“RSVP: A New Benchmark in EV Performance + Autonomy” was the subject of the email from the Chinese household-appliance company, Dreame. In the email was a photo promising absolutely ludicrous performance — 0 to 100 km/h in 0.9 seconds.
“That’s impossible unless this is a rocket car,” I thought. Well, it turns out… it’s a rocket car. But also possibly a bullshit car that will never come to market or, at least, never come to the United States. We sent an engineer to check it out.
Here’s some of the email The Autopian received from the team handling comms for Dreame, an appliance company that sells fancy (and from what I’ve heard, decent) hairdryers and vacuums and air purifiers at the well-known Century City Mall in Los Angeles, among other places:
On April 27 in San Francisco, Dreame, a brand known for its smart home appliances, will flip the script and unveil a new high-performance concept vehicle that pushes beyond conventional EV and autonomy benchmarks – both in acceleration and sensing capabilities.We’re keeping full details under embargo until the event, but at a high level, the vehicle introduces:
[…]
Attending media will also have the opportunity to connect on-site with Steve Wozniak and Dwyane Wade, who will be participating in additional sessions.
Hot damn. The Woz is going to be there! And Dwyane Wade, GOAT-James’ sidekick from his Miami heat days. Very cool.
As the invitation was last minute at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, we decided to send an engineer-reader. He’s currently at the event checking out the “Nebula NEXT 01 JET Edition,” which is presumably named for the jet of combustion gases coming from the rocket engines in the rear.
Here are some initial photos from our enginerd on the ground: 
The thing looks snazzy! And given that China is way ahead of the U.S. when it comes to electric cars, you’d think this could be legit! Let’s check out the rockets in the back:
Hot diggidy dog! That explains the claimed 0-100km/h time of 0.9 seconds.
Our enginerd sent me some notes from the event:
- Brake by wire
- Ditches hydraulic fluid brakes
- Fully dry EMV brakes
- Battery: 550km range
- Solid state battery
- 450Wh/kg. Goal: 800Wh/kg
- “Metis” AI agent for each vehicle
- AI works with all other Dreame devices at your home
- Announced release of DHX1 LiDAR system
“This is much more about the AI interface than the vehicle itself. The proposed AI tech really is impressive (immersive — Each car will learn about its owner, including driving habits, routes, stops, it will intercept will all the Dreame suite they have in their home), but I doubt this car ever sees production in this form,” he told me, before showing me a green car, the Nebula Next 01, which was shown at CES this January.
Then there’s the ride height.
“They said it has electromechanical suspension. Why wouldn’t they lower it for a more aggressive look? Another feather in the BS hat.”
I could go either way on the ride height; I don’t think it looks too bad.
Our frustrated engineer wanted more details, because that’s what engineers do. “They just went ‘it has two rockets that produce 100kN of thrust and propel the car to 100kph in 0.9s’ then nothing more about it. But TONS more info about the AI interface, lidar set up, etc … No mention of the motor specs, rocket specs, handling specs… the things that a certain subset of every automotive enthusiast cares about.”
There is this slide, for what it’s worth:
Our engineer says the car feels like a “red herring to get eyes on Dreame’s 3-day tech expo.” And that’s honestly kind of the vibe I got from the press release (see below), which is why I didn’t send any of our regular staffers, but rather someone local.
That’s really this event in a nutshell. Dreame wants to show off its tech and get people talking about them, so they’ve got Steve Wozniak, Dwyane Wade, and all sorts of other celebs and influences and members of the media attending this three-day event, which is more about their AI capabilities and their core products than about the cars — core products like robotic pool cleaners, robotic lawn mowers, personal care air conditioner, wet dry vacuum, home vacuums, robot laundry, refrigerator, window cleaning robot, home environmental appliances, a “BIG ASS TV” (per our engineer), a fitness ring, a watch, smart glasses, phones, and more.
Anyway, it does look like a fun time, and it looks like Dreame spared no expense.
Looks like an impressive venue, impressive names, and impressive AI-appliance plans, even if the new “Nebula NEXT 01 JET Edition” wasn’t particularly impressive, especially to an engineer asked to figure out how production-feasible the car is.
