Future features: 'Sleep' mode and a 'sensor suite' of driver safety features

[twinklejet]

New Model S Features / Tesla’s Straubel Keeps Motors Rolling as Stock Surges 57%

[Bloomberg] May 14 2013 04:01Z
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...keeps-motors-rolling-as-stock-surges-57-.html

Elon Musk was fresh off the sale of PayPal and starting another business, commercial rocket service Space Exploration Technologies Corp., when he met kindred spirit JB Straubel. Their shared belief that consumer electronics advances could be applied to more earthly modes of transport is a cornerstone of Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)
Straubel’s first company, Volacom Inc., designed unmanned electric aircraft. He sold the assets to Boeing Co. and was working with it in late 2003 when he attended a Stanford University speech by Musk on his startup SpaceX. Then, over lunch in Los Angeles, the two moved from ideas on aerospace to electric vehicles.

“The whole thing really grew out of an idea of how to leverage commercial advances that were happening in lithium-ion batteries,” Straubel, 37, said in an interview this month. “That was the premise Elon and I discussed over that first lunch: that batteries have come much further than anyone expects, certainly than the auto industry expects.”
While the two have very different personalities -- Straubel is a soft-spoken, publicity-shy engineer, while Musk is famously voluble and frenetic -- they quickly found a shared passion for the idea that lithium-ion battery cells used in consumer electronics could be rigged up to power a car. His work on the company’s powertrain has......

[Continue on http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...keeps-motors-rolling-as-stock-surges-57-.html]

 

[60TTuC]

Future Tesla Model S features

Future Tesla Model S features: 'sleep' mode and a 'sensor suite' of safety features for the driver - San Jose Mercury News

 

[60TTuC]

New Model S features

Future Tesla Model S features: 'sleep' mode and a 'sensor suite' of safety features for the driver - San Jose Mercury News

 

[AnOutsider]

Good read. A nice paragraph:

"You'll see blind spot detection and smarter and smarter cruise control," said Straubel, adding that Tesla plans to develop most of the new technologies in-house. "It's a core competency."

 

[stevezzzz]

And this is a feature I've long wanted Tesla to add:

"We're working on a trip-planning feature that integrates energy and range management with navigation," Straubel said. "We could load altitude databases, weather and wind information into the car, along with details about the roads you are on. There's a long road map of features we want to add."

 

[Raffy.Roma]

So it looks that pedestrian detection, collision avoidance at low speed and blind spot detection are coming soon for Model S. Also ACC is mentioned. Good!

 

[brianstorms]

Is this the "something else this week" announcement? A press briefing at Tesla today?

Or is Elon gonna schedule a conf call like the other announcements?

 

[Soflason]

Looks like these updates will serve as the foundation for the upcoming "autopilot" features Elon has mentioned prior...

 

[Soflason]

Looks like they're putting JB out-in-front (from a PR standpoint) a bit more now as he was also featured in the press conference on NVIDIA updates yesterday. Perhaps they're positioning JB as the balance to Elon - even alluding to it in that quote:
"While the two have very different personalities -- Straubel is a soft-spoken, publicity-shy engineer, while Musk is famously voluble and frenetic -- they quickly found a shared passion"

Even though I think Elon is also pretty soft-spoken too (but bold in his statements), I see the direction they're taking with this PR angle and it could work effectively with the media.

 

[Rla]

Future Tesla Model S features; JB Straubel

http://www.mercurynews.com/business...-features-sleep-mode-sensor-suite-jb-straubel

"We haven't integrated video; it's conspicuously absent," Straubel said. "We're trying to strike a balance and give people useful tools that make driving safer."


[...]


"The auto industry usually lags the consumer electronics market by years," said Danny Shapiro, director of Nvidia's automotive division. "Tesla was the first to bring to market what consumers are seeing on tablets to their cars."
Enhanced trip planning is also on the horizon, with Tesla following the lead of the airline industry, which plans flights with keen attention to weather patterns, headwinds and the amount of fuel needed to get to the destination.
"We're working on a trip-planning feature that integrates energy and range management with navigation," Straubel said. "We could load altitude databases, weather and wind information into the car, along with details about the roads you are on. There's a long road map of features we want to add."

Combine the knowledge of the planned/upcoming roads with the knowledge about the current charge, driving style, (Super)charger locations, charger availability and usage patterns, speed limits, real-time speed, ...
And you will be so far away from 'Range Anxiety' and so much further than the current (ridiculous) state of navigation aids. Just get in the car and speak your destination; you just handle the accelerator and steering wheel, and mind the road ;-)

 

[Rla]

Enhanced trip planning is also on the horizon, with Tesla following the lead of the airline industry, which plans flights with keen attention to weather patterns, headwinds and the amount of fuel needed to get to the destination.
"We're working on a trip-planning feature that integrates energy and range management with navigation," Straubel said. "We could load altitude databases, weather and wind information into the car, along with details about the roads you are on. There's a long road map of features we want to add."

