Speaker 1: Find out if it really is better down where it's
Speaker 1: wetter under the scene, why not travel in style. Aston
Speaker 1: Martin has a new personal submarine. All the way. I'm
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland and this is tech stuff daily. Aston Martin
Speaker 1: is a luxury car manufacturer out of England that is
Speaker 1: more than a century old. In all its time and existence,
Speaker 1: the company has made only around eighty thousand cars. That's
Speaker 1: not eighty thousand cars per year, that's eighty thousand cars period.
Speaker 1: The company's reputation is built upon expensive sports cars and
Speaker 1: high end touring vehicles with elements that are crafted by hand.
Speaker 1: It's that level of craftsmanship that commands the high prices
Speaker 1: for Aston Martin vehicles. The fictional Superspy James Bond has
Speaker 1: been known to drive an Aston Martin on occasion, though,
Speaker 1: as cars tend to come with options not available to
Speaker 1: your average wealthy sports car enthusiast, and now the company
Speaker 1: is working on a personal submarine. Aston Martin announced the
Speaker 1: project at the Monaco Yacht Show, a gathering I am
Speaker 1: almost certain never to be able to attend unless I
Speaker 1: land a gig with the catering staff. The code name
Speaker 1: for the submarine is Project Neptune, which seems rather fitting
Speaker 1: and Aston Martin isn't going it alone. The manufacturer shows
Speaker 1: Triton Submarines as a partner to design quote a strictly
Speaker 1: limited edition vehicle end quote. According to the company, the
Speaker 1: design is purely in concept stage, with some artistic renderings
Speaker 1: showing off what it might look like once it's finished.
Speaker 1: The profile view of the submarine reminds me of some
Speaker 1: of the sleek helmet designs you see in games like Destiny.
Speaker 1: The luxury personal submarine will hold as many as three people,
Speaker 1: and you may wonder how many clams you'd have to
Speaker 1: PLoP down to own a sweet little machine like that.
Speaker 1: According to Merrick Reichman, the chief creative officer for Aston Martin,
Speaker 1: the price tag will run in the neighborhood of four
Speaker 1: million dollars. According to Bloomberg Pursuits, the submarine will be
Speaker 1: able to travel at three nautical miles per hour, which
Speaker 1: translates to about three and a half miles per hour
Speaker 1: up on land. It can dive to about one thousand,
Speaker 1: six hundred fifty feet. You won't be using this baby
Speaker 1: to study the Mariannest Trench, in other words, but you
Speaker 1: can really impress some scuba divers. Clearly, the market for
Speaker 1: these submarines is pretty small. It's a collection of incredibly
Speaker 1: wealthy people who are growing increasingly bored of this mundane existence.
Speaker 1: We are all trapped within, and they must find something
Speaker 1: amusing to keep their attention and avoid slipping into malaise. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I'm over in our company's break room trying to avoid
Speaker 1: slipping in mayonnaise. It's a different world. Lest you think
Speaker 1: Aston Martin is unique in the personal submarine world, allow
Speaker 1: me to educate you as to your alternatives. Should you
Speaker 1: find yourself in possession of an enormous amount of cash
Speaker 1: and a desire to live out your fantasy of being
Speaker 1: Jacques Cousteau. For the low price of eighty thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: you can purchase a Sea Breacher X. It's a submersible vehicle.
Speaker 1: It's shape and paint job make it look like a
Speaker 1: shark with a windshield, which might very well be the
Speaker 1: coolest sentence to ever be spoken on a podcast. This
Speaker 1: is more of a recreational vehicle and isn't meant to
Speaker 1: go on actual dives. At most, you would tend to
Speaker 1: go a few feet below the surface of the water
Speaker 1: for just a few seconds at a time, but you
Speaker 1: can direct it so that you can leap out at
Speaker 1: a nearly ninety degree angle with respect to the ocean surface,
Speaker 1: which is totally boss. The Deep Light Dragon submarine, which
Speaker 1: retails for about one and a half million dollars, is
Speaker 1: a different beast. It's an all electric vehicle that can
Speaker 1: dive well below the surface and can tool around underwater
Speaker 1: for six hours before requiring a recharge. There are a
Speaker 1: few other submarines that are meant to launch from yachts,
Speaker 1: such as the Ocean Pearl, which can hold two people
Speaker 1: and dive to three thousand, three hundred feet. There's a
Speaker 1: whole line of subs from Aurora that range from a
Speaker 1: three person sub on the smaller side to a six
Speaker 1: person sub on the I have enough money to convince
Speaker 1: five people to get into a glass bubble and dive
Speaker 1: deep into the ocean with me side of the scale.
Speaker 1: Typically you have to inquire with the companies to find
Speaker 1: out how much these things cost, and as a rule
Speaker 1: of thumb, if you have to ask, you can't afford it.
Speaker 1: I've resigned myself to the fact that I will likely
Speaker 1: never set foot on any of these submersibles and find
Speaker 1: out what it's like to ride in one for myself.
Speaker 1: But I do find it fascinating that such a market
Speaker 1: can even exist. If you are immensely wealthy and you
Speaker 1: have your own private submarine, consider inviting me out to
Speaker 1: ride in it. To learn more about how submarines work
Speaker 1: and explore other topics such as underwater habitats. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: the podcast tech Stuff. You can find deep dives Unintended
Speaker 1: on all sorts of topics related to technology. That's all
Speaker 1: for me for now, See you next time. Wh