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Chinese Disappearing car door
Information
Video posted by disappearingcardoor
This old video from Jatech shows us an original car door idea that can disappear in a pretty cool way. The concept was to slide it underneath the vehicle.
Unfortunately, this idea was almost never adopted, except perhaps for a small production of 8,000 BMW Z1 cars. More info in this video.
It seems the cost of building such a system is too high to be mass‑produced.
Such a door would still have quite a few advantages, for example if two cars are parked close together, there would be no problem opening the door without taking up extra width.
There’s no doubt this system would be more convenient in everyday life, but there are still major issues to solve before it becomes truly usable.
Among the drawbacks:
- High construction cost
- Relatively fragile system, so common failures could occur when opening the door (getting stuck inside or outside would be disastrous.)
- The retracted door cannot support a person’s weight, so if it opens and someone steps on it, there’s a risk of breaking the glass or mechanism
- It might also be less secure, lacking a reinforcement bar, so if a car hits the door sideways, the occupant would take the full impact
In short, a great idea, but it still needs refinement to become truly usable.
