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Comment by tw04 | Hacker News Reader

Both versions have giant nitrogen tanks that expel gas. Neither has combustion. I won’t say it’s not novel, I will say that there’s 0 chance it’s street legal with the vertical thrusters, little chance it’s legal with the rear thrusters, and given that it takes 6 hours to fill the tank for a single use that is good for 1/3rd of a quarter mile, almost useless.

It made for a great marketing stunt, it is absolutely useless for a production car. And you can tell the designers realize it but were at the whims of Elon in their interview.

https://youtu.be/JdkIOhFmbKI

We were promised an awd, 620 mile range monster almost a decade ago, and then again 6 years ago. We were delivered a “maybe 310 mile” range, rwd doorstop.

I’m not sure who this car is for, but it’s definitely not car guys. It is the cybertruck of sports cars, and that’s not a good thing…

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Even Wall Street bets was mocking it on Reddit. You know it’s bad when the apes turn on one of their champions.

you have to take into account that reddit in general is completely Anti-Elon. He could cure cancer and folks on that site would find a way to blame billionares.

Okay but he also hasn't cured cancer, hasn't delivered full self driving, and this car is not useful as a car in anyway.

Any sign of the tens of thousands of Optimus robots?

No top of the line car is useful as a car. That’s not the point of them.

It probably has more to do with what he has actually done than what he might theoretically do with all his wealth and power in some alternate reality where he was a decent human being.

You have TDS

Its for influencers

I think they needed a test for lunar/mars Landers.

Bonus: use cars!

We literally have flying AI cars now - they thing we all dreamed about and watched TV shows and movies about as kids - and people are all "it sucks!". It’s crazy how blinded people are by TDS (Elons support of him) that they are not able to see the forest through the trees. It’s not about flying cars, it’s a demonstration of engineering chops and the ability to control flight with extreme precision in real time. Those space rocks are not going to mine themselves.

I was a little kid the last time I dreamt about flying cars. Then I grew up and realized it's a silly idea.

Also if it was just a demo for space mining, why is it marketed as a car for consumers and why can I buy a $250K reservation to maybe (!) buy one for an unknown price and with an unknown set of features at an unknown point of time in the future?

I think it's very simply just a scam to extract money from Elon's fans.

"Elon's fans" - you have TDS. You can think this is neat without being a fan of him or Trump (I'm certainly not). I can recognize the great engineering and cool things coming out of China without supporting their political system.

Jesus Christ, if I hear TDS one more time, I will scream. The man has proven himself a fool with a useless war in Iran that has destroyed the global economy. And, we're not even talking about him!! We're talking about someone else!

There's only one deranged person in this conversation.

Like I said, TDS. I didn't vote for Trump and think he's a bag of farts, Elon is well, Elon - but I think the self flying car is cool as is the rocket stuff from a pure engineering perspective. No need to project and lash out at everything. Sometimes a cool ass flying car is just a cool ass flying car. Btw, in the real world (not costal enclaves, not reddit) my opinion is the majority one. I hope you get the help you need.

Buddy, I'm from Kentucky. Please don't lecture me about coastal enclaves. This is just sad.

So reddit. Log out, come out of the hollar and talk to some real people. Normal people think the flying car is kick ass.

I wasn't talking about recognizing something as cool or whatever. I'm talking about giving Elon $250K without getting anything back. No rational person would do this - only a fan would.

What's TDS?

TDS isn't real. And if it were real, it would describe the people who support him even though they would never support someone else who has done or said even 100th of the things he's done or said.

Not only is it reality, it's an epidemic as seen in the anti-Elon comments. People would love the flying car if Elon endorsed Kamala (and would have ignored his autistic on stage spasm). And if you are honest, you know I'm 100% correct here. People spend entirely too much time on Reddit and are projecting their political stance on anything Elon does. Grow up is what I am saying.

>People would love the flying car if Elon endorsed Kamala

Not true. It's clearly a stunt. Not practical. Nobody wants this on our roads by our houses.

