You’ll own nothing and be happy…

[Piotrsko]

Two advantages of small multirotor: less current needed per motor so powertrain is lighter overall. One of say 6 fails catastrophically, the crash may not be bad, and it would take a couple failures to drop like a rock because liftoff takes more power than cruise. Autorotate requires a clutch on each prop and a control system for the rotor pitch

[The Toecutter]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Closest thing to a UFO for road use is the Arcimoto FUV.

I think an Alfa Romeo Disco Volante Coupe is even closer. In Italian, its name translates to "Flying Saucer". It also had a 0.25 drag coefficient, in 1952. It weighed 1,653 lbs. Powered by a 156 horsepower 2.0L inline-4, it could top out at 140 mph(gearing limited, and same top speed as the less-slippery but 30 lbs lighter Disco Volante Spyder which shared the same gearing and engine), so for the time, the performance was "out of this world". And it also looks the part of a UFO, especially from the front.

Too bad no one made a kit car replica of the Disco Volante Coupe for sale to put VW TDI engines into... because that would be awesome. Imagine someone putting it together with a 4-cylinder 1.9L TDI engine from the early 2000s in one of those tuned to about 180 horsepower... You'd have a car that got 70+ mpg highway when driven slightly above the speed limit and with typical operator carelessness to fuel economy. With that amount of power on tap in such a light car with such good drag, it would be doing sub-5-second 0-60 times and with optimized gearing, topping out around 170 mph. And it would be such a delightful featherweight for going through the curves...

[freebeard]

Can't argue with something named Flying Saucer.

I saw one yesterday, driving West at sunset. Scattered Cirrocumulus clouds with 10-20% coverage, when one of them flared to 10-100X momentarily for no apparent reason.

A company called Relativity Aerospace is 3D printing rocket engines. A 3D printed aluminum car body would leapfrog over Tesla's Gigapresses and add the ability to make any arbitrary body shell for any arbitrary drive train.

[The Toecutter]

Originally Posted by freebeard

A 3D printed aluminum car body would leapfrog over Tesla's Gigapresses and add the ability to make any arbitrary body shell for any arbitrary drive train.

Someone could optimize the shape in a slippery, future-proof manner and just keep printing it for decades. The cars would become stupid cheap to fix and repair if parts were all over the place and readily available, and there'd be no need to keep changing out the chassis/body with each new vehicle model.

So many things that could go right with this.

[freebeard]

Mass customization
Mass customization, in marketing, manufacturing, call centres, and management, is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Such systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization. Wikipedia

There shall be classics, and myriad use cases. Sandy Munro says the Gigacastings can be repaired with TIG welding.

But if you don't own it you can't do this:


justacarguy.blogspot.com/2022/07/i-will-guess-youve-never-seen-this.html

[redneck]

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S23knm1ZGpQ

>

.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by freebeard

But if you don't own it you can't do this:

Or drive a stick shift.

Personally I wouldn't mind not owning a vehicle. But I would have the circumstances that would allow for it without it bing a big pain to get around.

On the other hand, a young neighbor lady was killed crossing in a crosswalk. She had the right-of-way (signal was in her favor). It seems anyone and everyone I know that tries to walk or ride their bike gets ran over and killed. That's either a reason to keep driving or to stop people from driving.

[freebeard]

The most dangerous thing I do on any given day is ride a bike through a 'contolled' intersection.

In 2015 a car owner/operator took out a whole family. on Main Street.

https://kval.com › news › local › police-3-kids-crossing-main-street-in-crosswalk-hit-killed-by-car
Police: 3 kids crossing Main Street in crosswalk hit, killed by car - KVAL
DEVELOPING STORY: Watch #LiveOnKVAL for the latest. SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - A car hit and killed three children ages 4 to 8 as they crossed Main Street with their mother using crosswalk Sunday evening ...

I think the solution is a cager tadpole.

[redpoint5]

Most of the solution is not being part of the unlucky minority of people taken out by a cager.

AI will go a long way to reducing that tragic minority part.

Saw lots of tragic aftermath on my short commutes to work around midnight. Saw a motorcyclist that didn't navigate an offramp well, and I assume met the guardrail posts.

Saw an overturned pickup on the inside of a near 360 offramp / onramp (cloverleaf I guess you'd call it, except it's just 1 leaf). Fortunately nobody inside by the time I ran out into the field and looked.

Saw the road closure and boots left behind of a girl struck while trick or treating.

Maybe AI will allow humanity to fear the night a little less.

[freebeard]

I want an FUV with an anti-intrusion bar on the left side. That's the side you get T-boned from.

I will need to own it so I can attach a Deco-pod style aluminum boat tail to it.

Is leasing owning nothing? Maybe we're half-way there already?