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Transportation Power

Elon Musk Says Tesla Is Working On a James Bond-Style Submarine Car (futurism.com) 170

Posted by BeauHD from the dreams-turning-into-reality dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Futurism: During a Tuesday shareholder meeting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted that the electric car company has a design for a submarine car -- and it sounds like something straight out of a 70s James Bond movie. When asked if the company would ever consider such a thing, according to Business Insider, Musk answered: "Funny you should mention that we do have a design for a submarine car like the one from 'The Spy Who Loved Me.'"

In the 1977 spy thriller Musk referred to, a 1976 Lotus Esprit sports car transforms itself into an amphibious submarine and can be seen exploring the bottom of the ocean. Musk loved the scene so much that he reportedly bought a Lotus Esprit in 2013 for just shy of a million dollars. "I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform," Musk told shareholders. "What I'm going to do is upgrade [my own Lotus] with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real." He did however admit that the market for an amphibious Tesla "would be small. Small, but enthusiastic."
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Elon Musk Says Tesla Is Working On a James Bond-Style Submarine Car More

Elon Musk Says Tesla Is Working On a James Bond-Style Submarine Car

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  • Enough shit Shit Elon Musk says (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday June 13, 2019 @08:05AM (#58755092) Homepage Journal

    This guy says all sorts of stuff on Twitter, and at least half of it turns out to be bollocks. Let's wait for him to actually demonstrate one, shall we?

    • Re:Enough shit Shit Elon Musk says (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday June 13, 2019 @08:21AM (#58755164)

      There arn't enough companies doing R&D anymore. A company doing good R&D will try a lot of stupid ideas and make things that will never sell... However this process comes with new ideas and designs that they often apply to their selling product line.
      While most of us will never need or even really want a submarine car. However with the growth of the electric car market, (often to defend against global climate change) will also need to be built to withstand the effects of global climate change. We are getting increased flooding, having our cars to be able to survive a flooding event is a big deal. A huge game game changer if the cars were semi-amphibious which can cross flooded roads, or at least float and run as a makeshift boat at under 10 knots.

      • There arn't enough companies doing R&D anymore. A company doing good R&D will try a lot of stupid ideas and make things that will never sell... However this process comes with new ideas and designs that they often apply to their selling product line.

        You are describing the sort of R&D only available to large companies that have cash cow products that can subsidize such flights of fancy. Very few companies have such luxurious positions and the few that do (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc) are actually doing substantial R&D. Plus the really valuable R&D tends to be in basic science research. Only a few companies have ever had the enviable position to really be able to justify that. IBM, Bell Labs, and a few others. But when you have shareh

        • There's a possible market for people living in flood-prone areas, as a personal car, and/or as an uber driver.

          • There's a possible market for people living in flood-prone areas, as a personal car, and/or as an uber driver.

            Market for car that car ford a stream... maybe survive temporary flooding is marketable... and in fact Tesla is already there, there are videos in floods of stranded ICE vehicles being passed by electric cars. Electric cars handle flooded conditions better than ICE because they don't need oxygen intake into an engine to operate.

            That said, a full electric submarine convertible road-legal car is such a niche market it's a waste of money. It would cost too much to recoup the R&D costs that they couldn't

            • The main reason the old French ones aren't popular is that they like to sink.

              If it was good enough, it could easily be a premium product competing with Land Rover.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        "While most of us will never need or even really want a submarine car."

        *scratches head* Why would you say that? Need is one thing, what it would cost another, but who wouldn't want a personal submarine car?

        • "While most of us will never need or even really want a submarine car."

          *scratches head* Why would you say that? Need is one thing, what it would cost another, but who wouldn't want a personal submarine car?

          Want and "want and be willing to pay the price" are two different things. No-one is going to pay $200k (or whatever it would cost to make these) for a Model 3 Tesla that can go underwater. If you're willing to pay $200k to have a car and a sub, you'll just buy a car and a much more capable personal sub for less.

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            According to Google:

            "Can you buy a personal submarine?
            Yes. Several businesses in the United States and Europe cater to the recreational submariner. Around $600,000 will get you an entry-level, winged submersible without a pressurized cabin. ... Those who want to dive in high style can purchase a ritzy, 5,000-square-foot submarine with a living and dining area for $80 million."

