The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: mountaineer on March 29, 2014, 01:50:20 pm
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A floating electric car for flash-flood zones
BBC (http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140329-a-car-that-defies-tsunamis)
Hideo Tsurumaki was there in 2011 when a tsunami devastated his hometown in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan. With this disaster as his inspiration, the designer, who started his career at Suzuki Motor, set about creating a car that could carry its occupants to safety in the event of sudden flooding. The fruit of his labour, the Fomm Concept One, is a four-seat electric car that floats. A personal watercraft-style handlebar controls acceleration, braking and steering, and when afloat, a “water-jet generator” provides propulsion. Despite its seaworthiness, the Concept One is not a true amphibious vehicle. Tsurumaki insists that the car is good for “one disaster event” before requiring maintenance. The company expects to commence production of the Concept One in Thailand by September 2015, priced at about $9,000.
(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/1w/g6/p01wg6hj.jpg)
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It may be able to float like a bobber, but can it survive the turmoil of being pulverized by houses, trees, other cars and trucks, and anything else slamming it around? We all remember the extreme violence created from those films.
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It may be able to float like a bobber, but can it survive the turmoil of being pulverized by houses, trees, other cars and trucks, and anything else slamming it around? We all remember the extreme violence created from those films.
I think this pretty much answers that question: Tsurumaki insists that the car is good for “one disaster event” before requiring maintenance. Still, it might be fun to operate in calmer waters.