This thread is to put to rest all those little things we have wanted to know but have been unavailable until now that the cars are getting into the hands of reviewers and customers. Post your tidbits here! Tidbit 1: the car uses an accelerometer to tell itself when to put on the brakelights when slowing using regen (brilliant). Tidbit 2: each display is powered by Tesla's own OS running on a Tegra 3 SoC -- both computers communicate via Ethernet and a gateway provides an interface with the vehicle's ECU. Tidbit 3: the screen is easy to read in direct sunlight. Tidbit 4: on the "key" car, pressing the frunk opens the frunk, pressing the trunk opens the trunk and pressing the roof unlocks the car. Tisbit 5: the door handles open upon touch and close when the car is put in gear.
Good idea. Might also be a good idea to link to where/how you found the information. I know the accelerometer bit was from the engadget review, but I didn't catch where it was established Tesla built their own OS (we've been speculating for a while). I do think it was known re: the key though.
I guess it is still Linux based. Writing your own OS is a LOT of work, seriously. Internal comm via ethernet/IP is cool! Wonder if you can poll diag data via IP out of the car
@AnOutsider: Good idea! Tidbit 1: the car uses an accelerometer to tell itself when to put on the brakelights when slowing using regen (brilliant). Tesla Model S first drive: the sports sedan goes electric (update: video) -- Engadget Tidbit 2: each display is powered by Tesla's own OS running on a Tegra 3 SoC -- both computers communicate via Ethernet and a gateway provides an interface with the vehicle's ECU. Tesla Model S first drive: the sports sedan goes electric (update: video) -- Engadget Tidbit 3: the screen is easy to read in direct sunlight. Tesla Model S first drive: the sports sedan goes electric (update: video) -- Engadget and Tesla Model S: First drive of the electric sedan that will change the world or die trying | The Lookout - Yahoo! News Tidbit 4: on the "key" car, pressing the frunk opens the frunk, pressing the trunk opens the trunk and pressing the roof unlocks the car. Tesla Model S: First drive of the electric sedan that will change the world or die trying | The Lookout - Yahoo! News and Tesla Model S first drive: the sports sedan goes electric (update: video) -- Engadget Tisbit 5: the door handles open upon touch and close when the car is put in gear. Tesla Model S first drive: Quiet satisfaction | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews and Tesla Model S: First drive of the electric sedan that will change the world or die trying | The Lookout - Yahoo! News Great pictures of the handles here.
I'm sorry, I can't remember where I saw this, but one of the reviews said that the number of LED's lit in the ring around the charge port would indicate how much charge was left in the battery.
Why is that better than colors? Roadster colors just tell you: Open (white) Ready (blue) Charging (yellow) speed of blinking gives an indication how full the battery is Full (green) Problem (red) So does the Model S change speed of blinking to quantity of lamps lit?
Yes, we talked with one of the firmware developers. He said the Linux-based OS was provided by Nvidia as part of their chipset package.
Then why do we keep seeing periodic news articles saying that the software is Android based? I don't ask because I assume you know the answer necessarily.
All I can say is this "get your tech news from tech news sites". The other general news sites make big mistakes all the time and don't know it. It would be analogous to getting weather information from Engadget like this: "Today's Engadget weather forecast calls for high fan speeds, warm boots in the north and a low memory pressure system moving in from the valley". For tech news about Model S, it's either here (TMC), Engadget, TechCrunch, GigaOM or TheVerge. I've lost faith in Gawker Media (Gizmodo/Jalopnik) to be a good source of tech information.
The "Tesla" supercomputing GPUs from NVIDIA have nothing to do with Telsa Motors. But yes, as mentioned earlier... Tesla Motors uses the NVIDIA's Tegra SoC.