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I'm very interested to see what Dyson comes up with here, but I'm surprised they've considered undertaking the entire vehicle design and manufacturing process,

I'm very interested to see what Dyson comes up with here, but I'm surprised they've considered undertaking the entire vehicle design and manufacturing process, and not just developing powertrains for other companies to use.

_ph_ 8y ago
I think this is one sign of the changing times for the automotive industry. Dyson has a lot of technologies required to manufacture an electric car in-house. Batteries and their control, electric motors, and of course they manufacture their products too. So getting into car manufacturing doesn't seem to be a huge stretch.
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  Yep, EVs have turned automobiles into consumer electronics. Hopefully that doesn't mean they will be made to be unservicable by third parties, disposable, and replaced regularly.
  - taf2 8y ago
    Is that really that far off from the current state of a cars? We had a 69 gmc truck growing up and I could point o the parts in the engine and understand how everything worked. Later ok we got a 97 gmc truck and damn it’s way more complex. I know it can still be worked on by anyone and is definitely serviceable but what is a 2017 model like I’m sure even more complex with onboard computers etc...
    - newnewpdro 8y ago
      You can still walk right up to the parts department counter and order OEM replacement parts for anything on the vehicle, just like the dealer can. The computerized bits are well isolated control modules and are generally treated as black boxes which either work or are replaced as a unit. But that doesn't encompass the entire vehicle, the vast majority of the vehicle is still very servicable, all the mechanical bits haven't really changed that much from the 60s. I've rebuilt engines on cars and motorcycles, modern and old, many computerized with EFI, you generally don't worry about the inner workings of the computers unless you're modifying things. In my experience the more modern stuff is actually simpler having fewer vacuum lines and archaic rube goldberg machines for control systems.
  - _ph_ 8y ago
    For some parts of ICE vehicles, you are limited to original replacement parts already, e.g. the motor control units. It is something to watch out for, but considering, how many old cars have been converted to electric, using Tesla parts from crashed vehicles, the future for servicing might look actually good.
- King-Aaron 8y ago
  The points you listed make sense to me in regards to manufacturing powertrains - but what they'll get caught up with (in my mind) are things like safety structure development/ crash testing, suspension development, brake technology, large-scale metal forming, etc etc. I don't know if their current injection moulded plastic vacuum bodies will scale up to car-sized manufacturing. They may of course have all these sorts of avenues covered already, and I might just be thinking too hard.
- lnsru 8y ago
  Wrong! 3000 amps are different than 5 amps. Vacuum batteries are a a toy compared to liquid cooled 300 kg battery pack. There is already one electric car manufacturer that had (has?) problems with manufacturing. Vacuum and an electric car are very different domains.
  - _ph_ 8y ago
    I wouldn't claim that there isn't significant development to be done, but Dyson has engineers who have experiences with long-term battery handling for example. With lots of experience, designing electric motors. Even if they are at a different scale, compare that to the traditional car company, which has zero experience with batteries and electric motors.
Cthulhu_ 8y ago
Powertrains? IIRC Tesla already made the patents for their powertrains public. Dyson only has experience making very small motors; for their larger vacuums for example they already use a 3rd party motor (panasonic?, there's an AvE video out there somewhere).

_ph_ 8y ago

I think this is one sign of the changing times for the automotive industry. Dyson has a lot of technologies required to manufacture an electric car in-house. Batteries and their control, electric motors, and of course they manufacture their products too. So getting into car manufacturing doesn't seem to be a huge stretch.

newnewpdro 8y ago
Yep, EVs have turned automobiles into consumer electronics. Hopefully that doesn't mean they will be made to be unservicable by third parties, disposable, and replaced regularly.
- taf2 8y ago
  Is that really that far off from the current state of a cars? We had a 69 gmc truck growing up and I could point o the parts in the engine and understand how everything worked. Later ok we got a 97 gmc truck and damn it’s way more complex. I know it can still be worked on by anyone and is definitely serviceable but what is a 2017 model like I’m sure even more complex with onboard computers etc...
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    You can still walk right up to the parts department counter and order OEM replacement parts for anything on the vehicle, just like the dealer can. The computerized bits are well isolated control modules and are generally treated as black boxes which either work or are replaced as a unit. But that doesn't encompass the entire vehicle, the vast majority of the vehicle is still very servicable, all the mechanical bits haven't really changed that much from the 60s. I've rebuilt engines on cars and motorcycles, modern and old, many computerized with EFI, you generally don't worry about the inner workings of the computers unless you're modifying things. In my experience the more modern stuff is actually simpler having fewer vacuum lines and archaic rube goldberg machines for control systems.
- _ph_ 8y ago
  For some parts of ICE vehicles, you are limited to original replacement parts already, e.g. the motor control units. It is something to watch out for, but considering, how many old cars have been converted to electric, using Tesla parts from crashed vehicles, the future for servicing might look actually good.
King-Aaron 8y ago
The points you listed make sense to me in regards to manufacturing powertrains - but what they'll get caught up with (in my mind) are things like safety structure development/ crash testing, suspension development, brake technology, large-scale metal forming, etc etc. I don't know if their current injection moulded plastic vacuum bodies will scale up to car-sized manufacturing. They may of course have all these sorts of avenues covered already, and I might just be thinking too hard.
lnsru 8y ago
Wrong! 3000 amps are different than 5 amps. Vacuum batteries are a a toy compared to liquid cooled 300 kg battery pack. There is already one electric car manufacturer that had (has?) problems with manufacturing. Vacuum and an electric car are very different domains.
- _ph_ 8y ago
  I wouldn't claim that there isn't significant development to be done, but Dyson has engineers who have experiences with long-term battery handling for example. With lots of experience, designing electric motors. Even if they are at a different scale, compare that to the traditional car company, which has zero experience with batteries and electric motors.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

Powertrains? IIRC Tesla already made the patents for their powertrains public. Dyson only has experience making very small motors; for their larger vacuums for example they already use a 3rd party motor (panasonic?, there's an AvE video out there somewhere).