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What If the Next Presidential Limo Was a Tesla?
cartechboy writes "The presidential limo is known as "The Beast," and it's getting to be about that time where it's replaced. Currently The Beast is a General Motors creation with a Cadillac badge, but what if the next presidential limo was a Tesla? Stick with me here. The Beast is a massive vehicle, which means there would be plenty of room in the structure to have a long battery pack a la Model S. Plus, it could use the upcoming Model X's all-wheel-drive system. Tesla's air suspension would keep it from encountering high-centering issues. There could even be a charging port on both the front and back so a battery truck could hook up while driving, like in-flight refueling. Obviously the battery pack would need to have extra protection so it wouldn't have any issues with road debris, but that's a minor issue. Tesla is an American company, and that's a requirement for The Beast. So is it that far fetched to think the next presidential limo could be a Tesla?"
be required to buy it through a dealer though...
Does it make any practical difference? Is there any point to this post?
and what if it was paid for by using bitcoin...
now i think this post has all the magic words to make it a successful slashertisment.
Heh... you mean like a History channel special?
What if the next Presidential Limo was... a space alien?!
Everyone wants to provide the presidential vehicles. Does Tesla provide as many jobs as GM?
The votes those employees provide are probably the most important factor when deciding who gets to provide the presidential ride.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Would you depend on this vehicle if your life was at stake. Tesla can certainly bring it, but the internal combustion engine has over a century of demonstrated reliability.
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
The lack of range would be a huge security hazard. It will have poor range to begin with when you consider the lack of aerodynamics and weight of the armor. You can't beat the energy storage capacity of petroleum.
The Presidents limo is in a heavily disguised armour. It weighs multiple tonnes.
An electric design just can't make the range or extended get away speed required with the protection needed.
Of course the one true maker of presidential limousines is ford....
and is built on a GM truck frame.
I have a hard time imagining this level of protection working for an electric vehicle.
You mean more than it already does loaded with armor?
It already weighs a LOT due to all the thick armor plating. In fact some places have issues with allowing it because it exceeds the design tolerances for the pavement. The added weight of battery packs wouldn't really be that significant, especially if they can save weight on the engine or other parts.
I'm fairly certain the current Beast is not HEMP protected. It's solidly constructed, but it doesn't have copper knife-edge seals and a complete faraday cage around all of its electrical and electronic components.
Besides; if there are EMPs anywhere in the area of the principal, there's already a major breakdown of security and things are likely out of their control. Their escort vehicles, mobile phones, radios and other electronics are all useless by that point, not even counting the other unknown factors which would subsequently arise.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
How small can they make nuclear reactors these days? Tesla could make the President's new "Beast" something like the Tumbler from the new Batman movies, with an extra 1000 HP thrown in for good measure.
Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
There are plenty of high-power electric drive systems. Trains and busses have been using them for decades. Walmart recently demoed a turbine-powered hybrid 18 wheeler with 100% electric drive power. The reason Tesla doesn't have an 800 HP electric drive is not that they don't exist, it's that they're big and expensive, just like 800 HP hydrocarbon engines.
While I have no doubt that you could build a fully electric vehicle that would meet the specs required for the President's limo, I think the biggest hurdle will be charging it. The Beast is one of the only vehicles in the world that drives in countries all over the world without being registered, or modified in accordance with the local market. I've seen the Beast myself here in Canberra, Australia a couple of times. It is kind of a novelty seeing a left-hand drive vehicle with US license plates cruising around on the 'wrong' side of the road in Australia. :)
But I digress. Countries all use different shaped plugs, different voltages etc. and the charging infrastructure in some places the president might visit is not always reliable. Yes you can ensure that US embassies and the presidential plane/other vehicles have the right systems in place. But you never know what might happen ... one day they might be stuck somewhere with insufficient range and no charging options. Gasoline OTOH, you can find almost anywhere, and can carry a spare supply of it quite easily compared to lugging around some kind of backup battery. I think for that reason it'll be a while before you see a vehicle built for this purpose be fully electric. Maybe a hybrid would work. But I think all-electric vehicles need to become more widespread globally and another decade or two of track record behind them before they would fit the bill for this need.
Yeah, hemp doesn't make very good armor.
You obviously never collected comics. Geeks who did are fond of "what if?..." special issues because the exploration of the possibility of something weird is fun.
You remember what fun was like, right?
Don't worry - I'll get off your lawn now.
Would the electric car still work? Could you easily find a place to charge up in that event? A car for the president has some different considerations than me in Suburbia who works from home 3 days a week and doesn't drive much. (For the record I'm a Chevy Volt owner)
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
It is a tank made look like a car. It reminds of of this hammer I bought where all I changed was the head and the handle.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I know, right!
They should remove the armour plating from all the tanks too. People aren't that important.
It weighs that much and gets that bad of milage because its as close to being an Abrams tank as you can get while still looking like a limo. I don't think the president has much of a say in the vehicles they use to transport him, and "The Beast" exists mostly because of Kennedy and various other attempts on American presidents. Besides, there are far more effective ways for the president to "Lead" us into a greener future. (Maybe cutting back on those vacations that are half a planet worth of jet fuel away for one.)
