Comments

4 responses to “disappearing car doors”

1. 2007/12/15

   Clive

   The snag they seem to be glossing over is the vast amount of under-floor space needed to accomodate the door — space which is otherwise wasted and raises the car’s height and centre of gravity or reduces ground clearance. Or both.

   I think you’d get a better result by letting an origami expert work on refining gullwing doors for a while.

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2. 2007/12/15

   diamond

   I looked at this yesterday. For several reasons, I don’t think this would work at all in areas that get lots of snow…. the most obvious being that the door would probably not open in deep snow, and the amount of water/snow/ice that would end up in the car and in the door mechanism itself.

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3. 2007/12/16

   Stephen Usher

   I see a few more problems which will mean that it would never be taken up:

   (1) Weight.

   That mechanism would be really heavy and add a lot of weight to the car. (Hence lowering fuel economy).

   (2) Production-line assembly.

   The mechanism looks hellishly complicated and hence would cost a great deal of time and money to install on a production-line relative to bolting a few hinges to the car.

   (3) Side impact protection.

   I doubt whether those doors would be strong enough to meet current EU side impact limits without making them so heavy that it’d ruin the car’s performance.

   (4) The music in that video. 🙂

   It seemed to be a throwback to the 1940s!

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4. 2007/12/18

   Isaac Eiland-Hall

   And what happens if you go under water? Seems like this is trying to solve problems that don’t really exist.

   Having said that, it is…… sorta cool, I guess. I bet you’ll see limos with it. heh.

   Reply