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At least they don't throw your ass in jail for speeding.

Officially they have "broken ground" at Reno, though they have not yet confirmed that they are actually going to put the gigafactory there. I have also been thinking for a few months that it is going to be built there.

http://jalopnik.com/tesla-basi...

From the picture it looks like it takes just as much space as a regular parking garage, but I think the real potential in a system like this is in maximizing the density of parked cars.

If you skip the retarded sites like "Mashable" in TFS, you'll find that it actually does increase the density of parking.

(Even Jalopnik has better information.)

I'm picturing something like an Amazon warehouse, but with cars on each shelf.

Those kinds of shelf parking systems already exist, however, they require building an entirely new parking structure. The robot "valets" work with existing structures, which means a parking operator can upgrade just for the price of a few robots plus the check-in station, rather than having to tear down and rebuild from scratch. The operator can also introduce the robots gradually, say dedicating one floor to robot parking and charging a premium for "valet" service, increasing the number of robots as revenue allows.

From the Stranger-than Strangelove dept:

http://jalopnik.com/the-flying-crowbar-the-insane-doomsday-weapon-america-1435286216/

Essentially a flying, unshielded nuclear reactor that flies around pissing out fission products, and crapping hydrogen warheads.

All to defend freedom and democracy,. of course...

It's not like This has never ever been done before : http://jalopnik.com/5141430/ho... God forbid that the sole purpose of this brand new state of the art attack is this game

I'll just leave this here.

Why The Solar Roadway Is A Terrible Idea

Embrace.
Extend.
Extinguish!
http://jalopnik.com/5210372/bi...

Interesting; more interesting is the amount of debate on the topic.

Here's a couple links that all show different opinions of the potential dangers:

http://jalopnik.com/5937778/ho... (good one, has link to an actual study)

http://www.straightdope.com/co... (OK source, no study links but dude seems to know his stuff)

http://www.godlikeproductions.... (buncha freakin' morons, but worth reading so you can laugh at them)

Umm, yes. They have won suits in New York, Washington, Massachussets, and Ohio, to name a few. Not all of those rulings were permanent, but this map is pretty recent.

Umm, yes. They have won suits in New York, Washington, Massachussets, and Ohio, to name a few. Not all of those rulings were permanent, but this map is pretty recent.

"wouldn't they", nothin' Done and done.

Ah yes, the bow tie.

In the decade-old video game "Lock On: Modern Air Combat", Russia invades Crimea.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.c...

More of what you said, when the drivers don't have a reason to be less than honest.

Having lived in "HDB land" suburbs of Singapore, I do know that cars are expensive there (in the top ten with London) which is to be expected given the limited space. That does not stop more Singaporeans having a car than the roads can support though (see link).

However I was talking about the good town planning at least as far as the car park facilities go. For every X HDB blocks and number of residents they have planned and provided a high rise parking facility that is very reasonably priced Vs incomes there. Despite the limited space and ultra high density living you do not need to creatively park out in the suburbs of Singapore. Most European cities with lots more space and room to grow out in the suburbs cannot boast the same - they just do not seem to plan for cars. Madrid, Spain is one of the more egregious examples in Europe that I know of.

I agree with you on the public transport as well, makes living in Singapore a pleasure. Speaking of Australia, Sydney should be ashamed of itself it has to be the worst city I have ever lived in for commuting by car, and the train system leaves a lot to be desired + no light rail of note (the Darling Harbor light rail is too small to count). Driving to Bondi on a hot afternoon is like taking the road to hell...

I hate to break the news to you, but Ohio is out-doing Texas.

Tesla is a danger to the prostitute and coke habits of the CEOs and members of board of every Established Car Maker in the world. It should therefore be banned.

I am glad to see Texas is leading the way in this regard. Y'all don't Don't Mess With Texas!

http://jalopnik.com/how-texas-absurd-anti-tesla-laws-turn-car-buying-into-1451492195

Also: yeeeeeeeHAW!

http://jalopnik.com/the-feds-are-spending-8-million-to-take-your-blood-at-1469600527 good article and vid in comments

Can anybody give me a reason not to have stability control where that reasons does not contain “fun” or “because”? (which might be sufficient – just looking for any other reasons.)

