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Amphibious Car Beats Urban Congestion
woodhouse writes "According to BBC News, a company in the UK have just tested a fully amphibious car on the Thames river. It can travel at up to 100 miles an hour on land, and its wheels fold up to allow it to speed across water at 30mph, propelled by a jet. The company responsible, Aquada, suggest it's a good way to avoid congestion."
I dunno why they say that - the Thames speed limit is 8 knots above Wandsworth, and even below there they can stop you if they think you're affecting other craft.
> "The Thames is a perfect location to make use
> of this vehicle as it has no speed limit and
> is greatly under-utilised."
Those silly Brits. We have speed limits posted for all bodies of water here in the US.
The BBC is just reporting what the guy selling the car said; it doesn't mean that it is true; it certainly isn't in general. He is a car salesman, after all. Of course, there are speed limits on the Thames.
Many rivers in the UK have speed limits far lower than the 30mph top speed of this vehicle to stop bank erosion, and why do they insist in the article that the Thames is underused?
There are lots of boats on the Thames already - often rowers in lightweight crew boats that swamp easily. They can do without tidal waves being generated.
As for rough water, you won't find much of that either on the Thames around London
People would be mostly competing with a few barges and small tourist boats.
I saw this on TV yesterday a few times, on the car there is a plastic shield on both sides, just behind the mirrors (to stop splashes I guess) and the guy looked pretty dry to me. Shame it looks like a Mazda MX-5 though.
We've got one of these amphibious cars that tootles up and down our river every so often already...
www.amphicar.com
This "new" one is just one in a long line of press releases from marketing people who haven't looked into the history of the concept... mind you this new one does look cool...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Internal Combustion Engine
Jet Engine
Electric Motor
Television
Disc Brakes
Depth Charges
Fax Machine
Lightbulbs
World Wide Web
Viagra
Vacuum Cleaner
Toilet Paper
etc etc etc...
Yeah, the problem with the British is that they keep inventing these unaffordable, impractical things...
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Not legally, it can't.
That was classic intercourse!
It could. Back before they built the sewers in the 1850s or so, the sewage from two and a half million people went into the thames - which is a tidal river at that point. So you have 2.5mil ppl's crap going up and down the thames with the tide. They got outbreaks of cholera from that because the water companies just pumped that water and distributed that to people - drinking beer exclusively was a good plan in those days.
They finally decided to fund the sewers (a gigantic project, and very well done since the original sewers are still in use today) when the thames stank so bad that the MP's couldn't even get into the river-facing rooms of the house of parliament without choking from the awful stench (apparently comparable to the smell of a rotting body).
I'd say that was worse than now.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
But didn't Land Rover invent the SUV when it designed the ludicrous Range Rover? The original and best SUV, surely?
That was classic intercourse!
It's not really true anymore. I've (unfortunatly) had a few early baths in the Thames, its just very silty. There are a *lot* of fish in there and plenty of wildlife.. Of course it could be better, but its far cleaner than it looks (shopping trollies considered)....
Be nice to people on the way up. You will meet them again on your way down!
London's 'smog' is nothing compared to that of many major cities. What you experienced was probably just the English Permacast(R) weather that we 'enjoy' over here. Apparently, London is overcast fully 50% of the time!
That was classic intercourse!
Just commenting on all those jovial "crazy brits" postings. Mr Alan Gibbs is from New Zealand, although he was in partnership with a Brit, Neil Jenkins, and got Lotus (UK) to do some feasibility studies. The concept work was done by Eurotech and MSX in Detroit, USA. The vehicle is being built in the UK because we have a good engineering record and a lot of expertise in low volume car manufacture and "racing" (especially F1) cars.
Have you seen it, or are you spouting a knee-jerk reaction because "everyone knows it's polluted"? It's considered one of the cleanest: Comparison of the Thames and the Severn
Actually, the man behind the whole venture is a New Zealander. We've had this story all over the news tonight. Here's an article from stuff.co.nz claiming it was us all along.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
Longer video available here [nzoom.com]
*ahem* Mr Joseph Swann came up with lightbulbs several years before Mr Edison.
t engine.htm -- so Britain and Germany really share equal honours here...
John Logie Baird, a Scotsman, invented the television.
As for jet engines: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blje
Go away and *research* things before posting wildly innaccurate statements...
Lightbulbs- NO. You GOTTA be joking here. Thomas Edison was NOT British...
Erm, Nikola Tesla actually. Although he was Serbian. Edison funded research and marketted the suckers.
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
And to clear it up, the lightbulb does seem to be a british development.
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
The Thames has been massively cleaned up over the last 50 years. Yes, it is generally brown in colour; this is suspended sediment and not pollution. Fifty years ago it was essentially dead; recently the counted (I think) over fifty species in it, including salmon and seal. Not that it couldn't do with a bit more cleaning up, but it is enormously improved.
Which means that it could do without a load of speedboat/cars on it.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
There's a Yahoo slideshow of the vehicle being driven on and off the Thames, here.
Alan Gibbs is a New Zealander - the jet boat is a New Zealand innovation - he is just using British money.... so this thread should be "Only the Kiwis!" - and I'd a gree with that - if ever there were a pack of wishful thinkers it's New Zealanders....
Sorry - I can't link to a Flash page - where's the HTML version?
In Wisconsin they are considering requiring some sort of license for Jetskiers. They comprise 1% of the watercraft yet are involved in somewhere around 30-40% of the water accidents.
If all you really want to do is haul around your family/friends/groceries then why not get a nice station wagon? Similar cargo passenger/cargo space, lower center of gravity, higher gas mileage/lower emissions. Or isn't it cool enough? Or do you not fancy your odds of surviving a crash when you're in something that's size is on the same order of magnitude with the rest of the vehicles on the road? For what you're using your SUV for its just a (unnecessarily) raised station wagon with crappy gas mileage.
I think I'll enjoy my '82 Honda Accord a couple years longer: Seats 3 in reasonable comfort + a sub woofer behind the driver's seat, 35 mpg highway, 30 city. Tons of room for luggage if I put the cargo carrier on the roof and the bike rack on the trunk. That's right! I can add more storage space if I need it. Crazy that, huh?
SUVs are for the most part an unnecesary waste of road space and a threat to drivers of smaller cars. I can't even count on two hands the number of times I've had SUVs try and merge into my Honda on the freeway. If you really take 6 people with you every place you go, along with 2 bikes and a propane grill, crossing snow/gravel/dirt/mud on your way on a daily basis then yes an SUV might fit the bill but I highly doubt thats what you're doing. If you got an SUV so you could look cool and screw over other drivers in the event of a crash than at least be honest about it, that's all I ask.
-AX
^I'm with stupid.^
Yes, indeed. But 'pea soupers' have been out of fashion ever since the burning of coal was outlawed half a century ago. Hopefully, the forthcoming Euro V emissions regs should put the mockers on the current scourge of Diesel particulate emission.
That was classic intercourse!
You're probably thinking of the drainage basins to capture runoff and protect areas of the city against flash flooding. I've seen them full to the top a few times when we've had heavy rains - it's not usual, but it's always entertaining as you always get some clowns who decide to go rafting down them.
But the LA aquaducts, outside the city, are always full of water. They just pipe water in from the mountains, etc.
"Teachers leave us kids alone