Category: Automotive

Chargeway Beacon to help shoppers and dealers navigate past EV charging confusion

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Chargeway Beacon – Forth electric vehicle showcase, Portland
Multiple electric vehicles arriving this year promise a driving range of more than 200 miles.

While that’s great news, and it’s bound to convince more households to make the jump to a fully electric vehicle—and to take road trips with it—it presents a new challenge to automakers: making public charging options at least as easy to figure out as filling up your gas tank ever was.

That’s a role that Chargeway hopes to help with. The Portland, Oregon EV-related software startup has created Chargeway Beacons—tall-standing interactive kiosks with 43-inch touch screens, conceived to fit right into car-dealership showrooms and elsewhere as education tools to make it easier for shoppers and salespeople alike.

DON’T MISS: Chargeway: the best electric-car idea you've never heard of

As part of a new pilot program that was announced last week at the Portland Auto Show, involving the Oregon Auto Dealers Association, PGE, Pacific Power, OpConnect, Forth, and the Oregon Department of Transportation, Chargeway will be installing Beacons at auto dealerships, primarily along the I-5 and I-84 corridors in Oregon—with the goal of increasing EV literacy and sales.

Chargeway Beacon – Forth electric vehicle showcase, Portland

Since its inception in 2017, Chargeway and its founder, Matt Teske, have been focused on the hard reality that navigating most public-charging options—with the exception of Tesla's, perhaps—is anything but easy.

The primary issue is that every hardware maker and charging network seems to want to use different signage. Understanding EV charging options in kilowatts, volts, and amps, and the difference between CHAdeMO, CCS, and Level 2 shouldn’t be a required course for owning an electric vehicle.

CHECK OUT: Why Chargeway matters: making EV charging comprehensible for buyers, dealers, utilities, networks

Chargeway has a simple solution, which comes in the form of colored circles and numbers. The color corresponds to the charge connector, and the number corresponds to how fast it can potentially charge.

What’s displayed on the kiosks very closely mirrors Chargeway’s app, which makes finding a station that will work with any particular car easy. It is available for iPhones and Android devices,

Chargeway app – February 2019Chargeway app

The interface, as with the app, allows you to plan routes and see chargers specific to your vehicle. However in the Chargeway Beacon format it will be configured to display the vitals only for the EVs sold at that dealership. Chargeway added a zip-code-based purchase-incentive rundown, including federal, state, and utility credits—the latter being something that dealerships often miss.

Further, the Beacon can help drivers crunch the numbers on what an electric car would cost to run in their zip code, charging at home, versus driving on gasoline. (Costs for charging on networks will of course vary).

Chargeway app – February 2019

Chargeway will also offer customers the chance to send information to public utilities, with the opportunity to get more info on home charging and green-energy options, and perhaps find out about incentives for charger installations, for example.

READ MORE: Chargeway pilot program to post labels to help electric-car drivers sort out charging levels

“We’re thrilled to be Chargeway’s first network partner,” said Dexter Turner, the CEO of OpConnect, in a press release, where he then summed up the situation exceptionally well: “We see Chargeway as a way to drive more traffic to our network, simplify the charging experience, and reduce calls to our support number from confused new drivers.”

The company put its first Beacons at Forth’s Electric Showcase in downtown Portland, and at Wentworth's Wilsonville Chevrolet in Wilsonville, Oregon, outside Portland. At present the organization has eight complete Beacons and hints that a greater expansion, even beyond the pilot program, is on the way—so let’s hope the program expands beyond Oregon. For automakers and dealerships looking to clear the fog over all the EVs and charging options, it’s looking like the right solution at the right time.

Tesla squeeze, broadband charging, EV education, EPA science: Today’s Car News

2020 Subaru Legacy teased ahead of 2019 Chicago Auto Show debut
The British parent of Virgin Media plans to use Virgin's broadband wiring to build public electric-car charging stations. Electric-car charging info site Chargeway sets up its first installations in Portland, Oregon. And the EPA appointed a noted skeptic of climate action. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

Portland, Oregon, startup Chargeway aims to help electric car owners and potential EV buyers—and dealer salespeople—navigate the sometimes-confusing world of public charging stations with new kiosks in dealerships.

Liberty Global, the parent of Virgin Media in Britain, plans to make public charging more plentiful by using Virgin's existing broadband wiring to power a new network of public chargers.