'Cause, uh, it's a sports car designed for racing?

Mid-engined cars are designed solely to get around corners fast, and they're extremely unstable compared to your average Ford or Honda. The problem is that many are bought by people who have no clue, and end up in a ditch the first time they take their foot off the gas in a corner.

I have had several mid-engine sports cars, both with and without stability control, and you're wrong, mid-engine is the most stable engine configuration a vehicle can have, otherwise why would F1 cars all be mid-engine?

Mid-engine is so stable that the mid-engine Porsche Cayman is commonly known to be the best handling vehicle money can buy:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-mid-vs-rear-engine-debate-porsche-cayman-r-vs-911-gt3-feature
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2014-porsche-cayman-cayman-s-first-drive-review
http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/the-best-handling-car-in-america-for-less-than-100k-feature
http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Porsche_Cayman/Performance/
http://jalopnik.com/is-the-new-porsche-cayman-still-the-worlds-best-sports-333874537
http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/porsche/cayman-coupe/summary/26174-4

http://www.examiner.com/article/porsche-cayman-world-s-best-sports-car


For a good example of why mid-engine is better imagine a shopping cart with a 30 pack of beer in it and pushing the cart from the back. Front engine is equivalent to putting the beer in the very front of the cart and mid-engine is equivalent to putting the beer at the back of the cart. Try both and tell me which is easier to push around a corner.

So what do I think happened? Fluke 1-in-a-million accident that couldn't be repeated if you tried.

"Unsafe at any speed"

I was reading stuff about this on Jalopnik, and even the test driver for this car was scared by it.

Former world rally champion and Porsche test driver Walter Rohrl told Drive the new Porsche supercar is "the first car in my life that I drive and I feel scared".

Earlier this year, Rohrl said, the engineering team was about to cancel a day's testing at the famous Nurburgring circuit because of wet weather. But, Rohrl said, when he insisted the car had to be tested in slippery conditions, he discovered the car's daunting performance.

"I came back into the pits and I was white," Rohrl said. "I immediately said to the engineers that we need one button for the wet and one button for the dry", referring to the need for a traction control switch.

This car is so hard to control that you have to give it your attention 110% of the time or it will bite you in the ass. Jay Leno spun one at 180+ MPH on the track.

Shoving a spike through my gas tank is not a guaranteed fire. An environmental incident, maybe, but certainly not a guaranteed fire.

Puncturing a LiIon battery is a fire almost every time.

Maybe (though I'm skeptical), but no one has died from a punctured battery in a Tesla yet due to the firewall design. Each cell is wrapped in a gel that reacts in the presence of fire to cool down the pack and to harden into a material with low conductivity to heat. You can read more about the very interesting design here.

Sadly, you can't say the same for a gas tank, and punctured tank fires can get very energetic, very fast. Just ask the families of any number of Jeep Grand Cherokee owners, thanks to an unshielded plastic tank anchored close to the rear.

It's not impossible for an electric vehicle to catch fire due to the battery, but there's less that burns easily without gas & oil, and a more careful design like Tesla's allows you to safely bring the car to the side of the road and exist first. The only people to have died in an incident where an electric vehicle's battery system caught fire most likely did so from the force of impact.

Hell, that's another nod for Tesla, because one of the three fires that got so much press involved some drunk idiot driving through a concrete wall into a tree. The man walked away just fine. (Or more ran away to flee the cops and asked Tesla to expedite the replacement. However, being bought by total douches is no sign your car isn't safe.)

No other single 2014 model of automobile ASIDE from Ferrari.

FTFY.

Plenty of "young" Fords lit up over MANY years due to cruise control switch fires.

http://jalopnik.com/5381540/cruise-control-fire-recall-expanded-to-fords-largest-ever

Underhood electrical fires are common, and have been the source of repeated scandals regarding Ford truck and SUV cruise control switch and ignition fires.

When you ignite a modern vehicle, the plastic makes for an impressive fire long before it reaches the fuel tank.

http://jalopnik.com/5381540/cruise-control-fire-recall-expanded-to-fords-largest-ever

Got yer Citation right here!
Seems Citations had a little fire problem themselves, at least according to Jalopnik. Wiki does say they had shitty brakes and steering issues but no mention of fire.

