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Does anyone know if Tesla uses a different FM receiver in cars sold in Japan vs the rest of the world, or if it's the same hardware with software differences allowing users to select different channels? (Is it even reasonable to assume that Tesla's FM receiver can receive the entire broadcast...

I think I've seen more specific aerodynamic efficiency information about the Bye Aerospace eFlyer planes than about the Eviation Alice. Largest order to date for the all-electric aircraft announced. - Bye Aerospace claims ``The Sun Flyer 2[...]will have[...]a significantly higher lift-to-drag...

Western Maryland Rail Trail - Wikipedia says that the Western Maryland Rail Trail isn't using certain abandoned railroad tunnels because there are endangered bats living in them. I think we should build several new tunnels that bats can live in, with a goal of getting the bats off the...

I believe I have read that the plan for the Alice is that if either wingtip motor fails, the other will automatically be shut down, and the tail motor will be able to maintain altitude by itself in that case. It's Electri-Flying: Cape Air Pioneers Flights Without Fossil Fuels has an operating...

Heavy trucks are exempt from many of the safety standards, at least in the US, and Bollinger is making trucks heavy enough to be exempt as The Bollinger B2 Is the Beefy Electric Truck We've Been Waiting For mentions; I don't know whether Tesla is doing likewise.

Optimizing for energy efficiency per vehicle mile traveled seems to have been a key goal. If you don't care about aerodynamic efficiency and are willing to put the driver's seat as far forward as in a cab over, and want the vehicle to be 19' long, an 11' boxy passenger area in the front...

https://bgp.he.net/AS14593#_whois PeeringDB both mention Starlink explicitly. It'll be interesting to see whether they build ground stations with enough bandwidth to upgrade to 100 gigabit ports at places like Seattle Internet Exchange.

https://bgp.he.net/AS27277#_graph4 https://bgp.he.net/AS14593#_graph4 shows some information about what paths some of SpaceX's networking infrastructure uses to connect to various parts of the Internet. The prefixes tabs indicate SpaceX announces three IPv4 /24s and one IPv6 /48. Arguably...

Could the magnetic shield for Mars idea be applied to the moon to give it an atmosphere? NASA proposes a magnetic shield to protect Mars' atmosphere

Closer to the surface of Earth also has the potential to reduce the round trip time if there are enough satellites for one to be nearby at any given time. Do we know what ASN Starlink is using?

The Ultracapacitors, Electrodes, & Battery Manufacturing Tech Tesla Gets With Maxwell Technologies | CleanTechnica mentions that Maxwell (which Tesla very recently acquired) has demonstrated 300 Wh/kg batteries and claims to have identified a path to 500 Wh/kg batteries. Are 500 Wh/kg batteries...

@SSonnentag: Is this a rooftop solar system? Do you have any spare roof space you'd be able to use to generate even more power to export to the grid if that would get you compensated appropriately? Are you using 20% efficient panels, or something in the ballpark of 12% where in principle if...

Presumably the retracting brake pads will help to reduce brake dust. But did Tesla put any effort into trying to minimize the particulate matter that is released by tires wearing against the road surface?

Sensor size and quality can also make a big difference in low light performance. If one brand of relatively cheap 4K camera has poor low light performance, that doesn't necessarily imply that all 4K cameras will have poor low light performance.

I was surprised to read that Tesla is not using 4K cameras, but then again, there's a trade off between the amount of detail that can be seen vs processing power required...

I wish I had more awareness of what carbon price would cause carbon absorbing concrete such as Novacem and Ferrock to be used instead of traditional carbon emitting concrete. I also wish I had more awareness of what carbon price would switch long range jet airplane flights from oil pumped out...

Is it a viable replacement for R-410a in something like a Chiltrix CX-34 or Mitsubishi Mr Slim?

Getting safe bicycling infrastructure built is a huge political challenge, though.

For a Cub, a smaller kilowatt hour rating than the short range Tesla Model 3 might well make sense, but using cells with energy density as high as possible probably also makes sense, which means if cylindrical cells are going to be used in a plane, the Model 3 cells are probably the right size...

Do the refrigerants have any risk of causing ocean acidification and food chain collapse?

How hard would it be to adapt Model 3 batteries and motors to airplanes? I'm wondering if Home | CubCrafters could be building an electric version with Tesla parts. They seem to have a history of experimenting with different subtle variations of their planes, so perhaps if Tesla / Elon...

Are you saying that driving for Lyft is in general a bad economic decision (which I think I would likely agree with) or that short range Model 3 would be a worse economic choice for a Lyft driver than an ICE?

I'm trying to figure out whether the short range Model 3 is going to be a practical vehicle for full time Lyft drivers who have access to overnight level 2 charging. Apparently 1000 miles per week is typical, which maybe suggests about 150 miles a day; maybe Lyft will end up with fewer highway...

If Tesla takes the existing Semi design, omits the fifth wheel hitch, and simply makes the truck longer, would that be a good first step? (I assume for a dump truck, strengthening it to increase the weight it can carry would also be useful?) Shenzhen: BYD lands large order for electric dump...