An earnings call this week pointed out the squeeze Tesla is facing between selling cars for enough money to remain profitable and selling enough of them to make them more affordable.

The EPA appointed a prominent skeptic of climate-change action to its controversial Science Advisory Panel in a move it said was aimed at increasing diversity. It also reappointed some Obama administration appointees.

It's not quite wireless updates, but Mercedes-Benz plans to roll out a new program to allow European buyers to add additional features to their cars after purchase. Owners will have to use the cars' wi-fi hot spots or their own cell phones to access and install the new features.

Finally, when Subaru rolls out new versions of its popular Legacy and Outback at the Chicago Auto Show next month, they will joint join the fray of new models with giant center infotainment touch screens.

_______________________________________

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Tesla: Model S & Model X Production, AR Production Improvements, And Model Y Rumors

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Cars Published on January 24th, 2019 | by Steve Hanley
Tesla: Model S & Model X Production, AR Production Improvements, And Model Y RumorsTwitterLinkedInFacebookJanuary 24th, 2019 by Steve Hanley
It takes a lot to keep up with everything that’s happening at Tesla these days. After the company announced it was laying off 3,000 production workers last week, the media has been filled with scary headlines about how the company is fighting for survival. Now, to stir the pot even further, comes news that changes are taking place in the production of the Model S and Model X.

CNBC reports it has been told by several recently laid off workers that the company has suspended nighttime production of the Model S and Model X at the factory in Fremont. Is there a connection between that and the decision to stop selling the 75 kWh battery version of those cars? Possibly. Both cars now cost nearly $20,000 more than they did when the 75 kWh battery was available. It’s no surprise such a significant price increase might have an impact on demand.
A former Tesla engineer tells CNBC the company is debating whether to “sunset” either the Model S or the Model X, although what that means exactly was not explained and a key note there is that it was a former Tesla engineer. Also, we’ve never heard before that the Model S or Model X would be pulled at some point — quite the opposite, that they’d always be Tesla’s top-tier offerings. Who is this former engineer? We don’t know, but she or he also said there was no upgrade team for the S or X working on a vehicle refresh.
Tesla has learned a lot about manufacturing automobiles since the first Model S rolled off the line in June of 2012. There is surely some potential improvement to the production process if tackled comprehensively. Also, with the lower-cost Model 3 now at steady, high-volume production, there is less need (and probably less demand) for the lower-range Model S 75D.
In a statement to CNBC, Tesla said, “We recently announced that we are no longer taking orders for the 75 kWh version of Model S and X in order to streamline production and provide even more differentiation with Model 3. As a result of this change and because of improving efficiencies in our production lines, we have reduced Model S and X production hours accordingly. At the same time, these changes, along with continuing improvements, give us the flexibility to increase our production capacity in the future as needed. We’ll be providing more details on our earnings call next week.”
There is a bit of confusion here. Some outlets are claiming that Tesla Model S and X production output is being cut significantly. The statement from Tesla indicates production hours are being cut and improved efficiencies on the production lines actually provide “the flexibility to increase our production capacity.” Hmm, which way are the sales going — up or down?

