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Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

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Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#31

Post by markvdb »

rdl wrote: post #25
waterlesscloud wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Unless you are into amphetamines or falling asleep at the wheel, it is the only way to do it for any extended amount of time." This is simply not a true statement. It may be your personal preference, but it is not at all universal.

I can do SF to Vegas without stopping (except for fuel, and in a diesel truck with extra tanks, without stopping). My preference is generally top stop and have a meal at Harris Ranch, too (which, conveniently, is where the supercharger is), or at In-N-Out in Bakersfield, but that's about it. SF to Seattle is the really hard one. SF to Portland is something I can do (without starting absurdly early, or maybe even afte…

Safely driving over 1300km (edit: SF to Seattle) without stopping is impossible.

http://drowsydriving.org/about/facts-and-stats/

Please adjust your driving behavior.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#32

Post by mtgx »

skriticos2 wrote: post #26

"Musk then spoke about how we might be able to terraform Mars by using greenhouse gasses to warm it up. ”Mars is a fixer-upper of a planet, but we could make it work.” he added." I thought that would be difficult because the Mars has a very week protective magnetosphere and any kind of atmosphere is blown away by the solar winds. Am I missing something?

It doesn't lose the atmosphere that fast, so it would be worth doing it.

Also, maybe we get lucky and that comet hits Mars next year [1], which might warm up the planet a bit. The downside could be that humans visiting Mars could be delayed by a few decades, but probably worth the wait in the long term if the planet gets warmer.

[1] - http://www.space.com/20060-comet-mars-2014-collision-explain...

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#33

Post by sksksk »

1123581321 wrote: post #19
kiba wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to complain about taking a 30 minutes break after a 2 hours drive? Also, if you charge your car every night, you should have enough range to drive to work.

A typical person in the US used to driving distances would have no trouble driving eight hours in a row stopping only for 1-2 gas breaks and one bathroom/food break. Edit: and two such people in a car could easily drive 12-24 hours alternating. For example, my friends drive between Texas and Illinois and expect to complete the trip in under 24 hours. It's okay that the Tesla isn't going after that market yet, but get…

This is why I think the Tesla Model S would work so much better in a country like the UK.

I grew up in the north east, which is about 200 miles away from London. A trip to London was an epic journey, involving a stop at a service station on the way.

If Tesla could partner with one service station operator, getting the super chargers in all of their stations, then all the worries of range anxiety would be all but solved.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#34

Post by rdl »

markvdb wrote: post #31
rdl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can do SF to Vegas without stopping (except for fuel, and in a diesel truck with extra tanks, without stopping). My preference is generally top stop and have a meal at Harris Ranch, too (which, conveniently, is where the supercharger is), or at In-N-Out in Bakersfield, but that's about it. SF to Seattle is the really hard one. SF to Portland is something I can do (without starting absurdly early, or maybe even afte…

Safely driving over 1300km (edit: SF to Seattle) without stopping is impossible. http://drowsydriving.org/about/facts-and-stats/ Please adjust your driving behavior.

It's 636 miles to Portland. I've averaged in the 70mph range on that trip, since there are stretches of I-5 where much higher speeds are fairly safe (and the speed limit is 75 on a lot of it). 9h of concentration isn't that unreasonable, since you do need to stop for gas once (in Oregon, usually, which means it's slow).

San Jose to Vegas is 523 miles, and doing that in 6-7 hours is quite feasible (although it's entirely possible for it to take 12-14 hours with traffic on I-5 and I-15 if things go wrong)

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#35

Post by marvin »

pixie_ wrote: post #2

Waiting 30 minutes is still a dealbreaker for a lot of people. How about switching out those batteries like propane tanks. I'll let someone else figure out the technical details of that.

Tesla is actually planning to explore battery swapping in the "near term". This is clear from an obscure line in their Q1 earnings announcement.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#36

Post by Retric »

rdl wrote: post #34
markvdb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safely driving over 1300km (edit: SF to Seattle) without stopping is impossible. http://drowsydriving.org/about/facts-and-stats/ Please adjust your driving behavior.

It's 636 miles to Portland. I've averaged in the 70mph range on that trip, since there are stretches of I-5 where much higher speeds are fairly safe (and the speed limit is 75 on a lot of it). 9h of concentration isn't that unreasonable, since you do need to stop for gas once (in Oregon, usually, which means it's slow). San Jose to Vegas is 523 miles, and doing that in 6-7 hours is quite feasible (although it's entir…

1300 km is 800 miles or 11.5 hours at 70mph + one fill up. I don't see most people being able to do that without zoning out.

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#37

Post by 300bps »

kiba wrote: post #3
pixie_ wrote: post #2

Waiting 30 minutes is still a dealbreaker for a lot of people. How about switching out those batteries like propane tanks. I'll let someone else figure out the technical details of that.

You're going to complain about taking a 30 minutes break after a 2 hours drive? Also, if you charge your car every night, you should have enough range to drive to work.

Based on the mounds of recent research, taking a 30 minute break to walk around after 2 hours of sitting is recommended for your health:

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135575490/sitting-all-day-wors...

Re: Elon Musk: Tesla network to triple by July, cross country travel by year’s end

#40

Post by 1123581321 »

nknighthb wrote: post #27
1123581321 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking of a distance for which arriving in under 24 hours would be doable but not without frequent stops. To use a specific example, these people drive from Chicago to Kerrville which is about 19 hours according to Google Maps. Arriving in 24 hours would probably not be possible even if no time was wasted getting into and out of charging stations. Edit reply: it's a few refills but each is quick and lasts lon…

First, the only likely way to make that trip with only one stop for gas is to do it in a car getting better than 40mpg, so unless they're in a good hybrid and haven't loaded it down too much, I'm pretty sure they're going to get gas twice. Second, I don't know about you, but unless I'm dehydrated, I pee rather more often than once every six hours, and I definitely stop more often than that on the occasional ~800 mile…

I replied in edit but said the wrong thing. Corrected version:

Edit reply: it's a few refills but each is quick and lasts shorter than a battery charge. Would estimate 5 minutes for human needs every 3-6 hours is reasonable. I don't believe this is unusual long-distance driving behavior. And again, I don't think Tesla should be judged right now on their ability to cater to that market; we should be looking at how well Tesla serves those driving a couple hundred miles or several hundred miles in a more leisurely fashion.

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