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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

#351

Post by ridgeguy »

DEinspanjer wrote: post #141
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…

What are the characteristics of Titanium regarding corrosion and wear? One thing I have heard from several of the highly technical owners on the forums is that one of the reasons for the design choice of a mostly aluminum body is that there is no structurally weakening corrosion in reasonable use of the vehicle, even in areas that use a lot of salt and such on the roads.

Titanium has good anticorrosion properties. You see it often, for example, in stuff like heat exchangers that run in seawater for long duration. Considerably more stable than aluminum in most environments.

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

#352

Post by vl »

johnward wrote: post #129
JohnBooty wrote: post #58

In a sense, Teslas are the least safe cars on the road, because I'd kill every single one of you in order to own one.

I would really love to drive a Model S. I'm not sure if all of the Californians on HN realize how special CA is for seeing awesome cars. I saw cars that I never thought I would see in person (in my lifetime) when I was in CA. Not only that but you would see them a handful at a time. I know of 4-5 Model S' in the Pittsburgh area but rarely see exotics.

Really, it's actually quite simple, I clicked "Test Drive" button on their website, week later they called me, I showed up at show room and test-driven it for 30 min. Try it.

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

#353

Post by [deleted] »

rkalla wrote: post #300

This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. I love this... I actually love that it probably pissed off Musk to no end the amount of attention the fires got and out of spite he went totally over the top and added ballistic pla…

[deleted]

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

#354

Post by richardw »

sliverstorm wrote: post #337
brownbat wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in 2030 we'll look back and think, yeah, OTA updates are how cars became a subscription service.

Or, god forbid, an advertisement delivery platform. (Yeah, radios deliver ads, but I don't have to listen to the radio. Can you imagine if your car ran banner ads around the spedometer?)

It would be driving us so we won't be looking at the speedo. Because of the new "free rides while you listen to our adverts" deal. Big red button for "just buy the goddamned product and leave me in peace".

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

#355

Post by alex_doom »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #332
rkalla wrote: post #300

This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. I love this... I actually love that it probably pissed off Musk to no end the amount of attention the fires got and out of spite he went totally over the top and added ballistic pla…

Whether it's a product of how bad the airline experience is, or evidence of their greatness, I find Virgin's flying experience to be worlds away from the status quo.

Seen their safety video they play in lieu of the flight attendants talking? Great job.

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

#356

Post by chrismonsanto »

FiloSottile wrote: post #348
hahainternet wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately not. Apple's success was many times despite Jobs. He was indeed a visionary, but 'benevolent' is the precise wrong term for him.

I know that it is trendy on HN to hate on Jobs now (ok, that was spiteful, sorry) but I think no-one around here has the insight to judge what Steve Jobs what in the success of Apple. Apple grew from zero to great; Jobs lead it. This is all the correlation I feel entitled to dare, did reading the biography grant you more? (Again spiteful. Sorry. So this is how aggressive comments are written...)

I didn't downvote you, but I have to wonder why you didn't just edit out your self-described spiteful bits, instead of leaving them in and pointing out that they are spiteful.

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

#357

Post by 001sky »

001sky wrote: post #56
Retric wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think tanks not people. Aluminum is far cheaper than what you would put in armor vests but still light and strong. Ceramics are arguably better overall, but combining the two is a net win. Anyway, ballistic grade aluminum actually does refer to something and is probably better for cars which don't have to deal with anti tank rounds. EX: http://www.cliftonsteel.com/aluminum-armor-plate.html

Yeah, I hear you but 1/4 inch is not bulletproof. Its like saying "ballistics grade sand". Which in sufficient thicknesses, is bulletproof =D. "MIL-DTL-46027 is supplied as a 5083-H131 product. Ballistic reports are supplied for thicknesses over 0.499" per specification. Our stock range is 0.250" thru 3". Typical stock size is 72" wide x 144" long." Similar qualification for MIL-DTL-46063 REV H OR LATEST http://www.c…

For more reference on mil-spec ballistic tests, see

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a481408.pdf

Section 4, figure 4 (p.7)

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

#358

Post by visakanv »

mpg33 wrote: post #308
rkalla wrote: post #300

This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. I love this... I actually love that it probably pissed off Musk to no end the amount of attention the fires got and out of spite he went totally over the top and added ballistic pla…

> This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. Good explanation of Steve Jobs as well IMO

Also a good explanation of Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew

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

#359

Post by po »

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.

This is the most crazy thing about the press release and I feel like it went largely unnoticed. Not that it is a bad thing at all but it really illustrates that we're totally living in a different world than what I grew up with. Cars are now largely defined by software.

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

#360

Post by visakanv »

function_seven wrote: post #343
hahainternet wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately not. Apple's success was many times despite Jobs. He was indeed a visionary, but 'benevolent' is the precise wrong term for him.

Well, not to other people, no. "Benevolent" would be the last word I'd choose to describe him. But I believe Jobs was "benevolent" to the product itself.

Yup. Benevolent in this case has nothing to do with the person's personal treatment of others, and everything to do with the person being willing to serve the company/state rather than herself. The conventional dictators in failed states simply extract as much value as they can, at the expense of everyone else. A benevolent dictator uses her power to advance the cause. The way she does it might be suspect, even unethical or wrong, but there's no denying that it's to further the cause rather than selfishly extract-and-dump.
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