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SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/17/17 7:45 p.m.

...Oh wait... Brave new WORLDS.

Once he begins colonization of Mars!  winkwink

GCrites80s
GCrites80s New Reader
11/17/17 8:09 p.m.

I care much more about what this company DOES rather than what it MIGHT do. And that goes for all of Musk's side quests as well.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/17/17 8:17 p.m.

In reply to GCrites80s :

You are assuming they are side quests.

I am suggesting they are all integrated.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/17/17 8:28 p.m.

In reply to GCrites80s :

...and let's be honest.  You probably don't give a rat's behind what this company does.

mad_machine
mad_machine MegaDork
11/17/17 8:35 p.m.

Indeed, if Musk can push the other "bigger' car companies into producing electric cars the masses want, he did his job. I wonder if Porsche would have been interested in their E if not for Tesla paving the way?

stuart in mn
stuart in mn UltimaDork
11/17/17 8:55 p.m.

I periodically look up price and availability on used Model S Teslas - I think they're a hot looking car but they haven't depreciated very much (yet).  Maybe sometime in the future I'll be able to afford one.  This new sports model is seriously cool as well but I imagine it will be even longer before they fall into my price range.

GCrites80s
GCrites80s New Reader
11/17/17 9:01 p.m.

In reply to SVreX :

I kind of do, but I just become sarcastic over so much futurism and too many people buying in without results. Much like how they talked for 5+ years how the Probe was going to replace the Mustang, how the Loads were such a letdown as compared to Metallica's previous work or that most old futuristic movies never predicted the cell phone, "The Future" has not turned out like I, or most others predicted. This company's mouth is too large, it lacks modesty and has poor self-awareness.

mad_machine
mad_machine MegaDork
11/17/17 10:23 p.m.

People Judge the future on what they know. Most futurists predict a linear  approach to tech, when in reality things like computers, cell phones, solar power, and even miniaturization are best taken exponentially. As for cell phones themselves, they had them long before most people realize, just not in the small compact computer form you and I are used to.

GCrites80s
GCrites80s New Reader
11/17/17 10:54 p.m.

Digital is exponential until it runs out of steam and often becomes logarithmic. The physical realm runs on its own set of rules that it decides itself -- completely disregarding human concepts such as exponents, logarithms, algorithms and linearity as in the cases of tire and horsepower development.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
11/18/17 12:24 a.m.
GCrites80s said:

In reply to SVreX :

I kind of do, but I just become sarcastic over so much futurism and too many people buying in without results. Much like how they talked for 5+ years how the Probe was going to replace the Mustang, how the Loads were such a letdown as compared to Metallica's previous work or that most old futuristic movies never predicted the cell phone, "The Future" has not turned out like I, or most others predicted. This company's mouth is too large, it lacks modesty and has poor self-awareness.

You have the freedom to your opinion, but honestly I can't figure out wha thte heck you are talking about.

So, Tesla (and Eloni Musk, by association) is not a success because the future will not turn out like they predict?

If Elon Musk represents failure, sign me up for as much failure as I can get.

 

GCrites80s
GCrites80s New Reader
11/18/17 7:58 a.m.

Not a failure, but over-valued as a publicly-traded company.

Kreb
Kreb UltraDork
11/18/17 9:14 a.m.

In reply to GCrites80s : Because people see Tesla as a Tech company, not a traditional manufacturing one, and Tech companies are valued by different standards. There are a number of flaws in that way of thinking, but that's just the way that it is.  

 

GTXVette
GTXVette Dork
11/18/17 9:43 a.m.

 

Is It 1984 YET !!! even Dick Tracey Had a Wrist Radio, And as I read this a Program was On about A I . They were Talking about Facial Recognition and that they may Already be able to Predict our Next Move Or Thought's So at what Point Do they( A I Robot's) Decide it's Best to Just eliminate Humans  "For Their Own Good" and how do they Program that out of the Robots 'Thought' I know this is a stretch on Electric cars Or is it.

Robbie
Robbie PowerDork
11/18/17 10:49 a.m.

It's easy to point out all the issues or reasons something "won't" work.

It's not easy to make something that changes the world.

Elon musk is doing the second, and doesn't particularly care about all the critics who are doing the first.

dculberson
dculberson PowerDork
11/18/17 1:21 p.m.

In reply to GTXVette :

You do remember that Dick Tracy was fiction right? ;)

plain92
plain92 New Reader
11/18/17 2:15 p.m.

If I had $1mil I would not invest in Chilean lithium, or something. Fingers crossed they have an envorinmental way to do that.

However much or little is publicized, there has to be a fight or resistance from the oil industry on this one. I mean the US economy and bail out has been based on auto mfg. But it seems more people want this than ever. It might take years but if they make enough eventually they should come down in price. For a Silicon Valley dreamer harnessing the sun for a larger % of our energy requirement is an absolute no brainer.

For those paranoid about Skynet just imagine an electric car as a big DC motor with a rheostat pedal switch with a fuse and several batteries; I think it can do that too. Electric Porsches and other converted cars have been roasting the drag strip for decades. I wouldn't say it's just the batteries. But someone that beat NASA to reusable (reuseable?) rockets plus the batteries.

