March’s pedestrian fatality from an Uber self-driving car can be blamed on Uber’s faulty software, an inattentive operator, and an inattentive pedestrian, according to an initial NTSB report into the fatality. There’s blame to go around, and perhaps it is Uber’s software that is most to blame? I don’t understand…
Last week the US Department of Energy announced a $68 million package of “available funding for early-stage research of advanced vehicle technologies that will enable more affordable mobility, strengthen domestic energy security, and enhance U.S. economic growth.” The advanced technologies in this case are about low-cobalt battery designs, and more importantly…
Uber seems to have determined their own software was, unsurprisingly, the primary cause of last months fatal self-driving car accident. In that accident a pedestrian crossing a street was struck by an experimental Uber self-driving car, and died of injuries shortly thereafter. According to sources within Uber cited by “The…
Today SunSpec held a developers meeting for the Orange Button data taxonomy. This is a Department of Energy project, led by the SunSpec Alliance, aiming to reduce some of the “soft costs” in solar power – specifically, the processing of financial and investment documents related to solar power systems. The…
A few days ago I wrote about a pair of crashes, one involving an autonomous Uber vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian, and another involving a Tesla Model X that apparently swerved into a lane divider killing the driver. Yesterday an SF Bay Area TV station, ABC 7 news,…
Clearly folks are eager to have self-driving cars TODAY if not sooner. I’m seeing a constant chatter online of folks excited about the prospect of letting their car take over the driving chores. A few weeks ago, a new Tesla Model 3 owner giving a presentation about his newly-purchased car…
Electric cars with 400 miles range are preferable, according to presenters at the CharIN Alliance 1st annual North American meeting held in Fremont earlier this week, see CharIN alliance meets on Tesla’s doorstep, presents CCS as the best DC Fast Charging system for electric cars. The main topic of the meeting was…
On Monday the CharIn Alliance (the organization behind the Combo Charging System, a.k.a. CCS) held its first North American conference in Fremont CA. The location was a Marriot Hotel directly across the highway from Tesla’s factory in Fremont, a fact that seemed pointed in the direction of trying to catch…
Today the FBI and the US-CERT (United States Cybersecurity Emergency Readiness Team) issued a warning that Russian Government hacking groups are not only attacking US energy sector facilities, but that they are INSIDE the systems. That is, the attackers began by infiltrating networks of 3rd party organizations who had lax…
Should Tesla Motors be the leading or primary car manufacturer? Or should other car manufacturers step up to take a significant role in electric vehicle development, as Tesla is doing? Or should even other start-up car manufacturers participate in the undoing of the incumbent car industry? That’s a set of…
On the heels of Tesla’s quarterly financial results released earlier this week, the company notified us reservation holders of an update in our Tesla Model 3 reservation. Eagerly hoping the date had been moved up because they’re promising a 5,000/week production rate, I logged into my Tesla account and was…
A whole subsection of the International media exists to tear at Tesla Motors. That’s part of the court of public opinion, the variety of “facts” tossed around that are really interpretations of the information we all receive. This afternoon Tesla released their quarterly financial results, and we don’t have to…
Look out Tesla Motors and ChargePoint, here comes a charging network with big plans. Electrify America just announced a plan to build a nation-wide electric car charging network comprising thousands of charging locations over the next 10 years. What’s most important is the coverage of inter-city routes as shown in…
Tesla Motors today announced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had agreed to remain as CEO for at least 10 years. What was announced is the new compensation package and performance awards for Elon Musk. In industry parlance we call this kind of package “Golden Handcuffs” because the payoff is tied…
What if Tesla Motors were to be the winner in the market share battle over DC Fast Charging services? Electric car owners are pawns in a battle between automakers on DC Fast Charging protocols and services. The three (four if you count China) charging standards, CHAdeMO, Combo Charging System, and…
