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  1. SByer

    California Board of Equalization votes to increase gas tax

    Lloyd, I'm afraid I need you to qualify that more. The first PDF doesn't specify anything about the percentage of road work that is funded by gas taxes, and the second implies that the recent changes are quite insignificant. The recent changes by the board of equalization might boost the...
  2. SByer

    California Board of Equalization votes to increase gas tax

    Gas taxes are extremely low historically and don't even make up for the upstream subsidies given to the oil industry. In California, gas taxes cover less than 1/3 of needed ongoing road maintenance, and none of needed new construction. The rest comes from the general fund. And, as for use the...
  3. SByer

    I Didn't Get Tech Package - Is There a Turn-by-Turn Workaround with Internet Screen?

    Indeed - though I don't know of any that have GLONASS yet. But there are differences among the devices in terms of how well they keep a lock. A Nexus 7 is the best of the ones I've tried (as good as the Garmin 500/800 cycling units, not quite as good as the new 510/810), a Nexus 4 is better than...
  4. SByer

    Tesla CHAdeMo Update

    I'd much rather have chademo through an adapter, as the standard signals on the CANbus, and knowing an adapter is in there providing a firewall for potential viruses is a happy thought. I shudder at the thought of chademo native car letting the charging station talk directly on it's own bus...
  5. SByer

    Brake Guilt

    I practice what I call asymmetric hypermiling. Using the friction brakes is a last resort, but I'll use the go pedal all the way, every day, any chance I get. Though I still have yet to have the mythical friction-brake-less commute.
  6. SByer

    neroden's NOT happy.

    Neroden, please follow up when you get the car, I want to know.
  7. SByer

    Confessions of a Tesla Fanboy

    Given how biased most media is against change, and especially the change that EVs represent, take it as a win and move on. The number of times I've seen 'articles' which were basically derived from press releases still get things wrong, this article is amazingly 'together'.
  8. SByer

    Nema 10-30?

    If you oversize the wiring in the extension cord the voltage drop is minimal. With 10-30, the key is to know if the source is really two-phase or just two-phases of three-phase (the voltages will be different - in the latter case, an extension cord could drop the voltage into a zone the car...
  9. SByer

    Default URL now "blogs" instead of "forum"?

    Coming back after a few months off (because my previous habits weren't going to scale with the influx of Model S folks), the new landing page is indeed less overwhelming. Much less so.
  10. SByer

    Ridiculous concept of range anxiety.

    Range anxiety is an affliction of the gas-powered neophytes who haven't owned a 'real' EV for at least a week or two. The problem of the charge shuffle at work is the number of not-quite-EVs (PiP, I'm looking at you!) that have waaaaaay small batteries. (And I'd say something about other...
  11. SByer

    Forbes now weighs in...

    Wow, I saw Forbes, and.. well, I assume we all thought the same thing. Nicely done. Nice bit about the SF-south commute (I got to work this morning at 9:30 and almost all the charging spots at my building were filled - I didn't 'need' to, of course, but, well, free juice...).
  12. SByer

    Karma -vs- Model S

    People still have twitter accounts? What year is this again? ;-)
  13. SByer

    Car Care: Controlled experiment - test gloss and durability of the top paint finishes

    Wow, people still use wax on their cars? Is there a summary page of this somewhere? I think would be ideal to add to the wiki somewhere. I've been using Zaino, but find it takes me at least 3 coats to get the gloss somewhere reasonable. I can only manage the time once a year.
  14. SByer

    I drive 25K miles per year. Is the Model S right for me?

    That's clearly not TOU, and, what, Tier 5? I bet there are some easy negawatt pickings there. Yes, without going solar or TOU, an EV might not make strict financial sense. But then, you're also not factoring that the Prius is kinda icky to drive, while the Model S, is, well... so, so not.
  15. SByer

    Updated - Interior Lighting

    I've avoided speaking up because, well, I do know ASCII is a super sucky low bandwidth information transfer, and I like to assume best intentions. And, frankly, I waited only 2.5 years for my car, and some Model S folks have now been waiting longer. But there is an incredible sense of...
  16. SByer

    Random Model S sightings

    I passed by a red S last Saturday on Altamont as I was descending on my other carbon fiber beauty. Sig red - gave it a big thumbs up.
  17. SByer

    Google Chrome

    Glad you like it! Glad I didn't suffer through learning JavaScript for nothing ;-).
  18. SByer

    A lot of question about Model X???