Augmented Reality Comes To ManufacturingTesla has a passion for robotic assembly techniques as it races to create “the machine that builds the machine.” But just a short while ago, Elon Musk admitted that robots have their limitations and that there is no substitute for human workers when it comes to getting the job done. “Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated,” he tweeted last April. Tesla hired a lot of new workers last year, then trimmed many of those new hires from its payroll last week.
On a related note, Tesla recently filed a patent application for new augmented reality technology it says will speed up production while improving the accuracy of the assembly process. According to Teslarati, the patent application has the following explanation:
“There are many practical applications for the augmented reality (AR) manufacturing techniques discussed herein. In some embodiments, the AR device is used to program a robot to assemble one or more parts including identifying and marking the precise location and order of welds, self-pierced rivets, laser welds, adhesives, sealers, holes, fasteners, or other mechanical joints, etc. As another example, the AR device can be used to inspect the quality of the assembly for a vehicle such as whether the locations of welds are correct, whether the interfaces between parts such as body panels are within tolerances, whether holes are drilled or punched at the correct location, whether the fit and finish of assembly is correct, etc.
“In some embodiments, vision recognition is utilized. Individual sheet metal components and/or assemblies that are or will be part of the body-in-white (also known as the structural frame or body) are recognized. Once the component/system has been identified, computer-aided design (CAD) information (e.g., information and/or symbols associated with the mechanical joints) is aligned/scaled and rendered on corresponding identified physical model components. The application of the disclosed techniques applies to many different contexts of manufacturing.
“For example, the AR device can be used to map the quality of a coating on an automotive part such as determining the thickness of an e-coating on a vehicle body and identifying problem areas that are difficult to coat. In some embodiments, the AR device is used to map out a factory floor and to identify the precise location and orientation robots should be installed at to build out an assembly line. The robots are positioned based on the AR device such that the installed robots will not interfere with each other or other obstructions in the environment.”
Credit: US Patent Office
Tesla has set very aggressive goals for its Shanghai factory, which it hopes to have up and running just over a year from now. Could AR technology play a role in bringing the new facility online quicker and turning out high quality cars sooner than many think possible?
Tesla Model Y TimelineThere is much speculation at the Model 3 Owners Club about the Model Y, based on a story on Seeking Alpha that suggests Tesla may not begin taking reservations for it until it is close to the time of production — a reversal of the hoopla that preceded the Model 3 launch. Keep in mind that everything that follows is little more than unsubstantiated rumors. The official reveal is widely expected in March, although the company has not said anything on that subject. [Editor’s note: I asked Elon Musk about the reservation and rollout plan for the Model Y on Tesla’s 3rd quarter financials call, specifically hoping that Tesla would delay reservations until close to production time. We’ll see. —Zach]
Model 3 Owners Club member LoveSword added this on the forum last month: “Here is a ‘I heard from a guy who heard from a guy…’ addition (grains of salt and all that): One of the Rangers that’s been out to work on my car has been with Tesla since Roadster days. He went through orientation and is friends with a guy who has risen within the company. According to the Ranger, when he talked with this guy about the Y he was told, ‘You wouldn’t believe how far along we are already on the Y.’ That was in September when the Ranger was out for my headlight replacement. So… there’s that.”
One topic of discussion is whether the Model Y will have falcon-wing doors like its Model X big brother. Elon tweeted 3½ years ago that it would, but he deleted that tweet the next day and, since then, he has been quiet about the details of the Model Y. On the Q2 Tesla earnings call in 2017, he said his engineers had brought him back from the “cliffs of insanity,” and then added: “After talking to my executive team, the Model Y will use a significant amount of Model 3 components.”
On the falcon-wing door subject, Model 3 Owners Club member 11thIndian offered this opinion: “If you want them, then I guess you can point to [Musk’s statement from 2017] and be hopeful. From my perspective as someone who does not want them, that tweet was made so long ago in terms of the Model Y’s development, I give it no credence whatsoever now. And honestly, if the Model Y is the budget Model X, then the Falcon Wing Doors are the first thing to go in terms of complexity and cost.”
When will the Model Y get here and what will it look like? Hopefully the car that is supposed to break the back of the internal combustion car industry will be revealed in March and all our questions will be answered.

About the AuthorSteve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. His motto is, “Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away!” You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

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How Lidar Revolutionized the Way We See the World

How Lidar Revolutionized the Way We See the WorldFebruary 1, 2019|In Blog|By Albie Jarvis
An Interview with Todd Neff, author of
The Laser That’s Changing the World

Todd Neff’s The Laser That’s Changing the World, tells the story of lidar’s origins, the people who propelled it forward, and its fascinating transitions to the mainstream.

Lidar has a long, rich history with its early concept dating back to the 1930s. The technology was developed in the early 1960s, closely following the invention of the laser. Lidar gained public notice in 1971 when the Apollo 15 mission used the technology to map the moon’s surface. Since then, lidar has been deployed in numerous game-changing applications such as self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics, security, and more.

Todd Neff is an award-winning science, environment, and healthcare journalist who has written a book that catalogs many of the captivating stories in lidar’s history. The book, called The Laser That’s Changing the World, tells the story of lidar’s origins, the people who propelled it forward, and its fascinating transitions to the mainstream.

We checked in with Todd to hear from him about some of lidar’s early pioneer days, the technology’s road to autonomous vehicles, and where lidar is headed.

Award-winning science, environment, and healthcare journalist, Todd Neff

VL: One of the great strengths of your book is you addressed a complex technology in a way that’s easy to understand. Why do you think it’s important for a non-technical audience to know about lidar?

