I'm sorry but my first reaction is "What a waste". Titanium is ridiculously expensive for various reasons. The best these engineers could come up with is to put a sheet of metal under the car? You got to be kidding me. I see why they have to use Titanium for it, anything else doesn't work, but it shows how far away this car is from reality and from true mass production.
Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
11–20 of 408 posts
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#12"We believe these changes will also help prevent a fire resulting from an extremely high speed impact that tears the wheels off the car, like the other Model S impact fire, which occurred last year in Mexico. This happened after the vehicle impacted a roundabout at 110 mph, shearing off 15 feet of concrete curbwall and tearing off the left front wheel, then smashing through an eight foot tall buttressed concrete wall…
What's ridiculous about it?
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#13Are there any other car manufacturers that have similar levels of clearance? I'd be intrigued to see how they perform in the same test scenarios that the Teslas were run against.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#14"However, to improve things further, we provided an over-the-air software update a few months ago to increase the default ground clearance of the Model S at highway speeds" I know this is not specific to Tesla, but it's still really cool. :)
Is someone able to explain this more?
"Default ground clearance" means the distance between the ground and underside of the car, yeah? How are they able to control that with software?
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#15Why would Elon choose to post on Medium and not on the blog of Tesla? It would definitively bring more credence to post it on their official website. Until reading near the end I wasn't sure it was a Tesla employee/official or a third party story (and I use the term story here and not article on purpose because usually on Medium it is more stories than facts ).
Add that to Julie Zhuo (Designer @ Facebook) doing the same thing just a few hours ago and it makes for a very curious confluence, in both cases diminishing the immediate credibility of the articles.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#16Very, very good idea. Personally I think the ground clearance is still a bit on the low side. It looks like it lost a bolt or something in the first impact image... oops.
I noticed that too but can't tell whether it's a plastic "rivet". If you look at the plastic fairings on your car, you'll see that many are held to the body with a snap-fit plastic connector. These are also used as blind fittings on many interior panels (such as door panels). They break and detach often enough that my local hardware store carries the more common ones.
Definitely a plastic rivet. It's too pointy to be a bolt, and you can see the thin 'head' separated from the flange which releases it.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#17"With a track record of zero deaths or serious, permanent injuries since our vehicles went into production six years ago, there is no safer car on the road than a Tesla."
I recall one Tesla caused death[1], and I'm sure there have been more. Not that I really think Tesla is any more dangerous than any other car in this regard though.
[1] http://blog.sfgate.com/energy/2014/02/07/tesla-driver-blames...
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#18"We believe these changes will also help prevent a fire resulting from an extremely high speed impact that tears the wheels off the car, like the other Model S impact fire, which occurred last year in Mexico. This happened after the vehicle impacted a roundabout at 110 mph, shearing off 15 feet of concrete curbwall and tearing off the left front wheel, then smashing through an eight foot tall buttressed concrete wall…
>This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
ridiculously awesome?
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#19People want to test this car to extremes, it is as if they are subjecting it it the coding equivalent of DDOS attack with some sql injection payload of a Stuxnet virus. Let's see what else the media find wrong with this car, e.g.:
'After flying into a cloud of paint and superglue the windscreen wipers failed to work resulting in a dangerous collision'.
(As if that happens every day and as if any other car would do better.)
If the naysayers keep up their petulant trolling then this car will be good for a road trip in Afghanistan some time soon.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#20"However, to improve things further, we provided an over-the-air software update a few months ago to increase the default ground clearance of the Model S at highway speeds" I know this is not specific to Tesla, but it's still really cool. :)
Is someone able to explain this more? "Default ground clearance" means the distance between the ground and underside of the car, yeah? How are they able to control that with software?
The Higher spec Model S' has active suspension that will lower the ride height at high speeds to reduce drag. The active suspension's control system was changed to lower it less.