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in-a-record-28-h-1454092837
Yeah, NINETY-EIGHT MPH average speed. With two extra fuel tanks in the trunk for 800 miles range (the thing reeked of gasoline), and the spare tire was on the back seat next to the third guy (spotter/navigator). They didn't just break the previous record, they shattered it.

http://kinja.roadandtrack.com/new-cross-country-record-forget-the-glamor-bring-the-1456737864/@matthardigree
One word: bedpans.

http://jalopnik.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-afroducks-fastest-ma-1256425384
Afroduck is a perfect example of why most people who do this stuff wait a year for statute of limitations reasons. These guys may have been foolish to announce so soon; we shall see what kind of heat they get for it.

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-guy-who-drove-across-the-u-s-in-a-record-28-h-1454092837
Yeah, NINETY-EIGHT MPH average speed. With two extra fuel tanks in the trunk for 800 miles range (the thing reeked of gasoline), and the spare tire was on the back seat next to the third guy (spotter/navigator). They didn't just break the previous record, they shattered it.

http://kinja.roadandtrack.com/new-cross-country-record-forget-the-glamor-bring-the-1456737864/@matthardigree
One word: bedpans.

http://jalopnik.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-afroducks-fastest-ma-1256425384
Afroduck is a perfect example of why most people who do this stuff wait a year for statute of limitations reasons. These guys may have been foolish to announce so soon; we shall see what kind of heat they get for it.

Then there were the images of brand new Fisker cars in port after Hurricane Sandy did its thing.

You mean the exact thing the person you replied to was talking about?

Sure it wasn't the lithium-ion batteries that caused it (it was a short on the 12V system) to catch on fire, but still, you can see in the background other brand new cars in the same port survived, who all have 12V systems as well.

It goes beyond shoddy parts to end up with a name associated with cars that catch fire when they get wet, to be honest. I don't know about you, but the number of cases of this happening is far from random.

Heck, in the meantime it took Tesla years before the first flaming car, and that happened because of an accident and everyone still made it out safely without incident. (The Fiskers seem to be completely consumed...)

Because it was one battery in one of the Fisker Karma's that had a short, and it was near all the other Fisker Karmas. One incident, among many, and all of those other cars were likely ruined as well. Had the one Karma been nearer the other car's, then they would get damaged as well.

Anybody making an association from that incident is a thoughtless stooge to the media. Who should itself be blamed for running with the story in the way they did.

But it's not their job to actually report the truth, is it?

One of the big problems Karma had was getting reliable suppliers for their parts, they didn't have the presence to get what they wanted

Another big problem: People shelling out $100K for a car want something fast and obscene that won't burst into flames upon getting a bit damp.

At least Ferrari can pull off 2 out of 3.

Then there were the images of brand new Fisker cars in port after Hurricane Sandy did its thing.

Sure it wasn't the lithium-ion batteries that caused it (it was a short on the 12V system) to catch on fire, but still, you can see in the background other brand new cars in the same port survived, who all have 12V systems as well.

It goes beyond shoddy parts to end up with a name associated with cars that catch fire when they get wet, to be honest. I don't know about you, but the number of cases of this happening is far from random.

Heck, in the meantime it took Tesla years before the first flaming car, and that happened because of an accident and everyone still made it out safely without incident. (The Fiskers seem to be completely consumed...)

Correction: It's dumb to make a proprietary mobile data transceiver for a car. Witness an entire generation of ONSTAR-equipped vehicles from just a few years ago that are now completely nonfunctional now that the analog cell network is decommissioned.

My next car will have a mobile data connection - I want the live traffic updates integrated with GPS without having to jury-rig a cellphone on the dash or have it lying loose in the car. Instead, I'll use the iDrive joystick to operate the GPS. The one thing I wish the car will have that none of them do is a standard mobile radio similar to the mini-PCIe interface in laptops, where if the wireless data standard is phased out, I could just upgrade the radio.

Contrary to what some are implying, mobile and embedded data and processor technology are showing NO signs of stabilizing - quite the opposite in fact, they are rapidly accelerating so it would be a tremendous breakthrough if automakers would standardize at least some components and software APIs.