Todd Neff: People in general should know about lidar because I think lidar is going to be everywhere. Unless someone manages to come up with another technology that can combine with cameras and radar units to instantly provide precise distance measurements millions of times a second, lidar will be as standard on self-driving cars as headlights are on human-driven cars. In not too many years, driving your own car is going to be like churning your own butter or brewing your own beer. People will do it, but when it’s a question of driving in traffic or napping through it, it’s not going to be a hard decision for most of us. Vehicle autonomy depends on a lot of technology, but history shows that lidar has been the key enabler.

Velodyne Lidar’s Alpha Puck, Velarray, and VelaDome

VL: In the book, you called the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge the “birthplace of the self-driving car industry.” Why was that event so pivotal to the industry?

Neff: The 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge brought together a large group of very smart, not-at-all-risk-averse people – corporate, academic, and independent – who had had, until that point, no sense of the critical mass of talent and interest that had independently accumulated to develop self-driving vehicles. A community was born, in effect. It also showed that the core technologies – particularly computing technologies – had gotten fast enough and solid enough that good engineers could combine them into a package that could do much more than was possible even a few years earlier. The sensors were the weakness, but it wasn’t long before David Hall changed that.

VL: One especially notable outcome of that challenge, you wrote, was David Hall’s invention of the “seminal sensor for self-driving cars.” As you look at lidar’s history, how did David’s invention spur autonomous vehicle development?

Neff: It could be the case, decades from now, that lidar will seem as quaint on autonomous vehicles as hand-crank starters would be on modern cars. But there will be no denying that David Hall’s invention of automotive lidar, which he debuted on a Toyota Tundra in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, marked the moment at which the idea of developing commercially viable self-driving cars became realistic. The ability to identify objects in front of, next to, and behind a vehicle vastly simplified software development (you no longer had to “remember” what you just passed – that it was, say, a guy on a courier bike that would be next to you again at the next stoplight). You could just observe the guy on the bike and plan around it in real time. By the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, there were a half dozen finishers in a much more demanding course than those of the desert challenges. Hall’s Velodyne lidar was on five of them, including the winner, Carnegie Mellon’s “Boss.”

VL: Lidar is seen as an essential technology for autonomous vehicles. What did you learn about lidar’s role in other application areas such as 3D mapping, drones, and robots?

Neff: Automotive lidar piqued my initial interest, and it’s a major focus of The Laser That’s Changing the World. But the automotive story doesn’t start until the second half of the book. Like any other reporting effort, you find that there’s a lot more to the story than you first imagined. In this case, I learned that what became lidar was first envisioned by an Irish savant, Edward Hutchinson Synge, 30 years before the invention of the laser, and that the technology’s evolutionary path quickly diverged into two forks – defense (targeting systems) and atmospheric science (spotting pollution plumes at first). Then came bathymetry and land mapping (including land on Mars, Mercury, and the moon); geological and forestry and archeological applications; architectural and construction-related applications, and on and on. Now you’ve got lidar mapping Times Square for Spiderman movies and lidar zapping license plates in the hands of traffic officers; lidar measuring global winds from space; and lidar measuring the altitude of satellites so the same satellites can measure sea levels that are rising based on the mass balance of ice sheets, which other scientists are measuring with lidar. In the time it took to read the above paragraph, someone probably came up with a new application for lidar.

Velodyne Lidar’s HDL 64E, HDL 34E, The Puck, and Ultra Puck

VL: You have called lidar “a really powerful, massively adaptable tool.” It has had dramatic but not very well-known impact in a variety of fields. Can you share one area that you found particularly interesting?

Neff: I found it all interesting, really. There’s been such creativity in the development and application of lidar technology. And it has been organic and unpredictable. Researchers both in the scientific and the defense worlds noted that, with airborne lidar, enough laser light sneaks through a forest canopy that they can make out the ground below. On the defense side, they developed sensors that can see tanks and trucks hidden in jungles. On the science side, they found the long-hidden Seattle Fault on Bainbridge Island, and archaeologists then flew lidar over Central American jungles to completely rewrite the history of Mayan civilization (cities were many times larger than they were believed to be previously, when you had to hack through jungle to survey anything). The history of lidar provides a fascinating look at how a fundamental enabling technology can spill across and ultimately revolutionize radically different fields over time.

