About 40 years ago I had a belt without holes or even a need for the teeth in your belt. I would slide the belt into a, slot, and then fold the buckle down to "pinch" the belt so that it could not move... no holes, no teeth sown into the leather, very simple and, effective, and infinitely adjustable. I would buy one again today if I could find one.
Musk is apparently convinced everything is just a simulation. He seems to be right about sooooo much... he could be right.
I'm just a figment of his imagination.
Seriously now... If it was just Goodenough making these claims, and if he did not have more credibility than everyone else in the business, I could understand the distrust. But he would not risk tarnishing his stellar reputation after all these years, and knowing he has a staff all of whom apparently back his claims, the only reasonable action at this point is to listen to the dude, and understand what he has to say. Yeah, it might mean he is turning physics and/or chemistry and/or everything we think we know about the Universe at this point on its pointy head, but... no one seems to be more likely than him to do it.
"The Orange One"? Hah! Have you no respect for someone who has left his imprint upon an entire NATION?!? People have NAMES, and deserve to be addressed as such!
The name is JULIUS, fella! Orange Julius, and don't you forget it! Mmmm... YUMMY!
??? No one has mentioned the obvious? Should the estimates of sea level increases be accurate, which I believe them to be, in a few years, the only way for that tunnel to still be of use is if they gouge out much of its roof.
"Of course in Texas, there's something else that can be pumped from the ground: black gold." Ugggh... gold? Far from it... we could liken it more to the ills from Pandora's Box--- and what kind of idiot are you to think that pumping oil is a substitute for pumping water? You are going to irrigate your crops with crude?!? It's that kind of wacko logic that has allowed the oil industry to stave off its eventual death for just a little while longer... fossil fuel is not sustainable... wind and solar is.
No, trolll: no one thinks windmills are free and unlimited. They have moving parts which need to be maintained and replaced from time to time... but so do the diesel and natural gas generators you apparently tout. The obvious difference, of course, is that wind mills rely on their energy for wind, which IS free, non-polluting, and does not need to be extracted from the earth at great cost. The energy your fossil fuels supply are responsible for the kinds of strife we see in Standing Rock, and the hundreds of pipeline leaks the oil companies are only partially successful in keeping out of the mass media; no, you will not see such horrendous, ugly leaks on FOX, CNN, or other MSM; but the tremendous damage is readily found by googling OIL PIPELINE LEAKS or any other such search criteria. There are an average of more than one such leak daily somewhere here in the country, and the damage is never completely mitigated. No, windmills are not free or unlimited, buy do not try to suggest that anyone says they are, and do not be so asinine as to imply the alternatives are any better or cheaper.
How sad to see how blind you are to the realities. Twits such as yourself cannot see any further than the ends of your noses.
There are dozens of YouTube videos showing the massive shift in energy use in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and other oil-rich countries-- where a tank of gasoline is only a couple of dollars. Saudi Arabia has found that, like Beijing today, and Los Angeles especially in the 1970's, their unbridled use of gasoline, and fossil fuels for stationary electric generation, drastically reduces the quality of life. Saudi Arabia in particular has, for about four years now, been installing thousands of acres of solar panels to eventually end their reliance on fossil fuels. LET THAT SINK IN: the Saudis have the CHEAPEST FOSSIL FUELS ON THE PLANET, yet they are switching to renewable resources not only for automobiles such as Teslas, but to power their homes, businesses, hospitals and schools. What is the difference between the Saudis and the U.S.? Here, the oil companies and their lobbyists exert enormous pressure on politicians to assure that, as much as possible, oil will continue to enrich them while reducing the quality of life for everyone else. This is not the case in Saudi Arabia, where there are no such biases. Yes, the Saudis are still horrific tyrants in other respects, but they have nothing to keep them from realizing that solar power is now cheaper than energy from fossil fuels, and continues to drop. (In the 1970's, a watt of solar panel cost nearly a thousand dollars; over the last decades, the cost has dropped to mere pennies per watt, continues to drop, and continues to increase in efficiency per square meter.) Elon Musk, in his customary confidence, has told the Aussies that he can install solar/battery storage systems within 100 days to end their crisis, and if he cannot finish it on time it's free. He has recently powered entire island societies with solar/battery systems, ending their dependence on the crushing cost of diesel power and its disgusting pall of pollution and noise... again, it's all available on YouTube. Fossil fuel is dead, literally and figuratively: long live renewables.
