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CommPhD • today at 3:56 PM • 4 replies • view on HN

If used on public streets, these thrusters could easily maim/kill people- reckless to include them on a car.


Replies

Maxatar • today at 4:01 PM

The one with the actual rocket engine is not being sold to the public and Tesla website explicitly states it's not legal to drive it on public roads. It's mostly just a cool demo/prototype and I'm sure there will be privately run tracks that let people drive one.

The generally available car will have cold-gas thrusters which boost acceleration but is nothing like what was demo'd.

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827a • today at 4:05 PM

Teslas already have very strict (annoyingly strict) gating keeping specific functionality off of public roads (Summon). The drag mode thruster-assisted boost will probably leverage that. I also imagine that cameras on the car would stop it from being engaged if it detects humans in its firing area even when not on public roads.

The flying trim will never be sold to general consumers. Even the rear-thruster trim is currently listed at a $250,000 pre-order fee, which is a deposit for a fraction of the full cost of the car. Final cost will be over $1M. Any of the thruster variants will be extremely rare; like, the one guy in your city that has one will show it off at car shows twice a year, McLaren P1, level of rare.

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SketchySeaBeast • today at 4:06 PM

And it's sure going to increase the blast radius when these get into a collision. Even if you can't fire the thrusters, that pressurized tank can't be safe.

tyleo • today at 4:00 PM

I’m no Musk fan but I found it cool and try to balance my negativity towards the person with what I’m seeing.

Plenty of ways to maim/kill people in traditional cars already and I doubt this will be the most common one in roadsters.