Any new Dyson car will probably suck. (Ahem)
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 …
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Friday 4th September 2015 15:40 GMT 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.
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Monday 7th September 2015 13:03 GMT 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...
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This post has been deleted by its author
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Friday 4th September 2015 16:50 GMT TeeCee
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.
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Friday 4th September 2015 18:33 GMT Alan Brown
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.
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Sunday 6th September 2015 18:15 GMT Alan Brown
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.
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Saturday 5th September 2015 20:30 GMT 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.
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Monday 7th September 2015 13:06 GMT 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.
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Tuesday 8th September 2015 12:47 GMT 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.
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Friday 4th September 2015 18:40 GMT Alan Brown
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.)
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Friday 4th September 2015 19:58 GMT 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.
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Sunday 6th September 2015 19:56 GMT Alan Brown
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.
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Monday 7th September 2015 06:03 GMT YetAnotherLocksmith
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.
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Monday 7th September 2015 12:34 GMT 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.