IGX

DikTracy6000 wrote:Nice article on how Google/Waymo and GM/Cruise are way ahead on fully autonomous driving. If you scroll down article there's a video of GM doing a fully autonomous test in the streets of San Francisco.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/4041691 ... block=true

Here's direct link to GM/Cruise's video of fully autonomous drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RA4uR0s0dU

If you haven't followed this yet, Tesla has already settled on at least one death caused by someone having his car on autonomous driving. It seems the early models used sensors or cameras set at a height range and it didn't pick up the trailer of a flat bed due to the lack of cross sectional mass or a height miscalculation.

I do wonder how willing the public is going to be to accept the minuscule amount of fatal accidents that occur when nearly all new cars are autonomous, vs. how willing they are to accept the 30-40k deaths caused by human drivers in this country every year.

I think in a decade autonomous or mostly autonomous cars will be the norm. I remember when twenty years ago people argued if cruise control is safe. Nowadays adaptive cruise control, parking sensors, rear view camera, lane control and bird view cam are pretty much the norm. In the last six months since I bought my current car I have become fairly dependent on radar cruise control: I use it 80% of the time. It makes driving easier - if you space out and the distance between you and the car in front shortens the car breaks automatically. Similar to the wife in the next seat to say: look where you're going! I believe it does make my driving safer.

I think public opinion is going to progress the same way it always has to novelty, from rejection and bewilderment to complete (sometimes blind and unjustified) acceptance. Everyone remembers heated arguments about seat belts being dangerous because they prevent you from getting out of the car quickly. Try raising this topic now, and you will be the laughing stock of the evening. Dammit, I used to argue against the GPS navigators! If automated cars are indeed safer the statistics will show it fairly soon.

Okay, I posted about this over a week ago, and see now that several posts have been lost. TSLA has dropped about $36 in the last month since Elon Musk gave his 4th qtr.2016 report. He still doesn't know how to manage an automobile company to make money, but that's never stopped him in the past. Look for Tesla to ask investors for another billion by mid-summer, or sooner. This drop has happened while the rest of the market soars.

I was thinking about an Indianapolis 500 where all the race cars are EV's. Will gear head fans be able to tolerate the lack of testosterone boosting engine noise. At the present it will take probably three-four complete battery changes. the current max range at 55 mph is about 230 miles.

Some car companies already pipe engine noise into the cabin to tune the sound. There's no reason they couldn't create fake engine noise.

DikTracy6000 wrote:I was thinking about an Indianapolis 500 where all the race cars are EV's. Will gear head fans be able to tolerate the lack of testosterone boosting engine noise. At the present it will take probably three-four complete battery changes. the current max range at 55 mph is about 230 miles.

They could tolerate winning, I bet.

It'd be neat to allow EV versus IC. If you had electric motors in the wheels, you could precisely control and tune how torque gets to the wheels at all times. That sort of stuff directly transfers to making street cars better, safer, etc.

nafod wrote:

DikTracy6000 wrote:I was thinking about an Indianapolis 500 where all the race cars are EV's. Will gear head fans be able to tolerate the lack of testosterone boosting engine noise. At the present it will take probably three-four complete battery changes. the current max range at 55 mph is about 230 miles.

They could tolerate winning, I bet.

It'd be neat to allow EV versus IC. If you had electric motors in the wheels, you could precisely control and tune how torque gets to the wheels at all times. That sort of stuff directly transfers to making street cars better, safer, etc.

Drag racing for EV's may be a better fit. FunnyEVKars. Battery changes won't matter.

DikTracy6000 wrote:Drag racing for EV's may be a better fit. FunnyEVKars. Battery changes won't matter.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cxGFjjf-m4[/youtube]
Because God bless rednecks.

I was disappointed in the first season of the Formula E series. The cars were good, the performance was there, but the way they had the cars make a full race distance was ludicrous. Instead of having a universal quick change battery pack that they would switch 1/2 way through the race, they had drivers swap over to a completely new car with a fresh battery to finish the race. Killed the concept IMO.