If you had been born 115 years ago you eould, have been roasting the Wright Brothers for challenging the solid wisdom that man was not born with wings and should realize he was meant to be earthbound forever. If you had been born in the Middle Ages, you would have been eager to light the fires to burn heretics alive, such as DaVinci and Copernicus. If you had been born in ancient Greece, you would have been the one to hand the cup of hemlock to Socrates.
Please, sir, shut your fucking trap, and let the Makers Make, and the Doers Do.
I doubt that it means the battery is damaged at lower temps, but only that it does not perform well, and that if some of its charge is used to heat the cells slightly they will still perform better than today's conventional cells will.
You are hiding behind your "anonymous coward" ID, so you can't be held responsible for your inane, halfwit comments. The first commenter was right in attacking Trump for not switching to a secure phone supplied by the Secret Service... you have NO defensible grounds for YOUR attack... just like Trump, you make totally laughable comments without basis, such as Trump today claiming he had a landslide victory when he most clearly did not.
Trump loves to Tak about "fake news", yet he has been one of the prime sources of bogus info, such as saying that counties and cities that grant asylum to undocumented aliens have higher crime rates and other problems, when in fact the opposite is documented to be true by official federal stats. Tell me it's not true all you wabt, but like Trump, you simply want to ignore the facts because of your xenophobic paranoia. Trump and others want to, say the undocumented are a load on the system, when the opposite is true---hundreds of thousands of them pay into Social Security because that is often the only way they can get jobs, yet their undocumented status keeps them from ever reaping Social Security benefits.
"Well that's $350 million wasted. I drive 200 miles each way to my ranch each weekend, no way I could do that in an electric vehicle. Electric cars are a fad."
You, sir, have had your head stuck up your butt for more than ten years now if you think that is true... If you weren't such a Luddite determined to badmouth anything that does not run on fossil fuels, you would have noticed that not only have there been powerful, extremely efficient EVs for the last many years capable of making that 200 mile trip, but if you weren't so pig headed you could have been saving some VERY serious cash meantime--- surely you've been spending thousands of dollars a year on gasoline. That money could have been spent more reasonably on a solar roof for the ranch, and a Powerwall to store the electricity at the ranch for when you are there and need to recharge, Not only would you be saving the cost of gasoline and oil changes, but tune-ups and related costs as well. You have the IDEAL situation to be driving electric and not even realizing it. And if you think it does not apply to YOU because you happen to need a pickup truck, you are STILL WRONG on that count--- I have been driving a fully electric Chevy pickup for years now... yes, a rugged, powerful conversion... but Tesla will be selling EV pickups and big rigs soon. You have NO excuse for NOT driving electric, saving lots of cash, and stop making those oil ogres richer than they already are.
Everything about driving electric is improving yearly---longer ranges per charge, better batteries, shorter charge times, less expensive cars. The Gigafactory in Sparks Nevada is the largest factory in the entire world and will be fully operational later this year producing EV batteries. It will dramatically reduce the cost of EVs, and their prices will continue to drop the same way computers have in the last 25 years. EVs will soon be cheaper than ICE cars, but they already have better performance, are more reliable and have other advantages as well.
The future is rapidly catching up with you. Tesla and other companies have been installing high-speed charging stations all over the U.S., but also Europe, China, and yes, Canada. It is now possible to drive all over the U.S. without getting stuck without a place to charge, and driving with electricity is MUCH cheaper than with gasoline--- and cheaper still when you consider no expensive tune-ups, oil changes, smog tests, and other expenses you only have with gasoline vehicles.
