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Re:The Boring Company FAQ by ferongr on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @05:46AM (#14356921)
Electric car motors are not anywhere near high torque. They're mostly designed for high speeds and go through a reduction gearbox (in addition to the reduction of the differential itself). Furthermore, the motors in Tesla cars are pedestrian in design.
Re:The Boring Company FAQ by Animats on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @12:35PM (#14360117)
Tesla pioneered mass-produced liquid-cooled electric motors. Those were rare before Tesla. Now they're much more widely used.

Tesla was forced into that technology. The original Roadster had a two-speed transmission and an air-cooled motor. The huge jolt on the transmission when it shifted during acceleration wore it out in months. So Tesla had to develop a motor with a wider power range that would fit in the original space. That forced them to liquid cooling. Previously, liquid cooling an electric motor was considered unnecessary complexity; just make it a little bigger and use air cooling. Now, it's common for electric cars and is being used for electric powered aircraft.

Re:The Boring Company FAQ by ferongr on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @01:06PM (#14360432)
Liquid-cooled motors are widespread in many applications already and technically it's not something complicated. Furthermore, high torque, multi-pole motors (assuming you want to direct-drive a cutting head moving at 2-4 RPM) have little to do with with the kinds of motors used in cars.