    In practice, you don't need to. Go pedal response is so low latency that finding the zero point is easy. And once you get used to <mostly> one-pedal driving (takes less than two weeks), you won't want to go back. For mountain twisties, EV w/ go pedal regen >>> ICE.
  19. SByer

    Front License Plate Solutions

    For the Roadster, we had the option of signing a waiver if we didn't want things drilled (I sure didn't, and yes CA is a front-required state). Then +slcasner came up with an awesome bracket which attaches to the front tow hook. Surely there must be an engineer or two among the early Model S...
  20. SByer

    Will The Real Sequoia Green Please Stand Up

    Y'all are trusting your cameras and browsers waaay too much. Without gray cards in each photo and a color managed path to your screen, everything here is suspect. In addition, 'depth' in car paint is often a desirable quality - it keeps things fun and interesting, and makes that golden hour...
  21. SByer

    The New RAV4 EV

    Hmm, I don't know whether it's Toyota being anti-EV (though certainly there is at least some EV antibodies left within the company) or just that they've become anti-doing-advanced-engineering (as evidenced by the PiP).
  22. SByer

    Nappa leather and environmentalism

    So, what we need is a LEED scorecard for cars? Google recently retrofitted one of it's buildings. The people responsible were determined to eliminate upstream toxic chemical usage. Turns out, that's surprisingly hard - so many manufacturers just don't track those things, certainly not upstream...
  23. SByer

    Hello from Oslo, Norway

    Sweet, dude! Welcome to the club!
  24. SByer

    Roadster - new options

    What I want, what I really, really want, is the use of a combination of protocols (HID+VDP+A2DP, for example) to just provide a remote interface to the phone in my pocket that almost certainly is far more capable than ay head unit on any vector of usability that matters. Give me a 2DIN...
  25. SByer

    Audio: Sound System Quality?

    Tesla seems to be following software best practices, and in that case, it's a reasonable bet there's proper MVC separation for the volume control, and the controller/view of 0-11 probably doesn't describe the volume model behind that. 0-11 is just a cute controller/view thing, and if it doesn't...
  26. SByer

    Google Chrome

    Ok, seems a reasonable pace to put this. Chrome has gotten better at opening a ton of tabs at once (I'm on dev channel, M22, but current betas have the fix, and probably current stable), and my typical use pattern for this forum is to go into the New Posts page and Cmd/Ctl-click on the 'go to...
  27. SByer

    Carbon Fiber Exterior Accents?

    So, wait, what? Have I been doing it wrong in my Roadster this entire time?!? (Ok, 0-35/45mph sprints more than 0-60, but certainly at every opportunity!) Maybe I don't use it 95% of the time, but when the chance comes up it is so, so satisfying. I wouldn't discount the MSP performance gains...
  28. SByer

    Roadster - new options

    Interesting. I've got the JVC unit. I never use the nav (nav without a capacitive touchscreen is just an exercise in frustration, and my Galaxy Nexus does a far, far better job than any built-in or head unit currently do), the iPod integration works really well with the new-er iPod classic...
  29. SByer

    Peak Oil

    I'm no longer sure we're past peak oil. With fracking, and with the way our government subsidizes oil and the environmental destruction new techniques can bring, enough oil is probably now extractable that we're at peak oil only if we have the guts to cut off the corporate welfare. (On the...
  30. SByer

    Brianman's Model S mock-ups

    Photoshop. No intercap. I think it's a long-standing MS dig (they've never corrected it in their spelling dictionaries, in spite of numerous filed bugs). (I don't mind the use of Paint.net - I've had a number of interactions with the main developer - cool guy. As long as it wasn't MSPaint or...
  31. SByer

    Project Better Place

    <OffTopic> Do they have stats that exclude China? But yeah, I know the stats. Makes me weep. </OffTopic>
  32. SByer

    Discussion about anticompetitive state dealership laws

    I think the big three are locked into ossified middle management think. They have so many problems, fighting lame per-state dealer laws isn't even on the radar.
  33. SByer

    Karma -vs- Model S

    Likes of looks are subjective (well, everything is, really...), and we've covered the Karma's polarizing looks many times. I'm on the 'can't stand it' side*, but I still really appreciate SoCalGuy's detailed review. I also think our own personal prioritizations color things tremendously. I...
  34. SByer

    Test Drives of Other Cars for Model S Comparisons

    +100. 0-60 runs without worry are a hell of a lot more fun​.
  35. SByer

    Project Better Place

    <OffTopic> People are still running XP on laptops? o_O?!? Are you kidding me? Talk about a portable virus magnet, an instant member of a botnet, a free invitation to steal personal data... </OffTopic> Fast charging station are two orders of magnitude cheaper than gas stations, and you need an...
  36. SByer

    Retractable Door Handles - Is It Practical?

