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Elon Musk Making a Working Version of James Bond's Submersible Car
Nerval's Lobster writes "In The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), James Bond is given a Lotus Espirit S1 that doubles as a submarine. More than thirty years after that movie's release, a contractor opened up a random Long Island storage container to find one of the automobile-submarines used in filming. He promptly put it up for auction, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk purchased it for a cool $866,000. But Musk isn't planning to restore the Bond car and put it in a garage somewhere: he wants to make it run. 'It was amazing as a little kid in South Africa to watch James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me drive his Lotus Esprit off a pier, press a button and have it transform into a submarine underwater,' Tesla PR wrote in a statement to Jalopnik. 'I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real.' Whether that means Musk will install new equipment in the actual prop, or have his engineers build a seaworthy replica, is an open question. What's more certain is that Musk has the capability (and cash) to make something like that happen, considering how he already manages the construction of next-generation electric cars and reusable rockets for a living."
What could possibly go wrong ???
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Being from the Bay Area, it would be really cool to drive from, say Palo Alto to Emeryville (Steve Jobs' old commute) on or under the bay. Would probably be quicker than going through traffic.
slashdot's software would never allow a post long enough to list the reasons why it is totally impossible to turn this car into a submarine. It is somewhat like my Dad's joke of "jack the radiator cap up and slide another vehicle under it".
Solar = cool, Tesla = cool, Spacex= awesome. submersible-cars = not cool. Previous versions of the sub-car and flying car have shown that this is a colossal waste of money. Just build a dedicated submersible or a dedicated plane. A hybrid does not posses enough value to merit the added costs. Focus your energy on building a re-usable rocket Elon!
Please be a benevolent overlord Elon.
That movie had a roadable version of the car and a submersible version, but not one that could do both. The submersible version wasn't dry; the operator was wearing scuba gear.
I'm starting to worry that Elon Musk is getting spread too thin. Space-X, Tesla, Hyperloop, automatic driving, plus this. We really need for Space-X and Tesla to succeed.
...Elon is working on more impractical things only 1% of the population will ever be able to afford.
I would have thought Richard Branson would be the eccentric billionaire most like a bond villain. Tell me his life doesn't remind you of the villain from Moonraker.
It's pretty difficult to keep good talent at organizations. Especially when you get into the grind of a single goal and day in and day out it's the same thing.
Having a boss that might step in 1 day that and say hey, instead of working on that problem you've been on for a while, how about you work on making this car into a submarine. Thanks.
That would be awesome, adds spice into the mix, and helps make people reconsider ever wanting to leave their organization.
Hopefully that's the motivation behind this moreso than the I'm farting so much money now I can't find enough ways to spend it kind of thing!
A submersible has a whole lot of very special requirements, none of which a car is likely to ever be able to meet. Being waterproof is just one of them. It also needs considerable plumbing and valves and pumps and tanks and fans and compressors to implement not getting crushed, flotation, balance, center of buoyancy, breathability, and stability. You can tack on some of those features, but each one compromises its ability to be a practical road car. The problem starts with the basic structure, which in a car has strong points to support things from the suspension mounting points, while in a submersible it has to be equally strong around its circumference, a very different structural requirement.
I'm not saying it's not doable, just that at best it's going to be a miserable car and a miserable and dangerous submersible.
The original submarine that Musk bought was a lightweight shell that housed a scuba diver inside. It was not watertight. It was propelled by battery-powered propellers controlled by the diver. This is why the windows were covered with the louvers- so the audience couldn't see that James and his lady weren't just sitting inside the car breathing air.
Musk is going to have to create an entirely separate construction if he wants something that can withstand the torque of the Tesla drivetrain and support passengers, etc. It will be easier starting with a Lotus Esprit and then making it into a watertight submersible than the other way around.
I much rather see billionaires spend their money on pursuits like this than building superyachts to park in Monaco. Kudos to Musk!
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
When right people waste money, they give it to people to do stuff for them. This is much better than sitting on money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfOwSTXP-3o [Youtube.com]
Am I the only one picturing Elon Musk sitting in a chair with a white cat in his lap now?
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
i've been in organizations where the manager steps in occasionally a redirects efforts to his pet projects. it can derail other efforts and cause people to ask why they are trying, even if the interrupting project seems cool to some. i saw many people leave that organization as a result. so it really depends on how it's done.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Also in other news: Elon Musk
Sincerely,
Elon Musk
captcha: Elon Musk
There have always been numerous problems with that famous Bond car. For example, it was light enough to be agile like a sports car, but it was nevertheless heavy enough to sink despite having a cabin being largely filled with air. And, what about its pressure hull: how could it be light-weight with a flattened shape, yet still be strong enough to withstand several atmospheres of pressure? By all rights it should be crushed at just a few meters depth. In many ways, making a spacecraft is easier than making a submarine.
On the other hand, if the aim is still to keep the car as light and sporty as possible, it seems to me that an amphibious sports car would be much more do-able, especially if it were to make use of hydrofoils, instead of relying on a streamlined hull, to make it travel more quickly through the water. It might not even be necessary to retract the wheels; just as long as it would remain afloat when sitting on the water and tend to keep its nose up when under power.
Wouldn't they just burn because they get the chemicals for the reaction from themselves, or the sea water? The internet suggests this reaction would take place and the lithium would burn just the same.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
lets see... Anyone have the volume of air inside a lotus to calculate bouency?
We would need a silly amount of weight to neutralize the underwater lift of the cockpit air.
Yes batteries make a nice constant ballast, but I believe you would need significantly more.
Such weight makes for poor car drive ability.
The fundamental engineering problem here is that cars float and submarines sink. Ballasting that car with enough weight so it's close to neutrally buoyant will ensure it performs nothing like a sports car on the road. This is the kind of issue that made lead acid batteries such a great choice for submarines in the first place.
The best approach is going to involve minimising the volume where water is excluded, i.e., ensuring that as much of the vehicle is flooded by water as possible when it dives. At least, as a sports car, the interior is very small so they may have a chance of making it work.
Whenever I see "Elon Musk" I always picture a bottle of cologne.
Hey Elon,
Build an amphibious vehicle first, having a sub car is neat and all no real purpose, now a decent flat truck amphibious could actually have some decent 3rd world potential.
hover crafts can do such, but just to float takes lots of power.
D
Seriously, even though this project is kind of pointless aside from the cool factor, everything else he's involved in just reeks of eccentric billionaire tycoon.
I'll build my own rocketships. I'll mass produce my own electric car. I'll design some whacky futuristic train.
He's the closest thing we'll ever get to Tony Stark.
why? because Larry Ellison also bought an Island, and he's MUCH more evil than Branson