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Is there an option to have "dumb" cruise control? I really don't like the way my Model 3 drives with TACC -- the random braking is really annoying.

Opening day at Century City (LA) http://www.flickr.com/photos/planetbrent/8618086050 http://www.flickr.com/photos/planetbrent/8616979783

A couple of photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/planetbrent/sets/72157632654160808/

I just walked by a new store going in at the Westfield Century City Shopping Center, said to open Spring 2013. I'll try to get some shots later. In a bit of irony not lost on anyone, it will occupy the same space that Coda had for a year or so.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/electric-car-company-tesla-posts-big-loss.html

NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2010/10/27/27gigaom-tesla-to-open-model-s-factory-76150.html?ref=technology

Active E coming to four U.S. regions next year: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/bmw-activee-electric-car-headed-for-u-s-trial/?hpw

There must be some good ideas floating around the head of some smart engineer out there: 1) Design charge stations to interface better with the car, such that the cable can be kept short, on the order of 30 cm or less. 2) Create some kind of extending arm, with rubber seal, that creates a...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/opinion/26friedman.html?_r=1&hp

And then the NY Times comes out with this: I'm not sure what Wilcke means by "flat."

Aren't the reports making the same claim? That is, they both seem to be saying that the greeness of electric cars depends largely on how the electricity is generated, and that batteries don't factor much into the equation.

I seem remember that cyclists use 80 percent of their energy to move through the air at 20 mph, and 90 percent at 30 mph. But I think you're making a different point.

Yes, this may be my mistake. I think bolosky said something about food production emitting roughly 4 times more carbon than electrical production, which could account for the gap. That's a different claim than efficiency of one transport over another.

Thanks for the link. They're going to be in L.A. about a three minute walk from where I work. I've signed up for a drive.

I've just had a rather unsuccessful try at semi-defending bolosky's numbers on a discussion over here: http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2010/09/tank-full-of-petrol-gasoline-if-you.html The site's author claims he was able to ride his Mango Sinner 235 km in six hours (avg. speed around 24.4 mph)...

Is there any info on the installation cost per Level 3 charging terminal (exclusive of any real estate costs)? I see that the federal governing is giving $1.3 million to help the highway installation, but the project also seems to be part of a larger $250 million program. If it's really just...

Tom Vanderbilt, author of "Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do," has an interesting take on the word accident, which figures in its usual sense in this thread. Accident has come to mean a car crash, any crash really, even when the crash itself resulted from events that reliably increase its...

I'm a frequent pedestrian and cyclist -- this kind of driving makes my blood boil.

It's a good article, but I wish the writer could have avoided this phrase: Huh? Kind of a blanket statement there...

Keep in mind that cooktops, like almost any technical device, vary in price by quality and functionality. Induction cooktops have significant advantages over other electric burners, including precise temperature maintenance. Cooks treasure precision as much as any gear head, as it produces...

[Scratches head] From what I can see at the link -- and trying to compare apples-to-apples -- you've got 1) Induction : $1,610 2) Electric : $1,436 Someday I might get induction, as it offers significant benefits, but it does have some downsides, too: 1) You can't use copper or aluminum...

I believe this number used to be 100 to 1. That's it's now 10 to 1 may be largely a function of the difficulty of finding new crude sources -- we have to use more energy to find them. It's a compelling number, but I don't know that the increase also means more energy to refine a gallon of...

Joe Romm has also taken up the defense of the scientists. If anything, the emails seem to show that scientists are reaching their conclusions with eyes wide open and after a vigorous and thorough debate. The idea that that the climate community blackballs you if your data shows no warming is...

Volt in NY Times The NY Times has some nice things to say about a preproduction Volt.

Wikipedia puts the efficiency of the human body at 18-26 percent, which seems to be about the efficiency of an ICE. Maybe we need to be electrified, too!

A couple of more issues to consider: 1) A driver consumes calories at a higher rate than, say, a couch potato. The 190-pound driver might go through 100 calories per hour or more. Race car drivers expend upwards of 350 calories per hour. 2) The coefficient of drag for a bicyclist on a...

