Musk said that cars produced during the last couple weeks already had the feature(s) installed.The auto driving stuff is actually present in standard Model S cars, the software just hasn't been updated yet. Look at any Model S built in the past month or so and you'll see the LIDAR in the grille and the camera in the windshield.
I sincerely hope 5000lbs isn't the future.
Exactly, the electric motor is the future, batteries are not good enough currently.I just can't see electric cars being the future until they find someway of making battery technology lighter, or using something other than batteries.
Having driven a Model S, I really want more cars like that. Battery tech needs to be much more advanced, but automakers can't wait for battery tech to advance; the only way to do that is to make enough electric cars to show battery producers that new batteries are needed.I sincerely hope 5000lbs isn't the future.
They are also need a battery to store the energy to run the electric motor.I just can't see electric cars being the future until they find someway of making battery technology lighter, or using something other than batteries.
There is probably already a perfect energy storage device that can power our cars but the OPEC probably bought the patent to prohibit these cars to be build. No?
I just can't see electric cars being the future until they find someway of making battery technology lighter, or using something other than batteries.
The internal combustion engine's had well over 100 years of being the main source of power for automobiles, and probably billions of man-hours and dollars because of it. If Tesla's managing these sorts of feats now, I'm more than a little excited to think of what we'll be looking at from them in a decade or two, to say nothing of the rest of the industry.
For battery tech to get better, manufacturers need to jump in with both feet now. If everybody waits around for it to improve, it never will.
For battery tech to get better, manufacturers need to jump in with both feet now. If everybody waits around for it to improve, it never will.
Three words: economies of scale. Electric car manufacturing has caused an explosion in battery production. Lithium Ion batteries have more than tripled in production in 6 years, and it's almost all down to electric cars. That means that much, much more money is being put into battery production and development. The rise of the electric car will accelerate the rate of battery development in all industries by hundreds of percent.Many other Industries have been researching battery technology for decades. Car industry jumping in won't accelerate its development that much. You don't have a unlimited amount of key personel. I guess the best and most valuable Engineers/Scientists in this field are already employed to do development work for the aerospace/mobilephones etc.
Scientists at Nanyang Technology University (NTU) have developed ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only two minutes.
The new generation batteries also have a long lifespan of over 20 years, more than 10 times compared to existing lithium-ion batteries.
This breakthrough has a wide-ranging impact on all industries, especially for electric vehicles, where consumers are put off by the long recharge times and its limited battery life.
With this new technology by NTU, drivers of electric vehicles could save tens of thousands on battery replacement costs and can recharge their cars in just a matter of minutes.
Commonly used in mobile phones, tablets, and in electric vehicles, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries usually last about 500 recharge cycles. This is equivalent to two to three years of typical use, with each cycle taking about two hours for the battery to be fully charged.
In the new NTU-developed battery, the traditional graphite used for the anode (negative pole) in lithium-ion batteries is replaced with a new gel material made from titanium dioxide.
Titanium dioxide is an abundant, cheap and safe material found in soil. It is commonly used as a food additive or in sunscreen lotions to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays.
Naturally found in spherical shape, the NTU team has found a way to transform the titanium dioxide into tiny nanotubes, which is a thousand times thinner than the diameter of a human hair. This speeds up the chemical reactions taking place in the new battery, allowing for superfast charging.
Invented by Associate Professor Chen Xiaodong from NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering, the science behind the formation of the new titanium dioxide gel was published in the latest issue of Advanced Materials, a leading international scientific journal in materials science.
Prof Chen and his team will be applying for a Proof-of-Concept grant to build a large-scale battery prototype. With the help of NTUitive, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTU set up to support NTU start-ups, the patented technology has already attracted interest from the industry.
The technology is currently being licensed by a company for eventual production. Prof Chen expects that the new generation of fast-charging batteries will hit the market in the next two years. It also has the potential to be a key solution in overcoming longstanding power issues related to electro-mobility.
“Electric cars will be able to increase their range dramatically, with just five minutes of charging, which is on par with the time needed to pump petrol for current cars,” added Prof Chen.
