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See the Tesla S at the Detroit International Auto Show (Video)
The weather in Detroit was frightful and Slashdot editor Timothy Lord was nine hours away. No problem! He loaded his camcorder and a bunch of other stuff in his car and drove to Detroit for the 2012 International Auto Show. In today's video he looks at the Tesla Model S. Next week we'll have more video highlights of the auto show for you, so stay tuned...
Slashdot has reporters who do on-site video pieces now?
Insert quip about how they can do that but can't hire editors to make sure the summary blurb is accurate. ;-)
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I'll wait til Jeremy drives one on Top Gear.
I thought it was going to be some large spectacular Telsa coil. That would be far more interesting than some electric car I can't afford.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Every day I drive pass my local Tesla dealership and see all those rows of beautiful cars and think of just stopping in and buying one right on the spot. And then I remember that Tesla cars aren't actually real, there are no Tesla dealerships, and the company stays pretty much on the verge of bankruptcy, with models that always seem to be on backorder or are "coming out sometime next year...we hope." Then I notice that Natalie Portman is my girlfriend sitting in the seat next to me, and realize that I'm dreaming.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Other than the hot chick in the boot, that was a worthless video.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
I saw it there, and it's one of the few cars on the floor that shows you all of the mechanicals (Ford did it with their trucks, which was also really cool). The mechanics of this car are incredibly simple. This should significantly reduce ongoing maintenance costs and make car ownership easier for the majority of people.
Easy Online Role Playing Campaign Management
I know I'm dying to see a government funded vehicle that only the wealthiest 10% of Americans can afford!
Yes, I know that the government gave out $25 billion in loans under that program and Tesla got just $465 million, but still. I can't imagine a dumber way of promoting green transportation for the masses than building a $60,000 sedan.
So ten thousand or so greenwashing celebrities, financiers, and Ivy League professors will buy one and then...what? They claim they'll make a cheap model when they work out the kinks and get enough funding from selling the rich-people version, and I know trickle-down economics sorta works in cutting-edge technology, but Nissan already has an electric sedan for $20,000 less.
I just don't see why Tesla deserves our adulation.
Not interested in any family cars....more than 2 seats.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Timed to calm the equity markets jittery over the news of two key Model S engineers leaving
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Often times the first generations of new technology are so extremely expensive, that only the rich can afford them. Then slowly, with iterations and perfections, the prices come down to normal consumer prices. Almost every breakthrough technology has been that way, car's, computers, tv's, home entertainment. The thing is, unless there's the initial generation of very expensive technology, there's usually no starting point for engineers to slowly develop improved and cheaper ways to build. It's rare a technology goes from non-existent to every consumer can afford it. Also keep in mind Tesla isn't trying to compete with Toyota sedans, it's trying to compete with high-end BMW, Audi, Infiniti sedans. As in other automobile technologies, the cheaper sedans benefit from all the R&D that goes into the more expensive sedans, as their features slowly trickle into the cheaper sedans.
Optional rear facing mini-seats? This isn't a family car, this is just a roadster that can transport a family in a pinch.
I read the internet for the articles.
I kinda like these video features, but *wow* is that 1960s era robotic voice obnoxious. It's incredibly grating to listen to.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
The first 1/3 of the video is this dude with whack glasses complaining about the drive to D-town. Counting the lame intro/outro, a full 1/2 of this video is complete fluff. Thanks for wasting my time /.
A hydrogen economy is so far off that it's even more fiction than a Tesla. There are at least two Tesla dealerships in the Denver, Colorado area, and these cars are in fact driving around (at least the Roadsters).
First, hydrogen is just an energy carrier. How are you going to produce this hydrogen?
Second, once you produce hydrogen, how are you going to distribute it around? Replace natural gas? Not for hundreds of years....
If you have the energy to produce hydrogen, why not just use the existing grid? Sure, the US electrical grid needs some TLC, but it is quite functional and is capable of serving a significant number of electric vehicles, especially when charged during off-peak hours. We have no infrastructure to produce and distribute hydrogen on any usable scale.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." - H. G. Wells
This technology requires more energy to make and involves expensive mid-term disposable battery packs.
They aren't going to just dispose of a component that comprises a third of the price of the vehicle. Already all the electric vehicle makers are finding buyers for used battery packs when they don't have enough charge left to be useful in the car. And once that's gone they'll be recycled for the lithium.
Energy used for it has probably had 50% of it's already non-optimal conversion efficiency wasted in down-the-wire transmission.
That seems highly pessimistic. Transmission losses are less than 10% on the grid, and will be much less within the car.
Lets just get over to being a renewable power produced hydrogen economy already.