            So for $200k it would be cheap and quite a few people would probably want one of these.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Uberbah ( 647458 )

            No-one is going to pay $200k (or whatever it would cost to make these) for a Model 3 Tesla that can go underwater.

            Eh? People have been paying that price tag for years - with another zero at the end of it - for vanity cars like a Bugatti. If there's a market for cars with over a thousand horsepower, there would be a market for submersible cars.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by inking ( 2869053 )
        What an argument. I guess we also need flying cars or at least cars with parachutes because of the global warming increasing the number of hurricanes and shit.

    • Re:Enough shit Shit Elon Musk says (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rei ( 128717 ) on Thursday June 13, 2019 @08:27AM (#58755186) Homepage

      I'm sorry, but this is "Peak Media Clickbait Tesla BS". Anyone can watch what happened [youtu.be] for themselves.

      1) After answering a laundry list of serious questions from investors, they got a loony question as their final one.
      2) Both the audience and the people on stage laughed.
      3) After laughing, Musk mentioned, "Funny you should mention that..." and mentioned that they actually do have a design for one. BUT, finished with. "It's technically possible. But, I think the market for this would be small! (laughs) Small but enthusiastic! (laughs). But we do actually have a design for a submarine car. But it'd be a bit of a distraction. Maybe we'll make one as a show car at some point, that'd be fun."

      Media: "ELON MUSK CONTINUES SUPERVILLAIN STREAK, PLANS TO HAVE TESLA START MAKING TRANSFORMING SUBMARINE CARS!"

      I mean, it's just nonsense. He literally said that it's too much of a distraction and they don't plan to make one now, but might "at some point" as "a show car". And it wasn't Musk who raised it, but a shareholder.

      Unsurprisingly the media gave almost no coverage to the multiple shareholders who stood up and railed against the way the media covers Tesla. It was if anything the dominant theme of the investor Q&A session - how should the company respond to awful Tesla clickbait. And there really were no good answers forthcoming. For example, the media extensively covering every single Tesla fire despite them occurring a tenth as often as fires in gasoline cars per unit distance driven - Musk fired back that, well, what do you want us to do, run an ad saying, "Actually, our cars aren't prone to catching fire"? That that'd have the opposite effect to what they were wanting.

      I hate to agree with Trump about anything under the sun, but the terrible state of journalism today is a real issue. Tesla holds a shareholder meeting, covers an extensive amount of detail about the company's progress and plans, answers a wide range of questions on a wide range of serious topics, and what does the media run with? "TESLA TO MAKE SUBMARINE CAR!"

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward


        I hate to agree with Trump about anything under the sun, but the terrible state of journalism today is a real issue.
        Well.. yes and no.

        Trump actually says incredibly stupid, and outrageous things. Elon Musk also says stupid, and outrageous things. (Stock manipulation for instance).

        The problem is they don't say these things every time a journalists needs a story deadline, so sometimes the media exaggerates or distorts. Trump says more idiotic things than Musk, so they only exaggerate about 20% of the time

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          Elon Musk accused a guy (that was literally saving children from death) of being a pedophile!

          Funny how people always omit the fact that Unsworth started this whole thing, out of the blue, by going on international television and telling Musk to shove his sub (asked for by the rescue co-lead, Rick Stanton) up his arse. Does that make following up an insult with another insult okay? No, of course not. But neither is deliberately distorting the situation to try to make it sound like Musk attacked Unsworth o

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rei ( 128717 )

            (There's literally entire Twitter accounts focused on tracking Musk's location around the world)

          • Nonetheless Musk would not have called the guy a random, stupid insult - whatever the reason for calling the creepy fucker "a pedo" - anyone truly equipped with a brain can figure out that there was* a reason.

            *And it likely ain't 'cause the dude's into legally-aged adults... and if he was, the insult wouldn't have received the dramatic, hypersensitive response: logic would dictate that the fucker's sick - and while I don't believe for an instant that anyone should be hated for having such demented urges (af

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

            Funny how people always omit the fact that Unsworth started this whole thing, out of the blue, by going on international television and telling Musk to shove his sub (asked for by the rescue co-lead, Rick Stanton) up his arse*.