You are too blind to look beyond the present. The best EVs twenty years ago only had a range of 40 or 50 miles... Every year their range and practicality has increased and their affordability has increased... today's EVs are the quickest, most efficient available and continue to improve yearly. The Chevy Bolt is pure electric and gives a range of about 250 miles per charge, and battery tech continues to increase. The Tesla Model S is going to begin production in a few months, will sell for about $35,000, have a 0-60 of under six seconds... no expensive tune-ups like ICE cars... no oil changes every few months... no smog tests... even the brakes may last the life of the car due to "regen", which uses braking energy to help recharge the batteries rather than wear out brake pads. Until you actually immerse yourself in driving an EV, you do not realize all the problems you expect of an EV do not exist.
You think Trump will be some kind of savior--- what a fool. There is no way he or any witless corrupt Republican Congress can keep the EV market from swallowing up any car makers that are foolish enough to buck the trend. Note that every time there is a, spike in oil prices that pit you in the poor house, there is also a spike in EV sales... and those drivers do not return to driving ICE cars once gasoline prices fall--- when a driver sees the tremendous advantages and increased convenience of EVs, they never go back to the doctor ways. I have four vehicles, all are EVs... If they were more of a hassle than gasoline cars I would not have taken even a second EV, and that is typical of EV owners. If I had any doubts that EVs will be thing over the entire car market I would not sign my comments with my own name, because I know that unlike you, I will never suffer the embarrassment of EVs being nothing more than a passing fad. Gasoline is going the way of the horse and buggy.
How ironic that YOU would be calling anyone a "Neanderthal"! You have the language skills of a grade-schooler, and are too blind to notice that Tesla is going gangbusters selling EVs while the market for ICE cars such as you drive fade in popularity. On March 30, when Tesla announced they were ready to, start taking thousand dollars deposits for their latest EV, they amassed 180,000 deposits within 24 hours and 400,000 deposits within several more days. Those are the intelligent one... you, fool, are the true Neanderthal. There are heaps of reasons there are so many eager buyers, and it is because they have seen just how much more powerful, quiet, trouble-free and practical EVs are. I am not one of the imbecile Luddites such as yourself that hide behind the "Anonymous Coward" monickers... I have full confidence in the future of EVs. Every year from now on, EV sales will grow exponentially--- There is my name... Bill Dale... let's see just who is the fool when it comes to what we will be driving in the coming years! EVs will own tomorrow!
You, sir, are a myopic, homophobic twit. All you can see is the "range anxiety" that 8s, quickly fading from existence, unable to see the enormous other benefits EVs have--- they are far more powerful than that wimpy Ford of yours (the quickest street legal production car on the planet is the seven-passenger, four-dopr Tesla Model S. With the most aggressive options, the Tesla can take you from 0-60 kph in 2.4 seconds... slam you to 155 kph without any gear shifts at all... only has about a dozen moving parts in the entire drive train... and provides the equivalent of more than 90 miles per gallon. Try that with any stripped-down, two seat, $million-plus Ferrari, Lambo, or Porsche, struggling in single-digit economy--- and what kind of range anxiety are you imagining, when that same Model S can handle roughly 300 miles on a charge, and battery technology is extending that range every year---a thousand miles per charge is within reach in the coming years.
You, fool, will never be able to get real performance until that pig-headed attitude of your changes. It was the Saudis that used our oil money to commit the 9/11 attacks, or is your memory so feeble to recall that? If we continue to give them hundreds of billions of our money yearly, what worse terror do you think they will gift us with? Do you really think they are not hoping to blow us to smithereens with our own oil money? Or do you think their fracking and oil sand extraction and deep offshore drilling will give us anything better--- perhaps you have forgotten the billions of dollars in damage the BP Deep Horizons did a few years ago, and perhaps you turn blind eye to the swarms of major quakes they have been having in the Midwest from fracking? And the pipeline the DAPL wants to put through the Missouri River that is a source of drinking water for millions of Americans? It took thousands of American Vets to make them stand down when trying to illegally force that pipeline through
Are you aware of the HUNDREDS of pipeline leaks from identical pipes all over this country that cause billions in damage? Open your eyes, cretin.
