Is reverse speed limited?

[john-malcom]

Why would you want to “Speed” in reverse?? I don’t think Aptera would put a governor on speed for reverse but would rely on the good sense of the driver to back up with moderation.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by  John Malcom.

[david-marlow]

Ok, Aptera could include in software a stunt mode, for thoes who want to by pass safety limits.

However, while I believe that an Aptera would still be safe for its two passengers without a reverse limit, it could present a danger to by standers, if it some one, without meaning to, went fast in reverse. Possibly cutting someone in half if cought with the rear corner, Aptera would not want to risk getting a rep as a dangerious vehicle, or the liability.

[george-hughes]

What you want for reverse is a predictable response. Most ICE vehicles are limited by the gearing of reverse which typically a higher ratio than low gear in forward. EVs typically perform better than ICE vehicles because the primary difference between forward and reverse is the polarity of the juice.

I remember a video four or five years ago where some guy raced a Nissan Leaf around a course at like 25-30, maybe even 35 mph.

The reality is most folks just hardly ever use reverse and would be uncomfortable trying to do more than park or reverse out of a garage.

I would imagine the way the issue is solved is by recalibrating the accelerator to require more movement to accelerate quickly in reverse. The power would be there but you would have to want it more.

What is really wonderful about the Aptera is its ability to have torque vectoring out the wazoo. Seriously, one could program a verbal command for a rally-type kick of the rear end around style of back road racing that involves cameras and processing in some future app. Or a the thing is modulated by a true virtual handbrake.

There should be a process to develop those kinds of applications with vetting before they are widely available to the community.

[warren-smith]

Hi,

I understand your concern. I’m even concerned at low speeds while turning going backwards. Especially going backwards on an uneven surface. Has testing been done to alleviate this concern? I hope Aptera will share this in their testing of the vehicle

[george-hughes]

I do think the boys, when they get the gamma back, ought to demonstrate the ‘reverse 180’ emergency turn. I’m thinking the Aptera may perform this maneuver quite well without even dropping into the torque-vectoring goodie bag … provided you can make the quick gear change with the touch-screen whilst in a rapidly moving vehicle.

I suspect that you could program torque vectoring to help keep you backing straight back even at higher speeds limiting the turning to the differences in travel of each wheel – i.e. kind of tank like rather than using steering input. But who would choose to do so and, does regen work in ‘reverse’? (It doesn’t on my Spark EV).

Here is the description of the maneuver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iQ0pxhHmc8