[Ed note: Those are nice-looking toothbrushes. I kinda wanna test drive one of those – MH]
But hey, even if our enginerd isn’t feeling the car, what was his first press event like?
“The presentations are very nice and well thought out. I wouldn’t call it fancy, but purposeful,” he said…it was memorable for sure.”
What do I think? Well, I’ve attended a Faraday Future event, so I know what substanceless hype is, but Dreame is a real company, and Car News China makes it seem like there’s potential, writing:
On April 23, Dreame officials shared that they entered into a cooperation with the University of California, Berkley. It is a top-ranked public research university with a story dating back to 1868. The two sides will join their research resources to accelerate the development of AI-based vehicle autonomous control systems. Dreame has a long-term goal of creating an AI that is capable of controlling the entire car from perception and decision-making to chassis and powertrain.
[…]
On March 12, Dreame also revealed the Nebula Next 01X crossover with electromagnetic suspension and a range-extended powertrain option. Other features are two chips with a peak computing power of 2,000 TOPS and electric mechanical braking (EMB). It was said to begin mass production in 2027.
China is at the cutting edge of EV development, so even if these two concepts were just design-bucks, there’s a possibility that Dreame could either build them or simply use them to showcase tech they’ll sell to someone else.
Or they’re just complete vaporware there to get people talking about the brand. Who the heck knows.
All photos: The Autopian
Hilarious. Those nozzles look like the sort of things a kid draws – a mishmash of a bunch of different technologies they don’t understand but that look badass. Those nozzles are not from a rocket, but from a jet engine. They’ve got variable-geometry “turkey feathers” that suggest afterburners as well as the tailcone that is typically part of the turbine assembly – as opposed to an actual rocket that is just a plain nozzle with no central suspended assembly.
Ha, I was thinking the same thing! Just like the jet engine in the 1989 Batmobile, that Bats somehow sits in the middle of.
…and shields that come out of nowhere
When I saw that picture, I commented in the Autopian Slack that I haven’t seen “rockets” that fake since I last saw a Batmobile prop car.
Oh hey, they ALSO have a solid state battery and don’t talk about that? Woof.
It’s EMB, not EMV. It stands for electro-motive brakes and they’re the hot new thing in China right now, allegedly with someone going to mass production this year
Remember the story of the Impala with a JATO strapped to the roof from the early days of the internet?
That had more chances of being real than this.
SOLID rockets? The kind you don’t have any control over once they’re lit, including an off switch? Kinda sounds familiar…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokosuka_MXY-7_Ohka
Baka indeed.
My 1st impression too: once they’re lit, you’re committed. And there’s no way to throttle them. What absolute bullshizzle, unless your goal is to incinerate anyone unfortunate enough to be behind you.
I worry more about the people in front.
What I learned here is that when this Dreame AI chit shows up at my local Walmart, I don’t want it.
So they invented a fake car to get people to talk about their appliances?
Lame.
Shatner should be the spokesman for this rocket car, man… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdUMICxLXhM
So, fake rocket car that’s an ad for horrible dystopian appliances, whose capabilities may or may not be more credible than the rocket car’s. Got it.
Wait, your “engineer” didn’t do the math?
0-100 kph in 0.9 seconds is 3.15g’s
I question his bona-fides!
So a bunch of the specs other than the performance stuff is very plausible. The first Chinese production car (possibly worldwide) to have an electro-mechanical braking system is the Exeed EX7 made by the lowly Chery started production a few days ago (deliveries should start within a month), and a few other Chinese companies are claiming they’ll bring it their own products soon. Full steer-by-wire has been available in China since last year and several more high-end products announced a couple days ago at the Beijing Auto Show have it too. Hesai announced the 4320-line color LiDAR sensor a week ago in China. The AI stuff is all very doable by a large Chinese company, though what they say it can do is typical buzzword slop; the end result will probably be quite mundane. Dreame won’t be the first to integrate smarthome stuff with a car, Xiaomi did it first and their implementation will likely be better (there’s only so much integration one can do between a car and an electric toothbrush or a pool cleaner lol).