I don't know how advanced THAT particular autonomous car is, but if it is anything like the Tesla autopilot system, it is more than twice as safe. There are hundreds of thousands of autonomously outfitted Teslas on the streets and highways of the country, and they are capable of driving all the way from L.A. to New York without human assistance. In the last several years they have quietly amassed billions of miles of roadwork, proving how much better they are at avoiding accidents. The Tesla has a variety of cameras, lasers, lidars, radars, ultraviolet and infrared sensors that can avoid problems where we would be helpless, such as blinding glare, heavy rain, snow, dust, etc. Teslas are not just toys for the rich--- the Model 3 has 400,000 deposits placed at $1000. each; base price is $35,000, minus roughly $10,000 in tax and other incentives. And don't give me any crap about tax breaks--- Cadillacs, Hummers, etc., have gotten billions of dollars in such incentives for decades, and the oil industry has been getting TRILLIONS in corrupt breaks that serve only the rich. The breaks EVs are getting will soon give all of us the ability to drive clean, powerful, full-featured EVs without need to support the oil industry that is choking us to death--- no oil changes, tune-ups, smog tests EVER... and there has never been a war fought over electricity. We have fought one war after another for oil---all the countries we are invading and fighting are just veiled operations to control oil production.
"Libtards"... those who use, such phrases show their ignorance. You obviously think Trump is some kind of messianic savior when in fact he is preordained for nothing more than bringing the entire country to its knees... no, I do not believe Russia was a major influence in the elections but I have no doubt that it was one of several factors, including a variety of voter frauds, plus MSM direction of public attention to Trump, giving him more media coverage than all the rest of the candidates combined. MSM turned the election into a carnival sideshow, and it will cost this country dearly. Unlike you, AC, I signed my name to this comment... being the coward you are you will never have to suffer the embarrassment of your terrible judgement of Trump--- but I sufficiently confident in my assessment of your Messiah that you see my name above--- mark my words: Trump will be the most disastrous POTUS ever, and you and the other Trump supporters will have to live with that forever.
What idiocy. There is nothing one can do with a rocket that will not involve significant risk; that is the nature of the business. Musk is taking a different and successful path that allows them to recoup more than 99.5% of launch cost by reusing the booster through very clever and innovative design and engineering. It has been a half-century of space launch, which has brought us to a point where Musk has given us a way to launch at a, massively lower cost. Those savings can be used to make those launches safer and safer as they gain experience. Considering that SpaceX has yet to lose a single life in their endeavors tells us more about your wish that he would die, than anything about him. You have an exceedingly dark and crusty soul. Tesla, BTW, has already likely saved dozens of lives by its autonomous design. More than a billion miles of their autopilot cars has shown that when drivers are on autopilot, crashes and mortality are reduced by half... Teslas are the safest vehicles on the planet and continue to get safer and safer. If they WERE not saving lives, they would not even be allowed to be on our roads.
You, sir, are either delusional or blind to any information that is not fake-newsed to you by Hannity, the Tea Party and anyone else determined to bloat space budgets for their own financial gain. Here is the bottom line, jackass: in the half-century since a dozen countries have been launching people and payloads into space, they have been spending ~$60 million at least on first stage rocket engines that burned up on falling back to Earth. That was where expense lists BEGAN... SpaceX was the first company (or any entity, such as a country or consortium) to launch multiple satellites into orbit, reverse the attitude of the booster, fire a second time back toward the launch pad, reverse attitude a second time, firing a third time to reduce reentry velocity, and land that twenty-story tall rocket butt-first on a barge rocking about at sea. The first time they did that, they launched 11 satellites into orbit; the rocket was reusable but was instead retained as a historical artifact for display. SpaceX has done this seven times so far, saving nearly half a billion dollars in launch expenses. The fuel at launch costs about $200,000, the main cost of each launch. That means each time they recover the booster and reuse it, cuts launch expenses by more than 99.5% Malign Musk and SpaceX all you want, all you are doing is showing what a miserable basement-dwelling troll you are. Thank you, Elon, ever so much for making space accessible now as it never has been before.
I often read such inane drivel in Slashdot--- this post is quite the exception--- after reading the first hundred or so comments, I feel like I just took a class in metallurgy. Thank you Barbara Hudson, et. al. Very enlightening.
Slashdot Mirror
?!? WTF? This post got side railed onto a different thread!
