Live data from Hacker News

Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

teslamotors.com

71–80 of 150 posts

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's completely true. I come from the Polish Silesia region which is full of heavy industry, and in my absolutely normal car I had to replace the cabin air filter every 6 months - it was just black with soot. Now I live in the UK and in my car here I've had the same filter for 2 years now and it's almost brand new - the difference in air pollution is massive and is definitely something I care about. A…

> the difference in air pollution is massive and is definitely something I care about. The one hour you spend in your car daily probably isn't going to mitigate what you're breathing in every day outside the car, if that's something you care about.

In London the most polluted parts are the roads, and the pollution people get from "being in traffic" kills significant numbers of people each year.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/15/nearly-95...

> Nearly 9,500 people die early each year in London due to long-term exposure to air pollution, more than twice as many as previously thought, according to new research.

> The premature deaths are due to two key pollutants, fine particulates known as PM2.5s and the toxic gas nitrogen dioxide (NO2), according to a study carried out by researchers at King’s College London.

> The study – which was commissioned by the Greater London Authority and Transport for London – is believed to be the first by any city in the world to attempt to quantify how many people are being harmed by NO2. The gas is largely created by diesel cars, lorries and buses, and affects lung capacity and growth.

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#72
post #2

What is the point of wasting precious resources and taxpapyer money on this ?

It amazes me that comments like this, more commonly seen in the comment sections on second-tier news sites, exist even on HN.

>exist even on HN

The fallacy is in believing the forums you participate in are, for some reason, not "second-tier".

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#73
post #6

> You can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in your car. Unless you're being attacked with smog, this seems rather hyperbolic. I can't imagine that two minutes breathing, say, aerosolized tweaked Spanish influenza, would be 'safe'. Maybe if you were in the car with the system running before the attack, though?

Don't breathe. (2 minutes isn't that long to hold your breath for)

It is pretty long for most of the people. Unless you're a pro diver of course.

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we see this happen in countries with poor security records. Rich people get high quality private security and then they care less about supporting the police. Similarly with water quality in many countries where rich/middle class people get water delivered. It is in the public interest to not allow the wealthy to internalize these externalities only for themselves so that they focus the government resources towards s…

> Rich people get high quality private security and then they care less about supporting the police. Do you really think that "rich people" will disregard air pollution because their car provides filtered, clean air?

People will always assign priority to problems depending on how much of it they are personally experiencing.

(With the notable exception of Hollywood celebrities desperately searching for a purpose in life)

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#75
post #55
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but it's the positive pressure that's important, not the high flow rate. You may need a high flow rate to maintain whatever pressure you're aiming for but the thing that's keeping out any contaminants is the fact that every tiny leak is only going to have air going from the inside to the outside other than the filter itself. If you've got a big room with only one tightly sealed door, you don't need a lot of flow…

Thing is you can't maintain positive pressure in a battletank without high flow rate. Tanks are not fully sealed.

Are they not? Many tanks can traverse rivers driving on bottom with special attachment to the main hatch. Leopard 2 does that.

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#76
post #42

This is impressive but worries me that one day this will be used as excuse to allow excessive pollution. The average person in China right now need this. Let's hope that the USA doesn't get to the point where this level of pollution is in the air because people who are well-off and control industry all have these cars to drive and be driven around in that filter the air so heavily for them, so it doesn't matter to th…

we see this happen in countries with poor security records. Rich people get high quality private security and then they care less about supporting the police. Similarly with water quality in many countries where rich/middle class people get water delivered. It is in the public interest to not allow the wealthy to internalize these externalities only for themselves so that they focus the government resources towards s…

And schools, and... that list goes on and on.

Schools are particularly nasty because bad public schools make private schools more effective at giving an advantage in life.

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#77

This is so cool. My bosch vacuum cleaner has a hepa filter, I'm going to duct tape my RC car to it, turn it on and call it a "Bio-weapon defense drone"

But apparently that HEPA filter is nothing like the Tesla filter. I believe I saw a comparison where the Tesla filter blocked something like 100x smaller particles than your typical vacuum cleaner HEPA.

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#79
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've ever wanted to travel in Indonesia/Singapore/China locations during the multi-month Haze/particulate issues, you would understand how this is a pretty invaluable technology. I don't really have any lung issues (that I know of) - but if I forget to bring a mask, and walk for any distance, I start coughing and gagging after a while to clear my lungs. It gets so bad, that at times people are not only told to s…

Is Tesla making cars for Indonesia, Singapore or China currently? Surely there are problem all over the planet but I don't see why American government must subsidize solving those problems.

And they aren't. US government does not pay a dime for the marginal production of Tesla cars.

Re: Putting the Tesla HEPA Filter and Bioweapon Defense Mode to the Test

#80

Bioweapon Defense Mode is not a marketing statement, it is real. Their filter does a good job cleaning particles out of the cabin air. Good on them. Nevertheless, calling it "Bioweapon Defense Mode" is clearly a prize bit of marketing. A system designed to protect against an external bioagent wouldn't run huge amounts of outside air through the filter. That would just load the filter more quickly, impacting its perfo…

That would depend on your definition of a "bioweapon". How many people have to be killed by a toxic substance injected into the air to consider it a weapon? 1.2 million people died in China alone in 2010 from air pollution. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/world/asia/air-pollution-l...

1.2 million premature deaths, not outright deaths. These will be people about to die anyway who died slightly sooner than otherwise. Car crashes kill people 50 years ahead of schedule, not 1 year.
Post reply on HN