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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday July 18 2015, @04:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the light-speed-too-slow dept.

You may have heard about Tesla's "insane mode," which accelerates a sedan from 0 to 60 mph in a mindboggling 3.2 seconds. But Tesla is already moving ahead with something even better: A "ludicrous mode" that sends you from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds.

Shaving off half a second may not sound like much. But the $10,000 option on the Model S shows off some of the advances in battery technology that Tesla is building into its newer cars. Under ludicrous speed, said Musk, the car will accelerate at 1.1 times the force of gravity.
...
The Model S is also getting a battery capacity upgrade from 85 kilowatt-hours to 90 kWh, an increase of around 6 percent that will cost existing owners about $3,000 if they choose to upgrade. Not everyone should be upgrading every year, though, as Tesla expects to add around 5 percent capacity to its batteries every year on average. That translates to a roughly 5 percent annual increase in range. Musk said he expects most customers to upgrade batteries once every three to four years.

Not too much longer before "range anxiety" becomes an ICE problem.


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  • (Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday July 19 2015, @12:44AM

    by tftp (806) on Sunday July 19 2015, @12:44AM (#210914) Homepage

    t say it was difficult, I said virtually no one does it without a stop. 6 or 7 hours without a toilet break, a meal or stretching the legs would be awful. 7 hours constantly staring at the road in front. 7 hours of your foot pressing a pedal. As I said virtually no one does it. If you truly do do it, then you're mad. Especially on vacation - its supposed to be fun, not torture.

    I have some power bars with me, and hot coffee in the thermos in the cupholder. Sure, I stop exactly once to refuel, and there is a BK near one of the gas stations, which I sometimes patronize. But for some reason I do not find it difficult to drive for 8 hours, even when I leave at 6 am. I am not tired upon arrival, and I usually do much more at the hotel (or at home) before I go to bed. People are usually active for 16 hours out of 24.

    Truck drivers do stop at various eateries, and they take their time there - but they often have a 12-hour work day. Sometimes it becomes a safety issue, as they are overworking themselves to the point that they cannot drive safely anymore.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:29AM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:29AM (#210937) Journal

    Speaking of driving big truck—cowboy driving is a thing of the past. “Them days are gone and done with,” they lament on the CB. There's a GPS unit in the tractor, and they can scan your logbook into the computer. If your truck is moving when you're on the off-duty or sleep lines, they haul you into logbook class. 11 hours of driving is the max (14 hours on-duty, including driving time and any time waiting to be unloaded at the dock). When I used to drive OTR, I developed this odd 22 hour circadian rhythm. (I'd probably still be doing that instead of IT except I suck at backing up in close quarters.)

    Generally, there's breakfast and then dinner, perhaps a snack between. I don't remember all the logbook rules exactly, but iirc the 14 hour timer starts once you do the pre-trip inspection (mandatory 15 minutes on the on-duty line before moving to the driving line)*. So, if you're going to go off-duty for an hour or so for lunch, you might eat into hours that you could be driving, especially on dedicated routes with multiple stops per shift. (You can count on at least one of those stops eating up an hour of on-duty time because the store you're delivering to isn't prepared.) An alternative is “split logging” which has some funky rules that give you more flexibility, but ultimately you're up against the 70 hour rule. No more than 70 hours in a week, and then you take your 34 hour “sabbatical” (off-duty line iirc), which resets all the counters.

    As for safety, truck drivers are required to do an in-trip inspection every 3 hours or 150 miles. I still follow that guideline when I'm on roadtrips. It works out pretty well. Pull into a truck stop or rest area, and walk around for a few minutes. It helps break up the monotony.

    If you catch yourself nodding off, pull down the first exit, park somewhere, and set a 15-20 minute alarm. The 15-20 minute power nap is long enough to restore some vitality, but not so long that deeper sleep sets in. It's a bit of a band-aid measure, but it works if you only need to go a couple more hours. Remember, fatigued driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving.

    * Clarification: Logbooks have 4 horizontal lines in parallel that span the 24 hours in a day: sleep, off-duty, on-duty, and driving. Filling in the logbook involves drawing a continuous line that jumps among and moves along the 4 lines.

    • (Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:36AM

      by tftp (806) on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:36AM (#210939) Homepage

      if you catch yourself nodding off, pull down the first exit, park somewhere, and set a 15-20 minute alarm. The 15-20 minute power nap is long enough to restore some vitality, but not so long that deeper sleep sets in.

      I actually did that once - on a relatively short trip (2 hours each way) simply because I was physically tired. Worked very well. Indeed, road trips should be a pleasant occurrence, and not a dangerous torture.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:57AM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday July 19 2015, @02:57AM (#210944) Journal

      Thanks, that's interesting. Is that a motivation for the sleeper cabs, to manage the schedule better, or is that purely to save on hotels?

