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Elon Musk has a knack for tweeting out some real eyebrow-raisers. On Wednesday afternoon, he delivered, once again:
The new Roadster will actually do something like this https://t.co/fIsTAYa4x8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2019
So, is Musk just joking around?
“I’m not,” Musk replied on Twitter TWTR, -0.66% to the delight of his fan base. “Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultrahigh pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats.”
Can't help but think Musk is full of crap here - even with the "removal of the rear seats" idea, I doubt that a tank of that size using cold gas only could hover a car for more than a handful of seconds.
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Elon Musk: New Tesla Roadster will use Thrusters to Float Above the Ground
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Confess your sins to the Lord and you will be forgiven;
confess them to man and you will be laughed at.
-- Josh Billings
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:05AM (13 children)
The passengers will be instantly frozen to death even if the compressed gas is at room temperature. Does Musk know why [physlink.com]?
But imagine that you raised the car a bit. How will it behave on the road? (Like on very slippery ice.) What will make it move? What will make it change direction or stop?
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:33AM (6 children)
Magic?
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday January 12 2019, @11:39AM (5 children)
It's like he got a wish from the Genie in the Bottle. Barbara Eden. And he says, "oh, I want a Flying Car." Could have said Carpet, a lot of folks would say Carpet, he said Car. And the Genie didn't ask, "how high?" Or, "for how long?" It's not the best magic. But it's still magic. Like magic.
(Score: 2, Funny) by isostatic on Saturday January 12 2019, @05:49PM (4 children)
You know Donnie, if Musk can hover a car, mexicans can simply fly over your wall
(Score: 3, Touché) by Gaaark on Saturday January 12 2019, @08:15PM (1 child)
He'll get the Mexicans to pay for a moat with sharks with FREAKING LASERS!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:42AM
We're building the Steel Slat Barrier. As requested by our Democrats. That MUST come first. And we'll see how well it works. We'll see. I think it's going to work tremendously well. We have Concrete Wall in Korea. And Concrete Wall in Israel. We had Concrete Wall in Germany. Beautiful walls, very effective. And I know guys in New York, they're very big in Concrete, they've done so many Concrete projects for me. Very solid guys. That's why I wanted to do Concrete Wall. I didn't promise Concrete Wall. I promised to protect our border. And people are saying, the Steel Slat Barrier will be great protection. It's actually better than Concrete. Because you can see through it. So important. So we'll do Steel Slat Barrier first. And we'll see about, do we need the Moat too? The Moat comes later. And only if we need it!!!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 13 2019, @05:36AM (1 child)
I'll tell you about Mexico. They make a lot of money. When Mexico sends its people, they're coming in their best vehicles. Unbelievable vehicles. They're strong. They're big. They're fast. And some, I assume, can fly.
Look, we can all play games, but a wall is a necessity. All of the other things -- the sensors and the drones -- it’s all wonderful to have and it works well, but only if you have the wall. If you don’t have the wall, it doesn’t matter. A drone isn’t stopping a thousand people from running through. And, you know, interestingly, if you look, virtually every Democrat over the last 15 years, they’ve approved what we’re asking for. I am in the White House, pen in hand. In fact, there’s almost nobody in the W.H. but me. I am waiting, alone. And I'm ready to sign. I'm practicing my signature. While the Dems from Congress, and of Congress, take their "vacations." Merry Christmas!!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:49AM
(cont) By the way, for anyone that comes to my office. To the Oval Office. I have the MOST DELICIOUS Candy. M&M's. And Skittles. Otherwise known as Brain Food. A bowl of M&M's, and a separate bowl for the Skittles. And don't worry, they won't kill you. Because my guy was very careful about the Candy. I told him, "take out the brown ones and send them back." And if I find a brown one, he's fired!!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 12 2019, @11:23AM (1 child)
As a former HVAC guy, I know exactly what you're talking about. Hell, anyone who's ever used a can of compressed air to blow the dust out of their computer should. On the other hand though, think of the potato
guncannon you could mount on the hood if you used that thing as your pressure vessel.My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:06PM
A full auto potato cannon instead of a horn. I like it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @02:01PM (3 children)
You think he won't have the tank insulated? Dealing with cold isn't exactly rocket science, which Musk also does, BTW ;)
My guess is he is just going to have a Roadster converted in to a form of hovercraft, which if Musk is tweeting about it should at least be feasible, though I doubt the practicality of it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:53PM
My guess is that it only *would* work for seconds at a time, but that the engine would re-pressurize the system fairly quickly. There are times when "seconds" would suffice, and, as was noted above, while the car is "flying" there's no propulsion (unless the gas stream is angled, and then it's not very controllable).
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:57PM
Musk has other people do the rocket science for him. Considering that he can't figure out how to assemble the cars in a cost effective manner and the so-called autopilot feature will happily run cars into stationary objects, I'm sure as hell not going to trust these tanks to be appropriately engineered.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Saturday January 12 2019, @08:42PM
When you compress air, it heats up. Leave it alone long enough, and that heat will leak away.
Now let it out — when the air expands, it will get cold — very cold if it was highly compressed.
That is the problem. FYI...
Compression:
Expansion:
--
I think I'll slip into something more comfortable.
Like a coma.