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> "But Musk told reporters that Boring officials have abandoned the concept of the skate, saying it was “far more complex” than his new plan: guide wheels that
by warent 8y ago
> "But Musk told reporters that Boring officials have abandoned the concept of the skate, saying it was “far more complex” than his new plan: guide wheels that can be attached to the front tires of autonomous, electric cars, steadying the vehicles as they move forward through tunnels."
So basically this only works with Tesla vehicles at the moment. I'm wondering how that's going to expand in the future--if at all.
Do they have a standard which other vehicle manufacturers are expected to include in their car designs to be compatible with these tunnels?
This is making me question the viability of it, because without buy-in from manufacturers, it seems seriously unlikely that any government is going to approve a sprawling Tesla Guide Wheel Tunnel™ network.
- npunt 8y agoYes he mentioned it would be a standard any autonomous EV could add, and specifically said it would not be a walled garden. Makes sense to add these to the vehicles so the tunnel can be as ‘dumb’ as possible, since we’ll need a lot of tunnels to make a dent in traffic. Note also Tesla’s prior commitment to opening their patent portfolio for OEMs to use. Seems similar approach (platform play).
- simon_acca 8y agoThe intention seems to be to standardize: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1075227724430471168 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1075227724430471168
- semi-extrinsic 8y agoAnother question is why the autonomous vehicles would need guide wheels? Sounds decidedly non-autonomous to me.
- npunt 8y agoIt’s for added safety factor at high speeds (150mph).
- semi-extrinsic 8y agoHuh, TIL Tesla Autopilot only works at speeds below 50 mph. I thought it was mainly for highway driving, but highways are more like 60-100 mph. I assumed it worked at highway speeds. What gives?
- reissbaker 8y agoWhat? Where did you read this? I have a Model 3 and Autopilot works at regular highway speeds (65+ mph). I use it for highway driving all the time.
- flukus 8y agoConsidering the elevator bottleneck at the end I don't think theoretical speeds are that important anyway.
- fossuser 8y agoIt works at highway speeds (though the max you can set it to is 90mph). I think if you're going faster than 90 it may hold that speed, but it won't accelerate above 90 on its own.
- codeulike 8y agoTYDL because you are wrong.
- semi-extrinsic 8y agoMy mistake, I had to search for the max Autosteer speed and Google gave me an old article. Seems they have been upgrading steadily from 45 mph in January 2017 to (currently) 90 mph? But then my original question remains: why do they need guide wheels for this, when they can do 90 mph without them on normal roads?
- lawlessone 8y ago>why do they need guide wheels for this, when they can do 90 mph without them on normal roads? The tunnel in the article is very narrow. Imagine trying to drive at 90mph through a car wash without touching the sides.
- tlrobinson 8y ago> Musk played a simulation showing the wheels folding neatly underneath the car’s undercarriage when not in use. Adding them during assembly or after-market would cost $200 to $300, he said, and would not interfere with the vehicle’s normal operation.
- C1sc0cat 8y agoFolding wheels .. right I can see some interesting failure modes where the wheels fold up in normal driving. Yeh I know its not supposed to happen but one Uk maker had steering wheels that could come off whilst driving - this was used in my mech eng course as a cautionary example.
- ryanmercer 8y ago>Yeh I know its not supposed to happen but one Uk maker had steering wheels that could come off whilst driving Steering wheels come off in MANY race cars, IndyCar it's basically a necessity so you can get in and out of the cockpit. In the case you mention it just sounds like design incompetence.
- C1sc0cat 8y agoWell it was a BL company I believe
- King-Aaron 8y agoPoint of interest, look into "road-rail vehicles", which have been around for quite a long time. Railways are far from completely standardized yet we have solutions for driving conventional vehicles on rails.
- npunt 8y agoAlso automated guideway transits (aka peoplemovers) which is what this essentially is. So much better than rail in terms of practicality / cost / compatibility with existing road network. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_guideway_transit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_guideway_transit
- Crosseye_Jack 8y ago> guide wheels that can be attached to the front tires of autonomous, electric cars, steadying the vehicles as they move forward through tunnels." So the o-Bahn Busways in Aus, just underground.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Bahn_Busway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Bahn_Busway https://youtu.be/X89WSVjyBRw https://youtu.be/X89WSVjyBRw
- konschubert 8y agoGuys, guys, hear me out. I have a crazy idea. What if we use special cars only for the tunnel with some kind of ride sharing system? and then we put the cars on rails? This keeps them on track and also the rolling friction is much lower. Also, we could continuously charge the battery of the car if we have some kind of wire going alongside the tunnel and a slip contact. Actually we could make the cars much bigger as well, so they can hold more people. Get me patent lawyer.
- lawlessone 8y agoamazing idea, i suggest we also reduce the size of the battery as it won't really be needed unless there is a power failure.
- otorrillas 8y agoIt looks like you've just invented the underground...
- shshhdhs 8y agoI read it as being sarcastic. I expect that OP knew this :-)
- Spivak 8y agoIf you can figure out how to let people transport their vehicles through your tunnel without your car having to make scheduled stops, or follow a single path then you've got a business.
- agildehaus 8y agoDoesn't the removal of the skate also put the vehicle's speed back in the hands of the driver? So now one slow guy will slow down everyone in that tunnel? Also, the skate was supposed to provide the automation. How does <random EV> autonomously navigate the tunnel network?