Tesla Updates Model S With New Front-End, Air Filtration System, Faster Charging (theverge.com) 123
An anonymous reader writes: The Model S has received several new features and improvements to help it stay relevant with the newer Model X crossover and recently released Model 3 electric vehicles from Tesla. It has a new-look fascia and adaptive LED headlights that hew closely to the design found on the Model X crossover which debuted late last year. In addition to a couple new interior finish choices, the Model S is receiving a version of the Model X's cabin air filtration system as an option, which promises to filter out "99.7 percent of particulate exhaust pollution and effectively all allergens, bacteria and other contaminants from cabin air." The Model S now has a 48-amp charger standard -- up from 40 amps -- which Tesla says will enable faster charging when connected to higher-amp outlets. Tesla's design language is trending toward a grille-less front end, possibly in an effort to squeeze as much aerodynamic efficiency out of the car as possible. What's missing in the update is the rumored 100kWh battery, which would improve the vehicle's range.
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Better get building those model 3's (Score:1)
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They announced the model 3 over 10 years ago already? Wow, seems like it was only a month.
$101,250 with the options I'd want (Score:2, Interesting)
I wish they'd put that HEPA filter as a separate option; I don't need it but I'd like some of the other stuff in that package and I would hope they'd bundle the filter in places with really poor air quality such as Beijing.
Ah well, still too rich for me to buy new so it's either 2ndhand or wait for Model 3.
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Anyplace with gas or diesel vehicles on the road there is poor air quality in the traffic lane, where you are when your car sucks the air in.
I do a lot of driving in rural, mountainous areas with awesome air, but that doesn't mean the air quality is high in the middle the of the road.
This is something that people with $10k cars are usually willing to pay for. For a luxury car, it is a no-brainer.
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Air duster cans are filled with refrigerant (you know, the kind that is illegal to let out of your car's air conditioner). I wouldn't suggest breathing it!
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Tesla has always had bundles of options where most people had to choose whether to buy the whole bundle when they only wanted one or two items. Last year the power liftgate was part of the premium interior package. It was the only item there that many people cared about. That's just the way they do business.
Re:$101,250 with the options I'd want (Score:5, Informative)
It also greatly reduces the number of configurations you have to support, both mechanically and software side of things. If everything is ala carte, you quickly run in to tens of thousands of configurations, which you have to test for. Multiply that by recalled and unrecalled cars, different model years, etc and testing to avoid serious failures quickly reach nightmare levels.
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To use an antagonist antonym computer analogy (since we're talking about cars, this is probably befitting): Dell will never be able
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They offer CPU and memory and storage and connectivity and display and multimedia and battery and [...] choices.
We're already up to thousands of combinations, in a given model.
But Dell lets YOU do the testing (Score:1)
I suspect the DOA rate for Dell is substantially higher than for Tesla. And Dell doesn't have to do safety recalls.
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Your laptop is much less likely to have a brake failure and mow down some preschoolers in a crosswalk. If your trackpad stops working you just roll back the drivers and nobody dies. The only way your laptop is going flying off that cliff at 60mph is if you throw it off.
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Tesla doesn't do model years. They make small changes to the cars all the time. They make big changes several times a year. Tesla follows a model much more like what you would expect from a software company putting out weekly bug fixes, only they're changing their hardware.
They certainly could unbundle all the options. I'm sure the factory would have no difficulty building what the configuration said to build. The software undoubtedly already handles it, as the software writers don't know how the bundl
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That's just the way they do business.
And doubtless that's exactly how they intend to continue. Musk tweeted he expected an average $42,000 spend on the Model 3 so he expects people to fork out $7000 more than the $35,000 headline price. I assume some of that might be for a charger but undoubtedly other things that will be bundled to deliberately nickel and dime people into paying more.
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I expect lots of people will buy:
*) all-wheel drive
*) larger battery
*) Auto Pilot
*) Supercharging (if not standard)
Less popular options will include:
*) air suspension
*) cold weather
*) higher performance
Of course, the exact options and the prices aren't clear, but the above is quite likely. The Auto Pilot and Supercharging are both features where the hardware is included, but it may be disabled in software unless you pay an additional fee (Supercharging was extra in the lower-end Model S at one point).