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Now what DOES work well for Tesla is the blank check they'll get for making it. However, it will end up having a whole lot of redesign involved. Even if you tripled the battery pack's size, is it a linear gain for a vehicle that's somewhere around triple the weight of their existing models? Methinks not. The "in-flight refueling" truck situation has its own can of worms - you'd need a mobile charging unit capable of giving it enough juice to justify the trip in just a few minutes...I'm pretty sure that despite thirty years of work regarding power generation, we're still stuck with bolts of lightning and plutonium from Libyan nationalists to generate 1.21 gigawatts...neither of which are exactly 'portable', and all of THEM will have to be powered with something, so either you're simply offshoring the oil combustion, or "it's turtles all the way down".
Meanwhile, you'd need not just one of these things, but a dozen - remember that Tesla would have to build the decoy units, too...which means you'd also need a dozen refueling trucks. If you ditch all of that, then you'll have a fairly short range you'll be able to go, which will defeat most of the purpose of getting the limo replaced.
And after all of that...exactly what does that net Tesla? Are they looking to make alternatives to the Ford F150 or similar (justifying the work done on making a Tesla engine that can move that kind of weight)? Would it be a foot-in-door to get military contracts (justifying the R&D on an armored Tesla)? Could the charge-en-route tech be adapted for AAA tow trucks? ...Or would Uncle Sam simply pay for all the R&D because the tech needed for this project to work is so vastly different than Tesla's existing designs that monetizing them independently of the limo contract will prove impractical?
Buy a Mercedes off the Alabama production line.
Oh, you meant corporate citizenship? F*ck the workers. Buy a GM from a Mexican line.
Have gnu, will travel.
The 2009 Limo was built on the Medium duty Kodiac truck chassis.
GM shut down the Medium truck division in 2009.
What would they build it on?
At 7 tons it's more than even the 3500 series truck is rated for.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
You're just spewing propaganda. Before WWII hemp was used to create bullet-proof clothing. Little known fact--President Theodore Roosevelt was actually shot point blank in Cuba, but survived because his suit was made of hemp. (His horse was also shot, but the bullet hit the hemp bridle, only knocking out a tooth. This is the origin of the phrase, "never look Theodore's horse in the mouth". But the horse smoked hemp for several years and the tooth grew back.)
But the government didn't like the idea of citizens walking around nearly impervious to government force. This is one of many reasons Director Hoover helped push through anti-marijuana legislation.
Hemp is also 30x more efficient than natural gas at producing electrical power. And--fact!--the reason cancer deaths have been going up is because, before WWII, marijuana was the most prescribed cancer medication.
You SHEEPLE need to open your eyes!
"The Beast" exists mostly because of Kennedy and various other attempts on American presidents
That's true, but there's some middle ground between riding completely open-air in a convertible, and riding around in a quasi-tank. All you need to stop JFK-style attacks is an enclosed vehicle that can stop bullets, like the Popemobile.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
There's a number of reasons why we don't have electric tanks, and those are the reasons the next 'Beast' will not be electric:
Weight
Time to recharge
Life of charge
Massive engine needed to move armored vehicle
Massive batteries needed to power the massive engine
Ken
and what if it was paid for by using bitcoin...
now i think this post has all the magic words to make it a successful slashertisment.
Not all of the magic words. "What if the next presidential limo was a 3D-printed Tesla paid for with bitcoin?" Now we're getting there.
It probably helps that (a) nobody wants to shoot him and (b) Gibraltar is small enough to drive the Tesla while it's still plugged into the mains.
Tesla can certainly bring it, but the internal combustion engine has over a century of demonstrated reliability.
Keeping in mind that electric cars have been around longer than gasoline cars, and than electric motors are used in the powertrain of every modern locomotive in the united states (and are the prime movers for almost any industrial plant)...not really, actually.
Car engines need a lot of maintenance due to all their sensors, electromechanical and mechanical valves, mazes of hoses and wiring (all of which has to deal with high temperatures), dependence on multiple fluid types (the fuel, the coolant, the lubricant) and need for so much cooling (gasoline engines waste 3/4 of their fuel on heat.) One of the reasons Tesla is getting away with not having dealers is that the cars are so much simpler drivetrain-wise. I imagine the only fluids that need changing are the brake fluid and probably the gearbox oil.
An electric car for the presidential limo would be brilliant, particularly since it typically doesn't need to travel very far most of the time, and an electric vehicle provides massive torque for handling the heft of all that chassis and armor. Adapting an electric drivetrain, in part because of how simple it is and how flexible one can be with component locations, would actually make it far easier on the coach builder. Tesla already has a dual-motor AWD drivetrain, so they've definitely got the oomph (although I suspect the dual-motor drivetrain motors are individually smaller.)
Please help metamoderate.
You see kids, the internal combustion engine is the absolute pinnacle of automobile power technology.
So put away your chemistry sets and your CAD applications. There's nowhere to go from here.
