
Dyson gears up for electric car testing - gadders
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45345778
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King-Aaron
I'm very interested to see what Dyson comes up with here, but I'm surprised
they've considered undertaking the entire vehicle design and manufacturing
process, and not just developing powertrains for other companies to use.

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_ph_
I think this is one sign of the changing times for the automotive industry.
Dyson has a lot of technologies required to manufacture an electric car in-
house. Batteries and their control, electric motors, and of course they
manufacture their products too. So getting into car manufacturing doesn't seem
to be a huge stretch.

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newnewpdro
Yep, EVs have turned automobiles into consumer electronics.

Hopefully that doesn't mean they will be made to be unservicable by third
parties, disposable, and replaced regularly.

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taf2
Is that really that far off from the current state of a cars? We had a 69 gmc
truck growing up and I could point o the parts in the engine and understand
how everything worked. Later ok we got a 97 gmc truck and damn it’s way more
complex. I know it can still be worked on by anyone and is definitely
serviceable but what is a 2017 model like I’m sure even more complex with
onboard computers etc...

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newnewpdro
You can still walk right up to the parts department counter and order OEM
replacement parts for anything on the vehicle, just like the dealer can.

The computerized bits are well isolated control modules and are generally
treated as black boxes which either work or are replaced as a unit. But that
doesn't encompass the entire vehicle, the vast majority of the vehicle is
still very servicable, all the mechanical bits haven't really changed that
much from the 60s.

I've rebuilt engines on cars and motorcycles, modern and old, many
computerized with EFI, you generally don't worry about the inner workings of
the computers unless you're modifying things.

In my experience the more modern stuff is actually simpler having fewer vacuum
lines and archaic rube goldberg machines for control systems.

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IshKebab
It's crazy that they got money from the government towards this when their
profits are so insanely high. James Dyson is very tight-fisted (I used to work
there; that is part of the reason I left).

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hardwaresofton
I'm all for alternatives so that I can choose away from Tesla and away from
some heavy-handed oil-producing countries in what/who I support.

No idea if Dyson is going to make a good electric car or not but I sure hope
they do -- another big player in the space also means more innovation so I'm
up for that, and Dyson prides themselves in unique engineering so maybe
they'll make a thing that will actually help other manufacturers regardless of
whether their car is a success or not.

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struct
I’m genuinely curious as to what they’re working on: my guess is it’ll have
spherical wheels, a climate control system with cyclone technology and
expensive air filters you’re supposed to wash every 500 miles, be silvery
plastic with orange highlights, dock with a dedicated wall charger, feature a
drivechain with Dyson Digital Motor(TM) technology, and cost a lot of money.

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King-Aaron
_And it will suck_

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tonyedgecombe
That would be a first for Dyson.

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zizou_ie
Is it just me or has Dyson's brand really benefitted from The Terminator
association?

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sofon
I don't understand the Dyson hype. Their products seem over-engineered, over-
priced, and under-performing...

On top of which Dyson himself is strongly pro-Brexit [1] which is shaping up
to be a disaster for the UK. Really don't hold out much hope for this.

[1] [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/sir-james-
dyson...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/sir-james-dyson-so-if-
we-leave-the-eu-no-one-will-trade-with-us/)

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kitd
Likewise.

Brexiteers hold him up as a paragon of British engineering and
entrepreneurship. But he took an already-solved problem and "re-imagined" it
with twice the cost and power requirement.

I'll stick with my Vax, thx.

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frou_dh
What I'm getting from you two is that you're desperate to insert Brexit into
any conversation.

