Elon's Electric Pickup

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Imagine having the financial ability to design anything. Like what transportation might be if we dd not start with boxes pulled by horses.

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It is great there are folks with great imagination and the money to support and drive (heh) engineering & technology forward without worry (or caring about) how the stock market responds. Hooray.

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It’s funny that bullet train streamlined designs have been around for many years. I know that air resistance as a function of speed is a different factor for slower vehicles. Nevertheless, it seems that the newer designs of trucks are moving closer and closer to optimal. Expensive fuel and battery conservation surely are going to keep pushing designs. I am not an engineer but when I see designs like this pickup, I start wondering about these things.

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Bingo. At 200 Mph the atmosphere is like driving through syrup. You have to add 100 HP to go 5 MPH faster. The air resistance is there, that’s why cycle racers shave their legs.

(IMO) focus has been brought to electrifying transportation by Elon. He saw the time was right, kinda like Steve Jobs. The evolution of battery chemistry enjoys that stimulus, and Panasonic is on top of it. Every major manufacturer has an electric option now and may help save our species (and the biosphere) from the inevitable mistakes of our technological evolution. Elon’s patents are open for use. Daimler/Mercedes uses them.
“We are trying to create a model for sustainable transportation, if we lay intellectual land mines behind us we are defeating the purpose.” - Elon Musk

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Well, also to make it easier to deal with cleaning up & healing from road rash…

(and NOT to prevent leg hairs from catching in the bike chain, as I read in a Dear Abby column once many years ago).

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“Hey man, give those things a haircut for godsakes.”

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Saw a vid where pros broke down the model 3. They pointed out that experienced manufacturers could save several thousand dollars on the body as there are crazy amounts of random style bolts and welded pieces all over.
But the electric motor…no has done it better. Its the cheapest of all electric motors and the most powerful.

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That was why the Catrike was invented,though not always why folks (including me) bought them.

this is my beast
Picture522_14Oct08
Some folk have them to go very fast but I have a more relaxed attitude
IMG_5609

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Looks like fun!

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