Tesla – Page 2779 – I wish I had more to offer

Tesla fatal crash rate with Autopilot still no better than with human drivers

Tesla Autopilot
Since Tesla’s Autopilot was introduced back in October 2014, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made extravagant claims about its superior safety. Last month, reacting to what Musk considers sensationalized media coverage of Tesla accidents, the company released the first of its promised quarterly safety updates.

The report claimed that, compared to the U.S. automobile crash rate of one every 492,000 miles, Teslas in the second quarter of 2018 had an accident “or crash-like event” every 1.92 million miles. With Autopilot engaged that dropped to one in every 3.34 million miles.

In other words, human-piloted Teslas had accidents at about one quarter the U.S. average, by miles traveled. The rate for Autopilot Teslas was about one-seventh of the U.S. average. (The company did not say how it arrived at the benchmark figure for the U.S. average number.)

Tesla Model 3 dashboard in Autopilot testing with IIHS [CREDIT: IIHS]

According to the company numbers, cars on Autopilot were nearly twice as safe as human-pilot Teslas, buttressing Musk’s past claims.

DON'T MISS: Tesla's own numbers show Autopilot has higher crash rate than human drivers

Oddly, in its report Tesla did not break out fatal accidents, the ones that have garnered most of the sensational news coverage.
Perhaps that’s because, as it turns out, Teslas on Autopilot actually have a higher fatal accident rate than those driven entirely by humans.

Hard Numbers

Back in November, 2016 I analyzed fatal-crash data for the Model S, comparing cars driven by humans to those driven on Autopilot.

The conclusion: Autopilot had a fatal crash rate approximately double that of human-pilot Teslas—a conclusion radically different from the rosy Autopilot safety picture that Elon Musk and Tesla had so relentlessly promoted.

Page 1 of 4

1
2
3
4
Next >

Mercedes-Benz delivers first F-Cell plug-in hybrid fuel-cell SUV in Germany

Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell, 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show
Mercedes delivered its first plug-in hybrid F-Cell fuel cell SUV in Berlin earlier this week.

Like earlier projects from Toyota, Honda, and GM in the U.S., Mercedes is only leasing or renting the vehicles (it says “renting short-term or long-term”) to select customers in German cities where hydrogen refueling infrastructure is available. Those include Berlin, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, and Cologne.

Germany currently has 50 hydrogen fueling sites in those seven cities, and Mercedes-Benz has partnered with chemical and petroleum companies to expand the network to 100 stations by the end of 2019—and eventually to 400 stations, the company said in a release.

CHECK OUT: 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC specs revealed (Updated)

The F-Cell reportedly has some common components with the upcoming Mercedes-Benz EQC electric SUV, which is expected to have a 200-mile range from its batteries in European driving. Mercedes officials in the U.S. have said it will have a longer range when the car goes on sale here in 2020.

Mercedes-Benz GLC F-Cell

The F-Cell's tanks hold 4.4 kilograms of hydrogen, which give it a range of 267 miles on hydrogen. And as the first fuel-cell vehicle that also has a plug-in battery, the F-Cell gets another 32 miles of range from its plug-in battery (based on a European driving cycle.)

Originally shown in at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2017, the F-Cell has four driving modes: Battery, which runs strictly on the battery for up to 32 miles; F-Cell, maintains the charge level in the battery, using net energy only from the fuel-cell; Hybrid, which depletes both the battery and the hydrogen in the tanks in what Mercedes says is the most efficient way; and Charge, which uses the fuel cell to charge the battery.

READ THIS: Mercedes invests in pilot program to keep fuel cells alive

The motor puts out 208 horsepower, which Mercedes describes as an output that helps to “ensure high driving dynamics,” though on paper that horsepower rating falls well behind the Tesla Model X or many competing gas-powered SUVs.

Mercedes points out in its press release that it has been working on fuel-cell vehicles since it produced the NECAR 1 test van in 1994, a full-size commercial van in which the fuel cell occupied the entire cargo area. Indeed, the company was once a leader in fuel-cell vehicles, along with General Motors. Now the landscape has changed, with Honda and Toyota (and, soon again, Hyundai) as the only automakers who make fuel-cell vehicles available to consumers.

Tesla Reaching Out To US Model 3 Reservation Holders To Ask If They Want A Refund

Electric Cars
Electric Car Benefits
Electric Car Sales
Solar Energy Rocks
RSS
Advertise
Privacy Policy

Cars

Published on November 15th, 2018 |

by Zachary Shahan

Tesla Reaching Out To US Model 3 Reservation Holders To Ask If They Want A Refund

Twitter
Google+
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Facebook

November 15th, 2018 by Zachary Shahan

Update: There’s even hotter news that Tesla has opened up the Model 3 configurator (to design and complete your order for the car) in China. As a commenter nicely summarizes, “There have been reports elsewhere about phone calls. I think this is about production planning to figure out what these remaining orders actually are. And clearing out any reservations that aren’t going to convert into orders.”

