That's like saying "I'm not going to lock my door because thieves know how to pick locks anyway". Very bad argument if you ask me.
Jeez, the system they used actually supported WPA2, all they had to do was tick a box and choose a password. Sure, maybe that will be cracked one day, too. But it will certainly take more expertise than just listening to data that's transmitted in the clear.
And how exactly would a simple password result in a higher price?
They are using standard IP software (as evidenced by the fact that the "attackers" could join without the slightest effort), and I'm sure that software has the option of requiring a password to join the network. All they had to do is tick the box, pick a password, and hardcode the password into the traffic lights software. I know, not the best solution, but surely better than using no password at all.
So don't tell me cost was the reason. Basic negligence (and possibly bad intentions, hoping for a new juicy contract for an "improved" system once someone exploits it) are the real reasons.
The other auto makers already have this technology and are doing practically nothing with it. Elon thought the biggest risk to his company was other companies joining the race and pushing Tesla out of business. The opposite has happened, none of the big auto companies is really interested.
The problem is that, right now, electric cars are incredibly expensive to develop and produce. Lots of new technology is needed to make them efficient enough to have a practical range, and batteries are very expensive. The old auto companies have sure tried to make a few practical, sort of not too expensive small electric cars but few people were buying them because they were too expensive for what they offered. Elon's approach actually made a lot more sense:
1. Develop the basic technology by marketing a toy roadster car for very rich people with undoubtedly an enormous profit margin to pay back the development costs as quickly as possible and pave the way for the next car. Forget about the middle class, they are not going to pay 50% extra just to have an electric car. Rich people will gladly pay this and more for a "toy" to show off to their friends. 2. Using the money and gained credibility from that roadster, make a more practical model which is still very expensive but also desirable for the rich. Again, rich people is where the money is. They also don't care much about teething problems in the early cars because they are much too proud about showing off the technology and the incredible performance of their car. 3. Once you reach enough volume with these cars, start working on an actual, affordable car. With the volume of the earlier models, battery prices have come down and you can even afford building an enormous new battery plant. NOW building affordable electric cars becomes feasible.
In my humble opinion, this was a brilliant way of doing it. As long as electric cars are much more expensive than internal combustion engine cars, the masses simply won't go for them.
Well, at least it's one of them. I read they were already going to break ground in multiple locations while waiting for the final decision and approval. So this doesn't mean that the actual factory will be built there. Quite a bold trade-off, actually, wasting some money by starting to build in several places that may end up not being used, just to avoid having to wait for politicians to make up their minds. Elon doesn't like to waste time.
And who knows, those locations may end up housing gigafactories as well, just at a later time.
On some internet connections with restrictive filters, pages containing "dirty words" are automatically blocked. Happens to me every now and then when I'm surfing at work, even on innocent sites. I did get them to whitelist Slashdot, though. Other people might not be so lucky.
I just checked on the Tesla forum: they just didn't update that part of the website, but most current superchargers are 120 kW right now except for a handful of early ones.
OK, that little tidbit of information makes all the difference. 16kWh battery, now I'm impressed. I knew there was something missing, the record was way too underwhelming and close to actual production cars on our roads right now.
Well, they just announced the new battery, they're not actually selling it just yet, but anyway, even if they're just below the record, with an ordinary production car that anyone with enough money can buy, I would expect a university team with a specially built car driving at constant speed to do way, way better.
That's weird, they keep stating that figure just about everywhere (including at the top of the page, and in the FAQ lower on the page, so I'm not sure whether they are using false advertising or they simply forgot to update that line about "we will soon". It's the figure I was given on my test drive as well. I'll try to find out for sure.
Even better, Tesla has announced a new battery to retrofit into their old roadster model, which will bring its range up to 640 km (400 miles) EPA rated range. Maybe that's at a lower speed, I'm not sure how EPA rated range is calculated, but certainly close enough to make this new record by a university team rather unimpressive. My first reaction to the summary was "isn't their a zero missing somewhere?".
No, that's not the future performance of their next iteration of superchargers, it's the actual performance of their current superchargers. They've got more than 150 of them now.
This "intelligent avatar" thing, however, is probably going to be the worst of both worlds: the slowness of human interaction (waiting for an artificially generated face to actually speak out the words instead of just skimming the text on the screen in a fraction of the time) combined with a complete lack of common sense. And of course the avatar is going to speak as slowly as possible to make sure even the most retarded passenger can understand it, etc...
I really hope they'll at least include a start screen with two options: text based or avatar. But more than likely, they'll be so proud of their incredible technological achievement that you'll have no such choice.
Yes, it has a "key fob" to allow anyone to steal your car as long as you are in range with the fob when they drive off (for example if you are standing next to the car). When they get out of range, the car will complain about the missing fob but will still continue to drive until you turn it off (or run out of battery). But you can use the remote control on your phone to honk the horn, lower the windows etcetera while they are driving, hopefully attracting attention to them.
(Note: this is how it worked a while ago, they might have issued an update to fix that particular issue)
They can't even steal it because they have access to the doors and sunroof and despite being able to enter it they can't use the ignition. Unless they can also change the PIN all they can do is to annoy people.
I'm certainly relieved that they couldn't use the ignition: imagine the mayhem the hackers could cause if they figured out how to ignite those batteries!
It's a new feature on the smartphone app: you could already honk the horn, open the windows and roof, and many other things. Now they added "split in half and eject driver". Very useful, I must say.
Slashdot Mirror
I highly doubt they're importing it at 220V. More likely thousands of volts, which are then transformed to whatever voltage they want.
New processes? Training and SOPs to tick the (existing) box "enable WPA2" and enter a password?
That's like saying "I'm not going to lock my door because thieves know how to pick locks anyway". Very bad argument if you ask me.
