Commuter Cars
Yesterday we looked at how Rick Woodbury came up with the incredible looking Tango. Today, we look at the Tango’s incredible potential and handling.
Why a car and not a motorcycle or three-wheeler?
A 3-wheeler becomes unstable as it approaches 1 G, either under acceleration, deceleration or cornering depending on the configuration.
Why a one seat front and back format and not a traditional one?
With 140 million workers in the US and 106-million single-occupant commuters jamming up all of the highways streets and parking spaces the Tango is the only car in the world that can solve road congestion. The car fits in half a lane.
What plans do you have for the future?
150-million Tangos, world wide as soon as possible–probably 30 years or so. That’s just half of the single-occupant drivers.
Tango’s Potential. In order to understand the potential of the Tango, one must look at the job to be done, not at the products that currently do the job with little satisfaction. In order to innovate, you do not give people what they ask for, but watch what they do. Over 50 years of observation, I find it interesting that people driving cars by themselves with 4 empty seats jam up freeways, streets, and parking spaces in cities throughout the world. It is an incredible waste of time and resources. You can also look at it this way; it is as if people in a crowded subway all wore back packs that were 4 times bigger than they are.
According to the Texas Transportation Institute, at Texas A&M University, there are 67-billion dollars wasted every year due to congestion in the US, 5.7-billion gallons of gasoline wasted. This would be enough to fill tank trucks lined up end-to-end, from NY City to Las Vegas and back. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics there are 118-million workers in the US. Of them, 92-million drive by themselves to work every day with 4 empty seats. About 90% of of cars and roughly 80% of all workers drive solo in a car 4 times larger than needed. Only 0.6% of workers use motorcycles and bicycles combined, and public transit is only 4.9%.
Freeway lanes are 12-feet wide by federal standard and a truck is 9′ 4″ from mirror to mirror leaving 16″ of clearance. In order to double a freeway lane’s capacity, a car would have to be 40″ wide to match the clearance of a 6′ lane. The Tango is 39″ wide and easily fits in a half-lane. The driver is cab centered and makes one feel in control knowing how close they are to other cars on either side.
Tango’s Incredible Handling. In order to make the Tango as well as it does, we had to ballast with a couple thousand pounds with more than enough horsepower to move it. We’ve driven 2 Tangos side-by-side in a single lane for over 40 miles at freeway speeds and it felt comfortable. The University of California Transportation Dept. and Booze-Allen-Hamilton did a study on a narrow car of nearly the same dimensions as the Tango and found it would increase lane capacity from 2,000 cars per hour to 4,400 cars per hour, more than double.
Why Batteries? Battery-electric is the answer for many reasons. The choice of lead-acid batteries provide just enough weight in the Tango to achieve the same rollover threshold as a Porsche 911 with plenty of power. Using the same kind of motors that pull 100-car freight trains in one gear from 0 to 90 mph, fit nicely in the space between the rear wheels leaving the rest of the bottom of the car for batteries. The two Tango motors actually produce more than twice the torque of a Dodge Viper V-10 engine.
Next we will look at how Rick sees the future for Commuter Cars.