The 450Wh/kg battery (assuming at the cell level, not pack level) is definitely pushing boundaries, but with such a low volume high priced supercar they could use any big or small battery companies pilot production SSB cells fairly easily, there’s several options.
I bet they mysteriously cancel the rocket version of the car and only a regular electric-only version makes it to production, whenever that ends up being.
It gets the pool cleaner running when it realizes you accidentally fired off the rockets while parked in your garage and sent the car through the wall into the back yard and straight into the pool. There’s your integration.
A Chinese car company with endless useless gimmicks?!?
No way!1!!
I am absolutely shocked by that. I never could have imagined it. :rolleyes:
The 1960s called and wanted its Turbonique bits back. Sheesh.
This is obviously dumb and fake. That said, pretending it was a real, here’s what I see as the issues:
The only people who would want this should ABSOLUTELY NOT be allow to have it.
Also, solid rockets = spent canisters. I guess they could do an exchange like with propane tanks. But, like, $1000. Knowing that, you’d have to think long and hard before you press the button.
On the plus side, you won’t have to worry about tailgaters
The AI at this event became self aware and its just playing a prank on everyone…
It’s either an AI with shocking levels of self-awareness, or humans with a completely expected lack of self-awareness.
So when drag racing it will use… launch control…
Another vacuum company entering the car market. Why not. Suck it Dyson. I’ve had a few dreame made products always seemed solid enough and value for money. I hope they do build it and they are bought by people with other hypercars. It has all the hypercar nonsense in sort of a comical way.
I have a new Dreame vacuum cleaner/mop robot. My mother sent it for me, as a Christmas present. I cannot tell if she was being passive-aggressive, or earnest.
Depends how well the firmware works I suppose. I have had a few with lidar that work well enough. The newer one throws tantrums more though. The older just eats things and yells its stuck but for the most part just works.
I’ll wager $500 that Dreame puts out a functioning rocket-powered car before Tesla does.
This article felt like cope to me. “Those wacky Chinese and their vaporware electric cars. Look at these fake rockets!” China is eating our lunch and we’re too sheltered and ignorant to even realize it.
Dreame was a company I hadn’t heard of until a couple years ago, but as you pointed out, they build the best robot vacuum on the market. They have autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, object recognition, custom parts and electric motors… There is a lot of commonality between robot vacuums and electric cars. And between electric cars and autonomous warfare.
We’re getting gapped, China is smart to be vertically integrated, and our electric car ceos are too busy huffing ketamine or cancelling all r&d because they are slaves to the oil and gas industry. It is so short-sighted and stupid.
I love my Dreame vacuum and am intrigued by their other products. But there is not a lot of commonality between a robot vacuum and an electric car. That isn’t to say Dreame isn’t capable of producing an EV. But vacuums and cars are not comparable.
This article feels fair, Dreame clearly rolled out a fake vehicle.
What about AWD robot lawnmowers? Is that any closer to an electric car?
There should be some journalistic curiosity going on here, not just reporting everything at face value.
“Why is a vacuum company building electric cars?” is an important question to ask. Or even “*How* is a vacuum company building electric cars?”
It is a big pivot going from $1000 vacuum cleaners to $100,000+ passenger vehicles, but I do happen to think that a lot of the fundamentals are the same. An EV is an EV whether it is picking up your socks and putting them in a basket, or it is blasting you and 4 of your best friends to Denny’s autonomously at Mach Fuck.
Then maybe you could ask “Why is a robotics company interested in solid rocket booster tech?”
Tug on the threads. Why would an AI, robotics, and manufacturing company be looking for ways to research, develop, and deploy these things? Don’t fool yourself into believing that the days of the bootleg cybertruck are still Chinese state of the art. They are ancient history.
