Video: Disappearing Car Doors
vidergy.comI imagine its a fair-weather solution. Raining? Everybody gets wet when anybody gets in or out. Kids in the back? They scatter before you can get out. How about arm rests? My Mom is 82, and uses the door to help get in and out. Any controls on the door? How would that work? Wiring would have to be creative. And forget about map pockets.
All great points. Not to mention the additional cost of the hardware, and extra moving parts which will inevitably require maintenance that cannot be done by your average mechanic.
All of this for a solution which provides zero-to-marginal benefits over a normal car door. I don't understand the appeal. It seems to me that almost every industrial designer I've ever met has a dream of re-inventing the world's commonly used objects (doors, umbrellas, mousetraps, etc.) - an obsession so strong that they usually ignore the object's common use cases and completely neglect cost-benefit analyses for the sake of cleverness.
Well... many of the problems people are listing seem to apply to other door styles as well (like a minivan's big sliding door, or a two-door car), and actually aren't noticeable problems there.
It's a bit too easy to get caught up in shooting down ideas, I think.
Here's a shot at spinning it positively:
- if you have kids in the back, no need to worry they're going to open their own door while you're doing 75 on the highway (sure, there are child safety locks... are you sure the little switch is where you think it is? If you ever carry adults in the back, or once your kids notice there's an interesting little switch there, it probably isn't)
- tight parking spaces; you (or your child) will never ding another car again while opening a door! I'm also frequently in super-narrow parking garage spaces, where it can take some creative gymnastics to squeeze through the door, particularly because I have to get a baby from a rear-facing carseat in the back of a 2-door hatchback That highlight in the video looked pretty appealing to me -- this is a frequent annoyance. I also have a nice little dent on my own door (the only dent on the car...) where someone banged my door with theirs in a parking lot, and left without leaving a note. These are pretty common use cases.
- Raining? Zing open the big door (and pop open a big umbrella or two) and let everyone get out at the same time, quickly and easily, helping each other without dodging around four large wet pieces of metal jutting out of the side of the car -- you can even hop out of the back seat to help your grandma out of the front without a big, wet, dirty door in between you.
I'm not sure I want these doors -- to be sure, there'd be a price premium, and there may be other downsides I haven't seen yet -- but I'd consider it, with or without a map pocket (er, they could have one with a closing lid, I suppose).
...windy? Open the door just a little and squeeze out without the entire car contents blowing into Kentucky? No way. Grandma likes to go anywhere alone? Nope, unless she can enlist a random stranger to hoist her out. Car battery dead? Maybe the door opens, no way it will close. Everybody doesn't have this cool door? You still get door dents just the same. And again, raining? Better have a mop and bucket to clean the rear seat when the kids take 2 minutes to get unbuckled, find their umbrella, open it INSIDE the car, struggle to close it again, finally get it closed, get out of the car, forgot their lunchbox...
You're making my point for me. You can spin it only negatively if you choose to do so, but it's not hard to find good points.
In your complaints here, it's pretty clear you aren't even trying to sort out a reasoned view at all.
I mean, look at these: why would more blow out of a car with a sliding door than, say, a minivan with a (much larger) sliding door? Why wouldn't Grandma be unable to use grips at the top & side of the door (or: maybe cars targeting aged drivers don't need to switch to this kind of door? There are plenty of other target markets)? Why would the door be uncloseable with a dead battery (can't we assume it would be counterweighted or on springs, to minimize motor requirements)? About door dents: if there were any significant number of these doors around, my own car would be that much less likely to be dented -- plus, I'm not keen on denting other people's doors. For the whole final scenario with kids in the rain -- er... just don't open your door until the kids are ready. You're sitting right there, and you control the door (unlike if they have their own door in the back).
But what's the impulse that's driving you & other commenters to just knock down the idea as quickly as possible, rather than explore it?
It's not my idea; I don't have any stake in the game, but if I notice problems with someone else's idea, my first thought is "are there ways to fix that, and are you implementing these solutions".
