showing up on an actual public road.
replyTesla has a history of failed hype campaigns. At this point, them hyping something is a negative expectation that it will come to pass.
replyI mean it will never be a product. It's just story telling to try and justify the premium Space X is about to pay to acquire Twitter, I mean Tesla.
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