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Tesla 'Armor Glass' demonstration

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Spartan5

Civil/Environmental
May 29, 2007
809
US
If you're going to to do a stunt to show that something is extremely durable, you might want to have a few more trial runs under your belt before failing (twice) at a major product unveiling:


tesla_cybertruck_ap.jpg


Some crumple zones might come in handy as well.
 
Should this be in the Pub, in the Jokes thread?

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
I suspect the glass wasn't heated before the demonstration. Or they didn't have the proper stuff in.

I have seen a few demonstrations of glass taking bowling balls off it. We spent a day throwing various lumps of stuff off some tempered safety glass in a skip and it just bounced. Small tap on the edge and the whole sheet went. We were putting in glass at cordonas bowling at Aberdeen with AC yule.

In Scotland they are having to remove it from schools because some little twerp chucked a brick off a school window and it promptly bounce back and put in him in hospital with a fractured skull.
 
With my missus' bowling skills you better hope you have done a good job down at the beach ;)
 
"Should this be in the Pub, in the Jokes thread? "

It already is!

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
 
Elon has said the mistake was mixing up the sequence of hurling the steel ball vs smashing it with the sledgehammer. He claims if the order had been correct, the glass wouldn't have shattered.

Either way it's a successful demonstration because people are talking about it.
 
It's over 20 years ago now random. When it was first built.

To be honest to this day I have a window breaker in my car with a seat belt cutter on the handle due to seeing the glass not break.

We where chucking breeze blocks and scaffolding poles off the top of a transit into the middle of it. And the were bouncing out the skip. We needed to condense the volume in the skip. It was only after someone showed us to tap the side we managed to break them. We did try a bowling ball into the middle from the top of the fire escape. It cleared the edge of the skip by a meter bouncing out and nearly smacked one of the Candona family Jags in the car park. Which I am sure you know could have resulted in broken legs.

The machine the used at AC Yule was quiet interesting to be honest. But once processed you couldn't cut the glass. So the sheets we had for the skip were 10mm out so the whole lot got put to landfill.
 
This reminds me of when Bill Gates was demonstrating the latest Windows and had it crash on-stage.
 
This is one of the things that differentiates actual engineers from narcissistic showmen.

"Schiefgehen wird, was schiefgehen kann" - das Murphygesetz
 
Not necessarily; it can also be what happens when development deadlines aren't fully met and there's no way to change the demo date.

In some respects, this is consistent with "fail and fail fast" product development.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
I wouldn't call it a complete failure. Yea, the glass broke, but the steel balls didn't penetrate. Would a standard vehicle window fare so well? I don't think so.

My glass has a v/c ratio of 0.5

Maybe the tyranny of Murphy is the penalty for hubris. -
 
I am not surprised nor do I care that the bowling bowl damaged the window. That problem has already been solved by someone else. Telsa isn't in the laminated window business.
 
Impenetrable windows (not that they actually are ...) remove an avenue of escape for getting someone out of a burning or sinking vehicle.
 
Is tempered glass no longer standard for side and rear windows?
It is designed to completely crumble into small fragments so as to not present a cutting hazard.
The last side window that I broke was on a 93 Oldsmobile and it was tempered glass.
Locked out at night a long way from home at 20 below. The small rear window was an easy choice.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
 
Tempered glass is totally standard fare for side and rear windows. There are applications where security takes priority over emergency egress (Real bulletproof vehicles would certainly use laminated glass), but your normal average automotive and light truck side and rear window is tempered glass.
 
Its well worth having a window smasher/belt cutter in your car.

I got stopped by the police in Scotland and the youngster took exception to mine saying it was an offensive weapon.

Old Sgt ripped him a new one. And then educated him by asking me a series of questions of what its for. Smashing windows if the car goes under water so you can open the door etc.

Then finished up with you can charge him if you like but I will be appearing as a defence witness.

Then a wink and said right 70 in a 60 what's your excuse for that..... err none boss fair cop, my license is clean and I know what yon breathalyser is going to tell you, roads were dry and its 2 am but that's no excuse. Blow into this son.... right piss off, drive safe you won't get away with it once the average speed cameras go up be warned.
 
My preferred innocuous window smasher is an automatic center punch. Spring loaded, slams a carbide tip into whatever it's used on with great force.
 
Anyone buying a Cybertruck may be advised to install a couple of those 'Fake Broken Window' stickers as indicated. It may slightly reduce the number of sidewalk comedians trying to replicate the incident on the parked vehicle.

 
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