About 40 years ago I had a belt without holes or even a need for the teeth in your belt. I would slide the belt into a, slot, and then fold the buckle down to "pinch" the belt so that it could not move... no holes, no teeth sown into the leather, very simple and, effective, and infinitely adjustable. I would buy one again today if I could find one.
Musk is apparently convinced everything is just a simulation. He seems to be right about sooooo much... he could be right. I'm just a figment of his imagination.
Seriously now... If it was just Goodenough making these claims, and if he did not have more credibility than everyone else in the business, I could understand the distrust. But he would not risk tarnishing his stellar reputation after all these years, and knowing he has a staff all of whom apparently back his claims, the only reasonable action at this point is to listen to the dude, and understand what he has to say. Yeah, it might mean he is turning physics and/or chemistry and/or everything we think we know about the Universe at this point on its pointy head, but... no one seems to be more likely than him to do it.
"The Orange One"? Hah! Have you no respect for someone who has left his imprint upon an entire NATION?!? People have NAMES, and deserve to be addressed as such! The name is JULIUS, fella! Orange Julius, and don't you forget it! Mmmm... YUMMY!
??? No one has mentioned the obvious? Should the estimates of sea level increases be accurate, which I believe them to be, in a few years, the only way for that tunnel to still be of use is if they gouge out much of its roof.
"Of course in Texas, there's something else that can be pumped from the ground: black gold." Ugggh... gold? Far from it... we could liken it more to the ills from Pandora's Box--- and what kind of idiot are you to think that pumping oil is a substitute for pumping water? You are going to irrigate your crops with crude?!? It's that kind of wacko logic that has allowed the oil industry to stave off its eventual death for just a little while longer... fossil fuel is not sustainable... wind and solar is.
No, trolll: no one thinks windmills are free and unlimited. They have moving parts which need to be maintained and replaced from time to time. .. but so do the diesel and natural gas generators you apparently tout. The obvious difference, of course, is that wind mills rely on their energy for wind, which IS free, non-polluting, and does not need to be extracted from the earth at great cost. The energy your fossil fuels supply are responsible for the kinds of strife we see in Standing Rock, and the hundreds of pipeline leaks the oil companies are only partially successful in keeping out of the mass media; no, you will not see such horrendous, ugly leaks on FOX, CNN, or other MSM; but the tremendous damage is readily found by googling OIL PIPELINE LEAKS or any other such search criteria. There are an average of more than one such leak daily somewhere here in the country, and the damage is never completely mitigated. No, windmills are not free or unlimited, buy do not try to suggest that anyone says they are, and do not be so asinine as to imply the alternatives are any better or cheaper.
How sad to see how blind you are to the realities. Twits such as yourself cannot see any further than the ends of your noses. There are dozens of YouTube videos showing the massive shift in energy use in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and other oil-rich countries-- where a tank of gasoline is only a couple of dollars. Saudi Arabia has found that, like Beijing today, and Los Angeles especially in the 1970's, their unbridled use of gasoline, and fossil fuels for stationary electric generation, drastically reduces the quality of life. Saudi Arabia in particular has, for about four years now, been installing thousands of acres of solar panels to eventually end their reliance on fossil fuels. LET THAT SINK IN: the Saudis have the CHEAPEST FOSSIL FUELS ON THE PLANET, yet they are switching to renewable resources not only for automobiles such as Teslas, but to power their homes, businesses, hospitals and schools. What is the difference between the Saudis and the U.S.? Here, the oil companies and their lobbyists exert enormous pressure on politicians to assure that, as much as possible, oil will continue to enrich them while reducing the quality of life for everyone else. This is not the case in Saudi Arabia, where there are no such biases. Yes, the Saudis are still horrific tyrants in other respects, but they have nothing to keep them from realizing that solar power is now cheaper than energy from fossil fuels, and continues to drop. (In the 1970's, a watt of solar panel cost nearly a thousand dollars; over the last decades, the cost has dropped to mere pennies per watt, continues to drop, and continues to increase in efficiency per square meter.) Elon Musk, in his customary confidence, has told the Aussies that he can install solar/battery storage systems within 100 days to end their crisis, and if he cannot finish it on time it's free. He has recently powered entire island societies with solar/battery systems, ending their dependence on the crushing cost of diesel power and its disgusting pall of pollution and noise... again, it's all available on YouTube. Fossil fuel is dead, literally and figuratively: long live renewables.
