At a previous job we manufactured fairly large trailer-mounted generators. During design engineering testing, you would want to power a load with the generator to check performance. The test load we had was a giant resistor bank, in a pallet-sized enclosure about 4 feet tall, with fans for active cooling of the oodles of resistance heat being put off by it. I talked to one of the electrical engineers about how ludicrous this device was, and he said that we used to use something even weirder. A giant tank filled with salt water (can't remember for sure if they were using NaCl or a different electrolyte) with probes just dumping all that current right into the water. Wish I had seen it.
I've worked in a rail yard where we overhauled locomotive engine & traction alternator sets, which were generating upwards of 3.3MW so we used a big saltwater resistor as a load bank.
It was the only bit of equipment that scared me, because the plates and tank were fairly rusty. I was waiting for it to let go midway through a test and flood the place with boiling salty water (and who knows what chaos the suddenly unloaded generator would have caused)
At a previous job, we ran a nuclear reactor but didn't want much electricity, so we'd use the power to turn a giant water wheel with all the surplus steam...
No, the water wheel ("water brake", they called it) was real, it was for wasting energy, and we didn't go anywhere; but also, yes, it was a submarine, in form, albeit not exactly in function.
I'm not sure what's ludicrous about this setup though? For testing you want the simplest possible setup - which a giant resistor bank really is. Power is power when you run it through simple resistance - no AC shenanigans will hide effects.
The electrolysis rig seems a bit ridiculous, since it generates a bunch of flammable gas you have to deal with. A big resistive load for testing stuff seems pretty normal though.
I see your point, though we barely ever had to top the tank up with water or salt. The amount of gas created was minimal, at least with our setup - admittedly not as fancy as a battery and a dish of water ;)
Any inventory warehouse can choose how much inventory to stock. If it maintains, say, 1 month of monthly demand instead of 3 months, it is more likely to run out of inventory during a supply chain shock. The fragility of the system is more related to this aspect than to anything else.
In the USA the EPA will fine you for intentionally venting refrigerants to the atmosphere instead of using a refrigerant recovery system for recovery/reuse/disposal.
I think that when people are jealous of others, they cloak this motivation.
To give an example with interpersonal relationships- never in my adult life have I encountered an adult who freely admits that jealousy is their motivation for attacking the reputation of a friend, but it happens all the time.
In other words, this problem was caused by a progressive regulation intended to help the environment that had the exact opposite effect intended. They set aggressive targets for MPG that were not able to be reached and still produce a car that people want to drive.
Remember the tiny Ford Ranger or Chevy S10? If they were produced today, they would be expected to have a very high MPG, which would require an engine unsuitable for the task as a truck.
The end result is that vehicles are forced to be unnecessarily large to get put in the class where low MPG engine can be installed.
> In other words, this problem was caused by a progressive regulation intended to help the environment that had the exact opposite effect intended.
It was caused by the legislature undermining progressive regulation. Congress was the one that required the EPA to establish different standards for “non-passenger automobiles” and allow SUVs to classify as light trucks.
It’s the only thing that saved the American car companies from bankruptcy post oil embargo shakeup so now its too entrenched a policy to remove.
Check out the Ford Maverick hybrid. Similar size to trucks 30 years ago with 38mpg. The 2025 gets 4000lbs towing capacity. You can park it in normal sized spots.
The old Ranger could tow 5000 lb, 9000 lb combined. I wouldn't want to tow 4000lb on Maverick (which I respect for what it is) for very long. That engine is a little high strung.
I don’t understand why cafe standards are brought up when all the evidence indicates people are, by and large, willingly spending extra money to sit higher up in larger vehicles, when there are plenty of smaller vehicles available for purchase.
Cafe could not exist, and we would still be in the same situation. The root cause is too low fuel prices (meaning too low fuel taxes).
In the video clip at the top of the article, the carrot is placed at the location closest to the window. Given the location of the hinge for the closing mechanism, this is the place where the hinge has the maximum mechanical advantage. The torque imposed on the motor from the load required to smash the carrot is minimized at this location, and any load-sensing feature designed to prevent this sort of injury would have the most difficult time detecting the load here.
The best comparison for an automatically closing tailgate on other cars would be at the very top of the tailgate. I would like to see this comparison. Comparisons made with carrots placed in other locations are not quite as similar.
The risk also depends on where the potential pinch point is. I doubt that many people put their hand on the top of the roof when the tailgate closes. The Cybertruck's danger zone is exactly where you would put your hand if you were leaning against the car.
It is also debatable how much damage a normal tailgate would do. I have seen several fingers pinched in fully closed car doors and have done it myself at least once. It hurt, but no fingers were chopped off. The latch and door material have enough give to allow space for relatively unhurt fingers. The single sheet metal of the Cybertruck's bonnet looks very sturdy, much to the chagrin of trapped fingers.
It would certainly be possible to increase the safety of the bonnet while maintaining the design and choice of materials. This would probably require a more complex hinge. The bonnet could close normally, but leave a uniform gap of a few centimetres and then pull itself closed. The load sensors would sense resistance equally on each edge and detect any misplaced fingers.