Hydrogen fuel cells also require high-tech manufacturing.
The enemies of Democracy are
You can hate on "government motors" all ya want - They did a great job on this one, and unlike the haters, I'm getting that bailout money back in the form of something pretty darn cool. Could it just be sour grapes? Or is it all astroturfing by people with errrm, illiquid investments in the oil patch who are desperate?
More here: http://www.coultersmithing.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=48
Don't get me wrong - I admire Elon and his projects quite a bit. They're just behind. A big company might take longer to get the word, but once they get in motion, look out - I couldn't get a Tesla, or afford one, but this is in my driveway now. And I promise to exit the car within the three weeks it takes to catch on fire after being total lossed sideways into a pole. I'd rather not starve to death before burning.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
Love the idea of video features, however this is all I took away from that piece:
* the trunk has rear-facing child seats
* the battery has 4 bolts for quick exchange
* someone with functioning ears could help improve the "robot seizure" intro and outro clips
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=61
Hydrogen can be produced at the point of delivery or even in your home, so the distribution system doesn't need to be nearly so extensive as natural gas or other fuel distribution systems. It can also be shipped in bulk as ordinary water for those few places that may need to have it shipped in from a distance. A tanker truck full of water is not really a significant danger on a highway other than the sheer mass of the vehicle.
Getting fueling stations set up is a bit harder for hydrogen, and by far and away the hardest part is simply getting the chicken or egg problem going where you need a sizable enough fleet of hydrogen vehicles to justify building the fueling stations in the first place. There is a fleet of natural gas vehicles, and even then it is hard to come by fueling stations for that fuel source.
A similar problem is happening with electric vehicles, but recharging stations are beginning to appear now that you can find electric vehicles that would be able to use them in the first place. Home charging stations are the key here that makes it work. I'm just suggesting that a similar kind of set-up could be used for hydrogen cars as well.
What would make hydrogen become a viable fuel source in my own opinion would be the development of nuclear fusion as a viable energy source. Discounting cold fusion completely, if something like the Polywell or even the Tokamak fusion reactors ever got to a production power situation, they could make hydrogen gas cheap enough as a fuel source to make it practical. Since neither of those fusion reactor types can ever be scaled down to the size of a consumer automobile, something like hydrogen would be the next best thing.
There was a time when electric, steam and gasoline competed against each other with no clear winner. That was until gasoline engines got better. If something changes in the equation, another mode of generating motive power may be more competitive.
Clearly you didn't read the summary or watch the video (or read the title for that matter?)
The Tesla Model S is around $60K, and is a sedan.
The Tesla Roadster is around $120K, and is a two seater sport car.
Please read before posting.
That would be assuming power lines are cheaper to build than natural gas pipelines and have less losses. Which they don't. Otherwise you wouldn't ever see a natural gas electric power plant at all.
Not to mention platinum, until someone gets the SOFC ceramics working in a vibration prone environment.
Who Killed the Electric Car?
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
You're thinking of the Fisker Karma, dumb-ass, which is being built in Finland. The mass market car Fisker is developing - the target of the vast majority of the Federal investment - will be built in the US.
You probably think Newt is a respected philosopher, too.
Luke, help me take this mask off
If electricity was made incredibly cheap due to fusion power, losses would be trivial and irrelevant. I have no idea what that does to the overall environment, but that is a completely separate issue. Besides, who says you need to have power lines that extend for thousands of miles? On top of that, the grid with power lines is already built and designed to handle Gigawatts of energy, while something like a Hydrogen gas pipeline would require a whole new infrastructure.
Natural Gas pipelines are interesting, but they couldn't easily be used to mix Methane and Hydrogen at the same time. Perhaps a method could be created to do that, but it isn't easy or cheap.
I also think you missed the point I was making that Hydrogen generation being made at a very local level, and note also that Hydrogen can also be produced through methods that don't require electrolysis or even electricity at all. Fusion plants could also simply heat up water to the point of disassociation, allowing simple separation of Oxygen and Hydrogen as separate gasses. You just have to think outside of the box.
That was until gasoline engines got better.
Actually, there was a lot of fashion as well, and steam was deeply unfashionable. There were innovations (see e.g. Doble) which kept steam technically competitive.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I clicked the disable all adds button. How come I can still see this thread?
Really?
Just some examples I can think of 4 seater sports cars - which few people will argue are not sports cars:
Porsche 911 (all models except for the GT3 which has no back seats)
BMW M3 and M5
Nissan GT-R
Aston Martin Rapide and DB9
Yes there are more, but you get the point. Some will argue that a true sports car must be a 2 seater, and be a convertable, but.... so what.
..........FULL STOP.