On the software side, SAAB under Spyker was reputedly making huge strides in this arena, where they were going to roll out Android-equipped infotainment systems in the 9-3 and 9-5, and it would have had tremendous potential. Imagine not only being able to install Torque and create custom gauge themes, but going a step further and run something similar to the T8Suite, enabling you to create custom tune profiles, and then select between customized economy and aggressive tune profiles on the fly. A nice high PSI, high fuel rate and advanced ignition to take advantage of a turbocharger upgrade, then a very low boost profile (similar to their old LPT models) with a lean-burn mixture and retarded timing and adaptive shift points (or a shift light for us manual drivers) to maximize fuel economy without having to give up on-demand performance. Some might view the CAN/OBD integration as a security hole, but it's like having physical access to a Linux box - once you have physical access to the car (OBD port or software or otherwise) it's game over as far as security goes, so I'd consider it a feature. As far as direct control over the fuel, ignition, active suspension, ABS, etc. I don't think we'll ever be away from the individual embedded systems running those, with their being fed only values from lookup tables from the BCM (and a tune aside from engine component changes and hard hacks to an ECM and sensors really only modifies those lookup tables anyhow and if there is a fault the modules revert to an open-loop "limp mode" with default lookup values)

Besides, it's no less secure than electronic keys, which have been compromised on at least some makes.

No, first they used water, then they realized it only makes it worse, then they used chemical extinguisher and managed to extinguish the fire beneath the passenger compartment. But a battery in the front was still burning, and they had to cut the front part open and puncture the battery so they could extinguish the front battery with water. Surprisingly, pouring water on burning lithium seems to have worked in this case.
Here's the firefighters' report (via Jalopnik)

Speaking of Tesla, You can char them with fire also... oh, chaaarrrge...

The BBC reported the same:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23487928

Car break-ins using it are already in the news:
http://www.today.com/news/police-admit-theyre-stumped-mystery-car-thefts-6C10169993
http://jalopnik.com/whats-the-secret-device-thieves-in-california-are-usin-471782175
http://news.msn.com/science-technology/high-tech-car-thieves-break-into-vehicles-without-leaving-a-trace

Here is the device built using the same code these researchers discovered:
http://www.vag-info.com/BMW%20Group%20products.htm
and a video how to use it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVmPfCFFkqQ

"Killing a few lighter passengers vs not saving a large proportion of the population that fails to follow another regulation is not necessarily a bad thing." The technology for multi stage airbags was around before the mandates for airbags. DOT had a prototype car made that could save all passengers in it from a head on 50 mile an hour crash with no seat belts. ( http://jalopnik.com/5549518/how-the-us-government-killed-the-safest-car-ever-built ) "Killing a few lighter passengers" could have been avoided if that technology had been integrated into the system. Regulations are great but not when the focus is moved from people safety to profit safety.

There is already some people using tech to break into cars in California.
http://news.msn.com/science-technology/high-tech-car-thieves-break-into-vehicles-without-leaving-a-trace
http://jalopnik.com/whats-the-secret-device-thieves-in-california-are-usin-471782175

Yeah...before I moved here, Atlanta was on my short list of places that might be nice to try. It's closer to family for me, but still has milder winters.

Interesting thing about the culture down South. There is some truth to the whole Southern hospitality thing...and I would miss that. It's not all bad in the North though either...they're just a little more up front with their feelings, and sometimes initially stand off-ish.

The whole "Keep Austin Weird" thing has a pretty sad story, to be honest. The very saying of it was originally meant as an anti-corporate support the local business thing, and a push for people to be themselves and be independent. And then it got trademarked, and commercialized. It's pretty much all a bunch of fakery for people who haven't spent enough time here to see through it. More of Austin's fantastic marketing.

Speaking of Austin's marketing...there was a funny story recently about them trying to bring the X-games here. The sad part was that a Nashville based consulting firm was running their campaign for them.

My favorite line is on their right now. It says "Show detroit who has soul by voting here". Seriously...Austin. You want to compete with Detroit and you go with a soul showdown? It sounds like something that someone would say if they never spent much time outside of their bubble.

