I felt the same way when they were calling the Segway skateboards "hoverboards" and referring to back to the future.
replyI'm not sure I'd agree that "Traditional wheel powered transportation vehicle" is in the same category as "Useless hovering car with giant dangerous high-pressure nitrogen tank that can cause serious bodily injury to pedestrians and occupants"
replyOn the other hand "Hoverboards" became famous for bursting into flames so vigorously that people thought they were exploding, so maybe there is a deep connection. Then again "Hoverboards" were actually available on the market as advertised for quite some time, which is probably going to differentiate them from yet another Musk gimmick.
replyAdd it to the list, boys! "Inflatable Rescue Submersible", FSD, Bulletproof windows, Mars any day now, Hyperloop... am I missing anything?
I guess any LPG-installed car is also a "bomb" by your definition?
replymy quick search says LPG-installed cars run at 5-10 bar. the roadster apparently at 350 bar. by comparison one is on the scale of car tires and the other is like 35x that.
replyUsing Brode's equation a rupture can release 52MJ of energy or 12kg of TNT. An high explosive tank shell only has 11MJ of explosive energy.
replyBut also LPG is extremely flammable, while air isn't, and air can be safely leaked in emergency.
replyThis is enough pressure to launch a car and flip it in the air, you can't just "safely leak" it at any useful rate of speed in an emergency. In an emergency it will rapidly explode.
replydeleted
replyFor reference, tractor trailer tires run about 7 bar and we’ve all see those videos.
replyIt's basically the batmobile from Dark Knight. A small bridge jumper. Still pretty cool
replyDidn’t that also actually work? IIRC they wanted to develop something that could realistically do it. This seems to confirm: https://batmobilehistory.com/tumbler-batmobile.php
replyThe Batpod bike was also practical, although infamous for being super hard to drive unlike the batmobile leading to a now infamous crash with an imax camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdMpxN-7_rw
reply>A small bridge jumper.
replyOr an easier way to escape rioters blocking the road and threatening your life.
Imagine what these air blasters would do to a pedestrian. This is never going to hit the road like shown.
replyNot just pedestrians. Nearby car windshields.
replyI think future technology will allow the car to detect another car or pedestrian too close to the exhaust system and disengage it. I don’t know, some wild thought I just had.
replyYou can't just "disengage" a car that's six feet off the ground. You have to land it gently with the nozzle engaged or you don't have a car anymore, and maybe you don't have a driver either.
reply[dead]
replydeleted
replydeleted
replyDo you feel the same way about every Red Bull stunt?
replyYou think the jetsons vehicle wasn’t a flying bomb? You’re comparing a real, actually-flying car with a cartoon fantasy and complaining the real one isn’t real enough? I don’t even understand what the point here is
replyThe point is that a car flying for 10 seconds is nowhere near the Jetsons car.
replyWe actually do already have Jetsons style flying cars - those things that look kind of like big drones are basically that, and those are actually practical.
Forget the comparison to the Jetsons if it upsets you, let's just compare to actual flying vehicles.
I was mostly being pedantic in response to the extreme pedantry required to differentiate between “doing a barrel roll using cold gas thrusters” and “flying”. My point is that it is of course flying, and the reason cars don’t fly at all normally is because it’s insanely dangerous, so saying it’s not a flying car because it’s dangerous is both disingenuous and wrong.
replyNow do the definition of AGI.
replyI bet Tesla is kicking themselves for not consulting mulletbum before building. They could have caught this if only the actual engineers at Tesla had your input.
replyIt doesn't have to be pressurized at all times!
replyYou could only pressurize it right before your jumping stunt.
Highly practical. Basically a clown car.
reply