If yo
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HEPA filters are pretty common in all but the cheapest cars. The price of a replacement HEPA filter is in the order of $20. I doubt making it optional would make the car any cheaper.
Big media eventually will be forced to attack. (Score:4, Interesting)
Now that Tesla is competing with products such as the Ford Fusion mid level products they aren't going to let Tesla continue with the free press. There will come a day when pretty much every old media article we read will be about a Tesla battery fire, or Telsa recall, or anyone killed in a Tesla will somehow be national news.
The good thing is that old media doesn't really matter as much anymore. The average age of a newspaper reader is advancing nearly 5 years for every year of real time. That is huge, 5 years is a massive demographic who just downed their newspapers.
This assumed ability they think they have to warp public perception won't change all the 20-30 somethings who are going to be driving their Teslas in 2 years.
Re:Big media eventually will be forced to attack. (Score:4, Insightful)
Notice how Tesla is a car manufacturer, not a media outlet?
So no, the thing about Toyota is apples and oranges. Toyota was pushing back over coverage of themselves. They're not going to call up and ask the media to stop giving coverage to others, that opens a giant can of worms that you didn't consider, and isn't like your example. Even attempting to interfere with the relationship between two third parties is not going to happen. There is no way that Ford, who has lawyers and PR people in their employment, is going to attempt to interfere with whatever relationships or contracts there are between a media outlet and a competing brand. That sort of speculation is suitable for television sitcoms or AM-radio, it is not serious thought or analysis.
Media outlets do not engage in exclusive contracts where they agree to only talk about one brand of an item, and that is the only type of situation where you can lock others out. So a computer company can make a deal with a store, for example, to only sell their brand of computer. But they can't go to companies that sell their competitor's brand and try to interfere with that, other than by making offers for an exclusive contract.
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When newspapers tell you that people did something like that, it should be pretty obvious that they saw that as an outrageous or funny thing, not a serious request that would be considered. Otherwise, they wouldn't even tell you about it.
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are you trying to tell me that John DeLorean wasn't set up?
that Preston Tucker was subject to the same rules as the big guys?
that Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post because he's into newsprint?
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are you trying to tell me that ...
No, you're trying to tell me those things, but since you don't know who is me and who is you, I'm going to assume you're posting drunk and I'm not even going to consider any of it at this time.
The things I said, are the things I was saying.
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The good thing is that old media doesn't really matter as much anymore. The average age of a newspaper reader is advancing nearly 5 years for every year of real time. That is huge, 5 years is a massive demographic who just downed their newspapers.
The only problem is, old people vote. They vote in large numbers. They write letters to the editor, attend town-hall meetings, and get outraged about things together. These things are much easier to do when you don't have a job, children, and a larger home to maintain. Until the Baby Boomers actually start dying off, they will be a significant political force. That means the newspapers will continue to have real power.
I know my father watches the news religiously and takes all of it seriously. I don't
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The good thing is that old media doesn't really matter as much anymore. The average age of a newspaper reader is advancing nearly 5 years for every year of real time. That is huge, 5 years is a massive demographic who just downed their newspapers.
Because "newspapers" just turned into stupid gossip columns littered with click-bait. It was a race to the bottom and they're all winning.
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"anyone killed in a Tesla will somehow be national news."
It would be! 0 people have died in a Tesla so far!
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Oops, I'm wrong, 4 ever: http://electrek.co/2015/12/22/man-dies-tesla-model-s-crash-dump-truck-first-death/
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There have to have been a few others that managed something equally stupid. But these aren't a typical GM product that only builds to the test with no actual consideration toward passenger safety. So I suspect the number is shockingly low.
Hyper-News (Score:3)
Telsa's happy days with the media will soon be coming to an end.
Next up, Elon Musk announces his plans to build a global media empire!
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Old media is dying, the number of magazines being published has steadily decreased for decades now and newspapers are going away too. Tesla gets a lot of coverage on tech sites and by doing Apple style reveals on stage.
The real test for the old manufacturers will be later this year. The Chevy Bolt is due, and Nissan have hinted that they will release a new EV too. Tesla did the smart thing and revealed the Model 3 early so that now every other EV will be compared to it.