Like I said...Austin has the best marketing department of any city I know right now. I'm not here to stop anyone from falling in love with the place and moving here...but check it out carefully first. It might take a little while before the honeymoon phase wears off. It sure has for me and quite a few other people I know. (But yeah...some people really love it here. YMMV.)

Perhaps Tesla is starting to learn what PR is about. However Elon Musk's response to the last road test was defensive and rude. Elon Musk may be a genius and a useful slave driver when it concerns production, but in PR he is an idiot who cannot be allowed to speak publicly. Many excellent engineers have the same trait. The later analysis done by others is more cool-headed.

Regardless of all that, the exit clause of "deliberate abuse" of the battery is pretty open-ended. Who determines if the battery was abused? I should actually rephrase: who is the only person|company on the planet that can come to such conclusion? In other words, I do not trust Tesla because for all their company history they attacked the messenger and stuck him with a bill. To compare, a Prius's NiMH battery is unconditionally, short of a crash, warrantied for 10 years. Very few batteries ever went bad, and in each case the batteries were replaced by Toyota under warranty. I have reason to trust Toyota in this aspect because they do what they promise.

It's interesting to note that concerns about longevity of Prius's battery were also voiced on the Internet, just as they are now voiced about EVs. There was only one process that alleviated those concerns, and that was personal experience of millions of car owners. For example, without those owners we would have never learned that the heat in Arizona significantly hurts Leaf's performance. Per Nissan, it would be all peachy.

Seriously? You recommend this much overkill?

Well, of course that's not feasible. But an EV in the garage, plugged into 240V, 100A circuit is a dangerous thing. There were several fires caused by a plugged Volt (and more that were not caused by a Volt that was in the same garage.) There was even fire in a parking lot, with Karma. Batteries are dangerous things; one of my friends charged batteries for radios, and he had to do it in an enclosure that protected everyone from explosion if it were to happen. Boeing got hit with battery fire, as were several notebook manufacturers. Gasoline fire, on the other hand, is rare, unless the car is destroyed in a wreck - then all bets are off. Gasoline will not self-ignite; but a battery can; a plugged charger that is capable of 100A charge current is just one p-n junction away from a spectacular failure; and there are many of those junctions in a charger, and they all were made by the lowest bidder somewhere between Taiwan and Philippines.

checking to see that the car is still charging once a month would be more than sufficient.

I'm not so sure. If the power fails one week after the caretaker checks it, the battery in a Roadster will be a brick by the next visit. As you say, Tesla may have fixed this, I don't know, but that's what killed those Roadsters. Tesla is adamant that their EVs must be always plugged in, hell or high water. (BTW, how do all these EVs react to being submerged? If a car falls into a river, what happens? A gas car just stalls.)

Perhaps Tesla is starting to learn what PR is about. However Elon Musk's response to the last road test was defensive and rude. Elon Musk may be a genius and a useful slave driver when it concerns production, but in PR he is an idiot who cannot be allowed to speak publicly. Many excellent engineers have the same trait. The later analysis done by others is more cool-headed.

Regardless of all that, the exit clause of "deliberate abuse" of the battery is pretty open-ended. Who determines if the battery was abused? I should actually rephrase: who is the only person|company on the planet that can come to such conclusion? In other words, I do not trust Tesla because for all their company history they attacked the messenger and stuck him with a bill. To compare, a Prius's NiMH battery is unconditionally, short of a crash, warrantied for 10 years. Very few batteries ever went bad, and in each case the batteries were replaced by Toyota under warranty. I have reason to trust Toyota in this aspect because they do what they promise.

It's interesting to note that concerns about longevity of Prius's battery were also voiced on the Internet, just as they are now voiced about EVs. There was only one process that alleviated those concerns, and that was personal experience of millions of car owners. For example, without those owners we would have never learned that the heat in Arizona significantly hurts Leaf's performance. Per Nissan, it would be all peachy.

Seriously? You recommend this much overkill?