If you had been born 115 years ago you eould, have been roasting the Wright Brothers for challenging the solid wisdom that man was not born with wings and should realize he was meant to be earthbound forever. If you had been born in the Middle Ages, you would have been eager to light the fires to burn heretics alive, such as DaVinci and Copernicus. If you had been born in ancient Greece, you would have been the one to hand the cup of hemlock to Socrates. Please, sir, shut your fucking trap, and let the Makers Make, and the Doers Do.
I doubt that it means the battery is damaged at lower temps, but only that it does not perform well, and that if some of its charge is used to heat the cells slightly they will still perform better than today's conventional cells will.
You are hiding behind your "anonymous coward" ID, so you can't be held responsible for your inane, halfwit comments. The first commenter was right in attacking Trump for not switching to a secure phone supplied by the Secret Service... you have NO defensible grounds for YOUR attack... just like Trump, you make totally laughable comments without basis, such as Trump today claiming he had a landslide victory when he most clearly did not. Trump loves to Tak about "fake news", yet he has been one of the prime sources of bogus info, such as saying that counties and cities that grant asylum to undocumented aliens have higher crime rates and other problems, when in fact the opposite is documented to be true by official federal stats. Tell me it's not true all you wabt, but like Trump, you simply want to ignore the facts because of your xenophobic paranoia. Trump and others want to, say the undocumented are a load on the system, when the opposite is true---hundreds of thousands of them pay into Social Security because that is often the only way they can get jobs, yet their undocumented status keeps them from ever reaping Social Security benefits.
"Well that's $350 million wasted. I drive 200 miles each way to my ranch each weekend, no way I could do that in an electric vehicle. Electric cars are a fad." You, sir, have had your head stuck up your butt for more than ten years now if you think that is true... If you weren't such a Luddite determined to badmouth anything that does not run on fossil fuels, you would have noticed that not only have there been powerful, extremely efficient EVs for the last many years capable of making that 200 mile trip, but if you weren't so pig headed you could have been saving some VERY serious cash meantime--- surely you've been spending thousands of dollars a year on gasoline. That money could have been spent more reasonably on a solar roof for the ranch, and a Powerwall to store the electricity at the ranch for when you are there and need to recharge, Not only would you be saving the cost of gasoline and oil changes, but tune-ups and related costs as well. You have the IDEAL situation to be driving electric and not even realizing it. And if you think it does not apply to YOU because you happen to need a pickup truck, you are STILL WRONG on that count--- I have been driving a fully electric Chevy pickup for years now... yes, a rugged, powerful conversion... but Tesla will be selling EV pickups and big rigs soon. You have NO excuse for NOT driving electric, saving lots of cash, and stop making those oil ogres richer than they already are.
How did an article on something as positive as the Gigafactory degenerate into a War of the Trolls?!
Everything about driving electric is improving yearly---longer ranges per charge, better batteries, shorter charge times, less expensive cars. The Gigafactory in Sparks Nevada is the largest factory in the entire world and will be fully operational later this year producing EV batteries. It will dramatically reduce the cost of EVs, and their prices will continue to drop the same way computers have in the last 25 years. EVs will soon be cheaper than ICE cars, but they already have better performance, are more reliable and have other advantages as well.
The future is rapidly catching up with you. Tesla and other companies have been installing high-speed charging stations all over the U.S., but also Europe, China, and yes, Canada. It is now possible to drive all over the U.S. without getting stuck without a place to charge, and driving with electricity is MUCH cheaper than with gasoline--- and cheaper still when you consider no expensive tune-ups, oil changes, smog tests, and other expenses you only have with gasoline vehicles.
