Invisible Car Door Technology

[Rogue One]

This Company Is Making Retractable “Disappearing” Car Doors A Reality

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zjL2RTc1VI[/youtube]

[Dattebayo]

Whoa, I remember this from about 10 years ago on here. Why did they not do this again?

[MinisterofDOOM]

There are some notable downsides.

Primarily: you can't have a door panel. The inner door skins on those doors are just a sheet of fabric (you can see it in the video above in some of the Mark VIII shots). The fabric has to retract as the door wraps under the car, since the door hugs the rockers so closely. You would not be able to achieve this on anything with carlike ground clearance with a standard door panel since there'd be no clearance. On their "normal ground clearance" example the door is hemicylindrical and does not match the rest of the bodywork. It also clearly will not work on any RWD or AWD design or any other with anything going on between the framerails without adding a lot of height to the passenger floor.

Another is clearance. The door has to have space beneath the car to retract, and the paint is at risk the whole time. Imagine opening these doors in 6+ inches of snow.

Another is the fact that the window has to drop for the door to open. The BMW Z1 had a similar limitation, but its doors were cosmetic or wind deflectors at most, and designed to be operated open, so it wasn't really an issue.

Yet another, there's the tedium of an electric automatic door rather than a manual door. I imagine it would get very tedious and the novelty would wear off rapidly. If it's snowing like crazy, I can pop my traditional door open a few inches, squeeze in, and be on my way. With these, I have to expose the whole car to the snow before I can step in. Ungood.

It's also worth observing that all their prototype/example vehicles are very low-waistlined '90s models. On a modern pedestiran-impact-safe car (guffaw) you'd have a LOT more door to hide.

Oh, and what happens when the mechanism fails???? (How many power window regulators have you replaced over the years?--It WILL fail.)

[Bubba1]

I'd be curious how well those doors would operate after driving thru snow or parking on it.

[float_6969]

It's a novelty. If they could come up with some sort of magic telescoping material, then you'd be onto something.

[RicerX]

There are some notable downsides.

So my first impression upon seeing the title of the thread led to me to this one downside - not being able to drive around without pants on anymore.

Glad to see we're not endangered there.

[numbnuts240]

better view from the inside

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGRzPFUlIeY[/youtube]