Well, of course that's not feasible. But an EV in the garage, plugged into 240V, 100A circuit is a dangerous thing. There were several fires caused by a plugged Volt (and more that were not caused by a Volt that was in the same garage.) There was even fire in a parking lot, with Karma. Batteries are dangerous things; one of my friends charged batteries for radios, and he had to do it in an enclosure that protected everyone from explosion if it were to happen. Boeing got hit with battery fire, as were several notebook manufacturers. Gasoline fire, on the other hand, is rare, unless the car is destroyed in a wreck - then all bets are off. Gasoline will not self-ignite; but a battery can; a plugged charger that is capable of 100A charge current is just one p-n junction away from a spectacular failure; and there are many of those junctions in a charger, and they all were made by the lowest bidder somewhere between Taiwan and Philippines.

checking to see that the car is still charging once a month would be more than sufficient.

I'm not so sure. If the power fails one week after the caretaker checks it, the battery in a Roadster will be a brick by the next visit. As you say, Tesla may have fixed this, I don't know, but that's what killed those Roadsters. Tesla is adamant that their EVs must be always plugged in, hell or high water. (BTW, how do all these EVs react to being submerged? If a car falls into a river, what happens? A gas car just stalls.)

Tesla warranties their batteries for 8 years/125k miles.

That's about the break even point for a $30K car (Model X?) But even then the warranty is good only if you don't need it. If the battery becomes bricked because you, the owner, made an unforgivable mistake of not religiously charging your vehicle every night (say, the power is down in the whole region after a hurricane,) Tesla will not honor this warranty. Per Jalopnik:

When a Tesla battery does reach total discharge, it cannot be recovered and must be entirely replaced. Unlike a normal car battery, the best-case replacement cost of the Tesla battery is currently at least $32,000, not including labor and taxes that can add thousands more to the cost.

As I said before, sometimes you are not in precise control of your future. People get sick and become hospitalized; they get delayed in another city for urgent work; they cannot return because of a storm; the car is plugged in but the GFCI breaker disconnected it, and there is nobody in the house to notice. There are all kinds of reasons why care and feeding of your expensive car may be not the top priority of a responsible human being. Tesla's cars cannot survive this very common situation. In essence, if you buy a Tesla car then you also need to hire a chauffeur, so that he will be always on duty. Anything else is like playing with fire - as if we don't have enough excitement already. Tesla cars are just not trustworthy yet. They are cool when they work, but you must always be prepared to learn that they don't. We don't have that with standard cars; and short of pitching it over the guardrail into a ravine, a standard car will not hit you with a $32K bill.

the engine power necessary to maintain a given speed to goes up exponentially as your speed increases due to wind resistance.

The road noise also increases with speed. The noise of the engine is linked to RPM, but not to the output power. It doesn't take too much power to propel the car at constant high speed either. As you can see, the formula is not that obvious.

Defensive driving instructors are morons... They teach you to minimize your own risk and hassle at the expense of everyone else. There is a reason that the shoulder is car width on the right so you can dodge either way in the rightmost lane. And if they properly taught people how to merge, there would be no problem with being in the right lane. You don't have to move over if you look far enough ahead and plan. Heaven forbid you have to turn off your cruise control and pay attention...

Uniform Vehicle Code in the US says: "a car driving below the "normal speed of traffic" should be driven in the right-hand lane." though laws vary by state. See attached link for more details on a state by state basis.

http://jalopnik.com/5501615/left+lane-passing-laws-a-state+by+state-map

Uniform Vehicle Code in the US says: "a car driving below the "normal speed of traffic" should be driven in the right-hand lane." though laws vary by state. See attached link for more details on a state by state basis.

http://jalopnik.com/5501615/left+lane-passing-laws-a-state+by+state-map

I agree. The impression that I have from Fisker is that their product was not well engineered compared to competitors like Tesla. The Fisker Karma looked nice but they did have quality problems. Using lithium-ion batteries from A123 was one of their mistakes (even before bankruptacy, A123 had problems).

The most damning photo of Fisker (and I don't know why people still buy them) would be of a car lot right after Hurricane Sandy. You see new cars all ruined with flood waters, then there's a little group of burned out cars - brand new - that were Fiskers.

http://jalopnik.com/5958523/fisker-lost-30-million-worth-of-cars-in-hurricane-sandy

Sure, it may not have been the battery, but damn, there were a bunch of other cars in the lot that suffered the same floods, and they didn't catch on fire. And I'm sure they were all write offs as well.

