How will Tesla 'end range anxiety' on the Model S?
Elon Musk — Tesla's co-founder, CEO, and one-man PR machine — made news yesterday with a tweet that his company would reveal a firmware update for its Model S sedan later this week that will "end range anxiety."
"Range anxiety" is the notion that you're always worried you won't find a charger for your electric car before the juice runs out. It's a more serious problem for the many EVs on the road with sub-100-mile ranges like the Nissan Leaf, VW e-Golf, and Ford Focus Electric, but even the Model S — which has a range of 200 miles or more, depending on configuration — gets roped into the conversation. Perhaps it's because if you do run out of power, you can't just walk a few blocks to the nearest gas station, fill up a canister, and bring it back to your car; perhaps it's that even the fastest Supercharger isn't as fast as topping off a tank. Regardless, "range anxiety" is the boogeyman used more than any other to throw a wet blanket on the EV industry. It's a major reason General Motors has plowed billions into the "extended-range electric" Voltec platform, which combines an electric drivetrain with gas for backup.
Tesla press conf at 9am on Thurs. About to end range anxiety ... via OTA software update. Affects entire Model S fleet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 15, 2015
"Ending" range anxiety, as Musk teases, isn't a simple matter. It's not a question of simply squeezing a few more miles of range out of the Model S's batteries with more efficient motor control, as could be delivered by a firmware update. A Model S could get 350 or 400 miles between charges, but you'd still run into the same issues that you do at 250: when you're getting low, what do you do if you're not close enough to a charger? What if you can't charge quickly enough?
That's why I don't believe that the firmware update will just extend range. Perhaps it will do that — it certainly wouldn't be unprecedented for improved range to come from software alone — but there will probably be other components to it as well.
A simple concept would be a driver-selectable reserve. If Tesla was able to squeeze, say, another 15 miles out of the battery with improved efficiency in firmware, but it socked those miles away in a reserve rather than simply adding them to the car's indicated range, that could give drivers some peace of mind. That way, if the car's about to turn itself off and you still can't get to a charger — or at least a safe place — you press a button on the car's control panel to unlock the emergency supply of extra power.
THIS IS PROBABLY MORE THAN JUST A RANGE INCREASE
But that's not very smart, and I suspect Musk wants something that's bulletproof here — something the driver doesn't really have to think about. What if the car continually calculated your available range versus distance to home or a Supercharger, and warned you when you were in danger of straying too far? The car's navigation system can already take Superchargers into account when planning routes, but a constant red-yellow-green indicator in the instrument cluster could make a big difference. Being told that you need to start looking for a charger with 100 miles left is a lot less stressful than seeing the same message with 5 or 10 miles left.
The Supercharger network is only so large, though. It's also possible that Tesla has found a way to charge a bit faster from Level 2 charging stations, which have grown ubiquitous in even small- to medium-sized towns — the problem is that they can take many hours to top off the battery. I wouldn't expect miracles here, but then again, it's Elon Musk. Who knows?
Clearly, a range bump is the easiest and most obvious thing to offer as a firmware update. But you probably don't hold a press conference to announce something like that — I suspect this is bigger. We'll know more on Thursday.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/16/82251 ... he-model-s
Tradução: domingo Elon Musk mandou um tweet falando q vai acabar com o "range anxiety" com um simples update de firmware para todos os Model S já fabricados. Agora estão todos especulando como ele vai fazer isso só com um update de software. Alguns estão falando q eles vão deixar uma certa reserva de bateria via software, ou vão indicar de uma maneira melhor a estação supercharger antes de acabar a bateria, mas nada disso parece realmente resolver o problema como o Musk disse q vai. Talvez com o update de software eles vão conseguir recarregar as baterias mais rápido em tomadas normais, talvez, ninguém sabe. A resposta vem na quinta.
-- Adicionado em 18 Mar 2015 11:14 --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g_cCKNxrdE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8kvbbm94k
-- Adicionado em 19 Mar 2015 10:01 --
Elon Musk: Autonomous Cars May Lead To Driving Being Outlawed
Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] CEO Elon Musk has come out and stated what many opponents of autonomous cars may be secretly fearing: driving becoming outlawed. Musk made the comments at a conference held by tech company Nvidia on Tuesday.
“In the distant future, I think people may outlaw driving cars because it’s too dangerous,” Musk said at the conference. “You can’t have a person driving a two-ton death machine.”
Such comments make Musk, who at one point owned a McLaren F1 and has consistently strived to make his company’s Model S electric sedan a more thrilling drive, sound like he favors taking control away from the general public, though comments he made on Twitter after the conference suggest this is not the case.
