How to Tesla: Better, faster, greener, farther, and smarter every day.

• You wake up in the morning and get ready for your day, step outside and get into your Tesla. It is waiting for you where you told it to be, with the temperature where you like it, your favorite music or radio station on, and it drives better today than it did yesterday thanks to the overnight wireless upgrade.

If you are reading this then you have probably already heard of Tesla Motors somewhere and you may know that they are all electric, “may be the safest vehicle ever tested“, can accelerate insanely fast, and they have jumpstarted the electric vehicle market globally.

But it gets better.

Tesla’s blog reveals That their vehicles, improve “while you sleep. When you wake up, added functionality, enhanced performance, and improved user experience make you feel like you are driving a new car“. The vehicle communicates in real time with the growing network of supercharging stations while simultaneously working with trip planning software to figure out the fastest and most convenient route to your destination. Your vehicle automatically calculates the best supercharging station on your route (which are free for life), and while you are sleeping downloads automatic emergency braking, blind spot warning, side collision warning, and valet mode to complement its autopilot feature.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that within two years they will get 1000 km on a single charge and be able to drive fully autonomously, within three years.

Entering the SUV crossover market with its gullwing doors, all-wheel-drive, seating for seven adults, low and stable center of gravity, the newly released Model X  again changes what is thought possible for electric vehicles. Many believe the real game changer will come with the $35,000 electric vehicle set to be able to be order-able in March 2016 and manufactured in 2017 once the gigafactory, and other manufacturing pieces are in place.

Does your vehicle currently improve itself while you are sleeping? Do you wake up with a full tank every morning? Would you like too? What are you waiting for?

You don’t have to wait, this is how to Tesla today.

P85D video.

Home Power Storage Unveiled.

Yes!

The teaser Elon Musk buried the lead for a month ago? The missing link; home storage for off grid power, I was hoping so.

It’s called the Powerwall, comes in a 10 kWh weekly cycle or a 7 kWh daily cycle model for 3500 or $3000 respectively and has a 10 year warranty with an optional 10 year extension.

This destructive technology paired with Tesla Motors incredible electric vehicles with the highest safety rating in America, and the Gigafactory currently under construction that will single-handedly double the rest of the world’s lithium ion battery production by 2020 is incredibly encouraging.

As we have seen from previous research and posts, solar power is about to get dramatically cheaper and the thing missing from the market to empower consumers to make those off grid choices or lessened their reliance on the grid has been home storage, until now.

You can reserve one now for deliveries beginning this summer… If you live in the States, it would not accept my Canadian postal code, yet.

Tesla schools Wall Street and predicts humans will be pets to robots in the future

Billion dollar tweet, is it off grid home storage? http://pando.com/2015/03/30/elon-musk-created-nearly-1b-in-value-today-with-a-single-tweet/

Super intelligent future, without humans: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3011302/Could-robots-turn-people-PETS-Elon-Musk-claims-artificial-intelligence-treat-humans-like-Labradors.html

Don’t believe it? The high tech present that will displace millions of workers:

Tesla 3 years later…

I started this blog 3 or 4 years ago and Tesla has delivered! They are turning a profit and ramping up. From $17/share IPO…

They are turning a profit and dominating the luxury car market and now moving to the mid range consumer model 3 at about $30,000.

Gigafactory one is 2 years ahead of schedule and there are 10-20 more in the works as Tesla changes the world battery markets.

Indeed, the cost of batteries are dropping as electric vehicle production ramps up.

Source.

Other legacy automakers are scrambling to get into the market as level 5 autonomy gets closer. Transportation is about to change more in the next 10 years than the last hundred years.

 

Their supercharger network has exploded since 2014.

Don’t try to gas up your Tesla!

Check out more over here:

Tesla News Release assignment

Tesla Motors Canada–Sales                                                                                                                                  1

Toll free: (888) 51-TESLA or (888) 518-3752

Local: (650) 681-5100

Night: (650) 681-5101

NASales@teslamotors.com

For immediate release

October 27, 2015-4:52 PM

 

ALL TESLA’ GET WIRELESS UPDATE OVERNIGHT WITH ADVANCED AUTOPILOT.