Funny enough, you don't hear of Teslas failing like that - but Fiskers... let's say a Google search would bring up plenty of other examples where they can seemingly spontaneously catch fire or other deal.

How the fuck is it anyone's business where I got $800k?

Ask your government. I'm merely telling you what happens, I'm certainly not defending it.

The legal process to get your money back is horribly flawed, and they can seize it on suspicion, and it's mostly a cash grab for the agency seizing it.

However, the fact remains, that if law enforcement finds you with that much cash, they'll likely seize it from you -- and then it will be up to you to prove you obtained it legally in the first place.

Have you not been paying attention? This has been going on for years.

.. I'd like to say that for $40,000 your 'lossy audio file' at least doesn't have a reputation for spontaneously bursting into flames.

Math is why the presidents limo isn't run by solar power. The idea that you power something like that by solar is absurd. Solar power cars tend to way as little as possible. While I don't specifics any more than any other lay person the presidents limo is built on a heavy duty truck chassis, is armored and it weighs quite a bit. These are mutually exclusive things that probably won't be resolvable for a few centuries at best.

They don't? Or perhaps the driver had turned off the electronics.

"She says that their records indicate the car's battery pack was completely drained."

What records. All that means is that the call they received for a tow, had a stated reason as "battery drained"

A towing company has no means to test or confirm such. Second, when my wife needed a jump in our 1st generation Prius. She had to argue for 20 minutes that the battery was in the trunk. They couldn't find it. And refused to listen to her. Called a second tow truck operator. Who still was clueless. After 30 minutes of arguing, they listened to my wife. Lo and behold they found the batter in the trunk.

Furthermore, the Tesla Model S is like a 100x beyond my 1st generation Prius. So claiming a tow truck handler had ANY knowledge or understanding other than what the driver told them "battery pack completely dead". Is just BUNK!!!

"(Broder's own report said that the car couldn't be moved because its electric parking brake was stuck in place.)"

I've seen flatbeds tow cards with parking breaks on. They hook the winch and the whole car bounces up and down off the ground as it's dragged. Done every day, hundreds of times.

"12V battery that powers the accessories and gets its juice from the high voltage battery shut down when Broder pulled into the service station."

And why would that battery drain? Just wondering if Mr. Broder is influenced by Tom Beaudette and Motel 6 "We'll leave the lights on for ya!"

http://jalopnik.com/towing-company-the-nyt-tesla-model-s-was-dead-when-it-196100064

Jalopnik called the tow truck company, and they confirmed that not only was the car out of charge, and not only did they need to leave the car on the charger for an extended time because it was so low on charge, but that they were on the phone with a Tesla employee in California, as the electric parking brake was locked, and wouldn't allow the vehicle to move onto the flatbed.

http://jalopnik.com/towing-company-the-nyt-tesla-model-s-was-dead-when-it-196100064

Now, this very well could be the NYT reporting being in bed with the tow truck company, metaphorically speaking, but I think there's more to this than Musk wants to let on.

You beat me to it.

For those who do not recall: "An English court has once again told Tesla Motors to take a hike and dismissed the automaker’s latest libel charge against the BBC, producer of the wildly popular (and equally irreverent) program Top Gear.

Tesla Motors sued the BBC in March, arguing Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear cohorts defamed the company by claiming the Roadster achieved a paltry 55 miles of range on the show’s test track. That is significantly less than the 200 miles or more Tesla claims for the car." ( http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/02/tesla-vs-top-gear/ )

Also interesting: "Tesla Motors' Devastating Design Problem"

Quote: "When a Tesla battery does reach total discharge, it cannot be recovered and must be entirely replaced. Unlike a normal car battery, the best-case replacement cost of the Tesla battery is currently at least $32,000, not including labor and taxes that can add thousands more to the cost." ( http://jalopnik.com/5887265/tesla-motors-devastating-design-problem )

Not yet the time to buy one ... :)

CC.

They do: http://jalopnik.com/5975846/you-can-virtually-drive-the-new-corvette-tomorrow