> Whether I'm driving a Ferrari or an Aston Martin, I still have no idea what goes on under the hood
Maybe if you're just a casual driver that's fine. What if you happen to be a race driver? What if you need to drive in snow, on ice, on sand, at high altitude? It's suddenly a good idea if you have some idea how the car actually works. What if your boss says to you, "We need you to drive 15% faster with 10% less gas", and you open the hood and there's just a big box there labelled "magic" that can't be opened?
>The battery and motors go under the body, not in front of it.
Doesn't that strike you as a rather large change? Significantly changing the center of mass on multiple axes and the allocation of space within the body of the car seems like a pretty big deal as far as the design of a car goes. And that's ignoring the fundamental differences in characteristics between an ICE and an electric motor and what effects that and the different placement has on the drive train and other systems.
>Most of the problems in any moving vehicle come from stuff close to the ground
Is this based on your intuition or is there more to it? The DoT tracks automobile issues and it looks like the top ones are engine, engine cooling, other power train, air bags, and brakes. [1]
>> Those are the easy parts because all 3 run off of hydraulics and electricity. As long as they get power supplied to them, they all just work.
Except the heat in your car is transferred from the coolant running through your engine. Which is why the 'heat' in your car doesn't work until you've been driving it for a little bit.
>> Brakes don't even need power, I believe, and can work purely mechanically.
Brakes definitely need power. Have you even driven an older car without power brakes or steering? There's a reason they used to have much larger steering wheels in cars. And most of your brakes are hydraulic with vacuum assist. Turn your ignition off (in a large parking lot) and try to steer or brake your car! The brakes will work once or twice...
You would need to add electric power steering to an older car. You can convert over a Volvo system, get an electric pump, or do it a few other ways.
>> That's generally an issue with high labor costs and not the car industry in particular.
I'm talking just parts. For example, you need a control pack from Ford which contains the ECU and wiring harness which is nearly two thousand dollars, and aftermarket systems aren't even cheaper.
> If you use the manual control, it won’t lower the window, which can cause damage.
On a Tesla. Other cars, mostly with similar frameless windows, have this same functionality and have had it for at least the last 15 years and they do so with mechanical releases.
Well you need to know that they refer to columns in the car's body in the first place.
reply