I read it, perhaps incorrectly, as the transfer of power from the charger to the vehicle is 90% efficient. Any losses in stashing the power into the batteries would be on top of that? e.g. If the Tesla is 90% efficient with a mechanical connection. And the mechanical connection is close to 100% efficient (which it would need to be in order not to melt?). Then the charging efficiency of a Tesla fitted out to use this would be.0.9 * 0.9 = 81 percent?
BTW what happens to the missing 10% ? Ten percent of 20kw is 2kw which maybe two or three times what an electric toaster uses. If the missing energy is converted to heat, what is getting heated up? By how much?
Not that I need it, but how well does X10 work? Specifically, I wonder about the North American practice of wiring houses as two separate 110 volt "buses" 180 degrees out of phase. Doesn't that mean that an X10 controller on one "bus" can't talk to a device on the other "bus" unless a 220 volt device like a clothes drier or electric stove happens to be running?
Gonna be interesting when the software -- bugs are the user's problem -- mentality collides with the automotive strict liability world. Presumably the entertainment components can work (or not work) like the crap we are used to. But if your autonomous car runs over a kid on a tricycle I think that software vendors are going to find themselves in a whole new legal world.
You need to brush up on your energy math. Hydro typically has a capacity factor of 85 to 90 % which makes the hydro contribution around. 1.54*0.875 = 1.3GW. The capacity factor for onshore wind is said to be around 0.3 (which may be generous in practice.) which works out to 0.3*5.59. =1.65GW. Scotland exports a substantial amount of electricity to England and one suspects that much of that is wind power. (Which will probably be double counted by the English as THEIR renewable power).
50% is about right,
BTW, pumped storage does work, but it's not cheap and it's somewhat inefficient -- which lowers the actual power delivered to the customer by a further 15-35% (No one seems to agree on the efficiency of pumped storage. Maybe it's different for different facilities). The turbines and tunnels in existing hydro dams are not generally designed to run backwards and act as pumps. If I'm to believe Wikipedia Scotland has only a couple of pumped storage facilities with about 800 MW generating capacity total.
It is said that Scotland has enormous potential for wave and tidal power. Which may well be true. But as far as I can tell, Scotland has no significant amount of either actually on line and providing power to their electric grid. Just a long line of proposals and cancelled/suspended projects. (Tidal power can work BTW with some limitations. There are substantial facilities on line in France and South Korea).
I doubt that anyone in North America or Europe outside of a few eccentric hermits is at danger from too little Sodium. It's added to just about everything you don't grow yourself. Try to plan a low Sodium diet someday.
OTOH I object to the usual sloppy Slashdot editing. "It's common knowledge that excess sodium can be detrimental to one's health.". Hogwash. The danger of Sodium to anyone except possibly a relatively small number of Sodium sensitive hypertensives is, in fact quite controversial. It should be pointed out that the Japanese consume prodigious amounts of dietary Sodium -- way more than Americans even, On average they outlive just about everyone else on the planet.
Let me get this straight. You think that just because you bought something, you own it? You sir, are not a 20th century man.
And if you think Apple is a problem, wait 'til your $25000(US) car won't let you take it to work until you make an appointment with the nearest dealer to have the ashtrays cleaned at a cost of $399.98
Because my addlepated and ill informed friend, government run healthcare -- which comes in a lot of flavors -- has a solid track record of good coverage, adequate results and much lower costs than the US (about half in most countries, two thirds in Canada). You and your obnoxious friends have managed to create a mediocre and incredibly costly healthcare system in the US and then whine endlessly and blame everyone but yourselves for the result. Why, in the face of overwhelming evidence, do you think that the government is the problem when it is abundantly clear that the problem is you?
Aside from which, the Lockerbie bomb was thought to have been in the luggage and the guy who was convicted (on what seemed to me to be very thin evidence) of planting it wasn't on the plane.
Ya reckon that mirror array has any chance of turning into the largest solar sail ever deployed? Also, I suspect that torquing a huge mirror array -- even a lightweight one around to deal with ever changing sun angles might impose a few stresses on the mirror. Don't worry, the engineers can solve those problems. They always do. Just get the damn construction contract signed !!!
If you lived way the hell and gone beyond the end of the power line, you could probably make current renewable technology work after a fashion. But dealing with its present limitations would be a real nuisance.... And after a while, a diesel generator would probably start to look really attractive.
His brother is not necessarily a fool. As long as society is willing to bribe folks to provide green power (the polite term is "subsidize"), there is very likely money to be made. Maybe a lot of it. However, as with almost everything, it is probably best not to lend money to folks who believe their own advertising.
