back to article A Dyson car? Don't rule it out. We're suckers for innovation, says CEO

Dyson's chief executive has hinted at the British technology company's interest in entering the crazy world of automobiles. Known for its vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and digital motors, the company's chief executive hinted at Dyson's interest in cars in an interview with the Telegraph. Announcing its annual financial results …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Any new Dyson car will probably suck. (Ahem)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh I dunno, there's a healthy tradition of lunatic but excellent supercars being made by small companies in Britain, it could be amazing.

      And now I've recovered from the lacerations caused by the unfortunately named and tragically easy to misuse Dyson 'Ball' cleaner I may be able to sit down to drive one.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        "there's a healthy tradition of lunatic but excellent supercars"

        There's also the Sinclair C5

        1. enormous c word

          Sinclair C5

          The Sinclair C5 was neither a car or super.

          I'm guessing Dyson are aiming for an autonomous street cleaning drone - inevitably using *ball* technology and twin-helix / vortex and a transparent bin so you can see the used condoms, fag ends, dead pigeons and MacD' Burger packaging whirling around in there...

    2. Fungus Bob

      "Any new Dyson car will probably suck."

      So it would really stick to the pavement? Good. Handling is important in a car...

      1. Trigonoceps occipitalis

        Been Done

        Brabham BT46B

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Like their vacuum cleaners, a dyson car would...

    a) Look really cool

    b) Have great marketing

    c) Never really live up to the hype

    d) self destruct as soon as the warranty runs out

    1. Richard 81

      Funny. Not really true though, since they seem to be genuinely well made.

      Mind you, they're ruinously expensive.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Ditto.

        I found them to be really well made as well, I hear bad things about the newer ones that were off-shored but the pre-offshore Dyson I have is going strong.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Ditto.

          If you want reliability in a vacuum cleaner the choices are Miele or Sebo - quality German engineering. Forget Chinese made junk such as Dyson.

          1. TeeCee Gold badge

            Re: Ditto.

            Miele's products make Dyson's look free with cornflakes. At that price I expect the fucking things to be gold-plated and convert dust into pellets of refined uranium. Oddly enough Rolls Royce cars tend to last longer than Fords. You get what you pay for.

            Sebo are great if you either live in a bungalow or have an Olympic medal for weightlifting.

            About the only problem with Dysons is that the cylonic bits can clog. Since the entire product can be completely dismantled using only a Torx No10 driver and the parts are easily cleaned, this is no big deal.

            1. Alan Brown Silver badge

              Re: Ditto.

              "Oddly enough Rolls Royce cars tend to last longer than Fords"

              The 1970s ones aren't built any better. The local garage handles a few which keep staggering in for repairs and they're atrociously built.

              The main reason they "last longer" is that they were stupidly expensive in the first place, so people feel less inclined to ditch them when repair costs mount. That hasn't stopped 2 of them being permanently parked up due to chassis rot.

            2. Alan Brown Silver badge

              Re: Ditto.

              "Since the entire product can be completely dismantled using only a Torx No10 driver"

              Using a torx is intended to prevent user maintenance. If they're self-tappers (rather than machine screws), doubly so (endusers usually strip out the thread in plastic parts on the first reassembly)

              If they were supposed to be cleanable, they'd be trivially disassemableable at the spots concerned.

              The fact that they're not indicates that they _want_ the things to clog and people to buy new ones.

          2. TheOtherHobbes

            Re: Ditto.

            Or a Henry. I've had mine a year and I haven't had to empty the bag yet, even though this is not a low-dust/hair household.

            It looks ridiculous but it works brilliantly, and costs way less than a Dyson. And all the parts can be replaced.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Ditto.

              I have a Dyson now that replaced a Henry. Having used the Henry for so many years, the Dyson literally changed the colour of my carpets. I expected the Henry to suck more dirt, sure, but it does quite stand apart.

              There may be even better ones out there, I don't know, but my point is a Dyson is certainly not the same as a Henry in performance.

              1. Alan Brown Silver badge

                Re: Ditto.

                "the Dyson literally changed the colour of my carpets."

                Any new cleaner will, until the filters get clogged.

                1. YetAnotherLocksmith Silver badge

                  Re: Ditto.

                  That's the whole point of a Dyson - the filters are washable, and there's no bag to clog.

                  Do keep up.

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Go

                    Re: Ditto.

