[Rollingwheels26]

Originally Posted by DDIS

.. how it broke the testing equipment during a roof crush test at a commercial testing facility.

Recorded here:
http://www.teslamotors.com/about/pre...ar-ever-tested

That's what i was referring to when i mentioned the 4x car weight being born by the roof !! But i really do wonder how the A pillars will hold up if a Tesla crashes into an Indian truck missing its under run prevention bars..

[volkman10]

Another First from Tesla boss Elon Musk.

Tesla gives away its battery-powered brains for FREE. All its patents are available for anyone to see and use

Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...257CF6000CADA5

[DDIS]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Another First from Tesla boss Elon Musk.

Tesla gives away its battery-powered brains for FREE. All its patents are available for anyone to see and use

Yes, yet another first!
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-...are-belong-you

This is almost like a scene from the first Iron Man movie! There Stark announces shutdown of his weapons manufacturing division of his weapons making company. Here, Musk makes all their EV company's EV patents free to use for everyone.


This should hopefully bring more speed to innovation, mass production, making the mass market electric car affordable and its use feasible in quicker time.

This is quite something. How many people would actually do such a thing?


Apparently they have already had talks with BMW for them to use Superchargers on mutually agreeable terms. That's another step in the right direction

[Top-Gear]

The articles about the Tesla Model D (not sure if it's a new model or a more advanced version of the S) seem very exciting:

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/tesla-r...-announcement/

"Tesla’s next car, the P85D, will have two motors and all-wheel drive. It will match the 3.2 second 0 to 60 mph time of the McLaren F1, one of the fastest cars ever made. And it will be even more efficient than the current, already terrific, Model S.

“This car is nuts. It’s like taking off from a carrier deck. It’s just bananas,” said CEO Elon Musk, who unveiled the D at a crowded event, next door to the headquarters of the other company he helms, Space X.

And for those who settle for the standard Model S over the new Model S P85D, there’s something new: The cars now being produced are stuffed with high-tech safety technologies that will allow the car to automatically avoid danger and even drive itself—kind of.

The Model S P85D shares an exterior with the Model S sedan, and Musk didn’t mention any changes to the interior. What is different is what’s under the skin: A new motor between the front wheels to go along with the one in back. In addition to sending power to all four wheels, which is good news for customers in snowy climes, the system will boost the already impressive acceleration and the top speed. The P85D will get to 60 mph a full second faster than the current top of the line Tesla, the P85. It will max out at 155 mph instead of 130.

Each of the three versions of the Model S will come as a D model. The price of the 60kWh battery model will go from $71,070 to $75,070 for the dual motor system. The 85 kWh car goes from $81,070 to $85,070, and the P85 jumps from $105,570 to $120,170. Deliveries of the less powerful D models will start in February, the P85D should hit the road in December.

What’s especially impressive is that Tesla managed to improve the car’s efficiency and range, despite the added mass of the second motor. The 85D and P85D will be able to drive 275 miles on a charge, 10 more than the 85 and P85. The range of the 60kWh version climbs from 208 to 225 miles. Musk said the added efficiency is thanks to the electronic system that will shift power between the front and rear motors from one millisecond to the next, so each is always operating at its most efficient point. Tesla has long said it will offer all-wheel drive on its next car, the Model X SUV, so it’s no surprise it’s bringing the technology to the sedan.

But the design and production of a high-performance version of the S is something of a pivot away from what Musk says is Tesla’s ultimate goal: offering a high-quality, electric car that can travel hundreds of miles without recharging, for around $35,000. That long-awaited “affordable” EV will be called the Model 3, and will follow the Model X to market. Tesla’s been quiet about when, exactly, that’ll happen.
Autopilot

In a move that most of the luxury auto market has already made, the car will offer active safety features like adaptive cruise control and the ability to read speed limit signs, stop itself if a crash is imminent, stay in its lane, and even park itself in a street spot or in your garage. (Musk seemed to decide on the spot he wanted the car’s charger to automatically plug in, but let’s give his engineers a chance to take a breath before getting to work on that one.)

These features are provided thanks to new hardware that will go into future Model S cars (and is already in every car produced in the past two weeks). Tesla is adding a radar that can see through fog and snow; a camera with image recognition capability to spot traffic signs and lights, as well as pedestrians; 360-degree ultrasonic sonar; and a system that combines all the data those produce with navigation, GPS, and real-time traffic systems.

The net result will be a car that can be put on “autopilot,” if not fully autonomous mode. Tesla isn’t ready to make the jump quite yet, Musk said, since the safety system can’t be fully relied on, and regulations to handle self-driving cars have to be figured out. But, Musk said, if you fall asleep while driving, the car should be able to get you home safely. If you try to steer into danger, the wheel will resist. Owners will also be able to summon the car to pick them up autonomously, as long as they’re on private property, where DOT and other regulations don’t apply. “The car can do almost anything,” he said.

