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CommieBobDole • today at 1:11 PM • 3 replies • view on HN

So this is a really neat technical demo, using spacecraft cold-gas thrusters and guidance hardware/software to do crazy stunt stuff in a car, but what's the relevance to an actual product that can be sold, even as a small-volume exotic? These are pressurized gas thrusters, so either the tanks, valves, and piping take up most of the interior of the car, or it has a low-single-digit number of seconds of thrust before recharge, probably both. Also the tanks for these things tend to use incredibly high pressures and are apt to explode spectacularly in any sort of accident.

This is sort of like demonstrating a car that softens the asphalt in front of it with lasers to get a better grip; difficult, technically impressive, and zero chance that it will ever be allowed on a public road.

Edit: According to this Motor Trend article, it uses a big carbon-fiber pressure vessel at 5500psi, so basically an enormous fragile bomb. And the one that did all the stunts had two of the pressure vessels which would have filled most of the interior.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-roadster-thrust-system...


Replies

jttnr • today at 3:37 PM

You an actually see what the pressure vessel looks like in the recent Top Gear episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdkIOhFmbKI&t=1239

Doesn't look too big, tbh. They also explain some of the mechanics used to make it happen.

m463 • today at 2:26 PM

> a big carbon-fiber pressure vessel at 5500psi

Other cars have these tanks, but full of flammable fuel, not just air.

Off the top of my head, the honda civic CNG (3600 psi)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Civic_GX#Specifications

the toyota marai (10,000 psi hydrogen)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Mirai#High-pressure_hyd...

and probably the other cng or hydrogen cars.

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jameskilton • today at 1:17 PM

Well, yeah. The full thruster version only seats one, and is invite only for purchase, and is not street legal.

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