
VW will stop firing ‘hail cannons’ after farmers protest - edh649
https://amp.ft.com/content/3b377aa8-a64d-11e8-8ecf-a7ae1beff35b?__twitter_impression=true
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kpil
How about they built the fscking cars so they would survive being outdoors? I
certainly don't have anti-hail navy-grade cannons at home.

I never really understood why cars have the outer finish of an indoor piece of
art. My car have scratches from my _fingernails_ near the door handles. What's
up with that? Should I wear white gloves when I approach the car?

~~~
athenot
Scratches and dents are 2 different things.

All modern cars have paint which is then covered in clear coat (which is then
covered in wax). The wax layer can easily be scratched but it also easily
buffs out. The clear coat layer is VERY strong and will put up with quite a
bit of abuse; you can make that coat even thicker if you so wish, with
aftermarket products.

Hail doesn't directly damage the clear coat or the paint, it dents the actual
metal itself. To make a car that resists those heavy hail storms would require
quite a bit of extra weight, and overall this problem is cheaper to solve via
insurance than by building a bullet-proof carapace that will add weight and
rarely ever get used.

~~~
thatcat
It would only be a lot of weight if you use steel. Remember the 90s saturns
with plastic doors that would just pop back after being dented? The problem is
that deformation properties in steel are used to absorb impact as a safety
device during collision.

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Kurtz79
"In response, VW said it would install netting above the cars to protect them
from hailstorms in the future."

It seems a comparatively much more reasonable and non-invasive low-tech
solution...

~~~
stefan_
Or, even cheaper, you just dismantle the "hail cannons", since there is no
scientific evidence of their effectiveness or even a hypothesis on why their
working principle would have anything to do with hail. So since they do
nothing, have never done anything, you clearly didn't need them in the first
place.

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lenkite
To the HN meteorologist/physicists: Do hail cannons even work ? It really
seems strange that producing shockwaves prevent hail from falling. I have
experienced hailstorms with lots of thunder and lightning.

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fyrabanks
nice try, financial times subscription department

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qmarchi
De-paywalled rather than linking to another source.
[https://outline.com/yBhsWR](https://outline.com/yBhsWR)

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lawlessone
Do they even work?

~~~
toddmorey
Articles say science unproven. Thunder notably creates similar shockwave. It’s
in the category of who knows but cheap enough to atempt anyway.

~~~
dx034
Or they needed it for insurance. The finished cars will likely be insured and
maybe the insurer forced them to show reasonable effort to reduce damage.

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pvaldes
> My car have scratches from my fingernails near the door handles

Professional car painting is expensive for avoiding things like that. There
are a lot of super-cheap brands also of course, but in the end, you have what
you pay for.

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Jaruzel
FT Article is paywalled. Try this link:

[http://uk.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-hail-cannons-
mexico...](http://uk.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-hail-cannons-mexico-
farmers-draught-2018-8)

~~~
ghshephard
...Or click on "web" in the HN comments.

~~~
Jaruzel
Which is just a google search. Some people don't like doing that.

~~~
pc86
I don't even know what "not liking" Google searches is supposed to mean.

~~~
ljcn
Some people avoid using Google.

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deweller
> Scientists say there is no way to prove if these cannons really work, but
> farmers say it is cheaper to try the cannons than to buy hail insurance

I don't even...

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mcguire
Firing shockwaves every 6 seconds?