Tesla is in an interesting position. Hundreds of thousands of people put down reservations for a Model 3. Perhaps 100,000 of them have now gotten their cars (or not quite 100,000 of them, since many buyers have come in “off the street”). That most likely means that hundreds of thousands are still waiting to order their cars. Many of those people are overseas, but plenty are surely still in the United States. Who are they? Are they going to order? If not, are they ever going to ask for a refund?

One of our writers is sitting on a reservation. This evening, he received a text message from someone at Tesla asking if he wants a refund. He went on a test drive a few months ago but has otherwise not reached out about anything, so he found it a bit interesting and surprising to receive this text message on his phone.

The message was short and sweet. As you can see on the right, after a brief hello (I’ve clipped off that part to exclude the names), the sales advisor wrote, “We saw you’ve not ordered your Model 3. Please let us know if you’d like your $1k deposit returned. Thanks.”

This is interesting for a few reasons. One is that you’d think Tesla would like to hold onto the cash as long as possible, so it’s surprising to see the company offering to give it back.

That said, the money can’t really be used by Tesla anyway (it’s not counted as real revenue at this stage), so why not? With Tesla’s bank account looking as good as ever, perhaps the company decided it was time to unload some of that dead cash. Additionally, Tesla may be trying to ensure customers have a good experience and don’t feel like the company is holding onto their money longer than it should.

Some more business-y explanations may be at play as well — and the above ideas may not have anything to do with it.

Perhaps this is an approach Tesla is now using to push consumers — in a super subtle and low-pressure way — to finally move forward and order a car. The company has sent out a handful of emails over the past several months encouraging reservation holders (like me) to convert into buyers and order a Tesla Model 3 Long Range … Tesla Model 3 All-Wheel Drive … Tesla Model 3 Performance … Tesla Model 3 Mid Range — whatever’s fresh. I’ve personally received a handful of reminders (including this week) that cars are available for test drives.

Another possibility is that Tesla is eager to learn more about remaining reservation holders in the US. Are they really planning to buy a car? Are they just waiting on the $35K car? With a nudge, will they admit they aren’t going to order and accept a refund? Tesla staff are probably trying to figure out what remaining demand from reservation holders actually is so that they can plan production, shipping, and delivery schedules accordingly.

There’s also the chance the message was a one-off from a rogue employee, not a big company-wide template message. That seems unlikely, but we should find out soon enough.

We likely won’t figure out the full story behind this message. There are many possible explanations for it, and Tesla’s probably going to hold them close to its chest. But there’s always room for speculation and hypothesizing, right? Any other thoughts?

I reached out to Tesla for commentary and talked about this but did not receive any extra information.

If you’re looking to buy a Tesla, appreciate my work, and need a referral code, here you go: http://ts.la/tomasz7234

Support CleanTechnica’s work by becoming a Member, Supporter, or Ambassador.
Or you can buy a cool t-shirt, cup, baby outfit, bag, or hoodie or make a one-time donation on PayPal.

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups

Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of our readers.

Tesla acquires trucking companies to squeeze in more deliveries before Dec. 31

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Thursday that the electric automaker had “acquired trucking capacity,” a move aimed to boost deliveries of its Model 3 vehicles before the federal tax credit begins to wind down December 31. Musk at first didn’t explain what “acquired trucking capacity” meant. The company hasn’t posted any regulatory filings of an… Continue reading Tesla acquires trucking companies to squeeze in more deliveries before Dec. 31

VW Builds Europe’s Biggest E-Car Plant to Halt Tesla’s March

VW Builds Europe’s Biggest E-Car Plant to Halt Tesla’s March Bloomberg Full coverage Go to Source Go to Source

Oil giant BP gets its first Tesla Powerpack project, says could lead to more

Fossil fuel companies are seeing the writing on the wall and investing their profits from burning oil into renewable energy. British oil giant BP’s wind energy is a good example of that and it is now combining a wind farm with its first Tesla Powerpack project. The project was first announced in April. It involves… Continue reading Oil giant BP gets its first Tesla Powerpack project, says could lead to more

Locked in a Tesla patent suit, Nikola nabs $210M at $1.1B valuation for hydrogen trucks

Nikola, the hydrogen trucking startup currently suing Tesla for patent infringement (those are the actual names, sorry spirit of real Nikola Tesla), today announced that it has raised $210 million in its Series C round of funding. The company had previously announced in August that it had raised $100 million of the round; now it has… Continue reading Locked in a Tesla patent suit, Nikola nabs $210M at $1.1B valuation for hydrogen trucks

