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Comment by lukeholder | Hacker News Reader

Could someone more experienced in manufacturing tell me why we design things like cars in such a complex way with things like complex curves etc? Why not flat panels and more lego like designs that would seem to be cheaper to make and assemble and repair? It can’t just be about aero?

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Aero is pretty important. You're not hitting fuel efficiency standards without good aero. Even if it were legal to sell, a car that uses 20% more fuel than its competition would be dead in the water in many markets no matter how easy it is to repair.

Is that still the case on cars with a top speed of 50km/h?

Not really - drag is proportional to velocity squared. There's little penalty to driving a brick at 30.

You can feel the wind resistance on a bicycle at 30km/h, mind. The penalty is not zero. But we're discussing body styling for a given frontal area, so the possible improvements are more marginal than for a cyclist who adopts a racing tuck.

Not a material engineer but it seems some curves can also help on resistance to deformation. Those exterior metal sheets aren’t structural but the curves may help support themselves instead of additional under-structure.

I’d love to see a vehicle build with durability and cheap/easy reparability in mind. Marketing and after-sales usually have the last word.

Lines and curves in the panels add strength and rigidity to them. Making them complex is for styling.

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