The technology behind these systems is likely provided by Daimler, as the two companies have a partnership: Tesla provides batteries for the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive car. In December 2013, Daimler said it “has cooperated successfully with Tesla for several years and currently intends to broaden and deepen its partnership in the coming years.” Mercedes offers many of these features on its vehicles, and is working to put a self-driving car on the market by 2020.

This pile of features fully catches Tesla up with the luxury market in the one area where it was actually behind. As impressive as the current Model S is in terms of performance, it didn’t even have any adaptive cruise control, which monitors the car’s distance from other vehicles in addition to staying at speed on its own.

So now that it’s reestablished its position as the true innovator in the auto industry, maybe Tesla can go back to work on building a wonderful electric car more of us can take home."

I hope I can one day afford a Tesla. For that, Elon Musk has a lot of hard work to do - to bring down prices drastically

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

Interestingly Tesla Model S is used as a Taxi in many parts of Norway.

saw this Tesla Taxi on the ferry from Bergen to Stavanger.

[johannskaria]

Originally Posted by theragingbull

Maps: Google maps are the default map option. You cannot install third party maps like Garmin or TomTom. If you are on a road trip, an external GPS is necessary cuz for google maps you need data coverage, which is not available everywhere. Also, the maps cannot be kept pre-loaded. May be a software update should fix this problem.

If I'm not wrong,I think the Turn by Turn navigation is an ad-on package only to display on the 12incher provided by Garmin.
Google maps is just for Reference.

[Rehaan]

"Test drive of a petrol car" (by a Tesla owner)

Came across this hilarious article right now...

It really makes you think about how people are so resistant to change, and how what they are comfortable with is the "normal" for them, even if it shouldn't be!

Having heard so much good about petrol cars, we decided to test drive one. They are said to combine cheap price with long range and fast charging. A winning formula on paper – but how are they in real life?

We sat us in the loaner car at the car salesman’s office. Automakers do not sell the cars themselves, only through independent car repair shops as middlemen. It may sound like a bad omen to buy the car from a car repair shop that you want to visit as seldom as possible. But you apparently can’t buy the car directly from the manufacturer but must go through such intermediaries. The seller was very ”pushy” and tried to convince us to buy the car very forcibly, but the experience is perhaps better elsewhere.

So we sat in the car and pressed the START button. The car’s gasoline engine coughed to life and started to operate. One could hear the engine’s sound and the car’s whole body vibrated as if something was broken, but the seller assured us that everything was as it should. The car actually has an electric motor and a microscopically small battery, but they are only used to start the petrol engine – the electric motor does not drive the wheels. The petrol engine then uses a tank full of gasoline, a fossil liquid, to propel the car by exploding small drops of it. It is apparently the small explosions that you hear and feel when the engine is running.

The petrol engine consists of literally hundreds of moving parts that must have tolerance of hundredths of a millimeter to function. We begun to understand why it is car repair shops that sell the cars – they might hope for something to break in the car that they can mend?

We put in a gear and drove away with a jerk. The jerk came not from any extreme acceleration, but gasoline engines apparently cannot be driven as smoothly as electric motors. The acceleration did not occur at all, because we could not get the car to go faster than 40 km/h! By then the petrol engine literally howled and the whole car shook violently. Convinced that something must have broken we stopped the car. The seller then explained that with petrol engines you need to ”change gears” on a regular basis. Between the engine and the wheels are not a fixed ratio gear, but a variable one. The petrol engine can produce power only in a limited speed range, and must therefore be geared with different ratios in order to continue to accelerate. There are 5 different gears we can select with increasing speed as result. It is -as we learned quickly- very important that each time select a suitable gear otherwise the engine will either stop or get seriously damaged! You need a lot of training to learn to select the right gear at the right time – though there are also models with automatic transmissions that can do this themselves. In the manual transmission car, we needed to constantly guard the engine from damaging it. Very stressful.

We asked if the constant sound of the engine -that frankly disturbed us from being able to listen to the radio- could be turned off. But it couldn’t. Very distracting.

After getting the car up to speed through intricate changing of gears we approached a traffic light. Releasing the accelerator pedal resulted in no significant braking, we had to use the brake pedal very much to slow down the car. We were surprised to hear the brakes are completely mechanical! The only thing they generate is heat – braking gives no regeneration of gasoline back into the tank! Sounds like a huge waste, but it would soon get even worse.

When we came to a stop the engine continued to run and the car vibrate – even though the car was standing still! The engine continued to burn gasoline without moving the car forward. Can it really be true? Yes, the seller explained, it is so with gasoline cars: the engine is always running and burning gasoline – even when the car is stationary. Some models however switches off the engine at a red light, he explained. Well that certainly makes more sense.

After a while we came to a gas station where we could charge the car. The car claimed that it still had half a tank left, but we wanted to try the famous super-fast charging of petrol cars!