                Victoria BC, October 27, 2015.           Every Tesla (Model X & S) in North America recently received a wireless upgrade to activate the preinstalled forward radar, forward-looking camera, and 12 long range ultrasonic sensors scanning over 5 m around the car in all directions at any speed.

“This is a dream car. The positives outweigh the negatives like 100 times. I would make the same choice 100 out of 100 times if I had to do it again”. – Said Tesla owner,  JT, 24 May, 2013.

The Tesla version 7.0 software integrates camera, radar, ultrasonics, and GPS in the only fully integrated autopilot system on the market, and it keeps improving, while you sleep. Upgrades were also made to the electric controlled precision braking and regeneration system.

~More~

 

ALL TESLA’ RECEIVE WIRELESS UPDATE

 

Tesla is the only automobile manufacturer globally able to update its entire fleet, in real time, wirelessly.

The advanced autopilot feature works with the existing cruise control to help reduce driver fatigue, and is a precursor to fully autonomous vehicles. The driver remains responsible for the safe operation of the vehicle.

1

Global upgrades to the model S include a fresh digital visual display and more apps to help the driver and Tesla stay at the forefront of innovation.

~End~

Tesla Feature Story Assignment

*this assignment lost its three column formatting and quotes when posting to WordPress.

It was one of those first winter storms that rolled into the coast, drenching Victoria and surrounding areas in heavy rains that blew at you from all angles, obliterating umbrellas, prompting boil water advisories, and knocking out power. Chris Marks needs to get to an important meeting within an hour and he has nobody scheduled to drive him in his wheelchair van, he can take two buses although he is not sure what number the connecting one should be. So he dons his winter jacket, rain poncho, Southwester rain hat and heads off to the meeting thinking, “I cannot wait until Tesla finally releases the fully autonomous vehicle on the market”.

 

Chris can drive but does not because of a spinal injury 10 years ago that left him quadriplegic. He had taken driving lessons after the spinal injury and determined that the random, severe, muscle spasms that can be associated post injury would be too risky for him to drive himself. He has been closely following the progress of Tesla Motors and their fully electric vehicles; just last month, Tesla wirelessly bestowed an advanced autopilot feature into all their newer model cars in North America, overnight. This is widely viewed as the first step toward fully autonomous vehicles which Google and others are working on although Elon Musk of Tesla Motors predicts it will be getting this technology out to the public by 2017 or 2018; Google predicts 2020.

 

Chris’s decision to not pursue getting his license post injury means he travels by his electric wheelchair at up to 14 km/h, usually in a bicycle lane as sidewalks are too bumpy and unpredictable at that speed for a wheelchair. Being a student gives him a bus pass with good coverage in city limits that is diminished the evenings, Sundays, and at his main campus 8.5 km away from downtown. He has a modified van that accepts his wheelchair but has to schedule somebody with a valid driver’s license for a minimum of two hours, even if he just needs a 15 minute ride. To own an autonomous vehicle that can pull up to him when he calls it, take him safely to his destination, and then return him back home comfortably has seemed like science fiction in the future that is now becoming fact.

After a spinal injury, many people find creative ways to regain independence, with varying levels of success. Just modifying a zipper so that it can be used by somebody without the ability to grip lets someone unzip their coat a bit if they get too hot and zip it up if they are cold. The level of freedom, autonomy, dignity and independence that a self-driving vehicle represents is only a few levels below an actual cure for spinal injury.

 

It is not just Chris who will benefit from this technology, but the elderly, injured, developmentally delayed, and/or physically challenged demographic could see a revolution in their level of autonomy and independence. Families, business people, delivery services, taxis and transportation companies are all in line to be transformed by the introduction of self-driving cars.

The level of freedom this represents cannot be understated for many people. Having constantly different drivers increases Chris’s insurance costs, wear and tear on the vehicle, and stress levels. Some say that the autonomously driving cars being tested by Google for the last five years are already safer than humans, don’t get tired or fatigued or text while driving and will be embraced by the insurance companies. The only dings in his $60,000 wheelchair van were from an ex-girlfriend, not an employee but there were a couple employee related collisions in the past with inanimate objects like a wall in a parkade.