All of that is very true. You illustrate the point that things can seem fantastic or "dreamy" until you start to think about the logistics of some of it. Although you can't simply let that squash an innovative idea.
AND you can't use the car door as self-defense tool (or offense)
Have you ever had a power window not close properly or at all? Or fail to open? And you were still able to drive away, right?
Well, we can complicate that for you.
8,000 BMW Z1s were made with this type of door: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Z1
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliding_door_(vehicle)#Vertical...
Purchasers of the Z1 probably wouldn't be worrying about the problems of added moving parts requiring more (or more expensive) maintanance.
But this (from the wiki page) was interesting:
"The windows may be operated independently of the doors, although they do retract automatically if the door is lowered. Both the window and door are driven by electric motors through toothed rubber belts and may be moved manually in an emergency.[6]"
That could apply to any installation of this kind of door, actually -- if your battery is dead, you have to use a keyhole to unlock the door, then you could manually push down the window & then door structure. If they are well counter-balanced with weights or springs, etc. (as they should be to avoid wasting energy in normal use) and the motor doesn't cause much drag, that would be a bit awkward-looking, but not too hard.
Not true - in general, the reason you can't push down car windows is because they're driven via a worm gear to increase the force exerted by the motor, but you can't back-drive a worm gear.
I was pointing out that it was interesting that in the car that was actually produced with this type of door, they used belts (instead of the worm gear you're talking about) so that the door could be manually opened.
This is probably the approach that any other mass-produced version of this door would take as well -- avoiding the worm gear so that the window & door could be manually moved if needed.
That addresses the main concerns people had.
Anyone know a rule of thumb to equate number of moving parts to failure rate? I've always assumed a positive correlation but don't have any numbers to back that up.
This is cool, it's been around for about 10 years. I seem to recall there was crash safety and leakage issues with this setup.
So, umm, how do I get in if the battery is dead to open the hood and jump the car?
Good question. Can't put a lever on the outside without making it likelier that criminals can open your hood. You can't do it with your remote.
Maybe there'll be a place to use your key that lets gravity take the door out of the way.
"Can't put a lever on the outside without making it likelier that criminals can open your hood." I'm guessing you meant "door" vs "hood", but... why not?
Are you saying that a regular door handle makes it more likely that a criminal will open your door, so that's a problem with standard car doors as well?
Not that the door design is perfect, but there's no reason they can't:
- put a door handle on the outside, along with a keyhole (or possibly just a fingertip-lip on the window?)
- ...which would allow you to slide the window & door along their tracks manually if needed.
If you've ever had a powered garage door, it's more or less the same thing; sometimes the power will be out, so you have to be able to tug it up anyway (with a bit of extra drag from the motor, but hey, it's on springs so it's not too heavy).
We were talking about opening the hood, which is where the battery usually is.
Yup, I was confused because the real issue is that the door must be openable without power, and they must have a solution to that regardless of any questions about where the hood lever is.
They should just leave the hood lever inside the car; the door must be openable manually for a dozen other reasons.
But it looks like the window has to roll down first to avoid damage. It looks to me like out of power, out of luck.
Damn. I'll put a stop to my patent application.
I guess they'll just have to put a lock on the hood that unlocks with your key.
Ah, wait, you did actually mean "hood" above.
Nah, they need to solve the door problem, regardless (so the hood latch can be in the car). It's not just a question of opening the hood; you also have to open the door anyway, unless you want to replace the battery when a simple jump would do. (And electrical failures more serious than a dead battery happen as well on occasion...)
Blog spam. Why isn't this a direct link?
Nice idea, but it is a failure in safety - imagine a side impact..
Video posted on youtube on september 2007, and the domain registered that same year.
Here's the horrible website: http://www.disappearing-car-door.com/
And Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/disappearing-car-door/
Has to be a hoax...
More info:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-4491....
If you scroll down you'll find the "consultant for the marketing" MIGHTYTHOR who responds to some questions. Funny that it was exactly today, last year, that he replied.
convenience - yes, safety - not so much. I wouldn't want the back sit with the kids to be open while I'm still in the car. I want to personally open it while standing outside.