BMW CEO says Model X only a prototype and hits his head on Falcon Wing Doors

[Vitold]

I cancelled my reservation last week, but one of my concerns was possible longterm issues with those doors. Hopefully they will be OK, but they sound quite complicated so it was a slight worry for me. I am not really a car "geek" and I loathe the service trip I currently have to make every 2 years to the garage 20 minutes away - so having read lots of people saying "Yeah it's cutting edge technology so you gotta expect a few trips to the dealer in the 1st year" that is a nightmare for me.

Errr....and the price in Europe was just too rich for me. I could write the cheque but I just don't love the car that much. Aston Martin DB11 is a different subject

Falcon doors are no more complicated than rear hatch. How often do they fail? I'm not saying that they are perfect, they will go through revisions I'm sure, however technology behind is proven to work. Btw, you should change oil more often than every 2 years.

 

[johnnyduval]

Btw, you should change oil more often than every 2 years.

Beh. Like I care if the car gets a bit ragged? Porsche say 2 years or 30.000 kms so I am sticking to that!! The car is nearly 5 years old so it's barely worth more than a Tesla Falcon Wing door anyways.

p.s. Funnily enough in theory I should be driving a Model X at the time of writing according to my Tesla promise last year, but maybe best we don't go there. Got a test drive lined up in a Jaguar F-Pace shortly however

Falcon doors are no more complicated than rear hatch.

Hmmmmmmmm. I vaguely think some engineer type dude may come and correct you on this. I have never seen a rear hatch that folds in the middle, concertinas up, has sensors built into the panels and stuff like that. Methinks it is more complicated than the rear hatch on a VW Polo but I ain't an engineer.

 

[ecarfan]

Falcon doors are no more complicated than rear hatch. How often do they fail? I'm not saying that they are perfect, they will go through revisions I'm sure, however technology behind is proven to work.

The Falcon Wing doors are hinged at two points, instead of one like the rear hatch, and they have multiple sensors to prevent them from hitting objects in their path, while the rear hatch has no sensors. In addition, the Falcon Wing door seals are more complex that the rear hatch seal, and Elon in fact admitted that getting the FW seals to work right was a real challenge.
That said, I think that the Falcon Wings will prove to be reliable, and now that the engineering is done I expect to see them as standard (my speculation, to be clear) in the Model 3 SUV version because they make ingress/egress easier and they are a distinctive Tesla feature that no one else offers.
Also, given that the base X is only $5K more than the base S, they apparently do not add a great deal of cost to the vehicle since the base X also includes that huge windshield and overall just more glass and metal than the S. So the FW doors possibly only add about $2,500 to the cost of the car. Therefore, it seems possible that Tesla could offer a base Model 3 SUV with FWs for $40K, about $5K more than the base 3 sedan. Just a guess on my part, but seems reasonable.

 

[jbcarioca]

Hmmmmmmmm. I vaguely think some engineer type dude may come and correct you on this. I have never seen a rear hatch that folds in the middle, concertinas up, has sensors built into the panels and stuff like that. Methinks it is more complicated than the rear hatch on a VW Polo but I ain't an engineer.

"You don't have to be a weatherman..."
partial quotation from: [FONT=Open Sans, Helvetica, Arial, Liberation Sans, Bitstream Vera Sans, sans-serif]Montoya v. PNC Bank, N.A., 2014 WL 4248208 (S.D. Fla. 2014) in turn from Bob Dylan :"Subterranean Homesick Blues"[/FONT]

 

[CarlK]

I cancelled my reservation last week, but one of my concerns was possible longterm issues with those doors. Hopefully they will be OK, but they sound quite complicated so it was a slight worry for me.

Good thinking. Now you can go buy an ICE with simple design like four tiny valves per cylinder with tightly sealed pistons that can move up and down at high speed and withstand thousands of explosions per minute. Yes and those simple transmission and lauch control with hundreds of parts that only need to transfer thousands of pounds of brute force in a fraction of a second too. Why would anyone want to have such a complicate door that has not just one but two hinges? No wonder smart people like you always get ahead. :smile:

 

[Mark Z]

...Why would anyone want to have such a complicated door that has not just one but two hinges?...

No concern when mine failed to open. A pull of the manual release wire allowed the falcon wing door to be opened manually. The door can be opened or closed with physical effort. Same with the front doors. If it happens you get to feel the quality of the engineering!

I accomplished the manual open/close to check how it worked during a very unusual non-operation. Normally, the passengers would use the other working door.