Right. How do you solve a problem like Oprah? This is where I trot out the fuzzy math and unsolved problems of why we gain or lose weight and then throw up my hands. But keep in mind that 350 calories is about one Starbucks muffin...

I thought this satire was funny: http://53x11.com/images/player.swf?title=titl&image=http://53x11.com/docs/we-are-the-cyclists.jpg&width=390&height=293&file=http://53x11.com/docs/we-are-the-cyclists.flv&fullscreen=true

I asked this question on Joe Romm's Climate Progress blog. The only reply I got indicated that refineries are net producers of electricity, as they use waste gas to generate it. On the other hand, I also read somewhere that oil refineries are among California's largest consumers of electricity...

Good find!

Yeah, what Doug said. For what it's worth, bike racers eat huge quantities of food,* with their evening race meals containing on the order of 10,000 calories . They need so much food that eating becomes a bit of a chore; food isn't calorie dense enough for more "leisurely dining." I remember...

"The Tesla is Here." I was in San Francisco this past weekend for a visit. As I was checking out of my hotel, I overheard another guest say "The Tesla is here." Sure enough, out at the curb, a green Roadster with manufacturing plates was sitting, and the driver giving rides to a line of...

Tesla Motors - Leadership It seems TM has yet to receive any money from the DOE. In other news, the company has delivered 700 Roadsters.

I think the only extra noise I could countenance on electrics would be some kind of gentle beep upon startup or at low speeds, similar to that used on large trucks while backing up. While walking home from the gym the other day, I was surprised to find myself unthinkingly moving aside to...

I'm not impressed with this segment of the show. The track is lame, a cartoon, along the lines of a fairground go-kart course. For that matter, the track even includes cartoons -- cutouts of Al Gore and Ed Begley to drive around -- along with silly string and ping pong balls. Leno took the idea...

I agree with you, but would point out that the general sound level on a golf course is usually much less than in a city.

The article doesn't contain anything on Tesla losing friends. It's a misleading headline.

I read these kinds of sentiments too often ... and wish the authors would be forced to take a two hour bicycle spin on some busy road in their local city. ...while riding my bicycle on Labor Day, I was hit by a car. It was a low speed thing, and for that I am grateful, but accompanied by...

I was getting all excited by the appearance of the phrase "Fuel Cell" on this form, and then thought it couldn't possibly mean that...

I think the recent NY Times and Washington Post editorials calling HSR a waste must be from people who've never really experienced trains. We should send them over to France or Japan or Spain to have a careful look. One of the arguments so often presented is that the U.S. population density is...

I found interesting this comparison between Dutch and American road safety provisions during the last thirty years. Using a different road design philosophy, the Netherlands cut its deaths to 800 from 3,200, while the U.S. went to 37,000 from 44,000. Both drops are admirable, but the Dutch...

Funny. But I would rather wish that the drivers who aren't alert enough to drive safely were removed from the gene pool ... like the ones against whom I regularly play matador when crossing in the crosswalk with the walk signal. Olé!

Good point! You won't see me on a bicycle after dark. You aside, however, there are too many aggressive daytime drivers up on the popular routes -- Mulholland, Kanan, and sometimes Latigo Canyon. I'm thankful that the CHP patrols the routes thoroughly; many Sundays I see several stops along a...

I stopped riding my bicycle through those things after being freaked out by guys like Leno and you! :eek:

Isn't that article from 1997? I might imagine that the twelve years since then have brought more refinements in measurements.

I wonder if that USA-sized crop area statistic factors in the theoretical efficiencies of algae-based biofuel production, which is said to generate as much as thirty times per acre as other sources ( Algae fuel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).

A not-very-revealing, but still new, article on EEStor: The Oil Drum | Who Killed the Electric Gas Tank?

Scholarly paper on the transition to LED lighting: The Transition to LED Lighting

Here's an intriguing response I picked up from the Climate Progress blog when I posed the same question: My WorldChanging “Attention Grant” — David MacKay’s “Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air” « Climate Progress

It really eviscerates the long tailpipe argument, which was my hope all along...