Lit Motors C-1

[Sparrow]

I wear a bicycle helmet when driving my Sparrow for exactly the reason that ecarfan stated. I think it is necessary in the Sparrow because I was bumping my head on the hard fiberglass side of the car when taking corners.

 

[scottf200]

Airbags?

I pointed to FAQ above.

Image: http://i.imgur.com/7BHfAdC.png

 

[doug]

I probably would wear a helmet in the BMW C-1 too, but not in the Lit Motors C-1.

 

[DuncanWatson]

I am very skeptical of the Lit Motors C-1 at this point. If it rises from the ashes I will be happy but at this point I regard its chance for success very low. This means that I view the other claims skeptically too. Standard Drivers licenses and airbags are part of that concern. I think there is a real market for a thin commuter vehicle that can handle highway speeds and do inter-city transportation (i.e 200 miles range). Especially if that thin vehicle can use HOV lanes because it is highly occupied by one driver not because it gets a special exemption like EVs in CA. I am a big fan of two wheel vehicles and love riding/driving them. The Litmotors C-1 was a dream vehicle for me. Unfortunately the missed dates and lack of communication has soured that dream. I got my deposit back.

 

[voyager]

I am very skeptical of the Lit Motors C-1 at this point. If it rises from the ashes I will be happy but at this point I regard its chance for success very low. This means that I view the other claims skeptically too. Standard Drivers licenses and airbags are part of that concern. I think there is a real market for a thin commuter vehicle that can handle highway speeds and do inter-city transportation (i.e 200 miles range). Especially if that thin vehicle can use HOV lanes because it is highly occupied by one driver not because it gets a special exemption like EVs in CA. I am a big fan of two wheel vehicles and love riding/driving them. The Litmotors C-1 was a dream vehicle for me. Unfortunately the missed dates and lack of communication has soured that dream. I got my deposit back.

I agree. The driver's license issue is a make or break thing. Toyota's iRoad should be scaled up to be able to use it on the open road.
Someone did: Tesla, Google, Apple, Uber… Who is going to disrupt the auto industry? — Medium

 

[JRP3]

On the other hand, if it requires a motorcycle license, then you can take the test in the C-1, which would be really easy.

 

[ecarfan]

I probably would wear a helmet in the BMW C-1 too, but not in the Lit Motors C-1.

I was not aware of that BMW model. Do you mean this? BMW previews its vision of a safer city scooter with C1-E concept
That's a 6 year old article about a concept vehicle and says BMW will not put it into production. Based on the seat design with a headrest, one could not wear a helmet. So maybe not what you are referring to. I see that BMW appears to also have offered a conventional ICE scooter (the C1) with rider protection but it flopped. Is that correct?
While the Lit Motors safety information quoted above says "multiple airbags" there is nothing specifically about side impact airbags. I'll be surprised if they are offered, but who knows, as the Lit C-1 remains a long way from production. Based on what I know now, wearing a helmet in a Lit C-1 seems prudent to me, an ex-BMW R1150RT rider. Yes, the C-1 has the amazing and intriguing gyroscopic stability feature, but in a hard side impact scenario, even though the C-1 strongly resists being pushed sideways some vehicle movement off the vertical axis still occur. The occupant's torso and head are not restrained and may move towards the side wall of the enclosure.
Only crash testing with instrumented dummies is going to tell us what will occur. I do not know if DOT regulations will require proper auto-type crash testing for the two-wheel Lit C-1 or not. I suspect not.

 

[doug]

I only mentioned the BMW C-1 because your post came right after one where someone else had mentioned it, so I wasn't sure to which you were referring.

"We are working to make sure only a standard driver's licence will be needed" . That is good to know but it basically means nothing. It is not up to LitMotors to decide what will eventually be required to drive the vehicle. It was similar with the BMW C-1 scooter, only in Germany were people allowed to drive it without a helmet. It would have been much more successful if people had been allowed to drive it without helmet in other countries too.

If I owned a C-1, I would always wear a helmet, regardless of what the law required, given how close my head would be to both sides of the vehicle.

