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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 ???
aaaaaaa
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".
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.
Let him waste his money if he wants. I agree this is a foolish idea but if that's what he wants to do for a hobby, what do I care?
Besides, I got a feeling there will be hours of fun just watching U-Tube videos of his system tests. Wonder how many times they will have to winch the thing off the bottom before he gives up?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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!
How is building submersible cars not 'making the world a better place', Comrade?
If you're lucky, he'll sell the technology to the people who make Zil limos, so you can have one too.
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!
In a capitalist society, it is the excess money that should be devoted to improving society
That's more communist, where someone who has more than he needs gives it back to help those that don't have enough.
In a capitalist society, his excess money goes anywhere he wants to do anything he wants, and anyone who can provide what he wants gets paid for it, and can in turn spend it however they like, and so on. It will certainly take a good deal of money to turn this car into a submarine, and that means more paychecks for manufacturers and engineers on the project, who can then spend those paychecks on whatever they want, and so on.
That is, after all, the purpose of capitalist commerce: people getting things they want.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
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.
You must hate hobbyist quadcopter pilots. Or hobbyist -anything- that is essentially spending money for nothing other than the cool/fun factor.
Solar = cool, Tesla = cool, Spacex= awesome. submersible-cars = not cool.
People give Musk credit for a lot of things, but they somehow leave out the fact that he's also responsible for foisting the abomination known as PayPal on the world.
Tony Stark would never have invented PayPal.
On a side note... I hope the PR person that successfully got the whole "Musk==Stark" meme going received a large pay raise from Musk.
#DeleteChrome
In a capitalist society, it is the excess money that should be devoted to improving society
Glad to hear it!
Say, can I have a couple thousand bucks? My file server died last week
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?
So you'd rather the rich hoard their money? Wouldn't it be better for everyone to put some of it back into circulation?
One, and only one, of the following is true:
1. When money is spent on a project that you don't approve of, that money magically vanishes into nothingness, therefore the quoted statement is valid.
2. You are retarded.
If I paid 100 cancer researchers to break rocks in the hot sun, this would be a massive waste. Sure, they can spend the money on someone else doing something worthwhile, but you're removing their potential productivity from the economy. That's bad for the economy, and bad for the world. Far better to pay them to research cancer cures, they pass the same cash back into the economy, but they are adding value.
Sure, rich flounders have the right to waste money. But I think it is the responsibility of the public to shame them when they do. In a capitalist society, it is the excess money that should be devoted to improving society.
In a capitalist society it is my responsibility to shame someone for not spending money in a way I approve?
Wasting money is literally pissing away potential to make the world a better place.
I'm not sure literally means what you think it does here.
Wir sind geboren, um frei zu sein - Rio Reiser
I've still got my replica Lotus Esprit (submersible mode) -- of course, mine's only 4" long....
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.
Considering who is doing this, I would imagine he may develop quite a few technologies that could be applied to a host of things that have no direct connection to this project.
Better water seals, improved materials, better manufacturing techniques.
A lot of NASA tech has been applied to everyday life that saw its origins in spacecraft....Headsets, pens, materials, etc...
It's visionaries with money or means that develop tech for personal reasons that revolutionize the lives of the masses.
(yeah, the same applies to military tech as well, but that is outside the scope of the article.)
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
Employing a bunch of smart people to work on his fun silly idea seems a lot better than just investing it in the stock market like most would.
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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.