Electric cars have a history dating back to as early as the 1820s. It was in the year 1828 that a Hungarian inventor, Ányos Jedlik, put together an electric motor. The inventor used this motor to create the first electric car. The idea behind electric cars was to replace the current and expendable source of fuel like petrol and gasoline. Since an electric car ensures zero gaseous emission, it is also safe for the environment. With this in mind, Elon Musk launched a lineup of electrically powered cars, named the Tesla in 2008.
The first car in this lineup to hit the streets was the Tesla Roadster launched in 2008. This car used a Li-Ion battery to produce a total of 248 hp. The car could accelerate from 0 to 97 KM/h in 3.7 to 3.9 seconds. Several models of the Tesla have since been launched an announced, but the one thing they have in common is the centre console display. This large touchscreen is extremely responsive and allows you to control most of the car. According to reports, the company is planning to push a new update to allow Tesla drivers to play classic Atari games on these displays.
The news comes straight from the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk himself. In a tweet today, Elon announced that the Tesla software update V9.0 will bring Atari games as an Easter egg to the Tesla cars. Some of the earlier Easter eggs include a drawing pad which the Tesla owners can use to create showcase their artistic talents to the world by publishing their work online. Another fun Easter egg converts the map on the touch-screen panel in the car to a Martian map. And with the new update, the company will bring class Atari games to its cars. It is not the first time that idea of gaming inside a car is explored. A YouTube creator by the name Pog converted his luxurious Lamborghini into a racing simulator. He used the rig to play the Xbox game called Forza Horizon 7, here’s the video.
The video above gives a brief idea of how Elon Musk could go about implementing the Atari games. While of primitive graphics, the classic Atari games like Asteroid (1979), Missile Command (1980) seem like a fun time to spend inside a Tesla. The V9.0 update will be publically available in the next four weeks, after which we can safely say, the driveway of Tesla owners will be the new proving grounds.
Tesla, the American automaker headed by Elon Musk, has unveiled two new electric vehicles at an event held in Hawthorne. The company revealed a new electric car, the Roadster and an electric truck, the Semi. Not a lot was revealed in terms of specifications about both the vehicles but, Elon Musk said that Roadster will go into production in 2020 while Semi, the e;ectric truck will go into production in 2019.
Tesla Roadster
Musk claims the car will rocket zero to 60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds, the first production car to perform the feat in under 2 seconds, Musk said. Musk did not confirm the top speed of the Roadster but hinted that it will be over 250 mph. The new sports car is priced at US $200,000. “It’ll be faster than that jet over there,” Musk quipped, as an airplane soared over Tesla’s Hawthorne, California facility.
Musk said the Roadster had a 200 kwh battery pack and a 620-mile range per charge, or over 1,000 kilometres. Imagine driving to Los Angeles to San Francisco, and back, without recharging, Musk teased. The car has three motors, one in the front and two in the rear, all-wheel drive and torque steering.
Tesla Semi Truck
Elon Musk had teased a “self driving electric truck” for a long time. He finally took the stage to unveil the product, the Tesla Semi Truck. The Truck is extremely smart, Musk claims. Surround cameras minimise blind spots, Tesla said.
The trucks will be equipped with enhanced autopilot and other self-drive and safety features such as automatic emergency braking, automatic lane keeping and lane departure warning. Musk claimed incredible levels of safety and reliability. There are onboard sensors which will look for signs of jackknifing. The Truck has four engines, so even if you break two, it will still keep motoring for a million miles.
The windshield is apparently thermonuclear explosion-proof. Musk has guaranteed a refund if the truck doesn’t survive a nuclear explosion.
Even though it is far from consumer ready as the company will start working on it in only 2019, Musk claims that it will be worth the wait. According to Musk, on a 100-mile route, a diesel truck would cost $1.51/mile, while this truck will cost just $1.26/mile. Musk claimed the Tesla Semi would go from 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds compared with 15 seconds for a diesel truck. He also said it would climb a 5%-grade hill at 65 mph, compared with a diesel’s 45 mph.
Apple has been in the news recently following the revelations that the company is working secretly on an electric car. The news has spread like wildfire and experts from all corners of technology are weighing the pros and cons of Apple’s decision. But between all the talks a battery maker is suing Apple for poaching their employees.
A123 Systems is a lithium-ion battery manufacturer based in the American state of Massachusetts. It makes batteries for electric vehicles, commercial vehicles, and for the business sector. In 2011, the company’s battery technology was used to create a 32 MW energy storage system that was the largest Lithium-Ion battery energy storage system of its kind in operation at that time. A123 had to apply for bankruptcy protection in 2012 following weak growth in the battery market and electric cars.
A123 makes batteries for vehicles to electric grids and claims Apple is stealing its employees to work on a potential electric car.
The company has now filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the technology giant has been actively pursuing its employees. A123 named five of its employees in the suit who have either moved to Apple or are in the process of transferring to the company. The company claims that the loss of the qualified talent adversely affects their business as they’ll find it difficult to find replacements.
Apple has not replied to the lawsuit as of yet. The company is said to have engaged hundred’s of employees on a secretive project that is codenamed as ‘Titan’. Apple is also said to have attracted auto professionals from Mercedez Benz and electric car maker Tesla. It apparently plans to bring out an electric car by 2020.
Apple’s competitor, Google, has already invested immense resources into the creation of its self-driving car ecosystem. Apple’s advent into the electric car market is encouraging as the electric car space needs a big boost. Tesla was seen as the only major player in the field, but with the addition of big name brands like Mercedes, GM and Apple, you should hope to see some real competition in this space.
