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Tesla Makes Improvements To Model S
An anonymous reader writes "In a lull between product launches Tesla intends to keep making improvements to the Model S according to Elon Musk. Tesla will automatically push software to the Model S fleet that will help the car learn the driver's habits and the navigation system will offer directions to avoid traffic jams. 'This year, Tesla is offering only the single model, the Model S that is EPA rated at up to 265 miles on a single charge, the most of any electric car. The company's next model won't come until next year, when the delayed Model X crossover goes on sale. Musk says the holdup has centered on making sure its signature design element, gullwing doors to make it easier to get in the rear, works properly and is leak-proof. "Getting the door right is extremely difficult," he says.'"
The gullwing doors are going to be his white whale.
If they wanted to do something cool with the doors, they should have gone with electric sliding doors for all four doors. Front doors slide forward, back doors slide backwards. No worries about clearance above the car, or even next to the car, they seal correctly, they don't stop you from putting a roof-rack on it and because mini-vans have been using electric sliding doors for decades all the bugs have been engineered out years ago.
And that right there is the problem. Nobody drives a minivan to look cool. People drive Teslas to look cool. A Tesla that looks like a minivan would not look cool.
No worries about clearance above the car
Because this is a concern for a sports car, when most parking places are designed for vans.
or even next to the car
Gull-wing doors require less side clearance than standard doors.
they seal correctly
So do gull-wing doors, if closed with a proper path. This is the hard part, because the door system can't interfere with other systems, like the roof's roll supports. It's not an intractable problem, but it makes the overall engineering more difficult.
they don't stop you from putting a roof-rack on it
Also a big problem for sports cars, I'm sure.
mini-vans have been using electric sliding doors for decades
...And gull-wing doors have been around for half a century.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Regular doors don't do that because they open outwards away from the car's interior, and none of the roof moves away. It could definitely happen on the Toyota Sera.
Where on earth do you live? I'm in the lower Northeast, and rain and especially snow and dust indeed does get in the car when you open the doors - except the rear hatch - ironically the door most resembling the gullwing door. I mean, if only gullwing doors had this issue, we wouldn't need any other type of doors at all. Only the gullwings would allow anything outside the car, inside the car.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I was going to try it out, but they wanted me to grant "irrevocable, perpetual, sublicensable" permission to any location data gather by the app, which is all associated with a unique identifier.
mistakes in the Delorean. Really bad in northern climes where the seals would freeze, locking you in the car. Notice I said "one of", the Delorean had a lot of other issues, too.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Is it me or is this a really stupid idea? Just making the doors gull wing prevents you from putting: luggage on top, ski racks, bike racks on roof, etc. You know, the kind of things people would do with an SUV or crossover...
Welcome my son,
Welcome to the machine.
Where have you been?
It's alright we know where you've been.
Or the car gets pushed an update file while you're doing 50mph, stores it for later, and installs it at some point when it's stopped and charging.
(Other options also include a polling mechanism where the car phones home for updated periodically when stopped, or a combination of the two where they push an "update is availible" flag, which signals the car to phone home and download/install it once it's stopped/charging).
Have a look at how a properly designed gullwing door is designed.
When the door is open there is a huge drain to direct water etc. from the roof to the ground (around the actual doorway).
Also when the door is open, the far end of the door is hovering outside the range where water etc. could drip inside the car.
In addition (unlike traditional car doors) when the door is open, it's hovering above the gap, acting as a roof, so that the actual rain doesn't get inside the car either.
I don't understand why we keep following elon around like lost puppies when he really doesn't do anything for the average person.
Well, he's making a lot of advances in electric car technology and is dropping strong hints that he plans to share those with the rest of the industry on a fairly generous basis. Selling premium-priced cars to the rich is a good way to bankroll that - in 5-10 years time the rest of us may well be benefitting from this work. I can respect that.
What he hasn't done yet is created a compelling alternative to the gas-powered car. The Tesla has a very clear niche where it might be practical if cash were no object: private garages and long, regular commutes of 50-100 miles: long enough to make you want to travel in a luxurious car, short enough to fall comfortably within the Tesla's range, home-based so you can recharge overnight.
I'd be OK with that if the Tesla website didn't try and push things like economy (no, you're not going to save money unless you conveniently ignore the extra cost of the car - but if you have that sort of money why would you care?) and how easy it was to make a road trip (...just start driving, then have lunch at a supercharger! On the newly-localised British site this advice is followed by a map that shows no superchargers in the UK)
I think they're on the verge of getting there: make that mileage '250 miles minimum)' rather than 'up to 265 miles (unless you get stuck in slow traffic and need lights, heat or air con)' and have supercharger stations every 50 miles or so (otherwise your useful range gets reduced because you have to recharge early or detour to charge) and you might have a viable care replacement.
There's also a scaling issue with chargers: I was looking at (non-Tesla) chargers in the UK and, superficially, its not too bad. Look closer, however, and most of those stations only have 1 or 2 bays - often one slow and one fast (with different connectors). Arrive there and find the bay in use (with the owners off having lunch somewhere), or out-of-order, and you'd be stuffed. You'd have to be so cautious about how soon to recharge that it would decimate the useful range of an EV.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
What he hasn't done yet is created a compelling alternative to the gas-powered car. The Tesla has a very clear niche where it might be practical if cash were no object: private garages and long, regular commutes of 50-100 miles: long enough to make you want to travel in a luxurious car, short enough to fall comfortably within the Tesla's range, home-based so you can recharge overnight.
Exactly. It's an executive car - but that's a good place to start. Advance the technology and make it available to the early adopters to get the ball rolling. The biggest single obstacle to making long-range electric cars available to the masses is the price of the battery pack. The reason a Nissan Leaf is relatively affordable is that it doesn't have the huge battery pack needed for long range.
Now that Tesla has taken care of building the cars, and the charger network is expanding, it's on to scaling up the battery production, and that's where the upcoming Tesla/Panasonic battery factories step in. Aside from reducing battery costs and increasing production for the cars, they should be useful as storage for charging stations as well.
I know there's a lot of impatience (I want my electric car NOW, and Superchargers on every corner!), but starting a car company from the ground up isn't easy, especially when you're taking over a century of auto industry tradition and standing it on its head. I'm glad to see the progress that's already been made, even if it's still a long time before I could afford to go electric.
America needs more businessmen like Elon Musk and fewer like Donald Trump.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!