Chinese have been having less and less vaporware. I pretty much assume if they have a prototype its going to be built. That xpeng 6x6x6 to me seems more radical departure from convention. But that appears to be on schedule. I think we are so used to Western car companies gaslighting us with concepts that when the Chinese bring something quite different part of is disbelief but they typically deliver. I believe a big part is they aren’t afraid of failure they will embrace it. They also don’t have people telling them they can’t do that when it comes to engineering or manufacturing.
There is a reason the company the basically invented the robot vacuum market went bankrupt and was bought by the Chinese. People like to claim all sorts of things. But the big reason is dreame and others built a better product cheaper. Irobot vacuums were still throwing themselves downstairs while dreame and some other Chinese manufacturers had put lidar and enough other sensors and logic for them to not only not fall down the stairs but completely overstep them.
Samsung was making robot vacuums too but never really got market share in most of the world before the Chinese out paced them too. So many industries where the Koreans should be the next leaders but get completely leap froged by the Chinese. House hold appliances happened and no one noticed. Robot vacuum was high tech no one thought about it they did the same. They are coming for the full size appliance market just like the Koreans did 20 years ago. Hisense seems to be leading that charge and no one really took notice when they bought factories in the us and Mexico.
Over 10 years ago I witnessed something that proved to me that a Chinese made product could take any market they wanted and people no matter how there strong convictions would just accept it. In the pro audio space. Behringer a company that was hated by many went to China around 98. Quality was low prices cheap. Then quality started increasing the price delta increased. They built their supply chain and a factory city. I saw their rising quality and where they were going, people laughed.
Then all the companies the doubters loved went to China. It was a bloodbath. They didn’t have suppliers they just found OEM / odm services. Poor quality, boycotts, behringer sitting there being the cheapest and known to function did fine. Then they started buying these failed brands. Intergrating them in to what they called music group. Shared product lines everything made in their factory city. All those people that were saying how they would never touch a behringer product were buying and using them. They realized they were leading the market. They launched products that leap frogged everyone under their own brand and then the brands they had captured. This went under the radar of almost everyone that wasn’t around the pro audio space. But if those people that were so hard-line against this brand for over a decade could do a 180 almost over night. I have to believe it’s possible in any market.
Exactly. The last innovation made to an iRobot product was when Tom Haverford strapped an iPod to the top of one in Parks and Rec. American car companies are like Roombas. Stagnating at best, going backwards at worst.
Dreame’s robo-vacs can already swap out components at the docking station. Return to home, drop mop pads, auto wash and dry, refill tanks, empty dust bin, reattach pads, get back out there. They can automatically identify objects like dog poop and know to avoid it.
The top of the line robot vacuums even have deployable grabber arms to pick up socks and shoes and return them to designated areas. I know I’m oversimplifying a lot, but dang. The branches of the tech tree seem pretty obvious to me.
If solid fuel rockets are anything like the Estes kits I had as a kid, I don’t see why it would be that hard to *remove object from toob, insert new object in toob* when you’re parked on your at-home inductive charging station. Assuming something like this ever comes to market.
But the rocket car isn’t the main feature. It just happens to be the consumer-facing side project of the autonomous warfare suite that R&D is working on.
What people don’t see is the speed it is happening.
I have 3 robot vac’s One from Neato, that should have been amazing as it had Lidar, room mapping etc. This should have taken the bump and turn vac’s lunch money. Neato are no longer in business.
One from Wyze, which is also no longer available. And one from Eufy, with more tech but poor performance. It’s two years old and still available. Eufy now has robot vac’s with 3 times the suction as as the one I have. Even then the Dreame products are so much better.
3irobotix was the odm for the wyze robot and many if not all eufy. They were odm /oem for many brands dreame does a lot of odm service too.
Ironically 3ir rebranded as Picea and bought irobot out of bankruptcy they had been their primary manufacturer for a few years prior.
I had the wyze robot for a while then gave it to my sister because her much more expensive irobot kept throwing it’s self down the stairs. I never had that problem and still uses the wyze with zero issues.
Yep, not to mentoion the stair climerbers and cleaning robots. When I told the old scuffy guy who knocked on my door a few years ago trying to clean my carpets that he about shit himself. They have a whole ecosystem of sensors and logic. I always laughed at that 2019 elon yelling about cameras are perfect because humans have eyes and lidar being too expensive.