Sucking carbon dioxide from air is cheaper than scientists thought claims If it's really possible to make jet fuel from atmospheric carbon dioxide for $3.79/gallon, why isn't that happening right now? The cheaper FBO at Hawthorne CA is listed as currently charging $4.82/gallon at AirNav: KHHR...

Presumably it would be possible to develop the takeoff distance for 50' obstacle chart both when the battery is 80% full, and when it is 50% full. Would that provide the pilot with data that's as good as what the pilot gets for gas airplanes? Presumably it's also possible to calculate how many...

Has anyone gotten around to making the obvious thermostat that, instead of having a single temperature target, lets the user set two temperature targets, one for cheap electricity and the other for expensive electricity, along with letting the user enter the number of cents per kilowatt hour to...

6' long x 4' wide x 29" tall inside the wheels, plus 6' long x 1' wide x 29" tall on the outside on each side might work, though.

The challenge with a 9' long pack per axle is that if 3' of that length is even with the 3' horizontal wheel diameter, and 3' goes toward the center of the truck, 3' would need to hang off the end of the truck, and Bi-Level Kawasaki Coach on MBTA Commuter Rail makes it look like that might not...

I've been trying to figure out whether there would be any obstacles to building railroad trucks that have batteries built into the trucks. Much of the rationale for trying to do this is that if the batteries were installed in the rail car body instead, an existing rail car body might not have...

A New Lithium-Metal Battery Takes Flight in Drones discusses batteries that appear to have better energy density. Is this energy density good enough to convert Southwest Airlines to batteries? Do these batteries have adequate longevity etc?

A highway lane can carry maybe 1800 or so vehicles per hour (3600 seconds per hour divided by 2 second following distance). And those tend to be single occupancy vehicles. Adding one or two trains per hour on the Worcester Line will add basically the same capacity as a new highway lane. (And...

I want there to be a Kenmore Supercharger and I want the Citgo sign turned into a Supercharger sign.

How soon can we get the gas pumps removed from the Mass Pike service plazas?

I'm not aware of any data about the Chiltrix products other than what's on their website; I suspect for the CX34 they're very much in the early adopter stage at this point. If you do go with a Chiltrix CX34 and want maximum reliability if there do turn out to be early adopter bugs, you might...

In principle, it ought to be possible to connect a resistance heating element in a hot water tank directly to solar panels without an inverter; resistance heating elements shouldn't care whether they're fed AC or DC. However, if you want to have something to cut off the power if the tank gets...

Burn Wise - Frequently Asked Questions | US EPA seems to be saying that propane and natural gas stoves are cleaner than EPA certified wood stoves. That leaves me wondering if a renewable process for producing propane from atmospheric carbon dioxide during the fall might be the best approach to...

While wood burning during cold snaps ought to end up being carbon neutral, I'm not sure it's otherwise ideal from a local air quality perspective. And I also forgot to point out that solar panels tend to have less output in the winter than the summer, if we're going to rely on solar plus...

New power plants in New England that run primarily on natural gas typically have been built in recent years to have the option of running on some sort of fuel oil precisely because methane storage doesn't happen to any large degree in New England.

Even if everyone switches to using only electric heating in the winter? When you're doing calculations with R value of insulation, isn't it the case that the absolute value of the temperate difference between inside and outside is proportional to the number of BTU/h that leaks through the...

Would it? It's not a drop in replacement for existing jet airplanes, and it also not something you can conveniently use to store your renewable energy in the fall to use during the winter. I think using the LanzaTech process to make Jet-A equivalent fuel would be more useful than methane for...

I think the Sun Flyer 4 is supposed to sell for around $350,000, which may turn out to be a bit less expensive than the purchase price of a new Cessna 172, even before you account for the fuel savings...

Is there any reason to think that a California EV subsidy will have any effect on global carbon dioxide levels at all? It seems pretty obvious that the number of copies of the Model 3 Tesla is going to sell in December 2017 is not a function of the subsidies; it's a function of how well Tesla...

Is that statement referring to resistance heating or to a heat pump? If everyone designs everything in a place like New England to just switch to resistance heating when the temperature outside is -5F, does that mean we're going to have to build massive grid capacity to cope with the rare very...

Virgin Atlantic has partnered with LanzaTech to make waste carbon monoxide from steel plants into jet fuel, and I think a variant of that technology taking the waste gases from the sewage treatment which is near the Los Angeles airport and turning it into jet fuel would be worthwhile...

Does anyone here have experience with using something like a Chiltrix CX34 to heat hot water?

What are your local sources of NOX, and what do you expect would be the most cost effective way to improve the situation?

A Sprinkle of Seaweed Could Deflate Gassy Cows says in sheep, 2% of the food being the right seaweed gets rid of 70% of the methane. The seaweed isn't going to be the majority of the cows' diet.

If we end up making an effort to remove carbon from the atmosphere, are we ultimately going to end up with giant piles of graphite? We could remove some carbon with Ferrock and/or Novacem, or perhaps manufacturing bioplastic, using it once, and landfilling it, but it seems like graphite would...

It seems that no genetic engineering may be required, as Silent, less deadly: Methane nearly eliminated from cow farts by seaweed says certain seaweed can eliminate the methane from cows.