GTXVette
GTXVette Dork
11/18/17 3:22 p.m.

In reply to dculberson :

But, But ,Wrist Radio's(Tele's) Are Not. Lol and although Driver less cars are coming soon, How can we Stop the robot Uprising if they Know were Coming after them? At the Moment I am All for the Amazing Cars ,Aircraft, Plasma Drive systems  Nuke Power and Much More You Gotta wonder Where all the Past Civilizations went.

travellering
travellering Reader
11/19/17 10:04 a.m.

I think they are definitely all related quests for ol Musky.  He corners the high energy density battery market so GM et al has to pay him to go to Mars so they can undercut him here with cheapo electric production cars, and he has the market locked down on luxury cars that can run with little to no atmosphere.  First car dealerships on Mars?

simplecat
simplecat New Reader
11/19/17 2:33 p.m.

In reply to GCrites80s :

Logarithmic is still exponential, just shown a different way. Also, I believe the new roadster battery pack is supposed to be solid state lithium, so comparing current batter tech power density and weight isn't the same. I don't think they're planning on selling a 3000lb car with a 2000lb battery back.

Blaise
Blaise Reader
11/20/17 7:40 a.m.

I think a better headline would be "Tesla announces PLANS to TRY to build the fastest production car ever."

It's a concept. And the whole thing is a ruse to draw attention away from the fact that the 3 is still not being delivered (280 total sold so far, not 20,000/mo like they said).

I hope they do great, but it's driving me NUTS that the internet is QUOTING SPECS FOR A CONCEPT CAR. It doesn't exist! You can't buy one, you can't drive one, it's not being produced and the only 'proof' they have is a video of some 0-60 runs, which is in no way indicative of anything.

Blaise
Blaise Reader
11/20/17 7:45 a.m.
simplecat said:

In reply to GCrites80s :

Logarithmic is still exponential, just shown a different way. Also, I believe the new roadster battery pack is supposed to be solid state lithium, so comparing current batter tech power density and weight isn't the same. I don't think they're planning on selling a 3000lb car with a 2000lb battery back.

Is there a difference  in specific energy between solid-state LI batteries vs liquid?

I'm not a battery engineer but from what I've read it does offer some performance improvements but your basic kWh/kg doesn't move much.

Chris_V
Chris_V UberDork
11/20/17 8:04 a.m.

A number of you sound like you did when the Model S was announced. "Oh, he'll never do that, they only make little electric Lotuses!" Now it's not only in production, there's a CUV next to it AND a complete charging infrastructure nationwide (that ate up a lot of profits, itself). As Kreb said earlier, don't bet against them. They may be a little late on delivering what they promise, but they do deliver, from long range luxury performance electric cars to rockets that take off AND land properly. Yeah, they've done some stupid stuff that they didn't need to do (falcon doors, for example), but at the core, they are making cars and disrupting the game plan of every other manufacturer.

As for the closed minded bullE36 M3 that is "I hate EVS" think about what you're saying. It's just another method of providing propulsion to a vehicle. If you can accept everything from single cyl 2 stroke motorcycles to W16s, with a myriad of sounds and ways of providing power, then you can accept the instant thrust of an electric motor. For me, I don't care what provides motive power, so long as the car is responsive, fairly agile in stock form, and provides G forces in acceleration, braking and cornering. I'm not paid by the oil companies, so I'm not invested in exploding dinosaurs as the ONLY MOTIVE POWER I'LL ACCEPT! Sheesh!

And I don't really give a E36 M3 about being green, either, if a car is fun, it's fun, and I've had a bunch of fun driving some of these modern EVs, from the Spark EV with 400 lb ft of torque to my buddy's Model S. But, they ARE actually pretty green in that they are power generation agnostic, meaning you can get power from coal plants, hydro plants, wind farms, solar arrays on your home, and more. And as new power sources are found, they automatically can take advantage of that unlike ICE cars. And a single centralized power source, like a NG fired plant, is orders of magnitude cleaner than a million individual point sources of pollution, each of which are getting dirtier every year that they are used. And they allow urban areas to remain cleaner as they aren't directly emitting pollution in a confined space. So in that regards, they are in fact cleaner. Lithium is "mined" in evaporative brine ponds that are cleaner that oil drilling, too. The ONLY thing that is suspect, but it affects regular cars, too, is the cobalt used in the electrical system. We've got to get a solution to that problem.

FlightService
FlightService MegaDork
11/20/17 8:49 a.m.

Let's argue for a minute it doesn't do 250 or 600 miles per charge.

 

Let's say it does 200 mph and 400 miles per charge.  

That still puts it in the 911 Turbo S, McLaren 720S, Audi R8 V10Plus, etc. price range and it will outrun all of them and cruise further.  I would argue it is probably cheaper to own across the board too.

I want to know about the motor controller on those things.

FlightService
FlightService MegaDork
11/20/17 8:55 a.m.
SVreX said:
 

If Elon Musk represents failure, sign me up for as much failure as I can get.

 

I want to fail like Musk too!  #FailLikeElon

 

z31maniac
z31maniac MegaDork
11/20/17 9:08 a.m.
plain92 said:

 

For those paranoid about Skynet

If anyone is paranoid about that aspect, they should probably not use the Internet or have a cell phone.

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