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posted by on Thursday January 05 2017, @09:11PM   Printer-friendly

Two SoylentNews readers sent us this story about new car technology.

CES 2017: Faraday Future Unveils Super Fast Quick Electric Car

Start-up Faraday Future has unveiled a self-driving electric car that it says can accelerate from zero to 60mph (97km/h) in 2.39 seconds.

Faraday says the FF91 accelerates faster than Tesla's Model S or any other electric car in production.

It was shown off at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.

But Faraday Future has faced financial difficulties and one analyst said it had to challenge "scepticism" following last year's CES presentation.

The FF91 was introduced via a live demo, in which it drove itself around a car park and backed into an empty space.

Faraday Future's demo glitch

The car looked good, except for one minor (major?) hang-up.

At one point, Nick Sampson, the company's senior vice president of research and development and engineering, was onstage with Faraday Future's main investor, LeEco chairman Jia Yueting. Sampson asked Jia to press a button on the car to prompt the "auto valet park" feature.

Nothing happened.

"OK, it seems like it's a little bit lazy tonight," Sampson said of the car before inviting Jia to give some remarks about the company.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 05 2017, @09:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 05 2017, @09:24PM (#449942)

    At least in the car buff mags:
      * fast = top speed
      * quick = acceleration time (0-60, 1/4 mile, etc)

    Editors: The headline was a little confusing.

    The other recent luxury electric intro from California is the Lucid Air (company was formerly called Atieva). Like Faraday Future, the company also has a lot of ex-Tesla engineers. I've heard a rumor that Lucid plans some high speed demonstrations, so their car may eventually qualify as "fast" (it's also quick--similar to FF and Tesla "ludicrous").

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday January 05 2017, @09:27PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday January 05 2017, @09:27PM (#449944) Journal

    edited to quick

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  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday January 05 2017, @09:53PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 05 2017, @09:53PM (#449955) Journal

    You're correct, but I'd like to supplement the nuance that the impressive torque of electric motors is a very relevant factor to both acceleration and max speed.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday January 05 2017, @10:28PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday January 05 2017, @10:28PM (#449965) Homepage
      Torque only affects how quickly you'll get to the top speed, but not the top speed. Only power is relevant for top speed. Your power is the rate at which you can waste energy by creating air turbulance and heating the air and the road (i.e. your losses at a steady speed, namely your terminal speed). Of course, the relationship between torque and power is completely different in electric motors from that in ICEs, but still, the property of the engine that you want to enumerate in order to calculate top speed is power, not torque.
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      • (Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday January 05 2017, @10:37PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Thursday January 05 2017, @10:37PM (#449971)

        The most critical factor for top speed is the transmission gearing. It doesn't matter how much power you have, once you hit the red line, that's your top speed.
        I've driven a sub-100HP minivan at over 130MPH, so for most cars it's not the losses which limit the top speed, but the lack of an extra gear or three (and the feedback from the frame and tires about your lack of sanity).

        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday January 05 2017, @11:48PM

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday January 05 2017, @11:48PM (#449999) Homepage
          If you think higher gears will make you go faster, you've not understood the mechanics fully.
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          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday January 06 2017, @12:10AM

            by bob_super (1357) on Friday January 06 2017, @12:10AM (#450006)

            My point was that I used to cruise past 200km/h with less than 100 horses (peugeot 806 minivan, 98HP minus the GPL penalty), which you now find in most US econoboxes.

            Sure, if your idea of "top speed" is past 250km/h, getting good power starts to matter. But most non-exotic cars are limited by gearing, sanity and governors, not by their powerplants.
            Remember how much power the muscle cars had thirty years ago? You can get that in an Accord.

            • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday January 06 2017, @01:14AM

              by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday January 06 2017, @01:14AM (#450027) Homepage
              I agree that for practical reasons, indeed power is not the limit. But for tweakers, on a private track with a long enough straight, or a simple law-breaker (isn't that what the M45 was for, before all the cameras popped up?) the mechanically-limited top speed is to first approximation a function of the engine's horse power.

              Of course, to know what actually gets to the wheels, there are losses, and gearing was already factored in what I mentioned - that reduces the BHP because of mechanical losses (which turn into hot air) which are increased at higher gears.

              Some of the limitations are limitations to the engine's horse power, simply an inability to drive the required inputs into the combustion chamber, ignite them, and get them back out again will limit the HP. So gizmos and mods can increase the HP. In the old days in Europe at least, motorbike HP limitation was done not electronically, but mechanically, at the exhaust. I still think it's fair to say that the limit to the top speed was the power, rather than the exhaust flow, because changing the exhaust flow changes the HP. (Modern cars are limited in the ECUs, I'm led to believe, but I have no hands-on experience of them, so can't be sure.)
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            • (Score: 2) by hamsterdan on Friday January 06 2017, @01:23AM

              by hamsterdan (2829) on Friday January 06 2017, @01:23AM (#450029)

              Agreed. My 96HP '79 Celica GT could go pretty fast (Speedometer wouldn't go past 180), it just took a lot more time to get to that speed than my V8 Grand Marquis.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2017, @03:04AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 06 2017, @03:04AM (#450068)

              Not sure how Euro cars are geared. In USA I had a '92 Corolla 1600cc with 5 speed. Out on the flat high desert where there was -no- traffic it would indicate 110 mph in 4th gear, flat out. Probably close to true speed, I checked the speedo calibration by timing mile markers at slower speeds and it was pretty close. This was before GPS speed...

              - The 5th gear was clearly an overdrive, in the sense that the engine was turning too slow to make enough power to go that fast. I've forgotten but I think shifting from 4th to 5th the car slowed down about 10 mph and then stabilized at 100 or so. This is designed on purpose to give quieter cruising at our legal freeway speeds which were 55-65 mph back then. Uses less fuel and also less engine wear at lower rpm.

              - 4th gear was the true "top" gear which matched (a) peak engine power at around 6000 rpm (redline was 6500) and (b) the power required at 110 mph (about 180 kph).

              It might been a little different at sea level, the engine will make more power with thicker air. On the other hand there is more air drag too, never found a long straight & level run to find out.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by hamsterdan on Friday January 06 2017, @01:20AM

      by hamsterdan (2829) on Friday January 06 2017, @01:20AM (#450028)

      Torque (Electric or big displacement (V8 or turbo/super charged V6)) is how fast you can start moving a car. That's why Tesla cars (or most electrics) can do under 3 seconds from a standing start.