You are too blind to look beyond the present. The best EVs twenty years ago only had a range of 40 or 50 miles... Every year their range and practicality has increased and their affordability has increased... today's EVs are the quickest, most efficient available and continue to improve yearly. The Chevy Bolt is pure electric and gives a range of about 250 miles per charge, and battery tech continues to increase. The Tesla Model S is going to begin production in a few months, will sell for about $35,000, have a 0-60 of under six seconds... no expensive tune-ups like ICE cars... no oil changes every few months... no smog tests... even the brakes may last the life of the car due to "regen", which uses braking energy to help recharge the batteries rather than wear out brake pads. Until you actually immerse yourself in driving an EV, you do not realize all the problems you expect of an EV do not exist.
You think Trump will be some kind of savior--- what a fool. There is no way he or any witless corrupt Republican Congress can keep the EV market from swallowing up any car makers that are foolish enough to buck the trend. Note that every time there is a, spike in oil prices that pit you in the poor house, there is also a spike in EV sales... and those drivers do not return to driving ICE cars once gasoline prices fall--- when a driver sees the tremendous advantages and increased convenience of EVs, they never go back to the doctor ways. I have four vehicles, all are EVs... If they were more of a hassle than gasoline cars I would not have taken even a second EV, and that is typical of EV owners. If I had any doubts that EVs will be thing over the entire car market I would not sign my comments with my own name, because I know that unlike you, I will never suffer the embarrassment of EVs being nothing more than a passing fad. Gasoline is going the way of the horse and buggy.
How ironic that YOU would be calling anyone a "Neanderthal"! You have the language skills of a grade-schooler, and are too blind to notice that Tesla is going gangbusters selling EVs while the market for ICE cars such as you drive fade in popularity. On March 30, when Tesla announced they were ready to, start taking thousand dollars deposits for their latest EV, they amassed 180,000 deposits within 24 hours and 400,000 deposits within several more days. Those are the intelligent one... you, fool, are the true Neanderthal. There are heaps of reasons there are so many eager buyers, and it is because they have seen just how much more powerful, quiet, trouble-free and practical EVs are. I am not one of the imbecile Luddites such as yourself that hide behind the "Anonymous Coward" monickers... I have full confidence in the future of EVs. Every year from now on, EV sales will grow exponentially--- There is my name... Bill Dale... let's see just who is the fool when it comes to what we will be driving in the coming years! EVs will own tomorrow!
You, sir, are a myopic, homophobic twit. All you can see is the "range anxiety" that 8s, quickly fading from existence, unable to see the enormous other benefits EVs have--- they are far more powerful than that wimpy Ford of yours (the quickest street legal production car on the planet is the seven-passenger, four-dopr Tesla Model S. With the most aggressive options, the Tesla can take you from 0-60 kph in 2.4 seconds... slam you to 155 kph without any gear shifts at all... only has about a dozen moving parts in the entire drive train... and provides the equivalent of more than 90 miles per gallon. Try that with any stripped-down, two seat, $million-plus Ferrari, Lambo, or Porsche, struggling in single-digit economy--- and what kind of range anxiety are you imagining, when that same Model S can handle roughly 300 miles on a charge, and battery technology is extending that range every year---a thousand miles per charge is within reach in the coming years. You, fool, will never be able to get real performance until that pig-headed attitude of your changes. It was the Saudis that used our oil money to commit the 9/11 attacks, or is your memory so feeble to recall that? If we continue to give them hundreds of billions of our money yearly, what worse terror do you think they will gift us with? Do you really think they are not hoping to blow us to smithereens with our own oil money? Or do you think their fracking and oil sand extraction and deep offshore drilling will give us anything better--- perhaps you have forgotten the billions of dollars in damage the BP Deep Horizons did a few years ago, and perhaps you turn blind eye to the swarms of major quakes they have been having in the Midwest from fracking? And the pipeline the DAPL wants to put through the Missouri River that is a source of drinking water for millions of Americans? It took thousands of American Vets to make them stand down when trying to illegally force that pipeline through Are you aware of the HUNDREDS of pipeline leaks from identical pipes all over this country that cause billions in damage? Open your eyes, cretin.