Some people remain skeptical of technology and may not want to trust their lives to a computer system that could possibly be as prone to randomly freezing up as an old version of Windows. Chris has been following leading edge technology in robotics, graphene and quantum computing, and of course, self-driving cars. Chris was excited about Tesla motors before he even heard there were pushing toward autonomous vehicles simply because they are all electric. His electric wheelchair goes pretty slow by bicycle or wheelchair standards but is sleek, fast, and high-performance by walking metrics. Chris likes to point out that the advances in battery construction necessary to power Tesla’s fleet will put high density lithium-ion batteries within reach of people who need them; when the distance you can go that day depends upon battery life, then battery technology can contribute to quality of life.

Victorians are usually smug about their good weather on the coast comparing themselves to Hawaii or Florida versus the rest of Canada that often gets unthinkably cold snaps and snowdrifts that can keep many people shut in for many of the winter months. Many like Chris dream of a safe, all-wheel-drive, self-driving vehicle that can get you where you need to go any time of any day like a cross between a chauffeur and a designated driver that never takes a day off.  For now, regular articles and press releases and news stories documenting the progress of autonomous vehicles to market are read with increasing interest. These are not popular mechanics articles written 20 or 50 years in the future, the technology exists today and is working and undergoing continuous refinement. With winter coming back to the coast in a wet, blustery onslaught of low pressure storms and high pressure freezing periods, Chris continues navigating the bus, covered areas in which to stay dry and scheduling helpers that scare him the least to drive him and his teenager around when necessary. The future may be here, and yet it cannot come soon enough for Chris.

 

Tesla Fact Sheet

Tesla Motors Canada                                                                                                                                              

Toll free: (888) 51-TESLA or (888) 518-3752

Local: (650) 681-5100

Night: (650) 681-5101

NASales@teslamotors.com

November 03, 2015

Tesla Motors Fact Sheet

As of November 3, 2015, Tesla is trading at $210.70 per share.

Tesla Motors started in 2003 with the goal, “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport” (Tesla Motors, 2015).

• Tesla launched the Tesla Roadster in 2008.
• Tesla roadster boasts 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds with 245 miles per charge.
• Tesla sold more than 2400 roadsters in 30 countries.

 

The Tesla Model S was launched in 2012.

• The Model S has room for seven passengers and 64 ft.³ of storage space.
• 0 to 60 mph in about five seconds.
• The Model S has a Low, stable center of gravity, with 255 miles per charge.

~More~

• “Model S was named Motor Trend’s 2013 Car of the Year and achieved a 5-star safety rating from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(Tesla Motors, 2015).
• The Model S was the first electric vehicle to ever receive Motortrend’s Car of the Year Award – one of the most coveted in the automobile industry(Dua, 2015).
• The Model S currently holds two major titles – the lowest drag coefficient of any production car, and the largest panoramic sunroof of any production car(Dua, 2015).

 

Tesla Motors released much of its patent information into the public domain in order to jumpstart the fully electric vehicle market (Musk, 2014).

In 2014, CEO Elon Musk unveils new configurations of the Model S.

• The 85D and P85D give the Model S unparalleled handling and control.
• The P85D accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and is the, “fastest four-door production car ever made”(Tesla Motors, 2015).

 

Tesla motors has over 50,000 vehicles on the road and in 2015 launched the Model X, a crossover vehicle.

• Model X has gullwing doors and three rows of seating.

~More ~

Tesla is currently developing the Model 3, a mass-market affordable electric vehicle set to be introduced to market by 2017.

• Tesla has a network of superchargers across North America and expanding around the world, for longer journeys.
• Currently there are 536 charger stations with 3053 superchargers.
• Tesla’s superchargers can produce up to 270 km of range in as little as 30 minutes.

 

Tesla partners with Panasonic and other companies to build a gigafactory in Nevada that will produce the entire planet’s capacity worth of lithium-ion batteries circa 2013.

• The gigafactory is scheduled to be operational by 2017 with full capacity by 2020.
• Tesla introduces the PowerWall for home energy storage.
• Powerwall deliveries are slated to begin late 2015.

