Battery based electric vehicles of today and tomorrow.

[Grumpycat]

Tesla (TSLA) secures massive order of Tesla Semi electric trucks from Walmart - Electrek

I do not believe "Regenerative braking technology recovers 98 per cent of kinetic energy to the battery"

Conversion from kinetic to electric is not 98% efficient. Conversion from electric to chemical (battery) is not 98% efficient. Conversion back to electricity and kinetic is not 98% efficient. Then multiply (yes, multiply, is not additive) all those inefficiencies it is even worse.

Grid to battery to motor is 85% efficient on my Tesla.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Is Nikola A Fraud/Scam? A Tesla Owner's Visit to Nikola Motor - YouTube

The hydrogen fuel cell, Nikola and Trevor Milton are three things I have heard about but never drilled down before.

The lady that created the above video was helpful to me to better grasp all three subjects. The tour of the Nikola development center was very informative. Hearing Tervor Milton speak was helpful.

The news of the last few days raises a lot of questions about the future of the above.

 

[3930dave]

Gale, I know that you and others here follow Tesla closely. Is Tesla still actively marketing this as AutoPilot ?

Tesla with Autopilot hits cop car—driver admits he was watching a movie | Ars Technica

I closer to Libertarian (esp. by Canadian standards) than anything else, but if that's still how it's being marketed, I wish either the NHTSA or the courts would get that stopped. Elon tends to forget (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt....) that many consumers are too stupid/indifferent to understand the limits of the tech.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

A driverless related ars article worth reading (AAA testing)....

New cars can stay in their lane—but might not stop for parked cars | Ars Technica

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Gale, I know that you and others here follow Tesla closely. Is Tesla still actively marketing this as AutoPilot ?

Tesla with Autopilot hits cop car—driver admits he was watching a movie | Ars Technica

I closer to Libertarian (esp. by Canadian standards) than anything else, but if that's still how it's being marketed, I wish either the NHTSA or the courts would get that stopped. Elon tends to forget (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt....) that many consumers are too stupid/indifferent to understand the limits of the tech.....

Rgds, D.

AutoPilot is like that comes on Nissan, Subaru, etc today and is not a self driving feature which is not even legal today.

 

[3930dave]

AutoPilot is like that comes on Nissan, Subaru, etc today and is not a self driving feature which is not even legal today.

Nobody in their right mind would give a bunch of 6 year olds loaded guns to play with.

General consumer understanding of this driverless tech isn't that far removed from that ^ scenario.

If I advertised a food or other product as "Fat Burning" or "IQ enhancing" or some other claim that it wasn't, I'd likely encounter various levels of investigation and legal action, at least up here.

Given today's vehicle limitations, IMO any manufacturer (not just T) that markets with terms like Autopilot is, at best, being irresponsible.

We are at the gold-rush stage of this sector; I do recognize that lawsuits are just another Risk/Cost item....

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Nobody in their right mind would give a bunch of 6 year olds loaded guns to play with.

General consumer understanding of this driverless tech isn't that far removed from that ^ scenario.

If I advertised a food or other product as "Fat Burning" or "IQ enhancing" or some other claim that it wasn't, I'd likely encounter various levels of investigation and legal action, at least up here.

Given today's vehicle limitations, IMO any manufacturer (not just T) that markets with terms like Autopilot is, at best, being irresponsible.

We are at the gold-rush stage of this sector; I do recognize that lawsuits are just another Risk/Cost item....

Rgds, D.

I am with you on giving 6 year old kids access to loaded hand guns. 5 miles from my house an 18 month got his father's hand gun and caused it to discharge glazing his stomach. An air vac chopper landed across the road in the Dollar General store parking lot and the child recovered.

While Tesla AutoPilot is on it seems one odds are better than many human drivers which I find appealing.

403 Forbidden

Man says Tesla Autopilot saved his life by driving him to the hospital

Elon Musk has stated true autonomous driving will have to be 10X more safe than human drivers for autonomous driving to become legal and cars can be built without steering wheels.

If true self driving is here in 10 years (2030) we know 30 million of us in the USA will have died for some reason by 2030 and the seniors in 2030 may not even have a reason to drive if Google and Apple have any say in the matter.

We learned a couple weeks ago from Tesla they are doing a complete software rewrite and enhancing the neural network of they self driving hardware/software. The current version has been running for 1.5 trillion miles over the past 3 years. It logs the results back to Tesla so Tesla knows what the car wanted to do and when the drivers overrode the actions by the full self driving features so they can compare the human vs computer outcomes.

Telsa is self insuring their cars in CA and will roll out in other states as they are approved as an auto insurance saving Tesla owners on cost to insure a Tesla. Tesla uses the repair claims info to redesign their vehicles to make them more safe and and easier to repair since a crash is becoming their baby to fix. Tesla being the safest vehicles on the road helps drive more sales especially since full ownership costs will become less than for the same ICE car.

On the 15th I will have one year behind the wheel of our Nissan 2016 Leaf. 13,000 miles later a lot of my former false views about EV's are evaporating so I do realize your struggles that you are having today that you have mentioned. Have you taken any EV for a test drive yet?

 

[3930dave]

Interesting on the insurance front. Tho, when I take the time to think about Elon's non-linear thinking patterns..... not that surprising.

Closed loop engineering improvements.... it's what any decent engineer will do, when left unfettered by "normal" corporate constraints.

One of the articles I believe I linked recently touched on the historical reasons why many of these systems don't do well with stopped vehicles in a live-lane, or roadside. It's not a technology that I'm interested in engaging with, any time soon - EV or ICE.

Haven't driven an EV yet. I suspect that I'd like the motor Tq and quiet. I expect their #'s to keep growing, esp. in urban areas.

EV does interest me, but it's not really new. I remember an older friend of my Dad's talking about the electric vehicles in use in London (UK), when he served there in WWII.

I look forward to continued progress on the battery front. Perhaps my retirement project will be an ultra-compact portable ICE engine packaged with a high-speed battery charger...... my EV equivalent to two 5 gal. gas cans I use now for remote travel.

I enjoy the detailed posts you've brought to this thread Gale - thanks !

Rgds, D.

 

[dragoneggs]

I just ordered a couple of VanMoof e-bikes for my wife and me. We test rode them downtown Seattle for fun a few weeks ago and I am going to surprise the Mrs. for xmas. They are quite sleek and fun. Modern design from the Netherlands. A very long waiting list and I know I can turn around and sell them at our cost because of demand around here if we have a change of heart.

Ride the future with our Electric Bikes | VanMoof

 

[Grumpycat]

AutoPilot is like that comes on Nissan, Subaru, etc today and is not a self driving feature which is not even legal today.

Tesla Autopilot is much more than what "Nissan, Subaru, etc" are offering.

Tesla Autopilot will smoothly hold a lane. Will change lanes for you if you signal. Will pass slower cars for you.

EyeSight on my Subaru beeps when I cross the lane lines without signaling. It can tug gently on the steering wheel when I come close to a line but if allowed to steer on its own will tug left crossing right line then head straight for the left line where it might tug right hard enough to go straight for the right again or it might keep going left off road.