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Comment by tokipin | Hacker News Reader

this is probably more deliberate than you might think. one of the problems electric cars have had is that they have a reputation for being dorky. there is a limit to how "interesting" Tesla can make one of its cars look at the moment

that said, i've heard people compliment the car profusely on its beautifulness, so you might be surprised by how pretty it looks to the general public

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one of the problems electric cars have had is that they have a reputation for being dorky

Why the gullwing doors then? That's about as dorky as you can get.

Indeed, gull wings doors are dorky, that's why Tesla X has FALCON wings doors!

Just Falcon Wings. Calling them doors would be an understatement. :)

I don't think I'd consider the Mercedes SLS dorky.

Yeah, the bird_name doors aren't jiving with me. They do appear to be more practical given the constraints of the vehicle, though. With a conventional door, the swing would be quite wide for the rear doors. The rear of the vehicle isn't long enough to use the minivan-style sliding doors. Would this be any less dorky http://www.disappearing-car-door.com ?

First of all, thanks for sharing the link. I love idea of doors that fold/slide into the floor.

That said I wonder 1) if Tesla's floor mounted batteries would take up the space this tech could conceivable use and 2) if Tesla's extremely high safety rating (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6240862) would be impacted by this design (not to a degree that would lower safety beyond an average car, but not up to their high goals).

The bmw z1 is the only production car with sliding doors btw http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Z1 it did not meet US safety regulations ...

Not to mention you can't put a roof rack on a car with gullwing doors. This is an SUV that can't have a roof rack and is therefore not useful to a large portion of the people who buy SUV's.

You think a large portion of the people that buy SUV's use them for anything besides driving to work and the grocery store and home?

A large? maybe. The majority? Most likely not.

Only 15% of SUV owners ever go off-roading.

http://4wheeldrive.about.com/od/offroad4x4atv4wd/a/offroadst...

If you think about it, any 2-wheel drive SUV isn't even suitable for off-roading.

But going off road is not even what we're talking about. We're talking about putting a lot more stuff in or on top of the vehicle. More than you would with a sedan. I have no problems with people who buy a Sport Utility Vehicle and never go off road. Having the Falcon Wings reduce the options for a roof rack is a valid concern that has nothing to do with going off road.

In the states, especially in places that aren't Colorado or Washington, I didn't often see SUVs with racks on the top. Maybe it's just a northern thing...

We have a 4WD (what Aussies call SUVs) with a roof rack, and have never taken it off road. We use it for skis, surfboards, extra luggage (family of 4). Roof racks are an extremely useful addition to a car, for a family.

I know Colorado is a weird state but here, yes, a very large portion (absolutely a majority) of people that buy SUV's use them to take their families and their skis or their bikes or their kayaks up to the mountains.

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