> It's a frequent refrain that government agencies are overspending and missing deadlines.
The implication being that private companies don't ever have budget and schedule problems. Which is -- of course -- quite untrue. They have the same problems as the government. All the time. Read up on the Trans Alaska oil pipeline some time.
I'd suggest the big projects will always tend to have problems. The reason is simple. Scheduling is done using the most probable time for each task. But some tasks take more time than projected and some take less. The distribution is skewed. Sometimes a "one month" task only takes two weeks. But perhaps equally often it takes two months. String together a dozen or so complex tasks and you can bet on usually taking longer than you expect and spending more than you budgeted.
"There is no software on the planet that is more scrutinised and more meticulously developed than software for spacecraft"
There's at least one. Software for US nuclear weapons systems. I once watched a USAF nuclear safety audit over the course of a few years. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the work. (Not that I thought that particular nuclear weapons system made a damn bit of tactical sense. Thankfully, it's long gone).
BTW, I think that any software involving digital communications deserves a lot more scrutiny than it's getting. My guess is that we will end up being very sorry that we've implemented what will turn out to be critical systems with a "ship it now and we'll fix any problems later" mindset.
But do not fear. For just $5USD a month, we can install a package on your vehicle that will detect the theft, drive the vehicle to the nearest police station, lock the doors, tune the radio to celinedion.24_7.com, and turn the volume up to 135dB. You can contact us at www.makethebastardspay.com
Tomorrows computer controlled pedestrians will fit is seamlessly. (They better if they plan to survive).
Seriously. Eventually, fewer and less complex stop lights but still quite a few to handle pedestrians, synchronizing activity where bumper to bumper traffic streams cross and other special cases.
Oh, and, BTW, expect some monumental traffic jams when those Over The Air updates that folks regard as a solution to some problem or other cause every Honda in North America to decide not to talk to any GM car at 3:00 pm on a Friday afternoon..
Should be a great view from the top if you don't mind the noise, vibrations, etc. You could build an amusement park around the tower. Zip lines, for-fee hiking trails up to the top, some ski runs etc.
"there are 'law enforcement' types all over the place, who would like nothing better than to return to the 'good old days' of being able to drag a 'suspect' into a room, and beat them senseless, repeatedly if necessary, until they sign a pre-written 'confession' of their 'crimes'..."
I've been wondering what the FBI did back to solve crimes back before they could hack cell phones. Thanks for reminding me.
I agree on all counts and would add that foreign governments are likely to have far greater resources than individual terrorists wrt to hacking vehicles. I do suspect that China or the US for example are unlikely ever to cripple the other's transportation system because their own will be equally vulnerable. But how about North Korea? Or Cuba (which probably has about six computer controlled cars in its entire fleet).? Given that US foreign policy is often dictated by guys whose approach to the world hasn't changed much since they were in grammar school extorting lunch money from third graders, is deploying vulnerable systems open to the internet really a great idea?
"my first thought is that maybe cars being so connected before we have the robustness to go with it isn't such a great idea."
Not disagreeing, but I'd omit the 'before we have...' part. It'll take a decade or three, but I expect after a lot of (unnecessary) pain, it will become obvious that arbitrary OTA updates for any device are a bad idea. Upside benefits are real, but minimal. Downside risks are also real and potentially serious.
That's especially true for cars. Cars are mobile. And Expensive. How long do you think it'll be before you can go over to that shady bar on the bad side of town with all the motorcycles parked outside, plunk down a few Benjiis and get a nifty little box that'll deliver the vehicle of your choice to your front door with the gas tank full (courtesy of the former owner) and the engine running?
"If a spread spectrum signal is below the noise floor, there's no way of telling that it's even there unless you know the pattern."
That might well work for communications, but for radar, you need to detect a reflection that is down what? maybe 30-40db. RF guys are pretty clever nowadays, but My guess is that they aren't clever enough to dig out a noise like signal much, much, much weaker than the ambient noise.
Will this avoid lock? Probably not. I would imagine that attackers will just lock onto maximum noise rather than maximum signal. May make attacking radars harder though. And I suppose standing near an arcing power line in a war zone might be a bad idea if this becomes common.
BTW, are these things going to play hell with other radio communications?
Slashdot Mirror
I read it, perhaps incorrectly, as the transfer of power from the charger to the vehicle is 90% efficient. Any losses in stashing the power into the batteries would be on top of that? e.g. If the Tesla is 90% efficient with a mechanical connection. And the mechanical connection is close to 100% efficient (which it would need to be in order not to melt?). Then the charging efficiency of a Tesla fitted out to use this would be .0.9 * 0.9 = 81 percent?