    So, being out here where I have a better chance to see MSen in the wild, I really hope Tesla doesn't ditch the handles, for their own sake. We've got threads on how there are now cars that seem to have Model S derivative styling out there. On first glance of a really nice looking curvy sedan...
  37. SByer

    Discussion about anticompetitive state dealership laws

    Actually, (this) one cannot. If a manufacturer has both dealer franchised (presumably relying on them as a distribution channels) and owned outlets, undercutting it's own franchisee's is a darned good path to not having franchisees. Quickly. It's been shown time and time again in other...
  38. SByer

    Leafs Encounter Charging Problems; GE’s WattStation Blamed

    When it's your car (brand), it's the stations' fault. When it's not, it's the car. ;-)
  39. SByer

    Model S First Drive Reviews

    This. It's how the Roadster estimated range works, and is about as good an algorithm as any.
  40. SByer

    SW/Firmware: Model S Apps

    Google Now is the name of the voice-oriented search and response (it does other things as well, like predictively bring up estimated commute times, sports scores, weather...). Google Voice is the voicemail/VoIP/messaging integrated app. Google Now on the display would be really cool.
  41. SByer

    Yet another test drive report (Palo Alto, 7/15)

    So, so superior... They 'microgrind' the freeways around here as they fix them up - an EV on a microground highway surface is just sublime... Yeah, I get that an ICE car occasionally punches you back into the seat more, but that it's done so inconsistently and accentuated by the times when it...
  42. SByer

    Hydrogen vs. Battery

    Hydrogen filling isn't as fast as gas, even at high pressure. Worse, there isn't a hydrogen station yet that can handle a reasonable number of cars per day. And hydrogen from renewables is still 1/3 as efficient as a BEV. Plus explosive. We've covered all this before. More marketing hype from an...
  43. SByer

    Model S price justification (why so expensive?)

    The 911 has very nice driving bits - engine, clutch, steering. I could see calling them works of art - certainly they're one of the best examples of ICE drive technology. But the ergonomics of the non-driving parts were meh at best. Buttons, unlabelled buttons, everywhere! And an HVAC control...
  44. SByer

    How to tell if a vehicle is charging?

    Green when charging? That seems backwards. No plug sharing here in California. If you get somewhere and they're all used, find someone (management at least) to point that out to. But then, it's easy for me to say that, as Rolf is always trying to make sure there are enough chargers at Google...
  45. SByer

    Electricity Rates for So Cal Edison (not good)

    Option 3: don't tell them you have an EV. Charge at night (at slightly higher rates, but still far lower cost-per-mile than an ICE) but make it up in negawatts during the day (switch out bulbs, get a smart(er) thermostat, bump the AC temp by two degrees). But the convince-work plan is...
  46. SByer

    Pure BEV Dogma

    I completely agree with David. Does the car get better (possibly ignoring range :-( ) if you strip out the ICE and add batteries? The Volt is a big yes. The Karma needs design changes, and, IMO of course, the PiP just needs to be sent to the 'embarrassing lack of engineering effort' scrap heap...
  47. SByer

    Get Amped Tour: Washington D.C., 7/13 - 7/15

    This. The 911 was sweet when I had it, but looking back now, I don't miss it. I've come to associate the noise that I once thought as wonderful as just an embarrassing sign of gross inefficiency. Manual transmissions (I would never own an automatic!) are just covering up for ICE defects. And...
  48. SByer

    Should the under-display shelf have a door?

    I keep my ChargePoint card in my wallet; I just tap my wallet against the station. Someday I hope they start using NFC for that.
  49. SByer

    Toyota electric sports car

    Agree. A manual transmission - in an ICE or an EV - is just covering up design weaknesses. The design weaknesses are inherent in an ICE, what's the excuse for screwing up an EV that way?