“Equally important, we can now drastically cut down the toxic waste generated by disposed batteries, since our batteries last ten times longer than the current generation of lithium-ion batteries.”
The 10,000-cycle life of the new battery also mean that drivers of electric vehicles would save on the cost of battery replacements, which could cost over US$5,000 each.
Easy to manufacture
According to Frost & Sullivan, a leading growth-consulting firm, the global market of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries is projected to be worth US$23.4 billion in 2016.
Lithium-ion batteries usually use additives to bind the electrodes to the anode, which affects the speed in which electrons and ions can transfer in and out of the batteries.
However, Prof Chen’s new cross-linked titanium dioxide nanotube-based electrodes eliminates the need for these additives and can pack more energy into the same amount of space.
Manufacturing this new nanotube gel is very easy. Titanium dioxide and sodium hydroxide are mixed together and stirred under a certain temperature so battery manufacturers will find it easy to integrate the new gel into their current production processes.
Recognised as the next big thing by co-inventor of today’s lithium-ion batteries
NTU professor Rachid Yazami, the co-inventor of the lithium-graphite anode 30 years ago that is used in today’s lithium-ion batteries, said Prof Chen’s invention is the next big leap in battery technology.
“While the cost of lithium-ion batteries has been significantly reduced and its performance improved since Sony commercialised it in 1991, the market is fast expanding towards new applications in electric mobility and energy storage,” said Prof Yazami, who is not involved in Prof Chen’s research project.
Last year, Prof Yazami was awarded the prestigious Draper Prize by The National Academy of Engineering for his ground-breaking work in developing the lithium-ion battery with three other scientists.
“However, there is still room for improvement and one such key area is the power density – how much power can be stored in a certain amount of space – which directly relates to the fast charge ability. Ideally, the charge time for batteries in electric vehicles should be less than 15 minutes, which Prof Chen’s nanostructured anode has proven to do so.”
Prof Yazami is now developing new types of batteries for electric vehicle applications at the Energy Research Institute at NTU (ERI@N).
This battery research project took the team of four scientists three years to complete. It is funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister's Office, Singapore, under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Programme of Nanomaterials for Energy and Water Management.
Did you read the article? If you understand economies of scale and can read the graph, you'll understand why it's electric cars causing this new development in battery technology. From 1939 to 1945, the world saw the greatest change in weapon technology it had ever seen, topped off with the atomic bomb. That weapons technology was not spawned because people wanted to go hunting. It was because governments around the world poured money into weapons research.I think you misunderstood me. I was saying that its more likely that most engineers/scientists who are capable of developing and researching new energy storage technologies may have already doing this for a while now, just for other industries (Aerospace for example). Car industry will obviously help, but engineers/scientists don't pop out of nowhere so it will take time.
BTW You sure that explosion is down to electric cars and not to mobile phones?
There is probably already a perfect energy storage device that can power our cars but the OPEC probably bought the patent to prohibit these cars to be build. No?
I hope you're right. Sounds logical.No. Such a technology would be too lucrative to keep secretly locked away. OPEC is actually producing more than ever to try to keep prices down so that more people use their oil instead of exploring for more elsewhere or turning to alternatives.
I hope you're right. Sounds logical.
But a few years ago, I heard of read that the OPEC has been buying all 'automotive' patents which could treathen their sales of oil. And, I was also told by a insider in the automotive industry, that car manufacturers were financially supported by the OPEC to produce internal combustion engines instead of pursuing alternative clean energy sources for car and transportation.
Make fun all you want, I just repeated what somebody told me and he worked in the automotive industry. If you are implying that I'm making stuff up, don't! I'm not!Do you have any idea how patents work or do you have any proof of this?
I read that OPEC secretly runs design meetings at Ford to ensure keep fuel efficiency down on cars so they can sell more gas.
I heard that OPEC sends agents to stalk Prius owners and slowly poison their home gardens.
Oh and I heard they changed their logo.