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I know someone who bought a Tesla. The bulk of the transa
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Yeah, I'm not really expecting much from the Bolt either. Nissan... Well, they are serious about EVs and a Leaf update has been in the works for a few years, but they really need to step up their game. Their telemetrics and the electronics in general need a big upgrade. Tesla has autopilot too. They need to boost range and charge speed. Boost performance. It's possible, and the Leaf is a great car, but it won't be easy for them.
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Yeah, I'm not really expecting much from the Bolt either. Nissan... Well, they are serious about EVs and a Leaf update has been in the works for a few years, but they really need to step up their game. Their telemetrics and the electronics in general need a big upgrade. Tesla has autopilot too. They need to boost range and charge speed. Boost performance. It's possible, and the Leaf is a great car, but it won't be easy for them.
They just need cars that actually look good. Why every car manufacturer besides Tesla thinks an electric car needs to be a hatchback (or at least look like a hatchback) is beyond me. The Model 3 has attractive lines that makes it look more like a luxury car. Hell, my Focus looks better than a Leaf does. When I bought a new car 2 years ago that was one of the things that kept me away from electrics (that and my 40-mile each way commute).
Of course, the Southerner in me is still waiting for the day we ha
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Now that Tesla is competing with products such as the Ford Fusion mid level products they aren't going to let Tesla continue with the free press. There will come a day when pretty much every old media article we read will be about a Tesla battery fire, or Telsa recall, or anyone killed in a Tesla will somehow be national news.
At least until a reporter from a competing media company gets wind of the under-the-table deals going on at their competitor, and can't resist the chance to slam them publicly for it.
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I wish I had mod points. We make up new terms when we notice a consistent thing they can describe.
When industrial mass-production started to be guided by branding, we got "design language".
Oh no (Score:4, Funny)
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Time for me to throw my older model S in the trash! I can't be seen with an older model! People will think I don't care about the environment enough!
You're in luck. I offer a free Model S recycling service. Just give me your address and leave the car unlocked and charged in your driveway and I will even come remove it for you.
Quick (Score:2)
Get rid of the side mirrors (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Get rid of the side mirrors (Score:5, Informative)
If the NTSB agreed and the various state laws that specifically require a side mirror (not camera) could be changed, then yes. The prototype Model X had cameras, but the lawyers made them switch to mirrors.
Re:Get rid of the side mirrors (Score:4, Interesting)
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When cameras can give you a better view (no blind spots) and improved aerodynamics... Yes.
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Side mirrors snap off all the time. Replacing them can be a expensive proposition, depending on whether the mirror has an anti-snap feature or flows into the body. I'd take a camera, myself.
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They already did...
The battery can be replaced in 90 seconds - https://www.teslamotors.com/vi... [teslamotors.com]
There are three different motor configurations: Rear Wheel Drive, All Wheel Drive, Performance
Standard 48 amp charger can be replaced with the 72 amp High Amperage Charger
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When you consider that probably 75% of drivers aim their side mirrors behind the car rather than the blind spots, eliminating them in favor of side view cameras is ideal. When you go out driving track how many drivers' faces you see in the side mirrors when you are behind them; you should never see the driver's face when you are in the same lane behind them, but you should when you get close in the lanes to either side. If you can see the driver's face when you are directly behind them, they're clueless fuc
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Mirrors maintain depth perception and long-distance eye focus. Cameras don't. Mirrors also have zero lag.
*I own a Model S and drive with the rear camera on all the time. It's not a replacement for the rear view mirror.
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Part of the problem is that functional requirements need to be very specific to match a certain performance. I forsee a 20 page definition of mirror talking about resolution, angle, adjustability, latency, brightness of image, etc etc at the end of which the only technology left that can meet that requirement is a mirror.
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However little it is, it adds up. That's how things are made to be efficient - by adding up lots of tiny improvements. It's very rare these days that by changing one little thing you will get huge improvements.
But the point is, do you value a minute increase in efficiency over a massive decrease in aesthetics?
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a massive decrease in aesthetics
That's a very subjective view. You say it needs to look like a car but just because that's what cars have looked like for 100 years, it doesn't need to remain the same.
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Cars look like faces, because humans like cars to look like faces. So yeah it's subjective, but subjective to most humans.
