Waaay back in the before time I worked in and around submarines. Every once and awhile the diesel variety would provide a look at some badass machinery. Machines like the one you posted are awe inspiring when you are standing on top of them. And when they crank up, damn.
I got to climb around on a few of its smaller siblings at a power plant not too terribly far away a couple of years ago.
https://www.adn.com/energy/slideshow/photos-mea-flips-switch-co-ops-first-power-plant/2015/05/11/
One of my coworkers just bought himself a Tesla model 3 (not even the fastest version) and he was telling me that it’s ridiculously unnecessary for a normal street car to have that kind of speed and acceleration. Not the least bit surprising that idiots are killing themselves and others in the much more powerful Model S Plaid:
We’ve got to pass a law electronically limiting the top speed of street cars (pick a number, but definitely not over 100 MPH) unless they’re specifically keyed to activate some kind of “track mode” that can’t be activated when the car is currently driving. And the “track mode” needs to have obvious visual indicators in the form of special lights or something so that cops can easily tell if you’re driving on public roads that way.
Bugattis already have a similar system if you want to take them to top speed. Something like this would be trivial to add to a Tesla’s software.
Edit: turns out the EU already passed similar regulations for speed limiters that will go into effect for all new cars starting next year! Their system is even more invasive (depending on your perspective) and uses a combination of GPS and road sign recognition to limit your speed to whatever a given road allows. I doubt we’ll have the same system in the US anytime soon (because “FREEDOMS”) but hopefully we’ll adopt at least some of that technology.
The EU version sounds problematic if you’re trying to pass or avoid an accident in progress.
Or if some scary dude is trying to follow you home from a club. Yeah, that does happen.
From an article I found explaining the limiters in the EU:
Hard to imagine many situations where you’d need to get up over 100mph to be safer, so I hope there’s still an upper limit on how much you can override the system.
Some folks in California built a VW Bug, at 140% size!
And we now have a UK contender for “you can’t fix stupid” traffic traps: the Woodmere Avenue Width Restriction in Watford.
ETA: Its evil little secret is a set of metal bollards on either side of the narrowed street section, along with a bit of a ramp in the sidewalk pavement.
You can tell that isn’t the US. Here they would have shot the bollards!
Credit to @FSogol who posted this up in the Count to ten thousand! (Part 2) thread, yet another interesting motor.