You got bigger problems then. Even actual tanks are disabled/destroyed by those. Heck, an armor penetrating bullet or bullets will do.
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The use of a true hybrid drive train (and not the nonsensical "serial hybrid") only makes sense in a tractor trailer because you need high sustained power output, and a hybrid helps keep weight and cost down by not requiring the use of an additional huge generator tied to the powerful engine. Hybrid race cars make sense for the same reason. Consumer vehicles have no such sustained power requirement, and thus do not make sense.
As Truman famously said, The Buck Stops Here. The president is the head of the executive branch and the commander in chief of the armed forces. He absolutely has authority over his personal security. My opinion? Take a queue from the Queen and take public transit. Or from the Pope and walk. Even heads of states who have boots on the ground in Afghanistan fly commercial. Nothing supports a culture of fear more than a leader who doesn't have enough faith in his people to travel among them.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
Did you read your own article? Try page 113 where it says:
"An EMP attack will certainly, immediately disable a portion of the 130 million cars and 90 million trucks in operation in the United States. Vehicles disabled while operating on the road can be expected to cause accidents. With modern traffic patterns, even a small number of disabled vehicles or accidents can cause debilitating traffic jams."
What about page 115 with "The ultimate result of EMP expoure could be triggered crashes that damage many more vehicles than are damaged by eMP, the consequent loss of life, and multiple injuries.
EMP has little to know impact on vehicles.
http://www.empcommission.org/d...
Stop, and I repeat STOP! getting you information form survivalist shows and movies. It's almost always wrong.
A small 220v diesel generator would top that puppy off quick. And seriously, how often does it go more than a few miles in a ceremonial trip?
One engine driving 2 wheels (maybe one- does the Beast have positrac?) through a transmission and axle
vs
4 motors each applyting power directly to each wheel working in concert to maximize traction and acceleration.
I'll take option two if acceleration is needed.
Having the POTUS' ride carrying a rare, if not unique, flammability potential feels, arrogant.
Perfect fit then.
It may not go very far very often, but it absolutely must be capable of going far for those few times when it's essential. I wouldn't be surprised if there are contingency plans to use the current presidential limo to escape every major metro area that the President could find himself in, and the car itself is designed to survive antitank weapons.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Wireless transmission of electricity works just fine. That is how radios work if you weren't aware of that feature, and how crystal radio sets get their power. Some rather innovative people living near high voltage power lines (the big stuff that carries electrical power from one major metro area to another) have even set up coils and "receivers" to tap into that power.... much to the bane of power companies who hunt those guys down and try to shut them down too (as they do draw power from the towers).
The largest problem with wireless power distribution on a large scale is that it plays havoc with communications frequencies. You also get no free lunch with the idea as power still is required in order to transmit the electricity in the first place, often with a substantial loss in power. On the whole, physical distribution lines are much more effective and efficient, which is why I guess Tesla "failed".
I suppose a would-be assassin would take a random pot shot at the guy, but that speaks more to how that motorcade shouldn't be so obvious when it is passing through either.
Perhaps it speaks more to being the head of an organization that is so reviled. Jefferson made note of the huge lines of people who would come to his office to complain about this or that. He only detested the ones who came seeking political appointments. I never read about anybody taking so much as a swing at him in his office.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
A lot of towns/cities will stop traffic for things like very large pre-organized motorcycle rides, convoys, funeral processions, and the like. Just because you're not as special as the president doesn't mean he's being treated quite like a king. Stop and Go traffic is for individuals, while police escorts and blocked traffic are for large convoys, and the POTUS happens to travel in a large convoy.
Yeah pure battery won't work well. Hybrid+battery/capacitor would be better. Electric motor tech is fine for heavy stuff - diesel electric locomotives are really heavy.
Depending on the engine/turbine you could even have multi-fuel support - gas, petrol diesel, vegetable oil. This gives you more options in crisis scenarios.
Why does the next beast have to be a beast? Why can't the POTUS just drive around in a regular car like everyone else? Assassination? Fuck him he'll be replaced easily, that is the strength of the democracy. I say give the next POTUS a standard Tesla S and get over the crazy security theatre that treats the President like a king. He (she one day) is supposed to be a public servant not a rock star. It's time to start acting like a servant and less like a deity.
While I'm sure there are contingency plans associated with being cut off from Air Force One and the need to travel to some rendezvous point to get choppered out, my guess is that the security protocol and planning is designed to prevent that very scenario.
The President doesn't just fly in solo on Air Force 1 -- often they send a second 747 as a backup along with a varying number of C-17s or C-5s with support vehicles and over a hundred Secret Service agents. On a Clinton trip to Africa, the air force ran 24 hour fighter missions overhead and the Navy kept a medical ship offshore.
I'm sure the goal is to both secure the plane, secure the route back to the plane and never leave the President cut off, up to the ability to conduct immediate air strikes to insure he can return to the plane.
There may be operational reliability or contingency issues which would limit an electric car overseas, but I think in DC it wouldn't be an unrealistic option.