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Government regs don't allow for it, even though cameras are superior. Why? Mirrors can't break like cameras do(?!?!), is the thinking behind it. There is some validity to it - you can always stick a crap mirror on the mount in a pinch if a mirror has broken. You lose that capability with a camera. I would like to see both - but smaller more aerodynamic, convex mirrors as a backup to full coverage and elimination of blind spots* through having the fixed-placement cameras cover the areas that actually need co
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As I've said before, You CANNOT replace mirrors with cameras. The reason is that the image you see in the side, or the rearview, mirror, is at full distance, same focal range as the road you're viewing ahead. Camera displays force you to focus on the monitor screen, i.e. a couple feet or less from your face. It's difficult and tiring to continually refocus (and rather expensive to stick a collimating lens in front of each camera monitor to move the image to infinity).
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...the ones that have to pay for electricity?
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Hopefully electricity will someday be "free" as part of basic national infrastructures and it is entirely possible that this could happen if we harness green/renewable power funded by taxes so that you can plug in anywhere and everywhere, at least during peak power production hours (daylight).
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Well, I'm on board for your hopes, but I'm afraid I left all my confidence at home for the ride.
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In my area, the fast DC chargers are mostly busy. If they are not busy, it's probably because they are broken. One charging network has a very high failure rate on their chargers.
Level2 chargers are also likely to be in use. Level2 isn't very useful at a retail site because they charge at about 25 miles/hour (25 miles of range
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The Model S and presumably Model X have swappable batteries and Renualt built & demonstrated 100s of battery-swap capable Fluence ZE for Better Place years ago.
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Why would Exxon invest in battery swap systems?
Because the first mover advantage gives you an incredible amount of power to lock out competitors?
You're thinking too small.
Their competitor's aren't. Look at BP's Castrol who are pushing the adoption of an oil chamber that is swappable in the vehicle. Clean, instant oil changes with a self filtering system, offers few benefits to customers, great benefits to service centres (who would love the ability to charge a customer the same amount of money for 1/10th of the work and zero mess), great for vehicles (s
Re:Coal Powered Cars Are Awesome. /s (Score:5, Informative)
A Tesla charged with electricity solely generated by coal is still cleaner than a petrol car. However, average electricity from coal in the US is only 33% (and dropping) so not an issue.
Tesla has already solved your four challenges with battery recycling, supercharging, longer runtime. I can drive my Tesla anywhere with stops at convenient superchargers.
There is already sufficient electric infrastructure to charge more electric cars than will be produced in the next 5 years. Electric utilities currently have a problem with too much electricity at night (in Texas they give away free electricity at night)... precisely the time when most people charge their electric cars. This may change in 5-10 years but that's plenty of time to make the necessary investments.
Re:Coal Powered Cars Are Awesome. /s (Score:5, Informative)
No, actually that is incorrect. As of 2015 [eia.gov], 31% of all electrical power generated in the USA was generated by zero emission sources (nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, and geothermal). Another 33% was from natural gas, which generates very little particulate emissions, substantially reduced CO2, and reduced NOX. Only 34% was from coal and petroleum.
Petroleum's share is actually down to a minuscule 1%, and coal is shrinking all the time.
So gas and particulate emissions are greatly cut for every car converted from gasoline or diesel to battery-electric.
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Thank you, you save me some typing.
Another point to remember, it is far easier to clean the air coming out of a few hundred generators than it is to clean the air coming out of a few million cars.
If I improve a generator's exhaust by 20%, it might be worthwhile, but if I proposed doing that for all the cars in a city, the retrofitting costs would dwarf any cost at the generator, and odds are you wouldn't have half of them done in a year.
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That is what I like most about electric cars. Any time there is a massive improvement in electric generation (or even shifts), it is far easier to upgrade or change it at the electric plant than in the hundreds of millions of cars. Electric cars can effectively use the best energy generation method available at any given time and can switch in months rather than the decades it takes to "upgrade" gas cars today (as they eventually completely die and get replaced).
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"Petroleum's share is actually down to a minuscule 1%, and coal is shrinking all the time."
That is why it is so annoying when people talk about solar and wind replacing oil. They do not compete. Natural gas does and frankly beats the pants off solar and wind in cost. Of course cheap natural gas actually helps out solar and wind because it is used in peaking plants that can spin up quickly to help when solar and wind drop.
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which is .0? percent of the cars? And is 0% of the trucks, aircraft, and ships.
Still does not amount to a hill of beans.