Tesla President Jerome Guillen Lays Out Path Forward For Gigafactory 1

Electric Cars
Electric Car Benefits
Electric Car Sales
Solar Energy Rocks
RSS
Advertise
Privacy Policy

Batteries

Published on November 13th, 2018 |

by Kyle Field

Tesla President Jerome Guillen Lays Out Path Forward For Gigafactory 1

Twitter
Google+
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Facebook

November 13th, 2018 by Kyle Field

Tesla President of Automotive Jerome Guillen recently opened up about Tesla’s plans for expanding and optimizing Gigafactory 1 in Sparks, Nevada. As usual, Tesla is keeping a watchful eye on the future with the construction of its new Shanghai Gigafactory, but Gigafactory 1 isn’t yet close to reaching its own max potential.

CNBC recently toured Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, during which it took a look at the Model 3 battery pack assembly lines before sitting down to talk with Jerome. In the interview, he opened up about Tesla’s plans to grow its production capacity at Gigafactory 1, building on three main pillars of effort:

Building more battery cell manufacturing lines at the Gigafactory
This is being done in concert with Tesla’s exclusive battery cell manufacturing partner, Panasonic. This not only increases the total production capacity of the Gigafactory, but also allows the company to leverage greater economies of scale, which spreads fixed costs associated with running the company out over a larger volume of batteries.

Tesla needs to build more batteries, as its demand for 2170 lithium-ion battery cells currently outstrips what it can produce at the Gigafactory. As Tesla looks to 2019 and the rollout of the Model 3 to European and Asian markets, it is going to need boatloads of additional battery capacity to support those volumes.

To support that expansion for the near term, it is going to need more batteries from Gigafactory 1. Long term, the company plans to build additional gigafactories in each major market, with the first gigafactory outside of the US being already under construction outside of Shanghai. Another gigafactory is slated for Western Europe, with Elon Musk noting months ago that it would likely be somewhere along the French–German border.

Improving the design of the battery cell manufacturing lines
Tesla lives and breathes innovation and it is this continuous innovation that has driven it to produce cars, energy storage products, and solar products that get better with every generation — sometimes even after they have been sold to customers.

Improving its battery cell manufacturing lines plays out most clearly for its new production lines at GF1 and future gigafactories, but some of those improvements can also be rolled into existing production lines at GF1 in Nevada.

Jerome said that the improvements being made to the battery cell production lines are being made to improve the yield, the throughput, and the capacity of each production line. Squeezing out extra batteries from a single line means Tesla is getting more return on the capital it invested in existing production lines, which translates to lower capex in the long run.

Improving the design of the 2170 battery cell
Tesla started off building its vehicles using commodity 18650 lithium-ion battery cells but did so with a watchful eye to the future, to the day when it would be able to build its own cells. The Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, made that dream a reality and ushered in Tesla’s proprietary 2170 form factor, which stretched the diameter of the round 18650 cells 3 mm to a 21 mm diameter and stretched them from 65 mm long to 70 mm long.

The idea was that this 2170 form factor was the perfect blend of energy density — or the amount of energy stored in a given volume — and surface area for cooling. Batteries run hot when being charged and heat management is directly linked to the performance and longevity of the batteries, making heat management one of the key systems in any electric vehicle.

“The design of the cell is not frozen. It evolves and we have a very nice roadmap of technology improvements for the coming years,” Guillen said in the interview. This is consistent with what we know of Tesla and its relentless pursuit of perfection in engineering, design, production, chemistry … you name it. They just don’t stop innovating. (And thank God for that!)

Source: CNBC

An inside look at Tesla’s Gigafactory from CNBC.

Support CleanTechnica’s work by becoming a Member, Supporter, or Ambassador.
Or you can buy a cool t-shirt, cup, baby outfit, bag, or hoodie or make a one-time donation on PayPal.

About the Author

Kyle Field I'm a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. TSLA investor. Tesla referral code: http://ts.la/kyle623

CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups

Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of our readers.

‘If Elon Listens to Her’: Tesla’s New Boss Tasked With Reining In Musk

‘If Elon Listens to Her’: Tesla’s New Boss Tasked With Reining In Musk BloombergTesla Has a New Chairman Money JournalsThe ‘Rational’ Businesswoman Picked to Temper Tesla’s Mercurial Musk Yahoo NewsFull coverage Go to Source

Tesla: We Are Improving The Design Of Our Battery Cell

4 H BY MARK KANE Production lines, battery modules and cells are evolving Tesla distinguishes itself from other manufacturers because it constantly upgrades its cars (others apply changes in packages every few years). That same policy Tesla utilizes in other areas like battery production at the Gigafactory. According to Tesla’s President of Automotive, Jerome Guillen,… Continue reading Tesla: We Are Improving The Design Of Our Battery Cell