The filmmakers pull back the curtain on the dirtiest secrets of the oil industry: from oil companies buying up patents for devices that would give you 100 miles per gallon, to intimidation of inventors of green technology, to oil company manipulation of the gasoline supply that drives up prices.
Not funny @Omnis, absolutely not funny.Did they have on their tin foil hats when they told you these things?
SourceJOHANNESBURG - Oil exporting countries are blocking European Union efforts to form an alliance with over 100 developing countries to push for firm targets on boosting green energy, Earth Summit delegates said on the weekend.
The majority in the G77 has been taken hostage by the OPEC countries, one exasperated senior European delegate said of the Group of Seventy Seven (G77), which now represents some 130 developing countries in international negotiations. Environment ministers at the Johannesburg summit negotiating a global action plan for reducing poverty and protecting the environment, have stumbled on the issue of how firmly to commit to promoting renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.
Most European and developing countries want to set a global target to increase the world's use of renewables by the end of the decade but the whole concept of a global target is being opposed by the United States and OPEC countries.
The OPEC position has prevented the G77 from supporting the targets favoured by many of its members, several delegates said.
An east African delegate among the G77 countries said most developing nations wanted much greater access to clean energy sources but this was being blocked by the OPEC states.
We will never get a consensus in the G77, he told Reuters. The OPEC countries are being so selfish. They don't want clean, renewable energy. We fully agree with the EU.
Developing countries, he said, believed that a stronger target commitment at the Earth Summit would push rich nations to do more to help poor countries invest in renewable energy.
OPEC officials were not available for comment. But delegates said OPEC member Iran was trying to broker a compromise between the wealthy oil-exporters states and the rest of the G77.
The Bush administration is behind the worst of the energy proposals and they're working hand in glove with OPEC, said Phil Clapp, head of U.S. lobby National Environmental Trust.
TWO OPTIONS
U.S. spokesmen declined immediate comment. The United States has made clear its opposition to introducing concrete new targets in the U.N. document, arguing that these damage U.S. economic flexibility, a key engine of global economic growth. It also says other countries tend to abuse such targets while Washington does stick to practical commitments it makes. U.S. oil companies have lobbied against renewable energy targets with President George W. Bush, a former oilman himself.
EU officials say that, with the support of the developing world, they might have a chance of overcoming U.S. resistance.
German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said the EU was still holding out hope for a target. When asked if the proposal was quite dead, he replied: No. We are still negotiating.
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said: Unfortunately, the G77 is letting itself be strongly dominated by the oil exporting states...This is one of the real problems.
The EU wants the world to have 15 percent of its energy from renewables by 2010, up from about 14 percent in 2000, and for developed countries to increase their reliance on clean power by two percentage points.
Brazil has proposed a target of 10 percent - but one that would exclude large-scale hydro power and traditional renewable biomass like firewood, giving greater emphasis to more modern technologies like solar and wind power, now rarely exploited.
Brazilian environment minister Jose Carlos Carvalho told Reuters his 10-percent target for new renewables was still on the table but was not supported by the European bloc, although it was backed by oil producers Mexico and Norway.
It is alive but it has a lot of objections from the G77 and the EU, he said. The Americans are also opposed. We need to adopt clean affordable and cost effective technologies but, more importantly, we need to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel.
Recent Tesla Model S Buyers Frustrated Over New Features
Apparently they don't know how technology works. You know that iPhone 6 you just bought? Yeah, it'll be obsolete next year. This is no different.
So, basically they're complaining because the car is too good for them?Recent Tesla Model S Buyers Frustrated Over New Features
Apparently they don't know how technology works. You know that iPhone 6 you just bought? Yeah, it'll be obsolete next year. This is no different.
Well, the actual car part of the Tesla is still good enough . But yeah, I get that a lot of tesla owners are tech nerds rather than car nerdsRecent Tesla Model S Buyers Frustrated Over New Features
Apparently they don't know how technology works. You know that iPhone 6 you just bought? Yeah, it'll be obsolete next year. This is no different.