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...[e]lectric Vehicles are just playing a sly shell game with gas & particulate emission, shuffling it across town to the coal fired electric plant that's shoveling that juice into your wall charger.
It's a good shell game, though. The benefit here is that by moving the energy conversion from a bunch of individual moving cars to a central location is moving a nonpoint pollution source to a point source. That's a huge improvement. You can do a much better job of filtering on a point source. I can build a large electrostatic filter and put it on a coal plant. I could even - as the government - force all plant owners to add expensive filtering to their plant. But it's much harder to do that to a mil
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Catalytic converters also tend to be quite inefficient until the engine warms up so while the converter does a pretty good job once you're on the road, it's accomplishing bugger-all when you start up and for several minutes after.
Also, replacing most or all ICEs with EVs in cities mean delicate lungs aren't breathing CO and other pollutants and there's no ground-level ozone or nitrogen oxides to form smog.
Re:Coal Powered Cars Are Awesome. /s (Score:5, Insightful)
Decent starting point, but you stopped thinking far too quickly.
Centralizing power generation (moving from millions of small gasoline engines to hundreds of big oil/coal turbine generators) allows for greater efficiency. Most things work better at scale - you get more power extracted per unit fuel. And it allows you to cost-effectively install better pollution-reducing devices - big scrubbers on the exhaust, to keep particulates and such down. So even if the power grid were 100% fossil fuels, it would still be a gain.
But the grid isn't 100% fossil fuels. In some places those are a minority already - where hydro or geothermal or nuclear dominate. And it decouples the generators from the infrastructure - if all cars ran off batteries, we could switch over to whatever new power method works best, as we invent it. If we had cheap, efficient, clean nuclear fusion, switching to it would be easy if we were on electric cars. Switching from gasoline/diesel engines to fusion engines would require a lot more change to the infrastructure - new fueling stations built, new pipelines for deuterium run, new mechanics trained on new engine types.
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"Centralizing power generation (moving from millions of small gasoline engines to hundreds of big oil/coal turbine generators) allows for greater efficiency."
You tend to lose most of those efficiency gains on the distribution side of the coin.
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"Centralizing power generation (moving from millions of small gasoline engines to hundreds of big oil/coal turbine generators) allows for greater efficiency."
You tend to lose most of those efficiency gains on the distribution side of the coin.
No you don't. The electricity distribution system is highly efficient. When we transmit electricity at 1 million volts over long distances, we minimize the current through the wires. The power losses in the wires are equal to I^2 * R. By keeping current low, the losses in the wires are almost always less than 10%, and likely less than 5%. The process of stepping the voltages up and down is also highly efficient, thanks to the design of AC transformers. If the AC transformers weren't so efficient, they
Re: Coal Powered Cars Are Awesome. /s (Score:2)
Nikola Tesla also invented the AC electricity distribution system.
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Outside of California and a few other states, never. The utility companies have been fighting hard against net metering. Nevada stopped net metering and the solar companies shut down all activity in Nevada the next day.
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Electric Vehicles are just playing a sly shell game with gas & particulate emission, shuffling it across town to the coal fired electric plant that's shoveling that juice into your wall charger.
This is a well worn myth as demonstrated by others here already.
It's a shame you wrote so much and I didn't read it because you lost me in the first paragraph...
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Perhaps you need to open your eyes a bit more. This is happening already. Perhaps it is happening in my area because we have a relatively high concentration of electric vehicles, but it is happening. Many destinations (shopping malls, strip malls, parking garages, theme parks, sports venues, office parks, etc..), have charging stations already.
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Why? Is there some content inside the lithium batteries which is valuable enough to make this worthwhile? Lead batteries are recycled because lead is expensive and easy to recycle.
Interesting... (Score:1)
It makes me wonder how much further they'd go without any air filtration at all.
"Front End" has a different meaning in car jargon (Score:2)
The title on The Verge talks about the new "Front End" of the Tesla S, yet in the story the cosmetic surface of the front fascia is the topic. In North American car jargon, the term "front end" means the steering and suspension apparatus of the front wheels. Going back many, many years, it was common to book one's car into a repair shop for a "front end alignment", and some mechanics were "front end" specialists. I just had an Abe Simpson moment there...
English? (Score:2)
WTF?