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Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

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Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#61

Post by stcredzero »

brown9-2 wrote: post #41
melvinmt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory Louis CK link: http://touch.dailymotion.com/video/x8m5d0_everything-is-amaz... Elon Musk is on the cutting edge of changing our society and tries to make the best of the hiccups along the way and you're complaining about the slightly degraded experience of charging your car with... renewable energy?? Give Elon some slack, I'm sure he'll find a way for you to reduce the charging time to an acceptable time i…

This is disingenuous. The critique is not so much over the inconvenience of having to recharge, but how his statement glosses over that inconvenience.

The critique isn't even accurate in the context of the trip. 1.5 hours isn't the duration of each stop. It's the total time per day.

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#62

Post by stcredzero »

avar wrote: post #16
timroman wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True if you're only interested in getting there as fast as possible. For most people who choose to drive from coast to coast, stopping often to see random things is part of the fun and reason they chose to drive in the first place.

Indeed, I love stopping at random places when I'm on the road. Having to spend 1.5hr per day at a gas station is not a random stop however, and having to spend 1.5hr per day at one in lieu of stopping somewhere more interesting takes some of the fun out of driving and stopping at interesting places on the road.

It's 30 minutes per supercharger stop. I have a challenge getting my friends back into the car that quickly on road trips. (I have chaotic friends. Musicians.)

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#63

Post by oijaf888 »

kgermino wrote: post #52
wtvanhest wrote: post #2

He should do it in 7 and take some breaks to see some stuff. Source: I've done it in 6 and 7 days, 7 was way more fun, way more relaxing and I learned more.

Depends on where you go. For instance, I've looked at driving Milwaukee to SF and would plan on doing it in 2.5 days. On the other hand, I've driven Chicago to Yellowstone and we took 4 days to get there. The biggest difference I see is that 80 is he most mind numbingly boring road in this country whereas (at least until Utah, even where Wyoming is a pretty drive there's not too much worth stopping for) along 90 or 9…

I-10 is far more boring once you get into Texas and head west imo. 80 wasn't too bad since there were small towns, even if they didn't have much going for them, they at least allowed you to stop for a bit and maybe get a bite to eat. There's not even that in much of West Texas.

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#64

Post by adrianpike »

R_Edward wrote: post #53
simias wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen the idea of simply replacing the batteries with charged ones in stations thrown around quite a bit in previous discussions and it always seemed the perfect solution to me. It's even faster than pumping gas (if done correctly) and you don't have to worry about your battery capacity degrading (when the station detects a battery won't hold less than a certain amount of charge it'd but the battery offline for r…

A) Consider the technological acumen of the average filling station worker. Is that the guy you want to be in charge of determining whether any given battery is fit for reuse? B) Consider the weight of an average automobile's starter battery. Not the sort of thing that a petite woman like my wife would be able to sling around on her own. If you hire battery jockeys to swap them in and out, that increases the cost. C)…

You're slightly off on a few points.

A is handled in an automated fashion, in a similar way to many other modern service intervals. You don't have your average BMW or Mercedes mechanic hooking up Siemens bits to jigs to verify traces in the same way that you wouldn't have your "average filling station worker" checking all the LiPo cells. Battery health checks are already built into the vehicle.

B is handled by relatively simple tools for the purpose of moving around hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of battery components.

C and D are trivial to solve.

All of this has already been solved in the Model S. Deployment will take some time due to cost.

[1] - http://www.teslamotors.com/batteryswap

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#65

Post by stcredzero »

derekp7 wrote: post #43

Is there plans on making the supercharge stations available for other manufacturer's electric cars (although not for free)? The thing that could really make this take off is if they can standardize this technology. After all, I don't think gas cars would be as convenient if you had to fill up only at a Ford gas station, or a Honda station, etc. Even if there are multiple charging standards, just have several charging…

Most cars come with adapters for the various kinds of station.

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#66

Post by stcredzero »

robomartin wrote: post #50

I'm surprised they don't develop a really cool looking mini trailer battery pack to double (or more) your range. It could have some extra room for storage. It'd be great for longer distance camping trips and such outings. The other option would be a clean fuel cell technology (hydrogen?).

How about a pack that fits into the "frunk?"

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#67

Post by bodyfour »

Keyframe wrote: post #35
dredmorbius wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of solar cells, the limited size, the exposure they'd have on a car (impacts, rocks, hail), the percent of time spent out of sunlight (under trees, carports, indoor garages), and the very limited power supplied even when decking over the entire vehicle, vs. the cost of plugging into an outlet (which itself can be powered by a larger, permanently active, and optimally oriented PV array) makes solar-on-car pre…

I didn't mean as a sole energy source, auxiliary. Somewhat like brakes converting kinetic energy to electric current.

But even a breakthrough gave us 100% efficient solar cells it would only marginally add to the range. We're never going to see a 50x improvement in solar cells, that would violate thermodynamics.

If you want a futuristic range-enhancing technology to dream about, look at in-road inductive charging (in-road discussion starts around 5:00): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b71wC4z8its Infrastructure costs would probably be massive though.

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#68

Post by pbreit »

cobrausn wrote: post #39
matznerd wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obnoxious to use gasoline...it's just the norm so it doesn't seem so.

No, it's not. Every 300 or so miles you stop and pump gas for a few minutes at any number of available locations, and then you move on. You don't have to plan your trip around gas station locations. If charge stations become ubiquitous so that isn't a requirement then this is ameliorated somewhat. I've always had this silly idea for an electric car company that sells cars but 'loans' out the batteries. When you want…

Tesla is already testing battery swapping: http://www.teslamotors.com/batteryswap

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#69

Post by brianbreslin »

alanctgardner2 wrote: post #44
brianbreslin wrote: post #38

Anyone know if he is only charging at tesla stations? What's the route he is planning on taking? Is the idea to get food at each stop? Lastly, doesn't he have like 5 kids, how will they all fit in the tesla??? Edit: He does have 5 kids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Family

One of the design goals with the Model S was to fit Elon's whole family: there are rear-facing seats in the back that fit an extra two people.

ah you are correct, hadn't seen that. no room for luggage then. http://www.teslamotors.com/models/features#/interior guess you can have your luggage for each day fedexed in advance if you're elon.

Re: Elon Musk To Traverse The U.S. Using A Model S In 6 Day Trip

#70

Post by rweba »

avar wrote: post #7

> At 1.5 hrs/day, we will only ever need to > charge when stopping anyway to eat or sightsee, > never just for charging itself. I'm all for the development of electric cars but downplaying having to stop at what's effectively a gas station in the middle of nowhere for 1.5 hours per day is pretty disingenuous. You wouldn't get a lot of people buying a normal gasoline powered car if it took 1.5 hrs to fill it up each t…

1.5 hours is NOT a lot for an entire day's trip. Two weeks ago I took a much shorter 240 mile trip and we stopped for about an hour to fill up gas, rest and eat. The bottom line is this is a very typical usage pattern, many people like to break long car trips into 3 - 4 hour segments so Tesla fits right in WITHOUT any inconvenience.
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