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Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

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Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#211

Post by dm2 »

squigs25 wrote: post #63

It's really difficult to emphasize how excessive this is. As a mechanical engineer, I knew just by reading the title that this is really excessive, because the titanium alloy used is definitely a marketing stunt. Titanium has unbelievable tensile strength for its weight, but there's no good reason to make an "underbody shield" out of titanium except for publicity. It would make way more sense to use steel (and maybe…

They were already using a 1/4 inch steel plate as an underbody shield but it wasn't strong enough to prevent piercing and fires in certain situations.

Apparently the people at Tesla calculated that the cost of adding these plates was worth the benefit of improved consumer protection and good publicity.

Weight is not an issue for this part because it actually helps further lower the cars center of gravity.

I wish my car had a titanium underbody, that would simply be badass.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#212

Post by mortenjorck »

chongli wrote: post #187
downandout wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Do you mean ridiculous as in you believe that he is exaggerating, or ridiculous as in it is amazing that the car held up so well? I doubt that he would simply make up verifiable facts concerning a specific, well publicized accident to make his company look better. That said, it is quite clear from these facts that this driver is lucky to be breathing today regardle…

It's ridiculous how much emphasis the media placed on the fire while ignoring the extreme speed and consequently minor injuries involved in the crash.

The standard that the media holds Tesla to will still be a picnic compared to how the media will treat the first self-driving cars. Far safer than human-driven will not be nearly enough; the first high-profile accident will be wall-to-wall "Are Self-Driving Cars Really Ready For Prime Time?"

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#213

Post by rsync »

madeofpalk wrote: post #14
sz4kerto wrote: post #3

"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?

Also note that some cars (the old Audi allroad) and last two generations of Audi A8 have airbags built into the suspensions at all four wheels that inflate and deflate to change the ride height.

This is different than simply adjusting the characteristics of the electronic suspension - this actually raises and lowers the car non-trivial amounts. I think a D3 A8 can raise up 4-5 inches from highway level to bumpy dirt road level...

I am genuinely curious what the raise/lower range for the tesla is - anyone know offhand ?

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#214

Post by jamdavswim »

chongli wrote: post #187
downandout wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Do you mean ridiculous as in you believe that he is exaggerating, or ridiculous as in it is amazing that the car held up so well? I doubt that he would simply make up verifiable facts concerning a specific, well publicized accident to make his company look better. That said, it is quite clear from these facts that this driver is lucky to be breathing today regardle…

It's ridiculous how much emphasis the media placed on the fire while ignoring the extreme speed and consequently minor injuries involved in the crash.

exactly.. I read that and was like... how did I not get that from the original article?

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#216

Post by malandrew » 

    "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, 
    substantially reducing the odds of a severe underbody 
    impact."
How can a software update impact ground clearance at highway speeds? Is this some special capability of the suspension in a Tesla or are more cars capable of this type of adjustment?

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#217

Post by simonh »

mortenjorck wrote: post #212
chongli wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ridiculous how much emphasis the media placed on the fire while ignoring the extreme speed and consequently minor injuries involved in the crash.

The standard that the media holds Tesla to will still be a picnic compared to how the media will treat the first self-driving cars. Far safer than human-driven will not be nearly enough; the first high-profile accident will be wall-to-wall "Are Self-Driving Cars Really Ready For Prime Time?"

Even Betteridge's law occasionally has it's exceptions.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#218

Post by ulyssesgrant »

robbiemitchell wrote: post #107
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, I can't help but feel they're being very, very defensive over it. I can't blame them, of course, given how something trivial like a car fire (trivial given the average frequency of them) is turned into a national news event. At the same time, Tesla's attention to quality and perfection and what-have-you will end up in them being heavily scrutinised. It's not that different from Apple in that respect; random…

They're being defensive because a few fires crushed the stock price (irrationally), evaporating a ton of money. These headlines matter.

Those fires were the best thing to ever happen to my stock portfolio, knowing the real story behind the fires almost felt like insider trading

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#219

Post by malandrew »

narrator wrote: post #110
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, I can't help but feel they're being very, very defensive over it. I can't blame them, of course, given how something trivial like a car fire (trivial given the average frequency of them) is turned into a national news event. At the same time, Tesla's attention to quality and perfection and what-have-you will end up in them being heavily scrutinised. It's not that different from Apple in that respect; random…

> given how something trivial like a car fire (trivial given the average frequency of them) is turned into a national news event. This is how media bias works. They take something trivial like a car fire and make it the most important news item of the day. People start to think it's happening everywhere. There are billions of "newsworthy" things happening all the time. The selection of stories and insinuation layered…

I'm surprised no journalists are taking the advantage of the views they will get by writing the opposite story. i.e. write about how many fires per vehicles capita in cars from other manufacturers vs tesla.

I personally would love to see normalized fire figures for other manufacturers like Ford, Chevrolet, Honda, etc.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#220

Post by cookiecaper »

narrator wrote: post #110
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, I can't help but feel they're being very, very defensive over it. I can't blame them, of course, given how something trivial like a car fire (trivial given the average frequency of them) is turned into a national news event. At the same time, Tesla's attention to quality and perfection and what-have-you will end up in them being heavily scrutinised. It's not that different from Apple in that respect; random…

> given how something trivial like a car fire (trivial given the average frequency of them) is turned into a national news event. This is how media bias works. They take something trivial like a car fire and make it the most important news item of the day. People start to think it's happening everywhere. There are billions of "newsworthy" things happening all the time. The selection of stories and insinuation layered…

Yep, people rarely realize this when they talk about media bias but it's a major element of influence. No matter how "balanced" a report is within itself (rarely actually balanced), if all you hear is stories about the IRS targeting specific political groups and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi (conservative stations) or anecdotes about how much money Obamacare is saving people and how many local government programs are underfunded (liberal stations), you're going to walk away with a skewed perspective. The choice of stories and tone will tell you everything about a media organization's biases.
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