Recent content by bradtem

I'm pretty sure Tesla builds a mathematical model of expected traffic. They have precise data on how many Teslas drive every road and what SoC they are at when they drive it. They have forecasts for their future sales. They also have less precise data on total traffic of non-Tesla...

Perhaps talk to a company that does thin film panels, which are lighter, and might be within the tolerances on your roof. Or talk to a neighbor who has a strong roof, and see if they want solar. Fill his roof -- you pay for more than half -- and share the power between the homes with a...

That Tesla feels they must try to work on the 2016 hardware is their curse, not their blessing. All the other teams followed a fairly sane development process. Let the team use not just the best sensors of the day, but to plan to use newer and better ones which are not yet available, or...

Yes, we know that given the power of the human brain, it is possible to drive at human level with just vision (and sound and acceleration.) "Human level" isn't that great but it's acceptable at present. Given the power of the human brain. Not simply its perceptive power but its reasoning...

Well, while it's not a settled question, the prevailing opinion is that Tesla FSD as it stands won't ever be able to self-drive. I would not say it is impossible, but with that hardware setup it seems low probability. There's a silly canard about how because humans can drive with just their...

They aren't a taxonomy of autonomous driving. They are a taxonomy of roles of humans in partially autonomous systems. If that's useful, it's only for a short time. They mostly confuse people, and make them think that a self-driving car and a driver assist car are two "levels" of the same...

People don't get that the levels aren't a real thing. I mean they're a real document that was created by NHTSA around 2012 before anybody had deployed anything, then taken over by SAE, which is engineers from the legacy auto industry. They weren't created by the leading teams working on...

To Whitehorse are planned, you can see them on plugshare, but not yet under construction. CCS/CdM though. And two to complete the road to Yellowknife are also planned.

Juneau is no problem. I mean the only way to get there is by ferry, and you can charge before getting on the Ferry. It's unlikely you would drive 200 miles while there -- there's only 44 miles of road to drive! If you plan to overnight, just get one of the hotels with or near Level 2...

Tesla has said otherwise, and so far have acted otherwise but it's changing. Today they say they want the charging network to break even, so they can run it without cost, and it provides the benefits above. SC continue to be better for Tesla drivers, with lower price, better experience...

Well, sort of. The old cars are the old cars, but the number of non-Tesla EVs out there is only a small fraction of cars. Now I would have said now that everybody switched to NACS and wants Tesla SC, nobody would design a car that doesn't put the port where it can reach Tesla SC, but in fact...

I disagree. They know where Tesla owners would go if they could, because they can get data on where gasoline powered cars are going. What they should do is start by saying, "Where do people go with gas cars that they don't go in Teslas?" In particular look at the ratio of miles driven by...

I feel Kenab is a bit of a waste of the voting system, but then most of the voting winners are wastes (though Bryce is an example of a good one.) Kenab has a quality CCS station, which like most CCS stations will add NACS soon. So while it's nice to have an SC, it wasn't needed. Where one...

The NEMA connector is not to spend time at an RV park, except in emergencies. On the other hand, I have used it fairly often when staying at motels which have an RV park (or just a few RV hookup spaces) or at RV parks that also have cabins, which are fairly common. In fact, the 14-50 will...

I also recommend stopping at Zion, where a large fraction of the hotels have charging. There is also charging in the parking lot of the park, and since in summer you have to park there and take the shuttle, it's a perfect time even for level 2 charging to boost you up. It costs $5. You...