Tesla provides data from the in-car log of the East Coast road trip review done by the New York Times. Raises a lot of questions about the original story.
John Broder with the New York Times responds.
Hmmm…
Point and Counterpoint
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Tesla Road Trip Disputed
Tesla is disputing the account of the New York Times’ Tesla Model S roadtrip. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk cites the vehicles own logs and states that the Times did not follow the guidance given by Tesla.
The Times is sticking to their guns and even published an infographic with a timeline account of the trip including mileage.
For what it’s worth, I don’t really care what advice or guidance was given by Tesla. The driver carried out a fairly typical drive on the East Coast including some city driving in Manhattan. I want to see how the car handles typical use, not a prescribed highway-only proof-of-concept trip. That said, what was the author thinking by NOT plugging in the car overnight?! I’m sure he plugged in his cell phone overnight.
Tesla Road Trip
John Broder with the New York Times took the Tesla Model S for a road trip along the East Coast. It was a bit of a rocky trip.
This is a technology that is just emerging and going through a lot of development. It isn’t going to just magically replace combustion based automotive transportation. It is going to require rethinking and possibly re-engineering how we travel by car. To a degree, we have to take some of these initial growing pains in stride.
The flipside is that I expect more from a car that starts at $61,000. If this was a car priced to sell to the masses I’d be a bit more lenient.
Power storage (ie. batteries) is the limiting technology here. Until there is a significant breakthrough in battery technology it is going to be hard to replace the energy density of fossil fuels.
World’s Largest Airline
American Airlines and US Airways are merging.
Aircraft Innovation/Technology
Thinking further on the problems enumerated in the Boeing article by Eamonn Fingleton the recurring theme is government subsidization of Boeing’s competition. A few questions with no palatable answers:
- How can they afford NOT to outsource production to Japan when the government is underwriting the costs?
- How do they handle a competitor (Airbus) who is so heavily supported by local governments?
- What policies can the US government promote that will strengthen Boeing against these problems?
Mr. Fingleton makes a key point… free trade isn’t really free trade when it is one sided. We’ve opened our doors to the world and other governments are essentially “buying” our high-value manufacturing through subsides on their end.
I don’t think direct government subsidies to Boeing is the answer, those never work as intended. How about tax incentives for US manufactured components? Or perhaps trade tariffs on Airbus aircraft to equalize the subsidies that Airbus receives from the various EU and European governments? Any other ideas?
More on 787 Batteries
Eamonn Fingleton with Forbes thinks the Japanese-sourced batteries are just the symptom of an overall larger problem with Boeing… the systematic outsourcing of key, proprietary manufacturing.
Mr. Fingleton links to a 2005 article he wrong, “Boeing, Boeing… Gone” that gives an in depth look at this outsourcing. A frequent and unfortunate pattern amongst American manufacturing industries.
787 Batteries
The New York Times thinks the battery issues justify a closer look at the procurement process that approved these Japanese-made batteries for use in the 787.
Dreamliner Grounded
Well this is disappointing but looks to be necessary at this juncture.
From the FAA’s statement:
The FAA will work with the manufacturer and carriers to develop a corrective action plan to allow the U.S. 787 fleet to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible.The in-flight Japanese battery incident followed an earlier 787 battery incident that occurred on the ground in Boston on January 7, 2013. The AD is prompted by this second incident involving a lithium ion battery.
Their full Emergency Airworthiness Directive can be found here.
More Yellow Light Timing
Okay, last one, I promise.
So the National Motorists Association Foundation has put together a nifty website to advocate standards (based on an Institute of Transportation Engineers formula) for yellow light timing and highlight the problems with red light cameras. It provides a great summary of the problems and the solutions.
Yellow Light Timing (Part 2)
Several cities have been found guilty of shortening yellow lights to maximize red light violations.