So we drove to the gas station and opened the fuel cap. The filling nozzle is very similar to a charging connector, but it is not electrons that come out of it but gasoline. Gasoline is a highly carcinogenic, smelly and flammable liquid derived from plants and animals extinct since millions of years ago. The gasoline is pumped to a tank in the car, which then drives around with about 50 liters of this hazardous liquid in it.

We put the nozzle to the car, but nothing happened. The seller then explained that we must pay to fuel! Much like those extremely expensive fast chargers some electric utility companies have set up. After we put the credit card in the reader we could start fueling. It was extremely fast! In just two minutes we filled the gas tank to the max! But there were two counters on the pump: one that showed the number of liters we have fueled and one that showed how much it would cost us. And that counter was spinning so fast that we could hardly keep up with its pace! Sure we filled the tank full in two minutes, but it did cost us an unbelievable €30! A full charge would thus cost us double that – a whopping €60! We cursed our luck that we apparently have chosen one of the most expensive gas stations, and began to ask the seller what other alternatives are there? How much does it cost to fill up at home, and how many free stations are there?

Read the rest here...

[DicKy]

Just hilarious to read, a whole different perspective. Makes our cars look like some kinda cart running on firewood.

Good write-up, except for the goof up, where they manage to move the car till 40km/h without knowing anything about manual transmission. that was a pretty bad attempt. They managed to modulate the clutch and go in first gear itself, without knowing how it works??? Petrolhead thoughts

[maddy42]

Tesla Model S driving at 200kmph on the autobahn. Check the video out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKoNNY3BL4o

Also a writeup on this. Gives more detail on power consumption.

https://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/15...125-mph-video/

[vincyf1]

Thanks for this detailed post.

I dream of the day when Buying a Tesla car is a reality on Indian Road Scenario. Like many, I feel that Fossil Fuels have had enough of burning to do. It is time to adopt Renewable Sources of Energy wherever possible to minimize the effect we cause on Mother Earth.

[kousik]

This is not about any specific Tesla model and how do they stack up with conventional competition. It seems Tesla has breached the technological barriers and 'figured it out' how to make a viable electric vehicle. A reasonable range, charging network, customer affordability all seem to be within reach in next 5 years. So if they succeed (and I sure hope they do), do you guys think we'll witness the biggest revolution in automobile industry?

I have been reading about Elon Musk as well Tesla, and perhaps here are two (long, took me 4-5 days to read them through) references that covers these extensively (warning: use of strong language unsuitable for children)

1. http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-m...ddest-man.html
2. http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-te...your-life.html

If any of you have more references towards the EV revolution, and have opinions if (or not) that's the future we're looking at, let's discuss them.

Personally I'd love to hail a self-driven electric Uber to work!

[vagu]

Tesla Motors Inc.’s all-wheel-drive version of the battery-powered Model S, the P85D, earned a 103 out of a possible 100 in an evaluation by Consumer Reports magazine.
The combination of power and efficiency was so off-the-chart that the group had to recalibrate its ratings methods “to account for the car’s exceptionally strong performance,” according to a statement. Ultimately, the car was given a score of 100 that set a new standard for perfection.
The Tesla sedan is the quickest Consumer Reports ever tested, accelerating to 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour from a stop in 3.5 seconds using the car’s “insane mode.” (Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has since released an even-faster “ludicrous mode.”) The P85D is a high-performance, all-wheel-drive version of the all-electric Model S that achieved the equivalent of 87 miles per gallon of gasoline.
“This is a glimpse into what we can expect down the line, where we have cars with the performance of supercars and the comfort, convenience and safety features of a luxury car while still being extremely energy efficient,” Jake Fisher, the magazine’s head of automotive testing, said in an interview. “We haven’t seen all those things before.”
Based on the P85D’s scores, Consumer Reports had to reassess how much to weigh things like acceleration, where the Tesla is as much as twice as quick as other vehicles, Fisher said.
“Once you start getting so ridiculously fast, so ridiculously energy efficient, it didn’t make sense to go linear on those terms anymore,” he said.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...tings-idu1hfk0

[vasoo]

I believe there are other threads on this car already including driving impressions

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...essions-8.html.

[PatchyBoy]

Originally Posted by Rollingwheels26

That's what i was referring to when i mentioned the 4x car weight being born by the roof !! But i really do wonder how the A pillars will hold up if a Tesla crashes into an Indian truck missing its under run prevention bars..

Here is your answer. Not an Indian truck, but a landslide.

Tesla Model S Saves Woman, Child In Landslide

[pravingmh]

This is an article on the why behind EVs and what Tesla is doing, its part of a 4-part series on Musk.

Christie Nicholson remembers meeting Elon Musk for the first time at a party back in 1989.

“I believe the second sentence out of his mouth was ‘I think a lot about electric cars,’” Christie said. “And then he turned to me and said, ‘Do you think about electric cars?’”

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-te...your-life.html

A long long read, but then whats the weekend for?