As a car enthusiast, I can think of a good one, the Ford Nucleon.

During the 1950s and 1960s, there was considerable interest in nuclear power and its potential applications. This led to the idea of using nuclear energy to propel cars. The concept behind a nuclear car was to utilize a small nuclear reactor to generate steam, which would then power the vehicle’s engine.

Of course back in those days, this was extremely futurustic and some at the time thought this would be a game changer, but ultimately, the safety aspect was one of the biggest reasons why this idea was dropped, and I probably don’t have to explain why it may not have considered to be safe, I mean, it was using nuclear power, so even if the engineers tried to make it as safe as possible, IF something went wrong, it would have been catastrophic.

Ever since then, the interests in the automotive sector has shifted to Electric and Hydrogen.

Still, a very intriguing concept car and idea.

Outside cars, you have blimps, and I personally believe if we tried to make something like a hindenburg today with existing technology, we might have been a lot more successful than back then (as it goes way back to 1930s), there are still some blimps used occasionally, I also don’t believe those use hydrogen(?), but they are not the “game changer in air travel” it was once seen as, although we can’t rule out a comeback.

What about you guys?

  • @SpaceNoodle
    8•1 year ago

    There will always be fans who love the flops. BetaMax, 8-tracks, LaserDiscs.

    There were a few people that loved the Amazon Fire Phone, although these days I wonder if they were just astroturfing.

    Crypto never achieved what it claimed it would, and is just limping along as a scam platform. Yes, there’s a cult built around it. No, you’re not gonna get rich with it.

    Where are you that Segway is new? It came out in 2001 to widespread derision. Yes, sometimes you’ll see a mall cop on one, but it never revolutionized travel.

    3D TV is not the same as 3D movies - and even the fad of the latter has died off. There was literally no content for the 3D television sets being sold.

    • nicktron
      1•1 year ago

      BetaMax technically wasn’t a flop. It was a better product in every way imaginable than the VHS, however, it just didn’t have the marketing power and backing that VHS did.

      Thanks, capitalism.

      • ripcord
        4•1 year ago

        Right, but it did flop. Lots of flops were actually good or best in class.

        • shockwave
          0•1 year ago

          Except it was widely used for professional TV, especially out of the studio, news report type situations.

      • LucasWaffyWaf
        1•1 year ago

        Beta lost over VHS for a few reasons.

        • Smaller tapes. The cassette was more compact, but it meant you couldn’t have as much tape inside. Less tape, less footage, and when the two formats were both new on the scene they were intended not for home video (that came much later), but for recording shows and sports games while you’re out of the house. VHS could do up to 4 or even 6 hours of footage on one tape with the right settings, while Beta tapes had shorter recording times (I believe 2-4 hours, depending on settings used. Correct me if I’m wrong!)
        • Competition. VHS was cheap and simple to license, leading to many companies manufacturing players for the format. These manufacturers competed amongst one another, coming out with innovations, features, and price reductions to appeal to the markets. Beta was mostly manufactured by Sony themselves, with very few companies licensing the format out. Less out of disinterest, more because Sony was much less willing to license the design out to other manufacturers. Less competition within the Beta format means Sony eventually wound up largely chasing after innovations found in the VHS format.

        There are other factors but these were the biggest. Once home video hit most people had VHS, so it was VHS that studios printed their movies for. Some printed tapes for Beta, but that stopped soon enough when the profits weren’t nearly high enough to counter manufacturing and licensing costs.