I think the plan is to move toward the battery changes if they haven't already.

http://www.statesman.com/technology/tex ... FVIeiJCOM/

94 year-old inventor at Univ. of Texas, is on verge of making Lithium Ion batteries able to recharge in minutes. Could vastly expand the range of EV's plus make them charge quicker with solar rooftops on vehicles. John Goodenough(great name) is also the co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery we all use today.

Alfred_E._Neuman wrote:I was disappointed in the first season of the Formula E series. The cars were good, the performance was there, but the way they had the cars make a full race distance was ludicrous. Instead of having a universal quick change battery pack that they would switch 1/2 way through the race, they had drivers swap over to a completely new car with a fresh battery to finish the race. Killed the concept IMO.

I think the plan is to move toward the battery changes if they haven't already.

It'd be cool if there was a stretch of track where the batteries were recharged wirelessly, kind of like a pit row but the slower you go, the better the charge. If you had the Li-ion batteries like DT6000 is referencing...

DikTracy6000 wrote:http://www.statesman.com/technology/tex ... FVIeiJCOM/

94 year-old inventor at Univ. of Texas, is on verge of making Lithium Ion batteries able to recharge in minutes. Could vastly expand the range of EV's plus make them charge quicker with solar rooftops on vehicles. John Goodenough(great name) is also the co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery we all use today.

Cool, I think someone else said battery tech is probably basically at the Model T stage, which I agree with completely. About the time they announced the shingle panels Tesla created a special glass division, supposedly to help work on glass roofs for the cars that double as solar rooftops.

Sangoma wrote:

TerryB wrote:

bennyonesix wrote:Ian I keep telling you I have the emojicons disenabled.

Terry B just undisenabled them. Now you have to disundisenable again.

So yesterday Tesla announces it's raising another $1 Billion in stock and convertibles, which is about 1/4 of what it may need just in 2017 to get the model 3 to market late this year or early 2018. Most of the pundits expected the stock to get hit today. It actually opened up $2 and only sold off down $.55 late this afternoon. What's not known is, couldn't Elon Musk get banks to commit another 2-3 Billion or is he going back to the well again late 3rd quarter. I would not rule out Trump praising Tesla later this year to get more loans for more "American" jobs.

Watch out if you crash one and need it repaired...may wait awhile:

http://mashable.com/2017/03/09/tesla-sp ... vyiygg1qqB

Shapecharge wrote:Watch out if you crash one and need it repaired...may wait awhile:

http://mashable.com/2017/03/09/tesla-sp ... vyiygg1qqB

Wait two years to get one, what's a few(six) months to have one in the shop? Maybe they'll suspend your loan while it's being fixed. I've been trying to get the real up-to-date number for pre-orders for the Model 3. It was reported as nearing 400k last April, then it dropped to 373K a few weeks afterward. It hasn't been reported on any of their quarterly reports since then. When I google the info, Tesla's SEO experts have all the requests go right to their website. I did read where a few people have cancelled their pre-orders due to Musk's ties to Trump.

There's these anecdotes about repair times, but they remain #1 in customer satisfaction.

Elon Musk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Uyfqi ... u.be&t=54s

Tesla sits at $.21 below $300 a share as I write this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nONx_dgr55I
New reveal on Thursday. Range of 500 miles on single charge, 4 electric motors, I've read somewhere that estimated battery weight in the 6-8 ton range. Will certainly cut into the 80,000 max payload available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd9JQAkcYak
New roadster also revealed(3 electric motors)
0-60 mph in 1.8 secs.
0-100 mph in 4.2 secs.
Top speed ~ 250 mph
Range 620 miles on single charge. Est. price $200k or $250K for a signature model.

Elon Musk meanwhile is hand assembling his new model 3. He said at his last quarterly conference call that he wants his robots to work so fast that you can't see them move, limited only by air friction. I've read a report from an employee(ex?) that his robots right now can't properly weld the bodies together.(edit): sorry I still don't know how to embed a youtube video. The other site I'm on does it automatically.

DikTracy6000 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2017 11:42 am(edit): sorry I still don't know how to embed a youtube video. The other site I'm on does it automatically.

http://www.irongarmx.net/phpBB2/viewtop ... 82#p872389