“To be clear, Tesla is strongly in favor of people being allowed to drive their cars and always will be,” he said on Twitter. “Hopefully, that is obvious.”
The strongest argument for autonomous cars is their safety—research has shown that human error is the main cause of crashes. By taking control away from the driver, driving could be made safer, or so the proponents of the technology claim. Those proponents include governments, safety groups and even some automakers, which are committed to accident-free driving.
Tesla has added some semi-autonomous features to its Model S. Last fall, the Californian firm announced an "Autopilot" feature with some basic functions. Eventually, the Autopilot will be upgraded to give the Model S self-driving capability on the highway from on-ramp to off-ramp, though there’s been no mention of a timeframe for this.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1097 ... g-outlawed
Tradução: como eu sempre disse aki, carros autonomos são o futuro e em breve não poderemos mais dirigir livremente nas ruas, e o Elon Musk pelo visto concorda comigo, dizendo que em 20 anos os carros não-autonomos serão considerados ilegais por serem muito perigosos. Depois no twitter o CEO da Tesla disse que eles não são contra pessoas dirigindo, mas que o futuro aponta pra outra direção.
-- Adicionado em 19 Mar 2015 15:25 --
Tesla Model S software update will make it 'impossible' to drive too far from a charger
Elon Musk just revealed the full details on Tesla's proposed fix for the "range anxiety" that could be stopping consumers from purchasing a Model S. As we've said before, the perceived issue affects all electric vehicles, but Musk and Tesla have every interest in erasing it from the minds of car shoppers.
According to Musk, the answer has two parts. An imminent software update will introduce a new Range Assurance application, which will run constantly in the background — even when turn-by-turn navigation isn't being used — communicating in real time with Tesla's network of superchargers and destination chargers. Range Assurance will discard chargers that are in heavy use, but more importantly, it will warn a Model S driver when they stray too far out of range. "This makes it effectively impossible for a Model S driver to run out of range unintentionally," said Musk.
Tesla is also introducing a Trip Planner that will also communicate with Tesla's fleet (and chargers), giving drivers a better preview of how they'll fare on long-distance trips. Musk was adamant that for Tesla drivers, range anxiety isn't much of a concern — owing to the company's growing map of supercharger locations. The update, version 6.2 of the Model S firmware, will be released within two weeks.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/19/82577 ... are-update
Tesla's Model S will add self-driving 'autopilot' mode in three months
Tesla's preparing a software update that will bring powerful auto-steering functionality to its Model S fleet. During today's press call — which mostly focused on curing range anxiety — CEO Elon Musk revealed that Tesla will ship a software update "in about three months" that will turn on auto-steering, or "autopilot" as Musk often refers to it. "We can basically go between San Francisco and Seattle without the driver doing anything," Musk said of the autonomous system that Tesla has developed. For now, you'll only be able to engage auto-steering on highways.
"It is technically capable of going from parking lot to parking lot," said Musk. "But we won't be enabling that for users with this hardware suite, because we don't think it's likely to be safe in suburban neighborhoods," he said, noting that such streets often lack posted speed limit signs and pose obstacles like children playing in the street. In the future, drivers will be able to summon an unmanned Model S to their location or direct the car to drive itself into a garage.
Musk noted that these features remain illegal on most US roads, so he cautioned that drivers will be restricted to using them on private property. He also made clear that autopilot isn't to be confused with a proper self-driving car. "There’s certainly an expectation that when autopilot on the Model S is enabled, that you’re paying attention. But it should also take care of you if you have moments of distraction."
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/19/82579 ... lease-date
Tradução: A tal da solução para o "range anxiety" do Model S não é tão impressionante assim, no final das contas. Não passa de um update no software do carro que vai sempre rodar em background, independente da navegação por GPS estar ligada ou não, um serviço que verifica se o carro está ao alcance de uma estação supercharger livre, utilizando a internet embutida no carro. Além disso, o carro vai ganhar um tal de Trip Planner, q nada mais q um traçador de rotas que tenta te manter também sempre ao alcance de uma estação supercharger.
Musk também afirmou que em 3 meses teremos uma outra atualização de software que vai incluir o tão falado autopilot, que por exemplo vai permitir o carro ir de São Francisco a Seattle sem nenhuma intervenção do motorista. Musk ainda disse que isso não é ainda um self-driving car e como isso ainda é ilegal nos EUA, vai pedir aos donos do Model S para utilizarem isso somente em propriedades privadas. Meio inútil, não?
