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from the my-whoosh-is-bigger-than-yours dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
FRANKFURT -- The gleaming white Porsche with menacing black trim took less than 8 minutes to complete the Nurburgring's demanding Nordschleife circuit. The result was respectable but not spectacular for a 600-hp beast that sprints from 0 to 62 mph in a little more than 3 seconds.
Unlike the Panamera production car, which can easily beat its lap time, the Mission E concept doesn't have camshafts, pistons or valves to mix air and fuel in a combustion chamber or a spark plug to ignite it. It runs on a current of pure electrons supplied by a lithium ion battery, and it can almost fully recharge itself within 15 minutes.
The Tesla Model S doesn't come anywhere close to those specs -- which is the point.
Porsche's 1 billion euro ($1.12 billion) gamble to lure Tesla owners from their beloved electric car is just one example of how much premium European automakers are investing to try and match their Silicon Valley-based rival. Tesla's zero-emissions sports sedan has made Europe's finest automakers look woefully behind the times in an area they typically dominate: technology. The question is whether established brands can win back the hearts and minds of car buyers seeking the next big thing.
Germany's best known sports car maker promises its Mission E, which was teased at last year's Frankfurt auto show, will be "an electric Porsche that deserves the name." That means it will be consistently fast over an extended period with no loss of performance despite repeated accelerating and braking. It is supposed to be the first zero-emissions car worthy of being taken to the racetrack.
Porsche, however, will need years before it can mass produce and sell its electric sports car at a decent profit. Meanwhile, Tesla will continue to deliver tens of thousands of its vaunted sedans and SUVs every year to wealthy progressives around the world, most likely at a loss. "I wish we had put that car on the road and not Tesla," confided a senior engineer at Porsche, not a brand typically prone to technological envy. "We have to earn money at the end of the day though."
[...] Moreover, reputational problems may catch up to it. Allegations have been leveled that Tesla tried to hide suspension flaws in the Model S from the public by forcing customers to sign nondisclosure agreements. More recently, a fatal accident has put its Autopilot in a negative spotlight. Also, when the Model 3 eventually debuts, Tesla will target more demanding consumers, who are not likely to be as forgiving when it comes to the inherent trade-offs of an electric car.
A senior automotive executive at Bosch is convinced that sooner or later Musk will not be able to maintain this startup style showmanship over substance: "At some point as they grow customers won't accept this and Tesla will have to adopt a zero-tolerance approach."
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @03:23PM
Headline sub-script:
"Dutch Fire Fighters Are Morons"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @03:40PM
You've never really seen a metal fire before, have you (no, YouTube doesn't count)? The worry of electrocution may be unfounded, but there is really not much a run-of-the-mill firetruck can do with a metal fire other than keep it from spreading to other things.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday September 07 2016, @06:18PM
In the past, it was said to not use any water on a lithium battery fire, because the metal contained within required an expensive extinguisher. Now, water plays an important role in extinguishing the fire: It cools the battery. Cooling the battery reduces the chances that the fire will reignite.
There is actually quite a lot the average municipal fire company can do:
https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/en_EU/emergency_response_guide.pdf [tesla.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday September 07 2016, @11:05PM
If they really cared about seconds-count they'd have the info on a webpage rather than jailed in a PDF.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Thursday September 08 2016, @09:14AM
What the fuck browser do you have that doesn't just open a PDF when you navigate to it?
Meanwhile, firefighters don't learn from reading the internet. They are trained. So a document that the trainer can download and print out is good.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @04:11PM
being a complete n00b to solar-grid tie technology
i got to chat with a technician from the biggest german
grid-tie inverter manufacturer and asked him "if the excess
electricity of my solar system would go "through" the transform"
he replied that "electricity takes the path of least resistance" ... which i kindda knew.
anyways, i am sure that the DC powered tesla injects a huge grounding
anchor at the crash site and then continues to isolate a pole from the battery
and connects it to the grounded anchor ... so that all water spraying fire fighter build
a nice loop for the battery to discharge thru the firefighters into the ground... duh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @05:25PM
Don't know about Dutch firefighters, but US based firefighters have extensive training available to them to deal with all kinds of vehicle fires. I believe the electric vehicle training was supported (in part?) by Toyota, at about the same time the original Prius hit the US market. Haven't attended a training personally, but it includes things like areas of the car where a "jaws of life" extraction tool should not be used.
Training to deal with gasoline and diesel fires was established long ago. As someone else noted, there isn't much you can do about a magnesium fire once it's going except stay away and protect the surroundings. Same may be true for aluminum--but much harder to get it started? Many cars now have large diecast magnesium parts, for one example the crossmember in front of the dashboard which includes holes and attachments for all the instruments, etc.
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Thursday September 08 2016, @09:06AM
They do have training and documentation to safely disable the electrics.
Likewise they have training to safely cut open a vehicle during rescue without triggering airbags and how to handle gasoline or oil leaks on old fashioned cars.
The story is also becoming a bit clearer now:
- The car was not driving on autopilot.
- The car was steered into a tree at 155km/h (This road was not constructed for anything near that speed)
- The tree won.
- The driver was killed on impact.
- The car was in such a state that the standard (and known to the firefighters) procedures could not be executed.
- The driver was already dead and the firefighters saw no reason not to wait for some experts to help them.
- It was a slow news day and electric cars are getting attention lately so the media made a big thing out of it speculating wildly.