Jeez, the system they used actually supported WPA2, all they had to do was tick a box and choose a password. Sure, maybe that will be cracked one day, too. But it will certainly take more expertise than just listening to data that's transmitted in the clear.
And how exactly would a simple password result in a higher price?
They are using standard IP software (as evidenced by the fact that the "attackers" could join without the slightest effort), and I'm sure that software has the option of requiring a password to join the network. All they had to do is tick the box, pick a password, and hardcode the password into the traffic lights software. I know, not the best solution, but surely better than using no password at all.
So don't tell me cost was the reason. Basic negligence (and possibly bad intentions, hoping for a new juicy contract for an "improved" system once someone exploits it) are the real reasons.
Sure confirms the old saying: Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.
I just hope that that article was satirical.
Would make one hell of an art project, I guess.
The other auto makers already have this technology and are doing practically nothing with it. Elon thought the biggest risk to his company was other companies joining the race and pushing Tesla out of business. The opposite has happened, none of the big auto companies is really interested.
The problem is that, right now, electric cars are incredibly expensive to develop and produce. Lots of new technology is needed to make them efficient enough to have a practical range, and batteries are very expensive. The old auto companies have sure tried to make a few practical, sort of not too expensive small electric cars but few people were buying them because they were too expensive for what they offered. Elon's approach actually made a lot more sense:
1. Develop the basic technology by marketing a toy roadster car for very rich people with undoubtedly an enormous profit margin to pay back the development costs as quickly as possible and pave the way for the next car. Forget about the middle class, they are not going to pay 50% extra just to have an electric car. Rich people will gladly pay this and more for a "toy" to show off to their friends.
2. Using the money and gained credibility from that roadster, make a more practical model which is still very expensive but also desirable for the rich. Again, rich people is where the money is. They also don't care much about teething problems in the early cars because they are much too proud about showing off the technology and the incredible performance of their car.
3. Once you reach enough volume with these cars, start working on an actual, affordable car. With the volume of the earlier models, battery prices have come down and you can even afford building an enormous new battery plant. NOW building affordable electric cars becomes feasible.
In my humble opinion, this was a brilliant way of doing it. As long as electric cars are much more expensive than internal combustion engine cars, the masses simply won't go for them.
Well, at least it's one of them. I read they were already going to break ground in multiple locations while waiting for the final decision and approval. So this doesn't mean that the actual factory will be built there. Quite a bold trade-off, actually, wasting some money by starting to build in several places that may end up not being used, just to avoid having to wait for politicians to make up their minds. Elon doesn't like to waste time.
And who knows, those locations may end up housing gigafactories as well, just at a later time.
Actually, it should be the off-world driving record for vehicles originating from earth.
On some internet connections with restrictive filters, pages containing "dirty words" are automatically blocked. Happens to me every now and then when I'm surfing at work, even on innocent sites. I did get them to whitelist Slashdot, though. Other people might not be so lucky.
And how could Apple become as good as it is? Hmmm...
Did you warn them about 9/11?
What's the use of that, if you have to wait 18 years for her to grow up? Unless you want a future mate for your newborn son?
And where does the money come from that pays for those ads?
I just checked on the Tesla forum: they just didn't update that part of the website, but most current superchargers are 120 kW right now except for a handful of early ones.
OK, that little tidbit of information makes all the difference. 16kWh battery, now I'm impressed. I knew there was something missing, the record was way too underwhelming and close to actual production cars on our roads right now.
Well, they just announced the new battery, they're not actually selling it just yet, but anyway, even if they're just below the record, with an ordinary production car that anyone with enough money can buy, I would expect a university team with a specially built car driving at constant speed to do way, way better.
That's weird, they keep stating that figure just about everywhere (including at the top of the page, and in the FAQ lower on the page, so I'm not sure whether they are using false advertising or they simply forgot to update that line about "we will soon". It's the figure I was given on my test drive as well. I'll try to find out for sure.
Even better, Tesla has announced a new battery to retrofit into their old roadster model, which will bring its range up to 640 km (400 miles) EPA rated range. Maybe that's at a lower speed, I'm not sure how EPA rated range is calculated, but certainly close enough to make this new record by a university team rather unimpressive. My first reaction to the summary was "isn't their a zero missing somewhere?".
No, that's not the future performance of their next iteration of superchargers, it's the actual performance of their current superchargers. They've got more than 150 of them now.
This "intelligent avatar" thing, however, is probably going to be the worst of both worlds: the slowness of human interaction (waiting for an artificially generated face to actually speak out the words instead of just skimming the text on the screen in a fraction of the time) combined with a complete lack of common sense. And of course the avatar is going to speak as slowly as possible to make sure even the most retarded passenger can understand it, etc...
I really hope they'll at least include a start screen with two options: text based or avatar. But more than likely, they'll be so proud of their incredible technological achievement that you'll have no such choice.
Yes, it has a "key fob" to allow anyone to steal your car as long as you are in range with the fob when they drive off (for example if you are standing next to the car). When they get out of range, the car will complain about the missing fob but will still continue to drive until you turn it off (or run out of battery). But you can use the remote control on your phone to honk the horn, lower the windows etcetera while they are driving, hopefully attracting attention to them.
(Note: this is how it worked a while ago, they might have issued an update to fix that particular issue)
They can't even steal it because they have access to the doors and sunroof and despite being able to enter it they can't use the ignition. Unless they can also change the PIN all they can do is to annoy people.
I'm certainly relieved that they couldn't use the ignition: imagine the mayhem the hackers could cause if they figured out how to ignite those batteries!
It's a new feature on the smartphone app: you could already honk the horn, open the windows and roof, and many other things. Now they added "split in half and eject driver". Very useful, I must say.