Combine the knowledge of the planned/upcoming roads with the knowledge about the current charge, driving style, (Super)charger locations, charger availability and usage patterns, speed limits, real-time speed, ...
And you will be so far away from 'Range Anxiety' and so much further than the current (ridiculous) state of navigation aids. Just get in the car and speak your destination; you just handle the accelerator and steering wheel, and mind the road ;-)

 

[twinklejet]

CNET Coverage of the same event

Future Tesla Model S features: 'sleep' mode and a 'sensor suite' of safety features for the driver - San Jose Mercury News

CNET Coverage of the same Tesla press event on Tuesday:

Tesla's path to the upgradable car

At a press event on Tuesday, Tesla shared how it leveraged Nvidia GPU technology to make a car ready for continual upgrades.

May 14, 2013 5:43 PM PDT

Link: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-57584496-48/teslas-path-to-the-upgradable-car/

 

[scottf200]

And this is a feature I've long wanted Tesla to add: "We're working on a trip-planning feature that integrates energy and range management with navigation," Straubel said. "We could load altitude databases, weather and wind information into the car, along with details about the roads you are on. There's a long road map of features we want to add."

Looks like some/most of this will be in the BMW i3 as well.

http://www.hybridcars.com/bmw-reveals-i3-coming-this-year/

BMW described these functions as providing drivers with a realistic range estimate for their journey before they even set out. The internet-enabled navigation system is based on a dynamic range display which takes into account all the relevant parameters for the planned route and is therefore able to provide precise, reliable range predictions. In addition to the battery charge level, driving style, use of electric convenience systems and choice of drive mode, the calculations also take into account route topography and the current traffic situation. The system can identify energy-intensive uphill gradients on the route ahead and reduces the range computation accordingly. The same goes for energy-depleting stop-go conditions or traffic jams, since detailed real-time traffic data is also taken into account.

 

[callmesam]

Next Software Update, Sleep Mode and Smart Cruise Control

Future Tesla Model S features: 'Sleep' mode and a 'sensor suite' of safety features for the driver - San Jose Mercury News

Takeaways:

Next Software update will have 85% deep sleep

Safety tech package will soon be available with sensors and cameras to provide the following: Pedestrian detection, collision avoidance, blind spot detection, smarter cruise control.

ENHANCED TRIP PLANNING (on the horizon) including elevations, temperature, charging stations, head/tailwind

This is a CORE COMPETENCY and work is happening in-house. (therefor partnership with Google is vapor for now).

 

[WarpedOne]

Now, what does 85% deep sleep really mean?

 

[qwk]

Now, what does 85% deep sleep really mean?

Goes to sleep everytime, 85% of the time? Lol JK

85% isn't good enough, the car needs to lose the vampire draw entirely.

 

[Doug_G]

85% isn't good enough, the car needs to lose the vampire draw entirely.

Won't happen. Tesla's philosophy is to monitor the battery pack at all times.

When idle and not in extreme heat, the Roadster's vampire losses are something like 1 ideal mile per day. They ought to be able to do something on the same level.

 

[djp]

Keep in mind some of the "vampire loss" is self-discharge of the cells, which is a fact of life with LiOn batteries even if the current draw is zero.

Self-discharge is higher at high SOC and high temperatures, but even at low SOC it doesn't go away completely.

 

[jerry33]

All cars have vampire loss. Tesla just displays it very clearly and right now it's higher than it should be.

<humour>My last two electric bills show less energy use than for the same periods a year ago. I guess my vampire is feeding the grid</humour>

 

[dsm363]

Goes to sleep everytime, 85% of the time? Lol JK

85% isn't good enough, the car needs to lose the vampire draw entirely.

That would be impossible to do and still maintain the battery monitoring, right? If they can reduce it by 85% that would be a good start and make most people happy. Just like there are compromises with driving an ICE (pollution, going to gas station once a week....etc), there are compromises with driving an EV that actively monitors the pack and that wakes up quickly when the driver gets into the car. There is nothing to prevent them from working on this more in the future via software and future hardware revisions of the Model S but don't think they can get it to zero.

- - - Updated - - -

Won't happen. Tesla's philosophy is to monitor the battery pack at all times.

When idle and not in extreme heat, the Roadster's vampire losses are something like 1 ideal mile per day. They ought to be able to do something on the same level.

Some are losing around 8 rated miles a day I think so 15% of that would be 1.2 rated miles.



Maybe some of this discussion should be moved to the main Vampire thread but it is interesting.