Chinese have gotten lidar and just about every other sensor out there to a point where you might as well incldude them. People really don’t like to talk about how the Chinese have developed quite a few chips on there own and are only getting started. They even have their own EUV process that is close. They just need close to pure quartz, they are working on synthetic just like they made tons of machines to make lab diamonds dropping their market and exposing decades of lies while they were at it. All the advantages the west had will be ruined by the you cant’t do that club. There will be alot irony with the quartz.
finally, someone builds the rocket car I’ve always wanted for my simple dream lifestyle. Now, I just need the solid gold house and millions of dollars
I see you are a practical person who lives within their means, a emerald studded platinum house would just be excessive.
Rockets on cars… yeah, yeah, yeah – there’s already a car in space. I’d rather they attach some directional rockets to a Flymo hovercraft lawnmower, and then add their AI/Lidar wizardry to it. Watching a rocket-powered hover-mower zip around the yard mulching grass, leaves, sticks and slow-moving animals while drinking beer on the deck sounds like an excellent Saturday afternoon.
Flying lawnmower is a thing, and killed someone at a football game. (Look it up)
That’s crazy – I hadn’t yet come across that one. At least it wasn’t an actual lawnmower. Still, somewhere, somehow that’s probably ended up on a table of probabilities for configuring life insurance policy premiums.
Yeah, rocket car, whatever. HEY, CHECK OUT THOSE AIR FRYERS!!!!!
I agree that those things on the back aren’t rocket nozzles (or at least not good ones) but rockets don’t generally have air inlets anyway.
Yeah, I read that and thought “Does this guy think he’s looking for turbines?”
Do they call that color Red Glare?
My ACME rocket bike is more convincing. The body is corrugated HDPE drain pipe with a stainless cocktail tumbler nozzle with a red 12V light in it. A disturbingly high number of people have asked if it’s real, not that I use that as evidence of being convincing, just a comment about how many dumb people are out there.
Heh. When I replaced the front left quarter panel on our bottom of the line Prius, I needed to replace the Prius badging, and Toyota wanted a bit much for it. I figured that panel would get hit again soon enough and be replaced so I got a Porsche-style Turbo badge and put that on.
The first week, I got a laugh out of a person with a much nicer top-of-the-line Prius model. Later, someone said that they didn’t spring for the turbo Prius, and how did I like it? The people at the shop get a kick out of it.
I sort of want to put some sort of almost plausible V8 badge on the back now. Nothing to obvious. Or maybe go with GT4 badge…
“Are you smarter than a roadrunner” assessment device
Those rockets look like two of the rocket behind the 70s Batmobile. Is Chuck Barris still around to confirm? Looks like even the newest Chinese product is all lies so why believe the hype about any of their EV Claims? However you will always find enough foolish people to drink the Kool Aid and if history has taught us anything the media is the easiest to fool. Remember the Robin?
Just Saying it wouldn’t be the first time. Have any of these vehicles done a safety test in Europe or anywhere
Beuller?
Besides the “rockets” on there why does this look like they just stole a bunch of design ques from Koenigsegg?
Actual solid rockets on a car is insane.
Rockets on a car in general is insane, but if it was SpaceShipOne style hybrid solid rockets, it would at least have an off switch. Hybrid in rocket motors is solid and liquid fuels, rubber and nitrous oxide in the case of SS1.
Also where do you refuel said rockets?
Oh there won’t be refueling. Solid rockets are basically on/off. Pretty sure they burn till they are out of fuel. By that time, the car and occupants have become one with the universe.
Here’s and oldie but goodie urban legend about a guy who strapped a JATO rocket to a car.
Back in the day, I got forwarded this story a lot.
https://www.tunnelram.net/news-blog/2020/9/13/heard-the-one-about-the-rocket-car
I also was going to mention that. The Darwin Award myths were all over the place. Thanks for the link.
At the dealership!
I think China knows a thing or two about solid rockets.
Just head down to Chinatown to get some replacements, and some fireworks.