                    Pah! Price of Dyson, get a G-Tech (also British). Way, way better.

      2. Alan Brown Silver badge

        "they seem to be genuinely well made."

        One of my friends had 2 fail.

        The warranty was refused on the grounds of "it was being used on the wrong sort of dust"

    2. enormous c word

      - really? We have a 12year old Dyson. I replaced the motor for one found on Amazon for £15 last year, still goes like new. I have a friend who *salvaged* Dysons from the local tip and re-sold them as re-conditioned - all he ever did was replace the *secret* filter. Dysons are reliable and work. Because they're so common parts are cheap if you really need them.

    3. Intractable Potsherd

      At AC with the joke about reliability - essentially, you are recycling jokes about Skoda from 30 years ago (okay - there was virtually no marketing, and the design was a matter of taste). They weren't true, either, though some people were stupid enough to believe them. I've always been of the opinion that they were put around by the bigger manufacturers so that the easily swayed wouldn't realise just how good they were.

      Declaration: Yes, I've owned Skodas and Dysons. Generally a very satisfied customer, but no other link with the companies.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Why don't they make it 'blow' instead of 'suck' ?

    Presto ! Instant flying car !

    1. PhilipN Silver badge

      Re: Why don't they make it 'blow' instead of 'suck' ?

      Cf. Christopher Cockerell

  5. Haku

    Does this mean with their vacuum patents they'll be making a car that can drive up walls?

    1. dotdavid

      I had a car that drove me up the walls.

  6. SteveK

    With their heritage, perhaps they should make a hovercraft.

    1. Fungus Bob

      ...and fill it with eels.

  7. AndrueC Silver badge
    Joke

    Maybe they are working on a Dyson Sphere.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Also refuses to rule out perpetual motion machine, breakable perfect crypto

    I assumed you meant to write unbreakable in the sub-headline, but then I remembered my experiences with Dyson products: breakable is just fine.

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      I'm guessing the author/editor meant that the crypto would be unbreakable except by spooks when they're tracking down the millions of terrorists, paedos and other n'er do wells, that inhabit this planet.

  9. Fraggle850

    Wants to join the euro zone?

    And I thought he was supposed to be a smart guy!

  10. WillJP

    Ah the famous Dyson Vortex applied to automobiles...

    "Darling I'm just popping out to take the car for a spin.."

  11. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Dyson is a difficult beast to peg

    Never had any of their vacuum clears, but I've heard from both sides of the fence on them.

    I know some people who like their products, and some who don't at all.

    Online isn't better, so I guess I'll just have to but one to make up my own mind.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Dyson is a difficult beast to peg

      Cyclones are good and useful - and amazingly easy to build as a lashup attached to your existing vac.

      Dysons are noisy, heavy, fiddly and prone to dropping bits of themselves around the place.

      On top of that, _all_ mobile vacuum cleaners spray out a shitload of PM10s that got past the filters (even the "hepa exhaust filter" ones)

      If you want to do the job _right_ put a shop vac outside with a coarse bag filter (venting outdoors) and run a long fat hose to where you want to clean (or fit an inhouse vac system).

      If you want to reduce power consumption and dust spray on a portable cleaner then redirect the exhaust down just in front of the suction bar (it reduces power draw by about 75% and the guy who holds the patents has been trying/failing to get UK makers interested in doing it for the last 20 years)

      (Search for "Air recycling cleaner" to see one in action.)

  12. AlgernonFlowers4

    Sheer Brilliance

    What's not to like, be great commuting to work on clean roads!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flaw

    Their latest Cinetic is very powerful in terms of sucking up dust/dirt. However, emptying it is flawed - you need to use a tool to extract hair and end up getting dust all over yourself... they provide the tool which is an admission of a design flaw.

    If they can't get that right, I would not want to drive in one of their cars.

    My DC01 was excellent at the time, rarely did I need to use any implement to get debris out of the cylinder.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: Flaw

      Apart from the DC01 has the stupid fucking inbuilt pipe where if you want to do tight places, you have to unclip it, meaning you can't attach any tools and are stuck with the hose, which in turn has holes at the inlet point.

      Stupid design.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I doubt they can make a useful car

    It would have nowhere to put bags

  15. Fraggle850

    Dyson engineers have form on this...

    Evidence of prototype development?

    http://www.topgear.com/car-news/video/dyson-engineers-build-go-karts

  16. Stevie

    Bah!