#####

 

 

 

Works Cited

Dua, S. (2015, 10 27). What-are-some-mind-blowing-facts-about-Tesla-Motors. Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-mind-blowing-facts-about-Tesla-Motors

Musk, E. (2014, June 12). all our patent are belong to you. Retrieved from Tesla motors.com: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

Petty, A. (2015, October 3). Tesla-Nissan-Chevy-jumpstart electric vehicle market. Retrieved from The Piedmont Highlander: http://tphnews.com/2013/04/tesla-chevrolet-nissan-jumpstart-electric-vehicle-market

Tesla Motors. (2015, November 3). About. Retrieved from Tesla motors.com: http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/about

Tesla Motors. (2015, October 3). Supercharger. Retrieved from Tesla motors.com: http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/supercharger

 

*School Assignment

 

 

Tesla Backgrounder

Tesla Motors Canada                                                                                                                                              

Toll free: (888) 51-TESLA or (888) 518-3752

Local: (650) 681-5100

Night: (650) 681-5101

NASales@teslamotors.com

November 3, 2015

 

Tesla Motors was not started by Elon Musk, but it was jumpstarted by him. He is currently a cofounder of Tesla Motors, Chairman of SolarCity, CEO of Space X, and got his start by developing Zip2, a web software company, and co-founded X.com which later became PayPal and was bought by eBay (Contributors, 2015).

Before Tesla Motors, the North American, and global automotive industry seemed stuck in the old paradigm of internal combustion engines using fossil fuels. There was little innovation and hope for an exciting, fossil fuel free future was harder to envision. Tesla Motors has jumpstarted the global electric vehicle industry with all other major manufacturers following suit (Petty, 2015).

Tesla Motors is named after Nikola Tesla’s and the motors using the vehicles are direct descendents of Nikola Tesla’s original 1882 alternating current electric motor design (Contributors, Tesla Motors, 2015).

~More~

 

Tesla Motors was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning and Elon joined the Board of Directors and led the first round of investment funding in 2004. Elon contributed $70 million of his own money and help secure five rounds of funding to keep the company alive until it announced its first profit in 2009 (Contributors, Tesla Motors, 2015).

 

In 2009 Tesla received 465 million in interest-bearing loans and in 2013 was the first car company to repay the government where Ford and Nissan etc. had not (Contributors, Tesla Motors, 2015).

On June 29, 2010 Tesla made an initial public offering at $17 per share; as of November 3, 2015, Tesla is trading at $210.70 per share.

Tesla Motors has a strong fan base and customers report a 98% satisfaction rate and they would happily buy another Tesla (Edelstein, 2015). Tesla also comes out on top in customer repair satisfaction surveys (DeMorro, 2015), and was given the highest safety rating and may be the safest vehicle ever tested to date and in fact broke the testing equipment (Lavrinc, 2015).

 

~More~

 

Tesla is doing more than just building luxury supercars at a fraction of the price, they are building a network of superchargers, a gigafactory that will nearly double the world’s output of lithium-ion batteries and help lower the price  as well as complement their residential and commercial Powerwall energy storage initiatives (Tesla Motors, 2015). With the success of Space X supplying the international space station and the overall success of Tesla Motors to date, it would be a mistake to underestimate Elon Musk and Tesla.

Other distinguishing features of Tesla Motors is the giant touchscreen that the vehicles use as an interface and the ability for Tesla Motors to push out software upgrades to its fleet all at once, overnight, while you sleep. Recently, Tesla Motors upgraded their Model S and Model X vehicles wirelessly to utilize the pre-existing hardware installed that allows the vehicles to access an advanced cruise control. This is seen as a precursor to fully autonomous vehicles which are predicted to hit the market as early as 2017 according to Elon Musk and 2020 according to Google.

While the future is always uncertain, the enthusiasm of Tesla’s owners and supporters along with the consistent top 10 ratings in customer satisfaction, safety, and performance seem to indicate a bright future (Autoblog, 2015).

