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Master Plan, Part Deux

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Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#601

Post by tylaw »

intrasight wrote: post #229
8611m wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this was the only thing that mattered for businesses, we wouldn't have Amazon as Walmart has consistently produced more net profit over Amazon since the last 22 years. 1 1. http://revenuesandprofits.com/amazon-vs-walmart-revenues-and...

As Amazon looses money on every sale, and makes it up with funding from new shareholders, I'm going to call it a Ponzi scheme and not a business.

Amazon has diversified income streams, they don't just resell products they purchase wholesale. They have a pretty sweet deal with 3rd party sellers, they make a big cut providing a sales channel for inventory owned by others, either seller-fulfilled or FBA.

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#602

Post by maratd »

eyelidlessness wrote: post #251
maratd wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> have very toxic-to-mine, manufacture, and dispose-of batteries. This is absolutely false. Lithium is not toxic to mine at all. It isn't even "mined". http://cleantechnica.com/2016/05/12/lithium-mining-vs-oil-sa... > Electric cars cause pollution They cause zero pollution when you have solar panels on your roof and the car is properly scrapped after you're done with it. > The way to "save the planet" is to not drive…

> They cause zero pollution when you have solar panels on your roof and the car is properly scrapped after you're done with it. Unless you factor in manufacturing.

Why? If you're recycling/biodegrading 100% of the old vehicle and producing the new with solar energy, you should have zero pollution.

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#603

Post by thatfrenchguy »

draxofavalon wrote: post #500
thatfrenchguy wrote: post #446

"In addition to consumer vehicles, there are two other types of electric vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport" Where I'm from, we call that trains.

Hyperloop will be what we used to call trains.

I'll believe it when it will ship :-).

Meanwhile, most of Europe, Japan and China has a really cool high-speed working train system and suburban trains that really work.

I remember how shocked I was when I first when into the NYC subway. And don't start me on BART or MUNI in SF, those are awful.

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#604

Post by mizzao »

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…

As a counterpoint, we'd also have the need for fewer roads and parking lots, and hence cities could become even denser.

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#605

Post by joshmarlow »

gkya wrote: post #514
joshmarlow wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well.... public transportation requires infrastructure which is not always around. In the south-east USA, for instance, there are public buses here and there but they rarely go for more than a few miles, and there are no trains or subways to travel mid-distance or between cities. So grey-hound or car rentals are your best bet unless you already own a car.

I'm in one of the most crowded and traffic-ridden of the world, non-US. We have a growing rail complex and a good and frequent bus system. I perceive car ownership as masochism, as public transport is always faster, and you don't have to care about parking, gas, taxes and all the other burdens associated with cars. Electric cars won't solve these, e.g. many cars can self park, but you can't save the time spent search…

"if the electric infrastructure is not good and widely available, then give everyone a generator"

I like this analogy!

My comment wasn't about how I think things should be, just an observation about how they currently are. Currently in parts of the US (and I'm sure other parts of the globe too), the public transport infrastructure isn't there.

That being said, I long for the day when cities or companies maintain fleets of self-driving cars/buses I can summon as needed.

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#607

Post by sah2ed »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #332
ams6110 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's more than lithium in the batteries, and other components such as Cobalt or Arsenic are not exactly nontoxic. On balance however, lithium ion batteries are less toxic than alternatives. Realistically, at present most EV owners will not charge their cars from solar panels but from the utility mains and that means coal-generated electricity in many if not most areas. Car manufacturing involves a tremendous inves…

It is perhaps an artifact of the bay area but there are many many Tesla vehicles here and many of them seem to use the superchargers for charging[1]. But the question of pollution and CO2 comparisons between ICE vehicles and electric ones, comes down firmly on the side of the electric vehicles (for the case of California at least). The thermal efficiency of converting gas to electricity is over 47% and the closest an…

> [1] A friend of mine who owns one said the only thing worse than the 20 minute charge time is waiting 20 minutes to plug into an available spot.

Actually it would be a lot more efficient if your friend charged at home or at work rather than drive all the way to a supercharger station.

You would do well to point your friend to this PSA [1] by Elon Musk and J B Straubel during the Q&A at Tesla's shareholder meeting some months ago.

[1] https://youtu.be/O1aPRKSuXr0?t=650

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#608

Post by hatsix »

makomk wrote: post #475
carterehsmith wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The premium car will have lot more parts, like 26-speaker sound system etc, additional soundproofing, double-pane glass, heated _and_cooled seats etc. That takes work to install. Next, the QA on a premium car has to me more stringent, simply because the expectations are higher. So I can't imagine luxury car not taking more time to make than a budget car.

By all accounts, Tesla neither have particularly stringent QA nor a premium car level of interior.

By which accounts? I've honestly never heard anyone complaining about QA or "Not Premium Enough"

For example, Top Speed suggests that all other manufacturers are still playing catch-up. That it'd be nice if the seats had been updated a bit, but otherwise things are great.

http://www.topspeed.com/cars/tesla/2017-tesla-model-s-ar1729...

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#609

Post by Evgeny »

As of 2016, the number of American car companies that haven't gone bankrupt is a grand total of two: Ford and Tesla.

Also, four entities have launched rockets into space: the US, China, the Soviet Union (Russia) and Elon Musk.

This guy is thinking and planning on a scale I find it hard to even imagine, to fit in my brain.

Re: Master Plan, Part Deux

#610

Post by Tiktaalik »

TillE wrote: post #585
Tiktaalik wrote: post #581

The best part of this is automated semi trucks. I think that's the perfect sort of business for Tesla to be in. I have a lot of trouble understanding the public transportation part. The ideas presented fall apart when you remove the baffling assumption that traffic congestion decreases with the introduction of autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles will expand the possible set of drivers. That will dramatically inc…

No, look at the whole system. Instead of four people with four cars (or even two cars and a couple bikes), you can have one autonomous shared cab driving an optimized route.

This assumes that everyone is sharing cars. What if they don't? Then you simply have what we have now plus the addition of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to drive (people without licenses, 13 year olds, 80 year olds etc).
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