Watch Bose's incredible electromagnetic car suspension system in action
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as the demo of active suspension that was a technical success but a commercial flop.
What it is
A short CNET demo of Bose's electromagnetic active suspension, which gave a very smooth ride but never reached the market. It shows the system in action.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2018 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Cites wumms · 2018-09 · on “A Better Way to Cancel Noise”
Assuming road noise is nowadays mostly low frequency noise - BOSE's car suspension [0] might do the trick: "It does for motion what noise-cancelling does for noise" [1]. [0] [this video] [1] [LINK]
Cites wumms · 2019-10 · on “Cameras Could Replace Car Mirrors?”
For my eye, Bose's suspension seemed smoother: [this video] And it had Turbo-Boost (same video with cue-in): [this video]
Cites armandhammer · 2020-06 · on “Tesla Model 3 Drives into Overturned Truck in Apparent Autopilot Failure”
Interestingly, I remember this exact scenario was a noted problem for some sort of computer-controlled shock absorbers that I saw on the "Beyond 2000" TV show in the mid-90s. In many scenarios, the shock absorbers could detect bumps and holes in the road and compensate perfectly, resulting in a ride that was smooth as glass. But they still hadn't figured out how to differentiate between a crumpled paper bag and a rock, or a pothole filled with water vs a smooth surface. Otherwise, it was really impressive. Found it on YouTube: [this video] I feel like Level 4 or 5 Autonomous Driving will be the same -- there are just some problems that will never be solved well enough to make it work acceptably.
Cites recuter · 2021-04 · on “Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?”
Funny you should mention GM, they had: [LINK] Bosch had electromagnetic car suspensions figured out 20 years ago: [this video] The car industry is a perfect example of "worst is better". The point about the cheap golf-kart car from China is about how little in terms of material costs actually goes into it. It is $5,000 shipped. In actuality it is about $2000 in parts. The skateboard platform I linked to is already developed, they are supposedly going public this year, not just a concept. If they can get them to pack flat (or flat-ish), they can ship quite a lot of them around the world for peanuts. Add whatever cab, wheels and branding you want to finish it off. All of this stuff is about to beco