Now _everyone_ will have gull-wing doors.
Meet Model X
281–290 of 358 posts
Re: Meet Model X
#282I can't wait to see how well they do in the Paris-Dakar Rally, because of course they'll back up all their hype by going out and handily beating the competition, just like the Tesla Model S completely dominated Touring Car racing and showed the GT class at Le Mans what innovation is all about. /s
Not exactly the intended use case, though, is it? Do you expect your mother to play NFL football? No? Not everything is built to compete.
What I'm talking about is the long-running automotive tradition - a useful one - of subjecting an automobile to competition by which to identify weaknesses, opportunities for improvement, and publicly showing that the vehicle is capable of rising above every-day use scenarios through its engineering prowess.
Using your logic, why is Aston Martin in GT / ALMS racing? Why is Mercedes Benz in F1 racing? Why is Volkswagen in off-road racing?
The list goes on and on and on. The only time Tesla has gotten to a podium is because Elon Musk paid for it to be there for the press. I suppose it makes sense not to take Tesla endurance racing, because it'd be embarassing.
Re: Meet Model X
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
In all seriousness, how does the Model X improve buckling your kids over a sliding minivan door? Never had trouble with this, I've owned a car, truck, SUV and minivan with young kids. Biggest headache? The kids buckling themselves. The seatbelt always locks (they pull too fast), the buckles get smushed into the seat bench, and before you know it I have exited the car, just to help them put it altogether.
Yep. I love the performance of Tesla's cars, but a humble minivan already has (far less attractive) sliding doors with very large openings. To be fair to Tesla, Elon Musk did address this around two-thirds of the way through his presentation yesterday, saying "when the minivan door is open I can't even get through that space." I suspect he'd also say the Model X's doors provide a vertical opening in addition to a sid…
The Model S (and presumably the X, at it uses the same wheelbase) is a _very_ wide car, wider than most minivans, so I suspect your Honda minivan is just narrower and won't run into this problem as much as those that drive the model X (or the S drivers today)
Re: Meet Model X
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just want to mention some facts. EVs are interesting and the future for sure but thinking EVs are the holy grail is just stupid. http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/hold-smugness-tesla-might-... How do you can capture carbon?
I think what jedberg meant was that if you are producing the electricity at a centralized place (like even a coal-fired power plant) you could theoretically capture carbon using massive scrubbers on the exhaust towers. Developing similar technology and installing it in all of the individual gas-burning cars would be near impossible. My 2c: The real "secret plan" here is that converting us to electric vehicles paves t…
These 'scrubbers' and nuclear plants are already in my calculations of battery manufacturing C02 production. Base of the CO2 production calculation is the energy mix of germany. In the US it would be even higher(?).
Source is an independent german energy research institute btw.
Re: Meet Model X
#285Re: Meet Model X
#286Okay.. I'm a Model S owner and I love Tesla and I chuckled at the whole Insane mode and gave a bit of an amused snort at Ludicrous mode. This, however, really makes me wonder WTH is going on there: HEPA Air Filters "There are three modes: circulate with outside air, re-circulate inside air and a bioweapon defense mode that creates positive pressure inside the cabin to protect occupants ." EDIT: Very fair points about…
Well, given how common forest fires are, I think it can be useful. In the last two years, I've been through three forest-fire caused 'air quality warnings' which caused genuine discomfort in Arizona, Minnesota, and Oregon.
Re: Meet Model X
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only other company than Apple, in my opinion, that consistently slathers on more self-adulation and importance than reasonable on their own products, is Tesla. Safest? Hummer H1. Fastest? Brabus 800 G. Most Capable? Toyota Land Cruiser. Edit: Every downvote is sweet with your tears of being confronted by actual facts, just letting you know.
I really doubt the H1 is safer than the Model X. Just because it's big and strong doesn't mean it's safe. On what basis do you make that statement? I'm having trouble finding much info on the Brabus 800 G, but from what I can dig up it looks like it does 0-60 in 4.2 seconds with a top speed of 155MPH. Model X P90D with ludicrous upgrade does 0-60 in 3.2 seconds with a top speed of 155MPH. Most capable is a vague term…
Thanks for responding and I'll chime in.
I'm using the 8,100 pound vehicle weight of the H1 as an off-the-cuff reference point in physics, because in practical terms, yes, bigger tends to be safer in the real world. If somebody can find the NHTSA numbers for the H1 that'd be relevant to clearing that up. Oh, and I'm talking about the military converted version that was road legal, not the GM product.
Until we get the official test numbers from a 3rd party, I'm not going to believe Tesla's numbers. For all I know they could be better than advertised, but they could also be worse. I saw the 800 G having a top speed closer to 170, which would make it faster. Also, having been on the road with 50+ Teslas, I can assure you that the speed of the vehicle absolutely does not matter, because they don't use it. Anecdotal, sure, but there's always a bragging rights speed metric to brag about, which means it's not really worth bragging about.
So basically on the last point you agree with my premise, that Tesla likes to pick terms to hype itself along the lines of Apple and how "revolutionary" their products are. Basically the Model X hasn't proven itself capable of anything yet, because it's a year behind and I haven't seen any 3rd party tests of it...unlike the Land Cruiser, which is highly regarded worldwide for being, you know, capable of handling normal and abnormal conditions.
Re: Meet Model X
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
What? Used lithium batteries aren't radioactive, there's no reason we couldn't recycle them. And their proliferation will only make them more economical to recycle.
Lithium batteries are widely recycled.
Okay, but how does that scale to Tesla vehicles? Is it cost-effective? Is it part of the ownership / leasing arrangement that Tesla will recycle them? I genuinely would like to know.
Re: Meet Model X
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not fair to compare the Model X to a Sedan. Do you have numbers for other SUVs? Remember the idea here is that it's assumed you'll be buying a car already. Also, even if the total lifetime carbon was equal, it's still better to buy a vehicle that produces all that carbon in localized places where it could possibly be captured instead of all over crowded urban areas.
Not only that, but the fuel source of an ICE must produce carbon output. However, there are many fuel sources for EVs that are carbon neutral (solar, wind, hydro, nuke). Where I live, my power comes from mostly nuclear sources, so the production of my car has been the only major carbon impact that it's had.
As you can see by the numbers the manufacturing takes a big part of the whole carbon production of EV.
Nuclear power is a very bad power source. There is no final depot for nuclear waste on earth. We have to get rid of nuclear power. Hundreds of generations past us will have to deal with this shit of our generation.
Re: Meet Model X
#290Roughly estimated carbon production of manufacturing (I got these numbers from a german discussion, one source for battery carbon production is: http://www.focus.de/auto/experten/duennes/oekobilanz-von-ele... ): ------------------------------------------ VW Polo GTI: 2 tons BMW M5: 2,5 tons BMW I3: 4 tons Tesla Modell X 13 tons Manufacturing + 100.000km: -------------------------- BMW I3 -> 9,6 tons VW Polo GTI -> 18…
In the long term electric vehicles are obviously the greener solution. We can't be carbon neutral if we need to burn carbon to propel our vehicles.
Fossil fuels need to be extracted, transported, refined, transported, stored at gas stations, and then transported with the vehicle before it's used. That's a lot of mass and energy before it even makes the car go forward.
Some other non-obvious benefits: electric cars last longer and require less maintenance, they're quieter, they don't put harmful chemicals in the air to breathe, and they reduce total milage by not requiring trips to a gas station.