Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

teslamotors.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 408 posts

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#341

Post by tempestn »

anxman wrote: post #336
morbius wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely, but I'm not so sure I like the idea of OTA updates... for an embedded system. I mean, I can understand GP computing devices, but this is a bit concerning. Not just for security reasons, but because it dramatically decreases the control you have over the vehicle. Maybe I'm beating up a dead horse here, but I'd much rather take my car into the shop and have it updated than have a packet sent out ove…

As a Model S owner, the OTA updates are one of the my favorite parts of the vehicle. Going to a shop for service has always a really frustrating experience for me. Ironically, Tesla's service is so amazing that I don't mind it, yet I don't even need to go in! They just added a feature in the 5.9 update that is pretty important to me (hill assist) and I've n

Do you have the option to be prompted before an update is installed, or is it a completely automated process?

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#342

Post by pistle »

bsdetector wrote: post #161

Curious that it doesn't mention battery swaps. Since this is a PR piece I'm assuming from lack of mention that you can no longer swap batteries after having the extra battery shield added. Battery swap was always a gimmick -- you had to return to the same swap station later to get your same battery back or pay a huge fee. Come on. It looks like they decided fires are worse PR than this gimmick is good PR.

Stop. You're harshing my myopautopia with all your fact checking. Please reaquire a position within the jerculus circulus.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#343

Post by function_seven »

hahainternet wrote: post #318
mpg33 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. Good explanation of Steve Jobs as well IMO

Unfortunately not. Apple's success was many times despite Jobs. He was indeed a visionary, but 'benevolent' is the precise wrong term for him.

Well, not to other people, no. "Benevolent" would be the last word I'd choose to describe him.

But I believe Jobs was "benevolent" to the product itself.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#344

Post by ergzay »

tempestn wrote: post #341
anxman wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Model S owner, the OTA updates are one of the my favorite parts of the vehicle. Going to a shop for service has always a really frustrating experience for me. Ironically, Tesla's service is so amazing that I don't mind it, yet I don't even need to go in! They just added a feature in the 5.9 update that is pretty important to me (hill assist) and I've n

Do you have the option to be prompted before an update is installed, or is it a completely automated process?

Not a Tesla owner, but I believe it prompts. Lots of owners were not installing a specific update at one point that contained a feature they disliked. Not sure exactly how the "blocking" of the update happens though.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#345

Post by function_seven »

squigs25 wrote: post #259
squigs25 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, nope! While it requires more initial force, that extra energy due to added mass is stored in kinetic energy, and contrary to popular belief, it does not affect efficiency. There was actually a myth busters episode about this. Electric cars would store this added energy in their regenerative breaking, so it shouldn't affect energy consumption. Also, the added weight of steel over titanium would be negligible…

TO answer everyone's questions below, think about the following example: You have one car that's 1,000 lbs and one that's 10,000 lbs. When you start each car, it will take a lot more energy to bring the 10k lb car up to the same speed as the 1k lb car, but after that, the effects of drag will weigh more heavily on the lighter car (F=ma, so the rate of deacceleration is a lot higher for a smaller mass), causing consta…

> but after that, the effects of drag will weigh more heavily on the lighter car (F=ma, so the rate of deacceleration is a lot higher for a smaller mass), causing constant fluctuations in the motor shutting on and off.

All other things being equal, a heaver car will experience the exact same aerodynamic drag as a lighter car. Only the cross-sectional area and shape of the body come into play when determining how much opposing force air resistance provides. By the same token, the motor must supply a constant amount of torque to the wheels to counteract that force. If the force remains unchanged, so too does the torque required to counteract it. You're right about the rate being different, but as far as I know the motor doesn't cycle on and off like an air conditioner compressor does. It maintains a steady output.

What we're left with is an additional component of drag due to rolling resistance. A heaver car will deform the rubber tires more than a lighter one, and put more normal force into the bearings, causing that rolling resistance to be higher. I'm not sure what fraction of the total drag is due to rolling resistance vs. wind resistance--like you, I bet it's comparatively small, but still significant enough to show up in reduced range.

> Also, the heavier car would experience greater bearing resistance + friction. This is really difficult to quantify, and my gut is that it's outweighed by the momentum advantage.

I may be wrong here, but I don't see having an increased momentum as being an advantage. It takes more energy to build up that increased momentum, and you don't get it all back from regenerative braking

A heavier car may be more efficient, if you calculate efficiency as [Energy used] / [Total mass], but the better way to calculate the real-word efficiency is [Energy used] / [Mass of stupid driver who doesn't deserve this car as much as I do, when do I get to have one?]

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#346

Post by yetanotherphd »

jusben1369 wrote: post #43

"An ode to passive/aggressive and hyper defensive writing" Did this remind anyone else of when the smartest kid in the room was forced to apologize for something and you got the classic non apology apology? Keep building great cars Elon and changing the world. Understand that we understand that there will be (I almost said bumps in the road) and that no one expected you to be perfect in every way from the very beginn…

It sounds like you are jealous of Musk's intelligence, and so you write something that puts down smart people and talks down to them in a patronizing way.

Why else would you lump all smart people together, and claim they have some psychological issues that you (not so smart maybe, but much more mature), can help with?

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#347

Post by seanmcdirmid »

bashinator wrote: post #297
ImprovedSilence wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of the saying: "people like to say that speed kills, but really it's a very sudden lack of speed that kills." I think that might be a Clarksonism...

Also, "No-one ever died from falling. They die from stopping falling."

Not true: plenty of people have died of a heart attack on the way down before they ever hit the ground.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#348

Post by FiloSottile »

hahainternet wrote: post #318
mpg33 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. Good explanation of Steve Jobs as well IMO

Unfortunately not. Apple's success was many times despite Jobs. He was indeed a visionary, but 'benevolent' is the precise wrong term for him.

I know that it is trendy on HN to hate on Jobs now (ok, that was spiteful, sorry) but I think no-one around here has the insight to judge what Steve Jobs what in the success of Apple.

Apple grew from zero to great; Jobs lead it. This is all the correlation I feel entitled to dare, did reading the biography grant you more? (Again spiteful. Sorry. So this is how aggressive comments are written...)

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#349

Post by 25cf »

rkalla wrote: post #300

This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. I love this... I actually love that it probably pissed off Musk to no end the amount of attention the fires got and out of spite he went totally over the top and added ballistic pla…

I don't know if that's the case. Perhaps Musk is enabling the media by specifically stating that these reinforcements are for preventing fires. I actually would go so far as to say that a good CEO would not do something like this because it lends credence to the media's claims about the fires - that the fires are an issue that need to be fixed, rather than some rare occurrence that would probably be worse in any other vehicle in the same wreck.

Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

#350

Post by fixedd »

rkalla wrote: post #300

This is what you get when a company/group/effort/community is lead by a "benevolent dictator" - someone with an absolutely pure vision of what they want their output to look like and the autonomy and strength to make it so no matter what. I love this... I actually love that it probably pissed off Musk to no end the amount of attention the fires got and out of spite he went totally over the top and added ballistic pla…

> I wonder what air travel would be like instead of the race-to-the-bottom experience it is now.

Comparing a niche (expensive) car manufacturer to major airlines isn't really an apt comparison. First, airliners are mass transit. Second, the airliners used to be very much nicer than they are now, it was market pressures that drove them to where they are (combined with the deregulation that was also due to people wanting to pay less).

A better comparison would be to compare Tesla to some of the General Aviation aircraft that are available. The [DA-40](http://www.diamondaircraft.com/aircraft/da40_xls/index.php) would be a reasonable starting point and could likely be afforded by the types of people who can afford a Tesla.

Post reply on HN