TNT equivalent

This machine is not the dawn of the flying commuter car.

It is an extraordinary, mathematically terrifying eighty-kilonewton science experiment that packs the equivalent explosive energy of twenty-one kilograms of TNT directly behind the driver's headrest, deafens bystanders with a hundred and fifty-two decibel supersonic shockwave, and runs out of boost in precisely five seconds.

Grab your coffee.

We are going under the hood of Elon Musk's wildest tech stunt yet.

If that tank experiences a catastrophic structural failure, say a multi-car rear collision on a highway that shears the primary high-pressure manifold, the instantaneous energy release is eighty-seven point five megajoules.

Eighty-seven point five megajoules.

In layman's terms, that is thermodynamically equivalent to twenty-one kilograms, nearly forty-six pounds of TNT detonating inside the passenger cabin.

Now, to be fair, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles like the Toyota Mirai carry carbon tanks at similar pressures, but those hydrogen tanks are sixty to seventy liters, mounted underneath armored steel floor pans outside the passenger compartment, and designed to vent slowly through thermal relief fuses.

Ivy Mike? What the fuck? [laughs] The first H-bomb.

Yeah, do the first, uh, hydrogen bomb, 7.4, uh, mega- is it megatons? Yeah.

Megatons.

Yeah, yeah.

No, my Ivy Mike.

For them, it's about weight.

So they're getting still the TNT equivalency, which is what it's important to talk about, TNT equivalency, which is what most of our industry works from.

with the cash shot versus the info, but now we're gaining room

in the machine.