VL: You have noted that lidar has a tradition of creativity and innovation reaching back decades. Building on this legacy, what do you see next for lidar?

Neff: The huge amount of brainpower and money pouring into automotive lidar will yield smaller and smaller systems that are easier and easier to program and operate at lower and lower cost. I’d guess lidar will be incorporated into assistive technologies to help the visually impaired safely navigate their worlds, for example. Wheelchairs could well become autonomous. The work happening in automotive lidar today will make such systems technically and economically viable, just as the work done in the telecommunications industry brought lasers to the point that they were inexpensive and reliable enough to incorporate into automotive lidar. But you just can’t predict where a creative scientist or engineer with a problem to solve will take a new enabling technology. The history of lidar demonstrates that in spades.

For Velodyne Lidar Products Click HERE

After challenger banks comes the wave of anti-fraud startups

The sheer scale of global financial crime is not to be underestimated. The U.K.’s National Crime Agency recently observed that it’s “in the hundreds of billions of pounds” annually, and that’s just in the U.K. In the U.S., domestic financial crime, excluding tax evasion, generates approximately $300 billion of proceeds each year for potential laundering.… Continue reading After challenger banks comes the wave of anti-fraud startups

Audi releases its Superbowl ad for electric vehicles – what do you think?

Audi has released the commercial it plans to air during the Superbowl, which is the first of its kind for being focused on electric vehicles. What do you think about the ad? Loren Angelo, vice president of marketing at Audi of America, commented on the release of the ad: “The biggest night in football offers… Continue reading Audi releases its Superbowl ad for electric vehicles – what do you think?

Audi unveils e-tron electric SUV charging pricing structure, it’s not simple or cheap

With the e-tron electric SUV now hitting some European markets, Audi is unveiling its charging pricing structure for owners of the vehicle to be able to charge within cities and when on the road. Audi’s system involves several options for different tiers that gives owners access to more than 72,000 charging points in 16 EU markets… Continue reading Audi unveils e-tron electric SUV charging pricing structure, it’s not simple or cheap

GM’s involuntary layoffs start Monday, at least 4,000 workers expected to lose jobs

America is falling back in love with trucks and SUVs, and that's causing big changes at big car companies
1 Hour Ago | 04:45

General Motors is planning to layoff at least 4,000 salaried workers in North America starting Monday ahead of the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The reductions come as the largest U.S. automaker undergoes a massive restructuring announced by CEO Mary Barra in November. GM is halting production at five plants in North America and cutting 14,000 jobs as it realigns its workforce and plants to produce more electric vehicles.

Company executives want to complete as many of the layoffs as possible before the company reports its earnings Wednesday, the people said, asking not to be named because the information isn't public yet.

“We are not confirming timing. Our employees are our priorities and we will communicate with them first,” GM spokesman Pat Morrissey told CNBC Friday.

The involuntary cuts aren't as steep as previously thought.

GM offered buyouts to 17,700 employees in North America with at least 12 years of service in November, according to a document obtained by CNBC at the time. The company was aiming for 8,000 voluntary buyouts, the company previously confirmed. About 2,250 workers accepted severance agreements by Nov. 19, the company previously confirmed. Roughly 1,500 contract jobs have since been eliminated, according to one of the people briefed on the layoffs.

That leaves roughly 4,250 salaried workers and 6,000 hourly employees targeted for layoffs. The company said in November that half of the hourly workers were in Canada with the other half in the U.S.

Many of the cuts are planned at factories in the United States and Canada that make sedans and compact cars — vehicles that have not been selling well in North America, as customers turn toward trucks, sport utility vehicles and crossovers. These vehicles tend to be more profitable for automakers.

As it has been trimming back its sedan lineup and exiting its least lucrative businesses, GM has been pumping cash into new mobility technologies, especially autonomous driving.

GM's reorganization is expected to save the company about $6 billion by 2020, with half of those savings realized by the end of 2019, the company has said.

Executives told investors in mid-January that the company's full-year results for 2018 exceeded the company's expectations, and gave a positive outlook for 2019 as well.

“Mary is bold man. She doesn't mind making a tough decision, which is probably nice to see compared to what GM has been historically. Shes not afraid of a tough decision,” said Sam Huszczo, owner of SGH Wealth Management outside of Detroit. He said he manages money for several clients who work at GM.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

CNBC contributor Paul Eisenstein assisted with this article.