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:38AM

        by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:38AM (#210956) Journal

        I would assume hotel cost. Mostly once the 11 hours driving time are up, it's straight to the sleep line, so schedule might be a very small factor. The sleeper area adds about 7' or so (there's a small area for a minifridge and cabinet in front of the bed) and I imagine the fuel costs to support that are way less than a stay at a hotel. Of course, that means that daycabs (no sleeper) can get around in yards and inner-city docks easier than a sleeper.

        I always marvel at those huge condo trucks with an extended sleeper that seem to be popular with moving companies (Allied, etc). I suppose once the yard/dock concern is removed, might as well go for luxury. When you're out 3 weeks at a time, the truck becomes your home.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:41AM

          by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:41AM (#210957) Journal

          Er, the overriding factor is probably simply parking. Go to any truck stop outside a big city, and there will be a huge lot filled with trucks. Most hotels probably wouldn't care to support that.

          • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday July 19 2015, @05:08AM

            by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Sunday July 19 2015, @05:08AM (#210968)

            Truck driver here!

            You are correct.
            It is simply parking. The other point of a sleeper cab is two person operation, called team driving. As a trainer this is what I did. One up, one sleeps. You can go across the U.S. in about three days doing that. Single driver trucks face the parking nightmare every night. You either stop earlier, to be certain of finding parking, or drive all night as daytime parking is usually very easy. It all depends of course, on your pickup and delivery requirements, along with weather and mechanical issues.

            --
            Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
            • (Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday July 19 2015, @05:20PM

              by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Sunday July 19 2015, @05:20PM (#211129) Journal

              Ah, yes. Impossible to find parking at night. I used to do night driving whenever possible. Park around 10 am or so and there are pull-through spaces available!

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @07:33PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 19 2015, @07:33PM (#211156)

                Think they changed the rules recently to make night harder. Something about must have a sleep during particular parts of the night. I bet this is making parking even worse.

                I used to write 'that damned' software that tracked drivers. You move the truck, up to the D line for you and let me mark where your are at.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hours_of_service#History [wikipedia.org]
                I had the 'pleasure' of making a computer doing the 2003 set of rules. The earlier rules fit in a small paragraph of code. The 2003 rules took about 20 pages to work correctly. You could have up to 6 different 'out of hour clocks' going all at the same time depending if you split sleeper or not.

                Just be glad you were not in canada. They have about 12 different countdown clocks. Daily limits as well as time limits and weekly limits. In addition to split and 'ferry' items.

                I am glad I am out of that goop. The newest 2013 ones look nasty and similar in scope to the Canadian ones. My back of the envelope figures say there are about 14 countdown clocks until out of service. I could be wrong as I did not fully figure it out.

                For the 1962-2003 set of rules it was possible to do 4x4 in a team and get across the country and never have to really stop. One of the reasons they tweaked the rules.

                Its funny did you know you dont legally have to fill in the lines and its actually optional? But most cops expect it and get pissy if you dont. So you fill it in anyway. The line items bellow the graph are the real log (time and location of start of activity). It was pretty sweet for some of the drivers I wrote software for 'where are your logs' points at box 'in there' 'move along'. The cops didnt want to fuck with it. :) Doubt that is the case anymore.

  • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Sunday July 19 2015, @01:33PM

    by BasilBrush (3994) on Sunday July 19 2015, @01:33PM (#211045)

    Well I don't know what it's like in the states, but in Europe as well as a maximum working day for drivers, there are compulsory rest breaks at least every 4.5 hours.

    Back to the topic: Really, the Tesla S range isn't an issue. When you've driven the full range, it's time you took a break anyway. And a supercharger will give a give a fair boost to the batteries whilst you do so.

    --
    Hurrah! Quoting works now!
    • (Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:23PM

      by tftp (806) on Sunday July 19 2015, @03:23PM (#211079) Homepage

      When you've driven the full range, it's time you took a break anyway.

      A pause in driving is not the same as a pause in moving. There may be two adults in the car - say, a family. They can drive non-stop and still have enough rest. Very few people would like to spend 1-2 hours more on the road just for the pleasure of driving an EV - even if there are superchargers on the way. But plenty of rural highways don't even have gas stations on every corner. An EV would be a poor choice currently for driving in rural areas.

      • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Sunday July 19 2015, @08:13PM

        by BasilBrush (3994) on Sunday July 19 2015, @08:13PM (#211166)

        A pause in driving is not the same as a pause in moving. There may be two adults in the car - say, a family.

        Sure, there MIGHT be. But you're just cutting down the number of people affected, and the number of time affected even more, considering that most cars are driven by one person most of the time.

        Very few people would like to spend 1-2 hours more on the road

        Supercharger rates are 280-300miles added per hour. There is no second hour. Most people in most cases only supercharge for about 30 mins as the battery is unlikely to be empty, and there's probably no need to charge to the very top.

        An EV would be a poor choice currently for driving in rural areas.

        That is true for now. You can go cross country but for now you have to choose your routes - or rather let the car tell you what the good routes are. But the gaps won't take that long to fill at the rate they are expanding.

        --
        Hurrah! Quoting works now!