Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/16/heres-a-tesla-model-x-towing.html
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Too bad they can’t hook up a model X and tow in a competent and functional production process.
(Also, fun facts, that aircraft is a full 69 tons lighter that the heaviest aircraft ever pulled by a single human being. I wouldn’t normally mention it but the coincidence made me giggle.)
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That’s a marketing strawman. Anyone with even a passing understanding of electric motors knows it only needs to overcome the intentionally low friction coefficient of the plane’s landing gear and go slow enough not to damage the fender. If anything, EVs’ single-gear ratio might have a slight advantage.
Looks cool though I guess.
Would be better with Drive Slow, but I suppose giving Kayne West exposure is risky for advertisers these days.
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hahaha. you think the majority of folks driving an F-150 know ANYTHING about what you just said?
That’s very quaint. 
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About a decade ago the British show Fifth Gear pulled a 747 with a VW Touareg.
And here’s a Tesla Model X towing an Alfa Romeo 4C accelerating faster than a 4C by itself.
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That isn’t what I wrote. And one of our vehicles is my wife’s Tacoma.
The quote says No one, which is condescending hyperbole.
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Yeah, there’s a reason that diesel locomotives are really diesel-electric locomotives. It simpler to use a paired generator and motor than a transmission at low power/weight ratios.
Edited to add I was wondering whether a train would be even more impressive, seeing as how they’re steel wheels on steel rails, the static friction per ton is much lower on a train than a plane. OTOH, planes are built much lighter and so are much bigger per ton than trains are, so that it is a bigger object to be towed. The limiting factor here is probably traction rather than torque. I wonder whether they spun the tires on the car first to warm them up and get the rubber sticky like drag racers do.
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I imagine a Telsa has software that would really prefer you not do that.
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And bleach, don’t forget the bleach.
I get your point. I think though that Tesla isn’t marketing to you or I…you know…the one’s with brains.
It’s clearly about the stereotypical gas guzzler driving middle america type who thinks torque and power only can come from a gasoline engine.
It’s sort of like the Toyota commercial that shows the dude-bros on mountain bikes and then the over weight geeks who are freaking out over the speed bump at the mall. It’s condescending as hell too, and it irks me. But to the rest of the mouth breathers…it fits their social views.
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I was thinking of the time I saw a martial artist tie an eighteen wheeler to his testicles and pull it down the street. Pulling a heavy wheeled vehicle looks impressive, but the amount of force needed is just not that high.
Excellent point.
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Hah! I was going to mention that I recall a group of people that pulled all kinds of things with their penises (or testicles… it was quite awhile back and I’m not hitting the Googles at work looking for that), and suggest if Elon would really like to impress us…
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True, but I didn’t use that example because when I wrote the post I was considering including a video, and I figured the better bet was picking the larger plane, and without a chap tugging it along with his personal block and tackle, so to speak. But then the official video from Guinness had an incredibly annoying test tone at the start, so I didn’t bother.
Not in person. But I did once see a chap in my local pub manage to pull by balancing a full pint on his forehead while drinking another and throwing darts.
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Not impressed. They two it for, what, a hundred meters, max? And oh, so slow, there was a guy next to the car walking backwards just as fast, how embarrassing! Was that an unintended photo (video) bomb? Why did they eventually stop? Did Tesla’s batteries poop out? (Did the driver’s ankle break? Ha!)
Do this uphill and then they’ll have my attention.
That Touareg did have a V-10 Diesel, putting out something around 650bhp and nearly 1000lb/ft of torque (I can’t remember specifics, but that engine has a lot of pulling power).
IIRC the biggest problem was traction.
They put several thousand pounds of ballast in the SUV so that would have enough friction to get the plane started rolling.
Besides the issue of finding one that wasn’t broke.
Turns out they, the v10 version that is, were way over engineered:
When I was young I worked for a while on a railway repair track. I was amazed to discover that heavily loaded rail cars could be moved by human power… usually several people pushing, but individuals would often move a car with a device that looked like a pike : https://youtu.be/7W8c_jMVYAs
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