            "Started this whole thing?" That's your deeply flawed method of analyzing this (completely ignoring the publicity blitz [independent.co.uk] that preceded it)?

            "Started this whole thing" is certainly a complete defense to publicly and repeatedly accusing a man of being a pedophile. I look forward to seein

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Rei ( 128717 )

              "Stick your submarine where it hurts" is "criticism"?

              PLEASE tell me that you're a movie critic, because I soooo want to read your review of Battlefield Earth ;)

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by DRJlaw ( 946416 )

                Yes, being an insult doesn't mean that it is not also criticism.

                Yes, being an insult doesn't mean that it is not also criticism.

                Hey, you want to say that it justifies calling the man a pedophile, go for it. Tarnish your character as much as you want.

                PLEASE tell me that you're a movie critic, because I soooo want to read your review of Battlefield Earth ;)

                I am legion [denofgeek.com].

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • He said that they have a design. If that is true in any meaningful sense, then that means that a team of talented engineers spent substantial time working on it. Personally, I doubt that they "have a design" but either way it is damning vis-a-viz the resource allocation priorities of this publically traded company.

        • I'd be surprised if this so-called "design" is much more than a PowerPoint slide deck that took at most of a few dozen man-hours to throw together. I imagine some over-eager junior engineer came up with a nifty idea for how to do it, and got together with some buddies in their spare time to pencil out some details as a way to impress the boss.

    • This guy says all sorts of stuff on Twitter, and at least half of it turns out to be bollocks. Let's wait for him to actually demonstrate one, shall we?

      I bet you're fun at parties.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      This guy says all sorts of stuff on Twitter, and at least half of it turns out to be bollocks. Let's wait for him to actually demonstrate one, shall we?

      So maybe he has managed to make the transition to proper car manufacturer... They announce shit that will never be more than a mock up all the time.

    • Wish he would say, "we are doing research that will cut battery costs by three quarters."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mspohr ( 589790 )

      What have the Romans ever given us! (Except hundreds of thousands of EVs, AutoPilot, Superchargers, SpaceX rockets, tunnels, solar systems, utility scale and home battery backup)

    • This guy says all sorts of stuff on Twitter, and at least half of it turns out to be bollocks. Let's wait for him to actually demonstrate one, shall we?

      Yeah, I remember he even said he'll send his car in space, can you believe this shit?

    • Yeah, but you know somebody wants to buy this thing and install some BBQ flamethrowers on the bumper.

      If the French can build a boat-car that only sinks once in awhile, Elon can probably build one that works.

      The spaceship was real.

  • Of course (Score:4, Funny)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Thursday June 13, 2019 @08:06AM (#58755094)

    They'll also be offering autonomous submarine shuttles to Mars next year.

  • What if a pedo uses it?
  • Does it come standard with machine guns, torpedoes and underwater mines?

  • During a Tuesday shareholder meeting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted that the electric car company has a design for a submarine car -- and it sounds like something straight out of a 70s James Bond movie.

    That doesn't mean they are actually working on one. Saying they have a design could literally mean they wrote something on the back of a napkin over lunch. It's clearly not something Tesla is spending a lot of time on, nor should they. Elon might be a little crazy but he's not stupid. It's old news that Elon bought the James Bond car and that he has an interest in such a thing. Doesn't mean they are planning to bring one to market and he said point blank that there really isn't much of a market for suc

    • Exactly what came to my mind. It would be a cool project to throw at an intern and could actually turn out useful. Stretch designs like "design a roadster capable of full immersion" can result in ideas for improvement of the real world product such as better water proofing.

      One of my vehicles (not a Tesla) is currently leaking when it rains and multiple shops have not been able to track down where the water is coming in. I can understand the value of a thorough review of possible water entry points that such

      • Who's the uboat commander?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Exactly what came to my mind. It would be a cool project to throw at an intern and could actually turn out useful. Stretch designs like "design a roadster capable of full immersion" can result in ideas for improvement of the real world product such as better water proofing.

        If it were fast enough, such a design could also solve a lot of Bay Area traffic problems. Imagine being able to drive down a boat ramp in Mountain View or Menlo Park and resurface in Berkeley without ever getting on a highway or bridge.

