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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.
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.
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.
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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.
GM sure does have a track record, and that's exactly why I'd trust Tesla any day.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.)
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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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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".
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.
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.
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.
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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.