BTW what happens to the missing 10% ? Ten percent of 20kw is 2kw which maybe two or three times what an electric toaster uses. If the missing energy is converted to heat, what is getting heated up? By how much?
Not that I need it, but how well does X10 work? Specifically, I wonder about the North American practice of wiring houses as two separate 110 volt "buses" 180 degrees out of phase. Doesn't that mean that an X10 controller on one "bus" can't talk to a device on the other "bus" unless a 220 volt device like a clothes drier or electric stove happens to be running?
Gonna be interesting when the software -- bugs are the user's problem -- mentality collides with the automotive strict liability world. Presumably the entertainment components can work (or not work) like the crap we are used to. But if your autonomous car runs over a kid on a tricycle I think that software vendors are going to find themselves in a whole new legal world.
Popcorn time ...
You need to brush up on your energy math. Hydro typically has a capacity factor of 85 to 90 % which makes the hydro contribution around. 1.54*0.875 = 1.3GW. The capacity factor for onshore wind is said to be around 0.3 (which may be generous in practice.) which works out to 0.3*5.59. =1.65GW. Scotland exports a substantial amount of electricity to England and one suspects that much of that is wind power. (Which will probably be double counted by the English as THEIR renewable power).
50% is about right,
BTW, pumped storage does work, but it's not cheap and it's somewhat inefficient -- which lowers the actual power delivered to the customer by a further 15-35% (No one seems to agree on the efficiency of pumped storage. Maybe it's different for different facilities). The turbines and tunnels in existing hydro dams are not generally designed to run backwards and act as pumps. If I'm to believe Wikipedia Scotland has only a couple of pumped storage facilities with about 800 MW generating capacity total.
It is said that Scotland has enormous potential for wave and tidal power. Which may well be true. But as far as I can tell, Scotland has no significant amount of either actually on line and providing power to their electric grid. Just a long line of proposals and cancelled/suspended projects. (Tidal power can work BTW with some limitations. There are substantial facilities on line in France and South Korea).
I doubt that anyone in North America or Europe outside of a few eccentric hermits is at danger from too little Sodium. It's added to just about everything you don't grow yourself. Try to plan a low Sodium diet someday.
OTOH I object to the usual sloppy Slashdot editing. "It's common knowledge that excess sodium can be detrimental to one's health.". Hogwash. The danger of Sodium to anyone except possibly a relatively small number of Sodium sensitive hypertensives is, in fact quite controversial. It should be pointed out that the Japanese consume prodigious amounts of dietary Sodium -- way more than Americans even, On average they outlive just about everyone else on the planet.
Let me get this straight. You think that just because you bought something, you own it? You sir, are not a 20th century man.
And if you think Apple is a problem, wait 'til your $25000(US) car won't let you take it to work until you make an appointment with the nearest dealer to have the ashtrays cleaned at a cost of $399.98
Because my addlepated and ill informed friend, government run healthcare -- which comes in a lot of flavors -- has a solid track record of good coverage, adequate results and much lower costs than the US (about half in most countries, two thirds in Canada). You and your obnoxious friends have managed to create a mediocre and incredibly costly healthcare system in the US and then whine endlessly and blame everyone but yourselves for the result. Why, in the face of overwhelming evidence, do you think that the government is the problem when it is abundantly clear that the problem is you?
Aside from which, the Lockerbie bomb was thought to have been in the luggage and the guy who was convicted (on what seemed to me to be very thin evidence) of planting it wasn't on the plane.
You pirated it. SCO was actually OK and not outrageously expensive as I recall. And it was supported which was important for business applications.
And there was minix. It wasn't open source originally. I can't recall if you had to pay for it.
And there was Microsoft's Xenix which eventually became SCO.
Ya reckon that mirror array has any chance of turning into the largest solar sail ever deployed? Also, I suspect that torquing a huge mirror array -- even a lightweight one around to deal with ever changing sun angles might impose a few stresses on the mirror. Don't worry, the engineers can solve those problems. They always do. Just get the damn construction contract signed !!!
If you lived way the hell and gone beyond the end of the power line, you could probably make current renewable technology work after a fashion. But dealing with its present limitations would be a real nuisance. ... And after a while, a diesel generator would probably start to look really attractive.
It'll improve. Slowly.
His brother is not necessarily a fool. As long as society is willing to bribe folks to provide green power (the polite term is "subsidize"), there is very likely money to be made. Maybe a lot of it. However, as with almost everything, it is probably best not to lend money to folks who believe their own advertising.
