Tesla Supercharger network

[tinm]

Today's press conference with Elon on 7.1 firmware, especially "Summon," has some profound implications for the Supercharger Network.

Here's the closest thing to a transcript I could find: http://www.24liveblog.com/live/1314599

In it, Elon apparently spoke about how in two years you could "summon" your car across the country and it would find its way to you (where "you" = your phone app's GPS location), stopping "along the way" for charging.

It's that "stopping along the way" idea that has me curious. Seems like it would necessitate an upgrade of the Superchargers so that they had robotic arms to automatically couple with the car to charge, so no human intervention was required. Seems like it'd be an enormous cost to upgrade hundreds (thousands?) of charging pedestals and cables to support the robotic arm thingie.

Anyone else been thinking about this?

 

[HankLloydRight]

In it, Elon apparently spoke about how in two years you could "summon" your car across the country and it would find its way to you (where "you" = your phone app's GPS location), stopping "along the way" for charging.

Two years. Ha. We'll be lucky if in two years Tesla fixes the new crappy UI.

 

[wdolson]

Today's press conference with Elon on 7.1 firmware, especially "Summon," has some profound implications for the Supercharger Network.

Here's the closest thing to a transcript I could find: http://www.24liveblog.com/live/1314599

In it, Elon apparently spoke about how in two years you could "summon" your car across the country and it would find its way to you (where "you" = your phone app's GPS location), stopping "along the way" for charging.

It's that "stopping along the way" idea that has me curious. Seems like it would necessitate an upgrade of the Superchargers so that they had robotic arms to automatically couple with the car to charge, so no human intervention was required. Seems like it'd be an enormous cost to upgrade hundreds (thousands?) of charging pedestals and cables to support the robotic arm thingie.

Anyone else been thinking about this?

Tesla showed off the automatic charging arm last year claiming it was just a concept and they had no intention of using it in the real world. Maybe they were thinking about superchargers all along.

With the ability to auto park, it would relieve some congestion as superchargers. You could plug your car in at an SC, go to dinner, and when it is done charging, it will move itself to a nearby non-supercharger spot or move to a spot closer to the restaurant freeing up the spot for another car to charge. If all the SC spots are full, you could park your car in a waiting area and when a spot opens up, it could automatically pull into the spot and the robotic arm could plug it in.

As far as driving itself cross country, the capability might be there in a couple of years, but the legal framework to allow cars with nobody in them out on the highways probably won't be there. Even when we get self driving cars, I expect the laws are going to require someone be able to take over control if something happens for some time. Some local jurisdictions may allow empty cars on surface streets, but the risk for an empty car going berserk on an interstate is too high.

 

[TXjak]

That is a great feature, but I now want them to take visuals to the next step. Tesla should show Superchargers that are getting close to full usage in yellow, and ones with significant queues in orange. That gives a nice easy to understand color coding, green, yellow, orange, and red. If I see red, I will definitely be doing alternate planning. With yellow or orange, I will decide how much I heed to go out of my way or charge extra, but will do some considerations.

Good idea, but the colors should be selectable for those of us with color vision deficiencies. I wish I could select different colors for traffic congestion on the nav map too.

 

[AMPd]

Shame on you! whoever left behind their Starbucks coffee cup.
Theres a trash can literally about 20 feet away.
Roseville SC

 

[HankLloydRight]

Maybe it's full and they left it there in error?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Maybe it's full and they left it there in error?

That's what I was wondering as well. I checked the picture twice (looking on the ground) before I finally saw the cup on top of the Supercharger.

 

[AEdennis]

Maybe it's full and they left it there in error?

In which case, shame on you for wasting Starbucks coffee! [emoji854]

 

[HankLloydRight]

<<----- Doesn't drink coffee.

In which case, shame on you for wasting Starbucks coffee! [emoji854]

 

[hans]

Shame on you! whoever left behind their Starbucks coffee cup.
Theres a trash can literally about 20 feet away.
Roseville SC

Isn't their name on the cup. If you are going to publicly shame someone it works even better if you post their name.

 

[wdolson]

In which case, shame on you for wasting Starbucks coffee! [emoji854]

I don't drink coffee, but in Washington Starbucks is almost more common than water and we also have the world's only temperate rain forest.

I once heard a stand up comedian talking about living in Southern California and he joked there was a 7-11 on every corner because that's as far an Angelino was willing to walk for a Slurpee (I grew up in East LA and know it's not literally true, but it does seem like there is one on every corner). I worked in downtown Seattle around 1995 and I found it amazing that there literally was a Starbucks on every corner in the downtown business core. In some cases there were two Starbucks in the same block of the same street.

 

[mmccord]

I heard there are no Dunkin donuts locations in California. Is this true?

My wife and i had discussed moving to CA, but i don't think we can make that sacrifice.

 

[David99]

I heard there are no Dunkin donuts locations in California. Is this true?

I can assure you they are in California. Just not as many.

 

[mmccord]

I can assure you they are in California. Just not as many.

After further research, it appears there weren't as of early 2014, and DD has already begun to rectify the situation. One more item off the 'cons' list.

 

[wdolson]

I heard there are no Dunkin donuts locations in California. Is this true?

My wife and i had discussed moving to CA, but i don't think we can make that sacrifice.

If you search on Dunkin Donuts' site, you will find a number of then in LA County. There are only a couple in the Bay Area.

Now there are none in Portland, OR. A donut shop of such low quality can't survive in a city where the bar is set by Voodoo Donuts. Krispy Kreme tried opening shops around here, but closed them after about a year because they lost their shirt. There are other donut shops in the area, but very few chain shops. Portland also tends to prefer chocolate to donuts. Few donuts can stand up to Cocao, their hot chocolate is served like espresso in Italy and is like drinking melted chocolate. It's very rich.

 

[smartypnz]

About 20 in the entire state - most in L.A. and San Diego area. However, we do have Krispy Kreme. Also Ferrell's if you prefer heavy donuts.

 

[gigglehertz]

Tesla showed off the automatic charging arm last year claiming it was just a concept and they had no intention of using it in the real world. Maybe they were thinking about superchargers all along.

With the ability to auto park, it would relieve some congestion as superchargers. You could plug your car in at an SC, go to dinner, and when it is done charging, it will move itself to a nearby non-supercharger spot or move to a spot closer to the restaurant freeing up the spot for another car to charge. If all the SC spots are full, you could park your car in a waiting area and when a spot opens up, it could automatically pull into the spot and the robotic arm could plug it in.

As far as driving itself cross country, the capability might be there in a couple of years, but the legal framework to allow cars with nobody in them out on the highways probably won't be there. Even when we get self driving cars, I expect the laws are going to require someone be able to take over control if something happens for some time. Some local jurisdictions may allow empty cars on surface streets, but the risk for an empty car going berserk on an interstate is too high.

The 24liveblog transcript isn't very detailed. I'm listening to the 7.1 press conference call, and Elon does say in response to the snake charger "...yeah we'd probably roll it out first on some of the superchargers...and see how that goes." He also said the car would find you using your phone. This sounds like it could very well be building towards a future Uber like service.


Elon Musk press conference: Teslas software update v7.1 (Jan 2016) - YouTube

 

[Cosmacelf]

Deleted...

 

[Cottonwood]

Looks like Ukiah is the first Supercharger to open in 2016, worldwide!

Supercharger - Ukiah

 

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