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Comment by ams6110 | Hacker News Reader

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.

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 ...

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.

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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