Dyson to make electric cars from 2020 | Hacker News Reader

Dyson to make electric cars from 2020

bbc.com

57 pointsrathboma65 comments

Point of fact, "that Dyson" is Freeman Dyson

I was going to say the poultry brand ... now _that_ would have been surprising.

Tyson?

I can see Tyson launching their own line of cars. Their farms and processing/packing facilities are huge - so it stands to reason they would have their own internal intra-site transportation departments that would devise ways of moving people around for the greatest efficiency - and if they decided the company and its shareholders would be better-off with their own self-made line of electric cars for moving people (and chickens) around their farms and abattoirs - and if they discovered it would be profitable to sell these vehicles to the public too - then more power to them!

I for one, look forward to driving a Tyson Chickenmobile - it sure beats the OscarMayer Wienermobile![1]

[1]: http://www.oscarmayer.com/wienermobile

Because it's ambiguous, Freeman Dyson the physicist who has many things named after him, has (as far as I can tell) nothing at all to do with James Dyson who is the guy with the vacuum cleaner and now car company. If you know much about science, "that Dyson" is Freeman, if you don't, it's James or his company.

I think some of us suspected that a man in his nineties might not be in the business of making electric cars.

Not the BBC's headline. Title here should be corrected to "Dyson to make electric cars from 2020"

I wonder how much of their knowledge of motors and batteries are usable in cars though. The power draw and load characteristics must be very, very different and I don't think it simply scales up.

A fan or vacuum motor is basically ramping up, running at constant speed (either fixed rpm, or fixed drive depending on how they designed it), and ramps down. A car motor on the other hand must be able to meet much more dynamic use.

Also, the image we get from the article is "we have the motor, now we just need the car" understates how hard it must be to build a robust, safe, efficient, etc, car. (not that I have much experience apart from How it's made, and various factory clips on youtube :) ). At least, he says it won't be cheap.

I can recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDr4L6BzpP8 "Tearing Down the Model T of Our Time - Autoline After Hours 284" and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa5_tudyAF8 "BMW i3 Factory Production Tour"

It never actually occurred to me that appliance companies will now have a slightly easier time breaking into the automobile market. It'd be interesting to see a Philips or LG minicar...

Dyson might find a niche as a motor vendor to others that build the rest of the car, instead of actually building cars. I can see that as a better thing.

The biggest difference is that Dyson's existing motors are all effectively cooled 'for free' by passing the air that they are blowing through the motor. The biggest difficulty of making a motor really small and powerful is heat dissipation.

With a car the motor can't be cooled in that way (at least not at low speeds and not as easily), so I imagine the design is a bit different.

Incidentally that is why they don't make wet & dry vacuums - in those the air can't go through the motor so it can't cool it.

Aha, I always figured that was primarily due to the risk of mold and unwanted organic events in the dust compartment.

It's interesting, air and cooling. I read that a problem that might occur if you are changing to wider tires on the car, or lowering the suspension, is that brakes will more easily overheat and thus warp.

It's been common knowledge he was building a car for a good year or two. I imagine it's going to be very ugly.

> I imagine it's going to be very ugly.

Why ? Dyson has been renowned for having great design sensibilities.

I think they are getting there. The hair dryer is not a bad product really. However I do feel like some of their products still have quite a way to go. The excessive use of cheap plastic with bright coloured highlights aren't to everyone's taste.

"they are getting there. The hair dryer is not a bad product really"

Really, I don't think you know what you are talking about. The supersonic is innovate and in a useful way in how it distributes the heat. Pros love it. And it looks great.

"excessive use of cheap plastic"

Many people like the modern industrial look. The highest quality plastics are always used. And above all Dyson is about engineering excellence and producing a product that is useful and functions at a new level.

You really need to do your reading about the company :)

The plastic used in the DC41 vacuum cleaner is so flexible that parts of it bend almost to the point of breaking during normal use.

Without judging if the plastic is cheap, it certainly feels less solid than they used to, in my experience. Sure, sample of one.

I think you have perhaps been won over by their excellent marketing team. I've been an engineer for long enough to have a reasonable say in the field.

the account you're replying to was created for the purpose of posting that "comment" so if there was ever evidence of shilling on hacker news, this is it.

I am not in any way linked to Dyson. But I am a fan who uses Dyson's products because I like them. I have used them and I am not going on assumptions and just blurting out opinions as some here are.

Often in forums do I find people hiding behind user names who say something stupid and then say "I'm an engineer so I know better!". Then give abs. no reason (let alone technical) to back this up whatsoever.

When it's clear they have not even tried the product! And are spouting opinions. We need less of that. More people who know what they are talking about please or be quiet.

To be honest the hair dryer is perhaps one of the best things I've ever bought -- it's literally worth more than the price point. It's a time machine. My spouse shaves 10+ minutes off her day every morning.

Having gone through many, many hair dryers, ranging from cheap to inexcusably expensive, the Dyson is hands down awesome. Perhaps other people have different experiences, but I love it.

A sidenote: I've owned two Dyson vacuums in the past, and I didn't really care for either.

You should educate yourself on the realities of the overpriced banalities that are the products you're paid to shill for :

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j-vJxez9UF8

If you actually watched the video, he was quite complimentary towards the quality of the plastics.

I don't currently own a vacuum, I have a very small apartment with hardwood floors, and my experience with Dyson vacuums is limited to casually viewing them a few times in stores, but what do you mean by "cheap plastic"? Are you saying that all plastic is cheap or that Dyson specifically uses poorly made plastics? From my understanding using well made injection molded plastics can be both difficult from a production/engineering standpoint as well as quite expensive, but again I don't know the quality of plastics in Dyson products. I agree in that I'm not a big fan of their color schemes.