Of course renewables work. Why, Solar power can light your home all day long. ... except for a few hours around dawn or dusk and on cloudy days.
> It's a frequent refrain that government agencies are overspending and missing deadlines.
The implication being that private companies don't ever have budget and schedule problems. Which is -- of course -- quite untrue. They have the same problems as the government. All the time. Read up on the Trans Alaska oil pipeline some time.
I'd suggest the big projects will always tend to have problems. The reason is simple. Scheduling is done using the most probable time for each task. But some tasks take more time than projected and some take less. The distribution is skewed. Sometimes a "one month" task only takes two weeks. But perhaps equally often it takes two months. String together a dozen or so complex tasks and you can bet on usually taking longer than you expect and spending more than you budgeted.
And that's when you do the planning well ...
"There is no software on the planet that is more scrutinised and more meticulously developed than software for spacecraft"
There's at least one. Software for US nuclear weapons systems. I once watched a USAF nuclear safety audit over the course of a few years. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the work. (Not that I thought that particular nuclear weapons system made a damn bit of tactical sense. Thankfully, it's long gone).
BTW, I think that any software involving digital communications deserves a lot more scrutiny than it's getting. My guess is that we will end up being very sorry that we've implemented what will turn out to be critical systems with a "ship it now and we'll fix any problems later" mindset.
On top of which, when was the last time the batteries in a $2 mechanical key died?
But do not fear. For just $5USD a month, we can install a package on your vehicle that will detect the theft, drive the vehicle to the nearest police station, lock the doors, tune the radio to celinedion.24_7.com, and turn the volume up to 135dB. You can contact us at www.makethebastardspay.com
Tomorrows computer controlled pedestrians will fit is seamlessly. (They better if they plan to survive).
Seriously. Eventually, fewer and less complex stop lights but still quite a few to handle pedestrians, synchronizing activity where bumper to bumper traffic streams cross and other special cases.
Oh, and, BTW, expect some monumental traffic jams when those Over The Air updates that folks regard as a solution to some problem or other cause every Honda in North America to decide not to talk to any GM car at 3:00 pm on a Friday afternoon..
Should be a great view from the top if you don't mind the noise, vibrations, etc. You could build an amusement park around the tower. Zip lines, for-fee hiking trails up to the top, some ski runs etc.
"two more, technically"
That would depend on how many feet you have, would it not?
"there are 'law enforcement' types all over the place, who would like nothing better than to return to the 'good old days' of being able to drag a 'suspect' into a room, and beat them senseless, repeatedly if necessary, until they sign a pre-written 'confession' of their 'crimes' ..."
I've been wondering what the FBI did back to solve crimes back before they could hack cell phones. Thanks for reminding me.
I agree on all counts and would add that foreign governments are likely to have far greater resources than individual terrorists wrt to hacking vehicles. I do suspect that China or the US for example are unlikely ever to cripple the other's transportation system because their own will be equally vulnerable. But how about North Korea? Or Cuba (which probably has about six computer controlled cars in its entire fleet).? Given that US foreign policy is often dictated by guys whose approach to the world hasn't changed much since they were in grammar school extorting lunch money from third graders, is deploying vulnerable systems open to the internet really a great idea?
"my first thought is that maybe cars being so connected before we have the robustness to go with it isn't such a great idea."
Not disagreeing, but I'd omit the 'before we have ...' part. It'll take a decade or three, but I expect after a lot of (unnecessary) pain, it will become obvious that arbitrary OTA updates for any device are a bad idea. Upside benefits are real, but minimal. Downside risks are also real and potentially serious.
That's especially true for cars. Cars are mobile. And Expensive. How long do you think it'll be before you can go over to that shady bar on the bad side of town with all the motorcycles parked outside, plunk down a few Benjiis and get a nifty little box that'll deliver the vehicle of your choice to your front door with the gas tank full (courtesy of the former owner) and the engine running?
"If a spread spectrum signal is below the noise floor, there's no way of telling that it's even there unless you know the pattern."
That might well work for communications, but for radar, you need to detect a reflection that is down what? maybe 30-40db. RF guys are pretty clever nowadays, but My guess is that they aren't clever enough to dig out a noise like signal much, much, much weaker than the ambient noise.
Will this avoid lock? Probably not. I would imagine that attackers will just lock onto maximum noise rather than maximum signal. May make attacking radars harder though. And I suppose standing near an arcing power line in a war zone might be a bad idea if this becomes common.
BTW, are these things going to play hell with other radio communications?