Last time I checked, Elon Musk wasn't pitching his ideas in Slashdot comments sections... a critical difference it would seem.

Here's an idea: You can cut your cable requirements in half by lifting twice the weight, using a bogy:

So you have a cable fixed at the midpoint of the building. It rises up to a pulley on a bogy, then descends to the car at ground level. When the bogey is located at the middle of the building, the length of the cable need only reach to the floor. The bogy has a cable anchored to it that travels to the top of the building, connected to the motor, and of course another cable that passes over a pulley and then is attached to a counter weight, that is double the weight of the cab assembly.

As the motor draws the bogey up, the counterweight assists with the pull. The distance from the bogey to the centerpoint increases, which draws the cab upwards at twice the speed of the bogey, and when the bogey reaches the top, the cab has reached the top. It's technically more cable, but shorter lengths each, which solves the weight/strength problem.

<slow clap>I see what you did there... </slow clap>

...so far.

You can't 3D print 1.21 gigawats.

I agree completely... I don't know what percentage of time is spent engineering the safety of a car... and I know it's super cool and kitchey to "design your own car" and "3D print it" and stuff, but what happens when someone prints a car that is aerodynamically unstable at 80mph?

"My test drives were all fine... but once I decided to open it up on a country road, I lost control and hit a horse drawn carriage full of people."

There are reasons it takes millions and years to get a car roadworthy.

Also, who's gonna handle the recalls if you share your design with someone else?

I don't always fanboi, but when I do, I prefer to do it to a product/company that actually deserves my fanboi squeals of delight. A Nissan GT-R doesn't seat 4. A Nissan GT-R doesn't run silent. And a Nissan GT-R doesn't deserve my fanboidom.

I can tell you're really proud of what you've got there... good for you. But you completely missed my point. Speed is not the only comparison to be made here... so when I say I'd stack a Tesla up against any car you care to bring out... I mean stack, not race. Make a fair comparison, and you must realize you've been squarely beaten. We're talking about powerful, and silent here, but you go so far as to state that when you straight pipe your car, that you can set off car alarms... as if that somehow disproves my fart-can statement? You've given me nothing but evidence that I'm right. Your had to make your car loud and obnoxious to gain 100hp, while making it illegal in the process. So congratulations on that. It doesn't make your car better.

Here is the reality that faces you, and of which you are terrified: The reason a Tesla costs $90k is because it is new, it is novel, and it is extremely high quality. You can take all of Tesla's technology, and pack it into a 2 seater that weighs 1/3 less. You can skip all the leather and build a cheap plastic car similar in trim and quality to your beloved WRX. In a few years when the Gigafactory is up and running, and batteries get less expensive, it will be possible to build the every-man consumer grade sports car that will absolutely trounce anything that exists today, and will do it for $30k.

I predict that an electric car will set a world record on Pikes Peak in the next 10 years, and that record will never be re-taken by a gas powered vehicle.

If that were the case, wouldn't the cloning of a certain star ship captain be more prominently featured as a plot device?

It depresses me that it took this long for someone to come up with a sensible answer... I read the article and immediately thought of pump impellers, but everyone above here is still stuck on derezzing.

The noise it needs to make is "wooo wooo" http://youtu.be/zUXow3d3-b0

Does anybody else remember the V10 Viper H-pipe debacle? Wish I had mod points for you, 'cause you are spot on about that. The stupid car was recalled to fix the exhaust design to make it sound better.

Hey that's a great study... but from the abstract, it doesn't look like they controlled for SHIT design factors like poor quartering visibility due to A-pillar design. Have you ever ridden in a Prius? Many hybrid vehicles make compromises in cabin design to gain a bit of mileage, and unless your study is controlling for that, then it's just a whitewash piece.

Additionally, the article didn't control for the self-righteous attitude of most hybrid owners... which certainly must be a contributing factor in auto-pedestrian accidents. /s

I'd stack a Tesla against ANY gas powered car you care to bring out...

http://youtu.be/BJJvhiFINsY (warning... some profane language)

Noisy cars are for noisy drivers... I've been arguing this point with my brother for years, every time he buys a louder muffler for his 5.9 Grand Cherokee... it never gets any faster, but it perpetually gets louder and worse gas mileage. I think car owners just need to cop to the fact that they want people to look at them, and what better way to do it than to put a loud ass fart pipe on a WRX?

... is that they need to be better than old ones. Not just objectively better, but measurably better. And not just measurably better, but with enough margin as to offset the cost of learning a new language... I'm not going to ditch C++ just to learn D unless someone is paying me to. Show me the money!