 

~End~

 

Works Cited

Autoblog. (2015, October 27). car and driver 10 best lists Tesla. Retrieved from Autoblog: http://www.autoblog.com/2014/11/21/car-and-driver-10best-list-tesla-model-s-bmw-2-series/

Contributors. (2015, October 3). Elon Musk. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Contributors. (2015, October 3). Tesla Motors. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors

DeMorro, C. (2015, October 3). Tesla tops Consumer Reports repair satisfaction survey. Retrieved from Gas 2: http://gas2.org/2015/02/05/tesla-top-consumer-reports-repair-satisfaction-survey/

Edelstein, S. (2015, October 3). tesla-model-s-tops-consumer-reports-customer-satisfaction-index-again. Retrieved from Green Car Reports.com: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1095745_tesla-model-s-tops-consumer-reports-customer-satisfaction-index-again

Lavrinc, D. (2015, October 3). Tesla model S crash test. Retrieved from wired.com: http://www.wired.com/2013/08/tesla-model-s-crash-test/

Petty, A. (2015, October 3). Tesla-Nissan-Chevy-jumpstart electric vehicle market. Retrieved from The Piedmont Highlander: http://tphnews.com/2013/04/tesla-chevrolet-nissan-jumpstart-electric-vehicle-market

Tesla Motors. (2015, November 3). About. Retrieved from Tesla motors.com: http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/about

Tesla Motors. (2015, October 3). Supercharger. Retrieved from Tesla motors.com: http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/supercharger

 

Wait But Why Weighs In; This Guy Gets It.

Purely a Re-blog, all the things I’ve been trying to say and more in one blog post.

Excerpt:

“The battle going on isn’t about gas cars vs. electric cars. That one’s already decided. This is a war about time. Oil companies will try to slow things down, and they may succeed—but they’re not winning this one“.

A long read, and so worth it.

So good.

From Sport to Insane Speed!

Ever forging ahead, Tesla continues to over-deliver on its vehicles and people, blogs, articles, and companies are noticing. Tesla ReTweets an Economist post on March 10:

 “

Tesla Motors @TeslaMotors  ·  Mar 10

RT @TheEconomist Any doubts that electric cars are the future are blown away within minutes of driving a Model S http://econ.st/1Gjpwn9“

The Economist article linked through Tesla’s Twitter account states, “It is not so much the rapid acceleration, but the smooth and relentless supply of power from its electric motor”.

On the same Tesla Twitter page, later on March 10, Elon Musk posts a YouTube video of “Model S in drag race against snowmobile on ice lake in Norway (no tire chains or studs).
Tesla Model S P85D vs. Lynx Boondocker 800 ccm”  and that video shows switching the vehicle to Insane mode for a race against a snowmobile. This really is insane! (Jakobson, 2015).

Watch the video here.

 Of course the Tesla leaves the snowmobile behind, but my favourite part is at 5 seconds through 11 seconds..did you see that touchscreen? Wow! That is definitely the future of automobiles! I want one!

If the snow race is underwhelming for you, perhaps a video of a phone sticking to the seat as a Tesla accelerates with 4 adults inside the vehicle from what looks like 0-60? (Force, 2015).

What is the P85D? As one blogger put it: “In case you have been away from the internet in the past 12 hours, let’s recap some numbers. The P85D has 691 horsepower and will reach 60 mph in 3.2 seconds…is there a better overall car than the P85D?” (McParland, 2014).

I have never even driven one but I don’t think so! Check out the blog post here.

This may or may not wrap the blog on this topic as the school semester is drawing to a close but rest assured, I will continue to watch Tesla  closely.

Embedding the Youtube video was as simple as copy/pasting but the first video was via a Norweigan site so I  left it original instead of embedding it straight from Youtube. Enjoy!

Works Cited

Force, G. (2015, Feb 06). Tesla P85D Insane Mode – Pins phone with 1.2 g’s . Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQHvMU6a0uA

Jakobson, O. (2015, March 10). Motor. Retrieved from klikk: http://www.klikk.no/motor/bil/article1526102.ece

McParland, T. (2014, October 10). will-the-tesla-model-s-p85d-be-the-best-overall-car-you. Retrieved from jalopnik.com: carbuying.jalopnik.com/will-the-tesla-model-s-p85d-be-the-best-overall-car-you-1644727868