I don't know how advanced THAT particular autonomous car is, but if it is anything like the Tesla autopilot system, it is more than twice as safe. There are hundreds of thousands of autonomously outfitted Teslas on the streets and highways of the country, and they are capable of driving all the way from L.A. to New York without human assistance. In the last several years they have quietly amassed billions of miles of roadwork, proving how much better they are at avoiding accidents. The Tesla has a variety of cameras, lasers, lidars, radars, ultraviolet and infrared sensors that can avoid problems where we would be helpless, such as blinding glare, heavy rain, snow, dust, etc. Teslas are not just toys for the rich--- the Model 3 has 400,000 deposits placed at $1000. each; base price is $35,000, minus roughly $10,000 in tax and other incentives. And don't give me any crap about tax breaks--- Cadillacs, Hummers, etc., have gotten billions of dollars in such incentives for decades, and the oil industry has been getting TRILLIONS in corrupt breaks that serve only the rich. The breaks EVs are getting will soon give all of us the ability to drive clean, powerful, full-featured EVs without need to support the oil industry that is choking us to death--- no oil changes, tune-ups, smog tests EVER... and there has never been a war fought over electricity. We have fought one war after another for oil---all the countries we are invading and fighting are just veiled operations to control oil production.
"Libtards"... those who use, such phrases show their ignorance. You obviously think Trump is some kind of messianic savior when in fact he is preordained for nothing more than bringing the entire country to its knees... no, I do not believe Russia was a major influence in the elections but I have no doubt that it was one of several factors, including a variety of voter frauds, plus MSM direction of public attention to Trump, giving him more media coverage than all the rest of the candidates combined. MSM turned the election into a carnival sideshow, and it will cost this country dearly. Unlike you, AC, I signed my name to this comment... being the coward you are you will never have to suffer the embarrassment of your terrible judgement of Trump--- but I sufficiently confident in my assessment of your Messiah that you see my name above--- mark my words: Trump will be the most disastrous POTUS ever, and you and the other Trump supporters will have to live with that forever.
What idiocy. There is nothing one can do with a rocket that will not involve significant risk; that is the nature of the business. Musk is taking a different and successful path that allows them to recoup more than 99.5% of launch cost by reusing the booster through very clever and innovative design and engineering. It has been a half-century of space launch, which has brought us to a point where Musk has given us a way to launch at a, massively lower cost. Those savings can be used to make those launches safer and safer as they gain experience. Considering that SpaceX has yet to lose a single life in their endeavors tells us more about your wish that he would die, than anything about him. You have an exceedingly dark and crusty soul. Tesla, BTW, has already likely saved dozens of lives by its autonomous design. More than a billion miles of their autopilot cars has shown that when drivers are on autopilot, crashes and mortality are reduced by half... Teslas are the safest vehicles on the planet and continue to get safer and safer. If they WERE not saving lives, they would not even be allowed to be on our roads.
You, sir, are either delusional or blind to any information that is not fake-newsed to you by Hannity, the Tea Party and anyone else determined to bloat space budgets for their own financial gain. Here is the bottom line, jackass: in the half-century since a dozen countries have been launching people and payloads into space, they have been spending ~$60 million at least on first stage rocket engines that burned up on falling back to Earth. That was where expense lists BEGAN... SpaceX was the first company (or any entity, such as a country or consortium) to launch multiple satellites into orbit, reverse the attitude of the booster, fire a second time back toward the launch pad, reverse attitude a second time, firing a third time to reduce reentry velocity, and land that twenty-story tall rocket butt-first on a barge rocking about at sea. The first time they did that, they launched 11 satellites into orbit; the rocket was reusable but was instead retained as a historical artifact for display. SpaceX has done this seven times so far, saving nearly half a billion dollars in launch expenses. The fuel at launch costs about $200,000, the main cost of each launch. That means each time they recover the booster and reuse it, cuts launch expenses by more than 99.5% Malign Musk and SpaceX all you want, all you are doing is showing what a miserable basement-dwelling troll you are. Thank you, Elon, ever so much for making space accessible now as it never has been before.
I often read such inane drivel in Slashdot--- this post is quite the exception--- after reading the first hundred or so comments, I feel like I just took a class in metallurgy. Thank you Barbara Hudson, et. al. Very enlightening.