    Unnecessary. We already have many cars on the market as unfit for purpose as the Dyson DC25 vacuum cleaner.

  17. Tubz Silver badge

    We don't a supercar, we need a five seater saloon/estate with a good size boot area, with a range of 500 miles @ a minimum of 90mph, battery last a minimum of 5 years without loosing charge, costs less that £12000 and looks good.

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      supercars/urban cars/family cars/holiday mode

      A lot of those requirements are contradictory and that's what drives costs up dramatically.

      The average urban warriormobile goes less than 10 miles per run with a top speed of 40mph holding 1 or 3 people with shopping. No matter what kind of ICE they're fitted with, you seldom get more than 20mpg due to stopstart running and they don't get enough time to warm up so all the antipollution gubbins is worth more or less diddly-squat as it requires a hot engine/cat - electric heaters and deliberately running rich to make the cat light faster simply result in worse milage and more unburned hydrocarbons until it's hot.

      Longer runs (holidays, etc) need more range, higher speed, more baggage space and more seats but they account for less than 5% of average usage. Paradoxically whilst the anti-pollution stuff is working at peak efficiency there's not much for it to do and in a non-urban environment not much point for the most part anyway (it would be better to increase efficiency even if that means higher NoX emissions)

      Putting all the mass on for the latter case makes the former case uneconomic to run. There's a lot to be said for just hiring a larger vehicle when you need it.

      But we insist on having one car which can do it all. The ironic part is that in two car families, the one which is larger (more practical for family stuff) and safer (better when hauling kids around) is the one that gets the single driver, whilst the second car tends to be smaller, less safe, less prope

      r maintenance and poorer tyres.

      Cars are a curse in urban situations and a necessity in most others. A lot more work is needed to eliminate the _need_(*) for private vehicle ownership in cities and encourage those commuting from suburban/rural environments to ditch the car at some suitable point and use public transport from there on in.

      I'm not talking about better bus or train services - although these are useful at peak times most of the rest of the time they're hemorraging money (efficiencies can be made). Bluecar and other initatives need more traction worldwide.

      (*) You can put in as many anti-car initiatives and drive up parking costs as much as you like, if people perceive a need for one they'll buy it. The better way forward is to eliminate the perceived need by making urban transportation systems less inconvenient/expensive even if that eliminates some long-traditional jobs. If you think London Black Cab drivers hate Uber wait till you see their reaction to JohnnyCab - and that may be nothing compared to the way the traditional automakers react when they realise that automated vehicles will eventually slash sales by 70% or more.

      1. YetAnotherLocksmith Silver badge

        Re: supercars/urban cars/family cars/holiday mode

        About right. But what's this "urban environment" you mention? Is that where they used to have buses?

        Considering the almighty cock-up that was Saturday, caused by taking the wrong vehicle (indeed, should've taken both) in an area where everything is miles from everything else, and public transport is non-existent, I can't see a car-free future.

        I can see massive gains in being able to SSH the van and have it come to me though, electric or not.

    2. anonymousI

      It's possible you could get all of that from Dyson - but the cost would probably be more like £112,000.

  18. GitMeMyShootinIrons

    Combine a Dyson and a vehicle and...

    ... You get a street sweeper.

    Hmmm. I think I'll watch from afar.

  19. Cuddles

    Technology vs. products

    There seem to be plenty of complaints about the quality of Dyson's vacuum cleaners (mine lasted 10 years before catching fire; I'm not sure if that counts as good for the time or bad for the failure mode), the fact remains that they took an area that had been almost entirely stagnant for the best part of a century and completely revolutionised it to the point that it's now fairly rare to see one that doesn't use either Dyson's technology or something developed specifically to compete with it. They then did exactly the same to hand driers, with it now being something of a surprise to come across one of the old style that vaguely wafts some warm air in your direction. Of course, they then completely failed to do the same with fans, so not quite a perfect record.

    Cars are a completely different kettle of fish of course, but even if a Dyson car turned out to be crap, I wouldn't bet against it containing some kind of innovation that quickly becomes ubiquitous in everyone else's cars. Even if it does just turn out to be a better way of blowing air into the car.

    Incidentally, for those complaining about Dyson outsourcing their manufacturing to China, you may want to check an atlas. While I can't vouch for the quality of their manufacturing, Malaysia is a couple of thousand miles away from China, and would be akin to confusing the UK with Russia.

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