2 ms·

I mean that your back seat passengers are sitting[1] on a giant tank of highly explosive (when combined with oxygen) gas at 10000(!!!) psi when full. [1] https

• semi-extrinsic 5y ago
  Your first comment was referring to "insane tank sizes". I still don't see what is insane? You can of course fearmonger on any topic: in any gasoline car on the market today, your back seat passengers are sitting on a huge quantity of highly flammable liquid! And it is stored in just a regular plastic container! In fact, the Mirai only has 600 MJ of energy stored in its fuel tank, while a gasoline car has around 2200 MJ! And a gasoline leak will pool around the car, while a hydrogen leak will go safely away up into the air due to buoyancy! Yet nobody bats an eye at the gasoline car. We engineer our cars such that fuel tank rupture is extremely unlikely in even severe accidents, with redundant safety systems all around.
  • jupp0r 5y ago
    I don’t think you appreciate the mechanical energy stored in these tanks. The chemical energy is not the problem as you pointed out. Do you know a tire rupture can kill somebody at short distance? Well these tanks are using 200 times more pressure and multiple times the volume (stored mechanical energy increases linearly with both pressure and volume).