If this is a joke what is the punchline?

I love submarines, but I can\'t possibly conceive of what is to gain by rolling along the bottom. A much more scaled down competition involving Autonomous Underwater Vehicles would be a lot of fun though. The cost (and danger) of hauling humans along on such a trip would be prohibitive. I\'m picturing a disc-shaped AUV with solar cells on top that would periodically surface to charge batteries/gain a GPS fix would be a good contender for a transatlantic voyage.

Why do people bring up solar cells all the time, has there been some advancement in PVs that make solar cells useful? I say a small fast breeder reactor would last much longer and be more useful then silly solar cells.

Another way to destroy the sea floor... ...how innovatively are we sentencing our selves to mankind´s colapse !!
Let us live in peace and save children for starving around the world, let countries live independant and promote commerce spetialization instead of invasive unfair globalisation.
We haven´t born yesterday ... !!!

One thing about solar panels- they never experience melt down or China Syndrome and they don\'t generate raidioactive waste.
Nuclear is not the answer. millions of people can\'t even properly handle disposing of dirty oil after maintenance of their machinery- do we really want more nuclear/chemical energy and not less? Remember BP... New Orleans born, -g

Nice toy design. My son would love it.

Here\'s some folks who actually know how to build subs;
http://www.uboatworx.nl/

Pauley\'s design gives no thought to hydrodynamics, variable buoyancy and appears to be over-focused on traction. Maybe better as an amphibious sub than a sea-bed crawler. This guy comes up with some really interesting compound transport concepts like submersible flying boats and flying cars etc, but none have any technical credibility.

This is an absolutely horrible idea, regardless of whether it will ever happen or not. I suspect designer Philip Pauley has not considered the environmental degredation the Pathfinder submarines would render as they trundled across the fragile ocean floor....and for what? to win a silly race? I suggest that we engineers and designers put our talents, experience and intelligence toward resolving the pressing problems in the world today so that our inventions and creations will help leave a clean, green world for our children and future generations. I suggest Mr. Pauley apply his design talents to the clean energy sector, which HSBC stated in a recent report, was the \"Biggest Economic Development Opportunity Ever Quantified\". That is where the SMART money is going, and that is what the SMART designers are concentrating on. The clean energy sector presently exceeds $500 BILLION a year and is already larger than the global aerospace and defense industries combined. In their report, HSBC predicted that the clean energy market will be worth $2 TRILLION in 10 years - and that\'s a lot of GREEN.

This is an old design. The 3 Stooges invented the SubHeliTank long ago and used it to fight Martians, not just race across the ocean. Also, their version could fly. The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962) http://www.kiddiematinee.com/t-3stoogesorbit.html **kent

@facebook user & @aMajorman I couldn\'t agree more. This idea is moronic let alone so easy to show how unworkable it is.
Gizmag should look at why it publishes things rather than just because they are there.
Another thing Gizmag should do is demand that the people who want their ideas shown answer questions in this forum, now that would be interesting.
A submarine with wheels is this guy older than eight?