
Lamborghini Unveils a Self-Healing Electric Supercar Concept - antouank
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-07/lamborghini-terzo-millennio-concept-self-healing-electric-supercar
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LeonM
> the company will develop in-wheel electric motors, which would eliminate the
> need for a single large engine.

A 'single large engine' is only needed in ICE cars, electric vehicles have a
'small' motor, and can easily have multiple motors. It's already being done by
Tesla and Rimac.

To my knowledge, an 'in wheel' motor would not be desirable due to unsprung
mass, so a motor on the chassis connected to the wheel with an axle probably
what they mean. Having 4 individual motors would be a first (I think) for a
production car, it would allow for some very impressive traction control

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stoev
Also, an in-wheel electrict motor would:

1\. suffer a lot more from wear and tear than a motor mounted to the chassis.

2\. restrain the amount of space available for brakes. While it would be
reasonable to say that a small city car could forego its rear brakes and use
electric motors instead to deccelerate, coupled with brakes at the front, a
four wheel drive supercar with four electric motors would have no chance
relying simply on the stopping power of those motors and no brakes.

3\. be very difficult to connect to a powerful cooling system. Even electric
motorcycles with 30-40 bhp rely on water cooling, let alone a car 20 times the
weight.

4\. need serious protection from water damage.

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mperham
> Even electric motorcycles with 30-40 bhp rely on water cooling, let alone a
> car 20 times the weight.

FYI my Zero SR motorcycle, which has 70+hp, uses passive cooling only.

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kiddico
I think you just showed me what my next major purchase will be. Those look
awesome!

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d--b
> Lamborghini also intends to make the supercapacitors out of carbon fiber
> panels that can be used to form the body of the car—so the Terzo Millennio
> draws energy from its own body. In other words: the car itself is the
> battery.

So does that mean that if you happen to have an accident, there is a chance
that a good chunk of your battery gets short circuited? That sounds somewhat
dangerous...

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usaphp
> That sounds somewhat dangerous...

Good to see Lamborghini going back to their roots )

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mtgx
That car is like fire! ... _literally_.

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proaralyst
This is a concept and the article mentions that many of the technologies do
not yet exist.

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mtgx
Tesla's competitors are so great at making electric cars...in theory.

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reitzensteinm
So is Tesla :-)

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mtgx
At least Tesla has had Model S, 5-8 years before everyone else.

Also, Model 3 is already shipping. So it actually exists. Unlike this car.
It's just that Tesla can't produce as many as it wanted due to certain battery
production bottlenecks (so not even an issue with the rest of the car).

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s17n
Just accept the zinger with grace.

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Yaggo
> Supercapacitors store energy physically and don’t generate the heat of
> lithium-ions, but as of yet they don’t offer as much power.

This probably should read "don't offer as much energy". Almost every
mainstream media article about electric cars mixes up these two concepts,
sigh.

~~~
gene-h
No they actually mean power. Supercapacitors can energy faster than lithium
batteries can(more power). While batteries have power densities hundreds of
watts per kilogram, supercapacitors can release thousands of watts per
kilogram. Now if we ignore the bullshit with carbon fiber supercapacitors it
sounds like what lambroghini really wants is an energy storage system with
more energy density and power density than we have today.

Integrating something with a high power density into a vehicle frame might not
be such a good idea. If we really do get capacitor level power densities, then
the stored energy in the frame could be released really fast during a crash.
If the stored energy is enough and released fast enough we essentially have a
bomb. There is even the potential for the energy release to cause a relatively
localized EMP.

~~~
zdragnar
> Supercapacitors can energy faster than lithium batteries can(more power).

You accidentally a verb.

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stcredzero
This sentence no verb!

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drblast
This article reads like the cars my friends and I would "design" when we were
in third grade.

    
    
      Oh yeah? Mine is gonna have 800 horsepower and will be amphibious and have wings like the batmobile!

~~~
stcredzero
Buckminster Fuller's serious proposals for his Dymaxion Car aren't very far
off from that!

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andy_ppp
So cool! Thanks:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_car](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_car)

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laichzeit0
I drive a car with low clearance, but that Lamborghini is just ridiculously
close to the ground. You’ll scrape the bumper just pulling out a regular drive
way. It sure as hell will need to be “self healing” for someone to
legitimately be driving that.

~~~
bri3d
Lamborghini have had "lifters" as an option (and now stock, I believe) on all
their cars since the Diablo in the 1990s. It's a horrendously unreliable
hydraulic damper extension system, but it does solve for that issue. Press a
button and the front of the car rises 2-3in to clear bumps and especially
dips.

~~~
lern_too_spel
This doesn't work if the wheel wells hug around more than half the wheel and
are fixed in place to the chassis. The real reason it's so low is that it's a
concept not meant to be driven.

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cjsuk
Does it put itself out if it catches fire? Lambos always seem to be on fire.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
What could be more thrilling than driving a car that randomly bursts into
flames? Makes sense to me.

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tzakrajs
Rich people have too much money.

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cjsuk
I'm not rich and I had a car that burst into flames twice.

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excalibur
This would be really fascinating if the technology was there and they had a
working prototype. What they actually have is a bag of promises and a little
graphic design.

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ginko
So if the carbon fiber body is going to be a capacitor, wouldn't there be a
risk of electric shock in case of some damage to it?

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Cthulhu_
That's where the magic autoheal comes in.

But yeah, that would be a pretty big safety risk. It's a concept, these panels
don't even exist yet. Actually it's not even sure if they'd even be possible.
Safety only becomes a factor once they can start making them, I think.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
If these concepts aren't constrained by what is currently (or ever) possible,
why not make it capable of spaceflight? Or teleportation? Or a "submarine
mode" a la James Bond's Lotus? Supercapacitor body panels seems positively
dull in comparison.

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listic
Just what kind of roads is this kind of car made to drive on? I mean the
clearance.

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ficklepickle
Roads? Where we're going, Marty, we don't need roads.

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z3t4
It would be cool with a car that self heals scratches and maybe even cleans
itself.

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jcwilde
Corrected headline: "Lamborghini Unveils Borderline Science Fiction Plans for
a Concept Car"

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bpicolo
Don't you want a car that can't traverse speed bumps though?

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lawlessone
It's electric, couldn't we just leave some strong magnets under the road
surface?

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Munksgaard
What's with all the auto-playing videos these days? I don't even know how to
turn this video off....

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iagooar
There should be an add-on that just basically stops one from even opening a
website with this kind of practice.

I left as soon as the video started playing.

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Yaggo
Just FYI for Mac users, latest Safari has this feature built-in.

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matthberg
The way apple has stood up for consumers through built-in Safari features is
straight up inspiring, with autoplay disabling and tracking disabling.

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toyg
Considering they lag horrendously in pretty much everything else, it's a bit
of a desperate ploy for attention...

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agumonkey
Funny, I threw the idea 2 days ago on IRC.

> <someone> "regenerative crashing" lol

MIT, please stop spying on #IRC, thanks

