Is it time for Tesla to move towards active suspension?

[strider]

Isn't that just more crap?

You've obviously never driven a car with them. They are the state of the art in suspension currently. It is the only system that can give you a compliant ride on city streets and also give you razor sharp handling on the track (or your favorite twisty road). Even the best passive systems are a compromise - good on the track but not on the street, vice-versa, or mediocre at both.

People have been trained that a stiff suspension is sporty and so we pay extra for the sport suspension on cars only to have our kidneys pummeled and teeth rattled out. There is a better way - one that has been used on a wide range of cars for many years. More info here:
MagneRide - Wikipedia

 

[Brando]

Where is active suspension really needed? In a BUS.

Buses are the vehicles that really could use active suspension.

Fuel savings could be put toward suspension improvements?

 

[Brando]

Here is another great system for luxury ride. internet search below phrase

citroen ds suspension hydropneumatique

Citroen Is Developing an All-New Hydraulic Suspension

 

[Got-EMF]

Entirely uneducated on the subject, but I think the relatively heavy weight of the Teslas is a large part of the stiff suspension.

 

[thegruf]

Tesla have quite rightly ensure the ride is on the "sporty" side.
The complaints if the car had been a wallowy old barge would have been far louder

The trouble with variable damping is that it is a compromise.
An optimally tuned suspension combines the spring rate with the damper.

Change the damper without changing the spring and you immediately move away from optimal.

The advantage of air suspension is that it is constant rate, this however is both a blessing and a curse.
It makes the suspension easy to design (hence why Tesla offer it I expect) however constant rate is not always what you need.

This was one of the issues I had when buying the P100D - with a "P" (or M or an RS or AMG) the one thing you do expect is an uprated or adjustable suspension. For the sell price/cost difference this to me is one area where Tesla cheaped out too much.

Good to see that Tesla are apparently looking at new suspensions for the future though.


my choice for fabulous day to day driving compliance vs handling is McLaren.
There's a beautiful simplicity in this solution.

description here:
2012 McLaren MP4-12C: Suspension Walkaround

In a McLaren it's obviously expensive, but if you dissect it, the cost wouldn't appear to be excessive compared to other technologically complex solutions.