Aptera Electric Car test drive by Popular Mechanics

heroineworshipper

Wish there were more actual opinions instead of the one Popular Mechanics review of a free sample. When are they going to make one that renters can recharge in their dumpy apartments instead of having to put $2,000,000 into a house?

frankthetank

Let me know when i can buy one... oh... and it better be comparable to an equally priced gasoline powered car.
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Clothing should be optional.

billp

Frank Stern

fstern@summitblue.com

of Summit Blue made a comment on how many KW/h/mile a plug-in car would take at the PNM irp iin Santa Fe on Thursday.

We're in Austin so I can't check notes.

SO let's email Stern for an answer.

best

mos6507

Unfortuantely aesthetics and optimum aerodynamics are mutually exclusive. People are still looking at cars as status/fashion symbols instead of practical tools. Once they realize how much of a sacrifice they'll have to make in order to keep driving a conventional looking car, they will break down and accept the bubble cars like this. I think that's pretty far off, though.

BTW, gas was something like $6.50 a gallon in I Am Legend. In that film the virus takes off in 2009 Wink

aflurry · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 28, 2005 Posts: 839

lateStarter

Just curious what the 'crash-rating' is for that groovy puppy! I imagine there will still be a few Chevy Tahoes and Lincoln Navigators on the road next year, even in CA. Maybe they will get their own lane on the highway, or something.

I can just picture some smug, eco-friendly, geek tooling down 101 in one of these on the way to his work as a Marketeer. The i-Pod is hooked up, he's having a video conference with his 'partner' and doesn't notice the drunk unemployed construction worker that missed the red-light at the upcoming intersection. T-Boned. Splat...

Unless everyone is in one of these or riding bikes, count me out.
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Remember, with globalisation "everyone is a winner" in the "race to the bottom". - rogerhb

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. A.C. Clarke

mos6507

cube · Fusion Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 3823

Ming · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 26, 2005 Posts: 271

Is it just me, or should that thingy have 2 wheels in the back?
With just one, I bet it drives badly in curves, at almost any speed.
And 4 wheels would not impact significantly in weight or in energy consumption…

It seems made to be funny, not to be efficient…

gg3

.
Hydro, what you're seeing is this:

For most humans, an automobile is not a machine, it's a piece of clothing they put on when they go places.

For most chimpanzees, the instinctual reaction to seeing a new monkey that looks different is to fling poo at it.

What you're seeing is ape instinct applied to human tribalism, and poo-flinging behavior.

And the proof of the pudding is this BS about the car looking like a sperm. Sorry folks, sperm have long tails and they wiggle. This thing looks more like a private airplane without wings. This "sperm car" BS is basically psychodynamic projection of feelings of sexual inadequacy in the face of competition. Guys, if you need Viagra, just answer some of thr spermy spam you get in your email.

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Yes, today it's* cheaper to buy an old gas guzzler and let it guzzle gas. That situation might hold for another couple of years. By which time Apteras will be on the road, and probably other series hybrid vehicles with similar mileage.

*it's: contraction of "it is," thus the apostrophe is correct in this application. Not to be used for "possessive pronoun non-gendered" (his, hers, its, are the correct spellings).

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I'd start saving right now for one, except I only have one parking space and need a minivan for work (PBX engineer, field service activity). OTOH if I had a second parking space, or if someone would bring out a series hybrid minivan, I'd be waiting in line to buy.

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Legally this is probably a motorcycle. In California, three wheels = motorcycle, thus no need to go jumping through the regulatory red tape to get it approved as a "car."

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The wheel configuration is perfectly stable.

What's important is that the steering is done from the front wheels. If the steering was done from the rear it would be highly unstable at high speeds.

Rear-wheel steering on a 2+1 configuration is stable for extremely low-speed vehicles such as forklift trucks and road sweepers. Your typical Elgin 3-wheel sweeper is doing 3 - 5 miles per hour as it ducks in and out around parked cars, and at most 15 - 20 miles per hour to and from the public works garage, and the operators of those things are highly trained.

Also the Elgin carries much of its weight (the load of sweepings) directly between the front wheels, low to the ground. Most of your serious forklift accidents occur when the operator is carrying a load far enough off the ground to throw the center of gravity up and forward, such that it only takes applying the brakes during a turn to go head-over-heels.

Rear-wheel steering on an automobile was the fatal flaw of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car. The overall design was brilliant except for that one point, and it's what caused the crash that derailed the plan to go into mass production.

The Aptera, like the 1950s Messerschmitt (90 miles per gallon at freeway speeds), steers from the two wheels in the front. Thus no tail swing, no shift in center of gravity interacting positively with angular momentum, and no stability issues.

As I said, I'd buy one if I had a place to keep it.

Chesire · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 13, 2007 Posts: 267

"BTW, gas was something like $6.50 a gallon in I Am Legend. In that film the virus takes off in 2009 "

If a virus takes off. There won't be enough people left to give a Fark how much gas is Laughing

mos6507

mos6507