The BMW C-1 only sold for a couple of years years in the early 2000s. Interestingly:

The [BMW] C1 was designed to be ridden without a crash helmet, and all the safety data - which shows it is much safer than a conventional scooter - was accrued without helmets. Indeed, there's an argument that a rider wearing a seatbelt is more likely to suffer neck injuries when wearing a helmet than without.

Cover me beautiful - Telegraph​

So maybe I have it backwards.

 

[Brando]

update on Lit Motors

Pioneers Festival November 2016

- get Tesla to sell at their stores, market, or even license to Tesla - how about Model Z ?
- seems the perfect autonomous uber/lyft vehicle in hopefully not to distant future

good luck Danny

 

[JRP3]

No benefit or upside for Tesla to be involved.

 

[JRP3]

Also, an "update" from 2016 is not encouraging. Looking for something more recent I came across this reference on their site to an upcoming update in April 2018 which does not seem to have occurred Update: Technical Breakthrough! Newsletter coming April 2018 - Lit Motors

 

[Brando]

Sorry for my poor choice of words. Rather than update I should have written something like:

Historical Details and Design Goals and status as of Nov. 2016

Lit Motors slow progress is a big disappointment to all.

reminder: Took Tesla 6 years (2002-2008) to introduce Roadster even with Elon's 80 million to start and AC Propulsion T-Zero.
Danny's design goals I do think [please watch video and decide for yourself] align well with Tesla mission and the thinking of all the founding group - Marc Tarpenning, Martin Eberhard, Ian Wright, JB, Elon.

Now Tesla already doing a lot (SEMI, Roadster, solar Roof & panels Model Y are still in the intro stages) [not to mention SpaceX/Boring] so now certainly not the time to add another project.

BUT, as Tesla continues battery development, building GigaFactories and developing the "machine that builds machines" group of engineers it seems to me that Tesla could build the Lit C-1 type vehicle [autonomous software and ride share network added] to bring electric transport for the rest of us (meaning affordable).

As you will see in the video, even in China apparently half of the autos have only the driver. Two passenger vehicle works fine most of the time (I didn't say all of the time). So for lowest costs - 1/2 the wheels, 1/6 the battery is an obvious solution. Well actually eBikes are the low cost winner, right? You can (with enough money) build almost anything, even submarines as yachts. Mass production at affordable prices no easy task. Note how long it is taking Tesla to get near $35,000.

MonoTracer latest version is down to about $75,000 ? They started in 1987 and Twike 5 coming after 20 year in business.
Monoracer Cabin Motorcycle | Home
TWIKE - Home
Konfigurator

think you'll enjoy the video

Perhaps China or India will end up bring these ideas to the world as they have more necessity while the US continues to shrink the middle class and crush the lower class. After all Walmart and AMAZON can't/won't pay living wages so we taxpayers provide food stamps,
subsidized housing and health insurance subsidies.

good luck to all.

considering Apple, Google, auto companies, uber, lyft seems to me Tesla might be the only one that could bring us C-1 as an affordable solution - not today but in the near future. (I thought Dyson might try)

 

[JRP3]

Now Tesla already doing a lot (SEMI, Roadster, solar Roof & panels Model Y are still in the intro stages) [not to mention SpaceX/Boring] so now certainly not the time to add another project.

Exactly. As long as Tesla keeps innovating and pushing their production capabilities they should not take on outside projects, especially something that will be low volume yet require completely different production lines. Tesla will not have any excess capacity to spare for many many years, by which time Lit will have either already made it or failed and disappeared.

 

[JRP3]

another startup

Another 3 wheeled weirdmobile destined for failure like all the rest. As was said in the C1 video 3 wheels are never popular.

 

[TEG]

Long ago we asked Martin why not a 3 wheeled Tesla since it avoids a lot of safety requirements.
The response was basically "no way"... They want safe vehicles, not to avoid safety regs.
I think they weren't so keen on the "weirdmobile" aspect either.

 

[Brando]

Long ago we asked Martin why not a 3 wheeled Tesla since it avoids a lot of safety requirements.
The response was basically "no way"... They want safe vehicles, not to avoid safety regs.
I think they weren't so keen on the "weirdmobile" aspect either.

AND you can almost never avoid a pot hole.
(@TEG - hope you had time to watch the Nov 2016 video - some good ideas/thoughts from Danny)