Disappearing Doors, Needless Knobs and Avoidable ‘Andles

Thank goodness they haven’t yet invented one of these for your home! We would be out of a job.This is a disappearing car door – and I challenge you to see how it works the first time you see it … or even the third time! It really does seem to disappear without a trace the first few times you see this door open.

The disappearing doors are on particular models of car made by JaTech , and one of their main marketing ploys in promoting the advantages of this sort of door is that automobiles today still use the same basic door principles that were in use on 19th century models … happily inferring that anything that still uses principles from this long ago needs to be updated, replaced, and improved. Hmm … my outdated lungs and heart still use the same pressurizing and pumping systems that lungs and hearts did hundreds of years ago. Thin I’d better replace the useless things! But then again, my sink full of dirty dishes still uses the same dishwashing principles that were in use hundreds of years ago, and I wouldn’t complain about that being upgraded …

If you don’t have the patience to watch the whole video, I can explain the theory of these disappearing doors. Basically they are rounded and able to roll down into the underbelly of the car – either just on top of or just below the chassis, although they still provide a normal ground clearance. They have also ‘eliminated the B-pillar and lengthened the rear door by 10 inches to increase access to the rear seats’. It also claims to make the car lighter, and therefore increase fuel efficiency, and notes that the floor and seats remain in exactly the same position as in the base model.

I think that these would be a fabulous invention for the home (although it’s not strictly necessary to replace your ‘19th century model’ home doors…), if only for the fact that with two kids, one only a few months old, every tie I walk into or out of the house it is with at least 3 bags and a baby, slung in various manners all over me. If I could then just push a remote control once I have dropped all of the stuff on the floor of the car, it would save me a lot of time and back-and-forthing. Of course, this is as long as it is not compulsory to wear the same pantsuits as the women in the video, to be allowed the luxury of opening your door by pressing a button!

If only they could make a door handle that retracts similarly into the actual door … and a gorgeous, chic and classical knob to go on it … I would be a happy woman!