  • What next? sharks with frikin lazer beams.

  • ... when his investors come to collect.

    Who knows - might even buy him time to escape.

  • It doesn't work anymore, sorry.

  • The fantasy we saw on the screen?

    Or the movie prop that required the passengers to wear scuba gear and the control planes to be locked in the up position to keep it level?
    • The shear amount of weight/ballast needed to overcome the buoyancy of all the air in the passenger compartment makes for a very poor car.

  • Elon Musk is a geek who wants cool geek things to exist. The key to success in introducing new technologies is timing -- and the time happened to be right for someone to take a risk on EVs, or to start a private space tech venture.

    The right time to be investing in new tech, if you want to win big, is before conservative investors think it's sensible. But not too much before [wikipedia.org]. Steve Jobs genius wasn't in engineering, or even design (he demanded brushed aluminum backgrounds in QuickTime's dialogs, for Pete

  • "Submarine car"? Sheesh. Sub-ma-car is the only way to say it. Or maybe submacar.

  • Already made. (Score:3)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Thursday June 13, 2019 @08:50AM (#58755276) Homepage

    A company called rinspeed made such a vehicle in 2008, called the sQuba:

    Link [rinspeed.eu]

    • Interesting concept, but not quite the same thing. The car in the movie had a cabin full of air... no need for Roger Moore and Barbara Bach to don scuba gear.

      Come to think of it, this would be one of the biggest obstacles to realizing the idea... how to maintain neutral buoyancy with that much air in the cabin. Even with an extra ton of batteries on board, I doubt that would be enough ballast to keep the vehicle submerged.

  • A Tesla model the rest of us can afford.

    While being able to drive underwater is cool, it does little to solve greenhouse gases.

    I think he has his priorities in the wrong order.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      "A Tesla model the rest of us can afford."

      That is the issue, it was a hell of a task to make a $35k version that really costs much more and in terms of actual function it was bottom of the acceptable barrel. Actually making a mass market sub $15k bottom line vehicle without the form but retaining that function like ICE vehicles do isn't in the cards for EV anytime soon. You'd also be really screwing the consumer who bought it, the repair costs and battery replacement costs would make it a far inferior value

    • A Tesla model the rest of us can afford.

      Did it occur to you that they are working on that but that it's going to take time for the economies of scale to work their magic so that it is possible? The production systems and technology to make that possible are still being worked out. Or are you under the delusion that Elon has some sort of obligation to subsidize your desire to buy an EV for less than it costs to make one? Have a little patience - it's going to take a minute to build the supply chains necessary to profitably make cheap EVs that a

  • Someone on Youtube has caught it on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Water world sequel An even bigger flop. A new flagship vehicle as a metaphor for PnL or stock options aka under water. A concept car with patents for potential use of limited features in other vehicles. A few ultra wealthy might buy. A water resistant car/suv nice for boat launching and off roading. Yes the latter exists in truck , Jeepâ(TM)s. The

  • It was a shell, (easy to make from the existing Esprit GRP moulds), with a tube spaceframe inside replacing the original chassis and interior.
    Of course, (like the original car), it was not waterproof, so the underwater scenes were filmed with divers inside.

    As a former owner of one of the original Series 1 cars, I would agree that replacing the original drivetrain with Tesla bits could potentially make it more reliable, but would probably destroy the amazing handing that made you (mostly) forgive the rest.
    (S

  • This announcement will materialise just like the hyperloop, passenger travel by rocket, car delivery by automatic underground tunnels, the car with rockets, and so on.

    This person has cried wolf so many times that it's unbelievable that people are still interested in whatever nonsense is coming from his mouth.

  • Elon needs an eye patch, a goatee and a volcanic island base.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Trimaz ( 4609805 )
      No, he just needs to fuck off back to Africa and stop wasting every bodies time with his shit.
  • Cant we stop giving this meme lord attention, please. All of his government backed hair-brained schemes go nowhere while the media licks his taint at every chance they get. Fuck Elon Musk and fuck everyone that felates him at every chance they get.

  • ...to get to work across the SF Bay Area in under an hour.

  • Nobody does it better...

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