5 ms·
The claim that their bus is 1.6x smoother than a train is impossible, and indicative of marketing taking priority over honest metrics. How is 1.6x smoother imp
by parsimo2010 7y ago
The claim that their bus is 1.6x smoother than a train is impossible, and indicative of marketing taking priority over honest metrics.
How is 1.6x smoother impossible? Imagine a maglev train has bumps with a peak amplitude of 2 cm. Then 1.6x of that is 3.2 cm. So to be 1.6x smoother they would need their cabin to reduce bumps to -1.2 cm, which is impossible.
The truth is often the inverse of this, such as, “maglev trains are 1.6x bumpier than our bus.” That means that your bus is 62.5% as bumpy as a maglev train, but this doesn’t sound as good to the marketing folks. For any positive metric it is impossible to be more than 100% less than something. Cabin either have people with poor numeracy skills, or they willfully used inaccurate wording to make their bus sound better. It makes me trust the rest of their marketing spiel 1.6x less.
- Svip 7y agoI am more impressed to hear that California apparently have incredibly smooth roads. I mean otherwise, they'd need some suspension that would relinquish all control of the bus itself. Or are they only referring to the seating? I mean they can have independent suspension, that might achieve that.
- parsimo2010 7y agoThey were talking about their special suspended cabins, which there are only a few of on each bus. The regular cabins are not as smooth.
- chiph 7y agoThey may have licensed the Bose Ride system, which is sold to commercial truck drivers to smooth out bumps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_G9GCpWAcM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_G9GCpWAcM Edit: Looks like Bose has sold it to Clearmotion: https://www.clearmotion.com/active-suspension-seat https://www.clearmotion.com/active-suspension-seat
- gizmo385 7y agoThe website refers to the cancellation technology as "their proprietary technology" so I'm not sure if it's licensed.
- matchbok 7y agoThat's not how math works.