>would have ignored his...

Not true. The left is famously quite critical of Democrats.

>if you are honest

I am, and I don't deserve the insinuation that I'm not. You're not assuming good faith, not only for me, but for the other commenters.

>Reddit

This is HN

>projecting their political stance on anything Elon does

You are quite literally doing that.

> Not true. It's clearly a stunt. Not practical. Nobody wants this on our roads by our houses.

You people really don't get it, do it? It's not about the car being practical. Cleary this is not going to make it to the roads, but it will on a powered by Grok robotic space craft. Think potentially unlimited resources from asteroid mining. Get over your political leanings and these personalities involved and think bigger picture.

How about you get over your political leanings. Stop accusing people who have legitimate doubts of things they don't deserve. In the context of astronautics, this tech is not earthshattering.

That is literally the point I'm making regarding political leaning. Gracias. Flying cars are cool, who cares about the politics. I want those space rocks and so do you.

It's not. You're accusing others of the things you're doing even though they don't deserve it. Neither of us is getting space rocks.

Wait until you see how the Apollo lunar modules and such maneuvered in the 60s. This is pretty much all 60s and 70s tech we've seen before. Except it was much more impressive in the 60s on the moon. And I guess if you want cold-gas propulsion not chemical NASA Skylab is the way cooler actually practical example.

Yes, this was my first thought too. This car is for people to make YouTube videos with.

Likewise, I was left feeling like this is just more fodder for the circus. Tesla's stock is attention-driven more than anything at this point. By that measure, this car makes sense. By any other, it's more grift and gimmick.

We dreamt it in the context of solved social problems. At least I did. And those people are enabling man slaughter for profit.

There is also that point and a an even so slight correction that it’s a hovering car at best.

> I’m not sure who this car is for

People couldn't figure out what to do with airplanes other than racing them. Until WW1, when it was first used for observation.

I wonder if this technology will revive the jet pack. At least it won't set your ankles on fire! And it's a lot simpler than a jet engine.

This would be a step backwards for jet packs, which can currently do minutes of flight, using a tank of high pressure air would reduce that back to seconds

A jet pack that flies for 10 seconds and then needs 6 hours of recharging ?

well... when you gotta jump over police car barricades...?

I mean if you're not sober, maybe it's a nice option to have

A man is much lighter than a car, so the figures for a car don't apply.

If it were throttled back just so you were lighter, you could possibly run much faster.

> …there’s 0 chance it’s street legal with the vertical thrusters…

Page says:

> Note: Not approved for public road use.

hmm maybe this car will appear on 007?

it's "actual stunt" car

Best summary:

| ... cybertruck of sports cars ...

It's compressed air from what I can read and it contains a compressor to refill the tank.

A concept car, primarily a track car I think. I would think less than 10000 will be sold but some of the tech will make it into other models over time and the tech could be interesting for military application. Jumping Humvees like cars anyone?

There is absolutely no way that a compressor that will fill those tanks in 6 hours is in that vehicle. There is a good chance that the compressor and cooling stage weigh more than the car and are larger than the car.

I think its thrusters would be useful for ocean-going vessel insertions.

So in the straight of Hormuz, you'd have a "Tesla boat" hover off a destroyer and into the water, reach the target as a boat, then hover up to its deck. People would exit and meet the vessel's crew for however long. No hook ladders, anchor lines or helicopter rappels. Seems like a good balance between projecting soft and hard power to make a ship turn around, arrest or replace crew, run security checks or extract payment. The Tesla boat should make this type of rendezvous less costly, easier and safer - legality/ethics considerations aside.

Would be interesting if the boat rose up on a variable foil and keel as well where the forward thrusters could be used for super speed, maneuverability and fuel efficiency. I am just dreaming.

The timing of this stunt with the release of the Musk documentary seems more than a coincidence.

Replacing Tesla Cybertruck as the primary emergency escape vehicle for astronauts?

I think it's really for use off-planet..

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