Master Plan, Part Deux

Post by zaphar » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:04 PM UTC

dexterdog wrote: post #492

craigcabrey wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to provide a source to back up that claim?

They have basically a single source of revenue AFAIK which is selling cars. They sell X amount of cars per year making $Y. They don't turn a profit. Last year they lost close to $1B mostly because of their R&D costs. They need to either sell more cars (assuming that they can make money per additional unit like they say they can) or charge more for the ones they do sell, or both. Fortunately they are expected by inves…

Post by MicroBerto » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:09 PM UTC

akira2501 wrote: post #77

thucydides wrote: post #23

> "When used correctly, [partially autonomous driving] is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves" If you're an American, you're twice as likely to die with a steering wheel in your hands as you are to die at the hands of a murderer. Human-driven vehicle deaths cause grave second-order suffering for families and friends - and hurt the economy. A shift to technologies safer than human-driven ca…

> If you're an American, you're twice as likely to die with a steering wheel in your hands as you are to die at the hands of a murderer. Human-driven vehicle deaths cause grave second-order suffering for families and friends - and hurt the economy. If you're an American you're more likely to die from suicide than you are from motor vehicle related injuries. You're more likely to be poisoned than to die in a motor veh…

Post by asymmetric » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #300

lallysingh wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think they'll have solar panels on the trailer? Would they have to roll them on/off when they switch trailers?

Almost certainly not. Except for, say, powering auxiliary electronics, concentrations of solar power are far too low for on-vehicle collection. Put the panels alongside the road . Not on the vehicles. Not on solar freaking roadways , which are the stupidest idea since stupid. But in medians, on extant construction, and in concentrated high-insolation solar farms (deserts, etc.). We're going to need one hell of a lot…

Post by aidenn0 » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

steve_taylor wrote: post #285

ams6110 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might want to seek some help. Unless you're just being dramatic here for effect, there are some red flags in your post such as not being able to get out of bed, being filled with self-loathing and despair, etc.

Don't be so dramatic. This is me every day. It's ADHD meets debt, family obligations, and dead-end job. A lot of entrepreneurs/wantrepreneurs and devs have ADHD. Can't do much about it unless I pop pills, which I'm not overly keen on doing. I'd rather find something to do that motivates me to get out of bed at 5am every day.

Post by maxerickson » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:26 PM UTC

mrfusion wrote: post #95

maxerickson wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't figured it out, but my intuition is that the increased energy requirements of a tractor trailer mean that there isn't enough area there either. Back of napkin, it looks like you get ~3*15 meters of roof which seems to translate to 10 kW of output under good conditions and then you need something like 150 kW to rumble up the highway.

Well trucks still have a lot of low hanging fruit for becoming more aerodynamic. Plus you could use the sides of the trailer for some power too. Finally even if 10kw can't power the truck. It could extend its range by some amount. Plus that's still a significant amount of power you don't need to buy. 2-3 rooftops worth?