Also, maybe someone with more vacuum experience can chime in but what's the preferred material choice for an upright vacuum? Plastic seems pretty perfect to me in that it has good impact resistance and probably won't scratch or damage furniture/walls too much. I know aluminum is quite the rage in the consumer electronics world but I doubt that would make a good choice. I bet carbon fiber would be nice although the price would increase a few hundred percent.

i like the little vacuums for apartments. a lot of suction, light, good attachment design.

but the visual design is pretty damn awful, and the way the whole thing fits together has plenty of flex. the gaskets don't really sit right, etc. its a good machine if you don't have a lot to cover, if you ignore the price, but its not a great product.

Cheap plastic if fine. It does need to look like "quality" though, especially at $300. Dyson's just look cheap (IMHO).

The $35 eureka commercial I bought 12 years ago is still going strong. It is mostly metal. I can afford to change a lot of bags a bit early for that $265 difference.

I own a V6, portable battery operated vacuum, and it's completely changed the way I treat vacuuming from a weekly chore to a daily ritual. It's funny what cordless does.

The V6 and newer V8 don't have a lot of plastic unlike the bigger Dyson vacuums. They also are idea for small apartments and do well on hardware floors.

Dyson vacuums were the only ones that could last longer than a semester under constant usage in my college fraternity.

My DC05 purchased ~2004 is still going strong. I can't think of another device except my Sony amp that has lasted that long.

I have a VAX-2000 that my parents bought in like 1993, which I was handed down in 2004, and still runs strong in my workshop.

The key to extending the life of a vacuum cleaner is always clean the filter :)

Ah, the DC05. A very fine machine. I also had one until last year.

That's what they will tell you, I'm not sure it's true.

They have been recruiting for machine learning skills, I wonder if they are planning something autonomous.

100,000 rpm redline engine would be one of its selling points

I imagine someone at Dyson heard a comment about an electric car that it "sounded like a vacuum cleaner" and thought "heyyyyy wait a minute!"

The only way to tell if it's running will be if your dog is losing its everloving mind.

Dyson may pull it off because they start with a high end brand and a good reputation for innovation, contrast Nissan Leaf and GM Volt. They are alos good at making very light yet amazingly strong and durable plastic products. I've been wondering whether their v clever bladeless tech could be used for electric planes, I could imagine thrust from this coming out of the whole wing flap and being easily switchable from vertical to horizontal.

The bladeless "turbine" has a very small radius though. For a fan power output that's alright but for a plane I'm not sure it's efficient enough. I'd love to be wrong though.

Could also be a negative as people associate them with vacuum cleaners not cars.

It is interesting how Dyson engineering is self - limiting.

I owned two Dyson vacuum cleaners. The cleaning experience was fantastic. When you needed to empty the réservoir (or whatever the part which holds the dust is called) it was a disaster. The ergonomics were so bad that I always ended up with dust everywhere and twice injured a finger.

It is like they were so (rightfully) happy about their motor that they just slapped together the rest.

The UK already produced an interesting electrical vehicle in 1985: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

I'm curious to see where he'll go. He specifically said it will be nothing like cars out there, and Dyson products are always uniquely different to the norm. Will it even look like a car as we know it?

> Will it even look like a car as we know it?

If he he hopes for any sort of market adoption it will have to look like a car as we know it. You can still make some changes here and there that push boundaries - but ultimately people want whats familiar more than unfamiliar.

This. Tesla was not the first electric car company - but it was the first electric car company that didn't make a car that looked like an electric car. Add a tail-pipe and a front radiator to a Roadster or Model S and you'd swear it was a Lotus (yes, I know...) or Italian car respectively.

Meanwhile the BMW i-series, Chevy Bolt and Volt, and even the GM EV1 all look _different_, and not necessarily in an a good way either: I'm surprised the BMW i3 is selling at all considering how much it resembles an oversized preschool children's toy car. I'm not seeing much "dignity" or timelessness in these car designs and it's what led me to believe that the executive management of these companies is somehow encouraging wacky designs to poison the notion of an electric-car being anything other than an impractical silly-looking vehicle only non-style-conscious tree-huggers would be seen dead driving.

I salute Tesla for making an electric car that... looks like a car.

> you'd swear it was a Lotus (yes, I know...)

I'm guessing the thing you know is that the Tesla is based on the Lotus Elise but did you also know that the Elise was released as an electric car waaaaay back in 1998? It had a limited top speed of 90mph, a range of 120mph and recharge time of 1 hour.

It could be a flying one.

it would fit, everything dyson has done so far is to do with airflow and fans

And here I thought you were talking about the Dyson sphere Dyson... heh.

Something with electric ducted fans?

Will it get you 80% of the way to your destination then leave you stranded with wet hands?

I bet it sucks. Hahaha

it's going to suck

Well bad things don't happen in a vacuum.

it was worth it

So basically roomba with a driver?

No, a self driving one. Now I'm picturing a car that bounces off walls to find it's way

LOL

Lets home this one doesn't have more suck-tion. ;-)

I guess you have to be a fan of Craig Ferguson. :-/

Dyson needs to make a spherical megastructure that encloses the first 3 planets and uses all the sun's energy.. Not sure what we'd call it ... but I'm sure we could come up with a name for it... (this comment probably belongs on reddit not HN...but I couldn't resist)

Going by other Dyson products it'll be damn loud. But I guess it's not so far outside of their expertise, aerodynamics being important for battery range.

Considering the history of bad electrical systems in British cars, I'm not sure I want an all-electric car from them...

Ah yes, maybe no one else should have bothered with making cars, considering the Germans were the first. We would all be driving Mercedes cars!

Apparently there are some British car fans here.

Ever since Dyson started selling "bladeless" fans, I've been a little skeptical of their claims.

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