There have been men who conquered massive lands. There are men who broke the facade of ignorance and opened the world to a new understanding of the world. There have been men who have brought massive socio-economic-political changes for the masses. Almost every generation past has had the opportunity to get an encounter with greatness, men like Buddha, Newton, Darwin, Faraday, Gandhi and many more have had the ability to think of the greater good. Just when we thought the ages of the greats are gone, our generation got its hero and he is Elon Musk, the owner of the electric car company Tesla Motors.
The Roadster is the best looking and performing EV in the world
Tesla motors is a pioneering institution. It has breathed in a new life into the Electric Vehicle (EV) technology and thereby creating a true alternative to the obnoxious gas emitting, fossil fuel vehicles we use presently. The company’s first car, the Tesla Roadster was the first EV to have a range of 320 KM in a single charge; with a top speed of 201 Km/h (yes you read that right). The company released a Sedan called the Model S which is one of the best looking sedans out there. There is also the sexy Model X which is a SUV-Sedan hybrid.
Yesterday, Tesla became the first car manufacturer to open all its patents for anyone to use, for free. The technology Elon and his team strived so hard to achieve, almost reaching a point of bankruptcy and affecting his personal life.
Elon Musk inside the Astronaut capable Dragon V2
Elon wrote in his blog titled All Our Patent Are Belong To You that “we feel compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong.” This is rather true even 6 years after the release of the Tesla Roadster, no big company is making any major strides or even showing interest in the EV technology. Just about 1% of the Cars on the roads are electric.
He also stated that Tesla’s competition isn’t the small handful EV manufacturers, but the mega car companies who still insist on manufacturing dirty cars. These fossil fueled cars are the case of environmental changes like the recent increase in obnoxious gases in Delhi.
The most significant aspect of this story is that it directly questions the validity of patents. Patents were a great way of giving recognition to people who have created something out of the ordinary; innovators. But slowly the system has degraded into a means to enrich intellectual property lawyers and corporations. In this kind of situation smaller players can’t innovate because the bigger companies hold patents on miniscule features. The system that was supposed to encourage innovation is now the biggest hindrance in the development of our technology.
EV’s like the Nissan Leaf are still not efficient enough like their gas powered competitors
While major companies are working on how to make hybrid cars, something that makes the environmental types and the petroleum giants happy, Tesla has decided to take them all on. With these patents you can design your own electric motor with Tesla efficiency. The best part, as the motor is tiny, once you retrofit your car, you can have an extra boot space where that huge combustion engine used to be. Tesla has also successfully beaten some of the best cars in overall performance.
We now know for a fact that global warming is the single greatest threat to our existence. We also know the reason for it is us and our expenditure of non-renewable fossil fuels. Elon has also put massive investment into the Solar City project which provides energy services to homeowners, businesses, and government/non-profit organizations. In just one hour the sun gives more energy than is needed by the entire humanity in an entire year. Solar should definitely be the highest priority of every business and government.
Luckily for India the present government is planning to ferociously expand solar power in India with a target of reaching 400,000,000 people by 2019. It has also promised to give every home at least ‘one light bulb’s worth of electrification’ via solar, as well as deploy solar-powered agriculture pumps.
Elon’s Space X is the most successful private space enterprise.
Elon is also the founder of private space company Space X which has now got a NASA contract to service the International Space Station. The company recently showcased the Dragon V2 spaceship which is capable of carrying astronauts. He also wants to have a Mars mission to give humanity a second planetary home as a plan B.
Tesla Motors is a phenomenal company and it truly upholds the name of the greatest inventor of the 19th Century, Nikola Tesla. Most of us don’t even know his name but he has greatly affected our lives in many ways. We can ramble on and on about his greatness, but we’d rather you watch this awesome video.
More and more manufacturers need to use Tesla’s ingredients in their cars and switch to EV technology as soon as possible. It will take at least 20-30 years from now to a majority electric vehicle economy. For this, first and foremost tough regulation have to be placed on gas giants and EV manufacturing should be subsidized by the governments across the world.
Elon was the inspiration behind Robert Downey’s Iron Man
Elon’s superpower is that his endeavors are inspiring for the people of the world and that makes him a real superhero, no wonder he is the real life inspiration behind Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark from Iron Man. He also did a cameo in Iron Man 2.
Only time will tell how this massive open innovation will affect our future.
Four-time IZOD IndyCar Series champions Andretti Autosport has announced that it will field a team in the upcoming FIA Formula E Championship, the all-electric racing series that will debut next season. Andretti Autosport is the first U.S.-based team to sign up for the new racing series.
The Andretti team plans to create a two-car program for the series, which will compete in 10 cities around the world. The American outfit now the third team to sign on so far for Formula E’s inaugural season, joining China Racing and British-based Drayson Racing.
Andretti Autosport is run by none other than former racer Michael Andretti. Michael Andretti, who is the son of racing legend Mario Andretti and father of current Andretti Autosport driver Marco Andretti, was the 1991 CART IndyCar champion and raced in Formula One for McLaren in 1993. He has led Andretti Autosport to the status of IndyCar champions on four occassions, with drivers Tony Kanaan, the late Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti and last year’s title winner Ryan Hunter-Reay. Andretti Autosport also won the Indianapolis 500 with both Wheldon and Franchitti.
It’s an honour for Andretti Autosport to have been selected as one of the 10 founding Formula E teams for the inaugural season. I look forward to further exploring the series and helping build the future of open-wheel racing across the world.
– Michael Andretti
Interestingly, Andretti Autosport plans to run one of its cars for the Formula E championship but potentially use the second as a “star car” for well-known drivers. This in turn could mean appearances in the new category from their stable of IndyCar pilots – defending series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and E.J. Viso.
We are absolutely delighted to welcome Andretti Autosport to the series; a team with an incredible racing pedigree and track record who I have no doubt is going to make a big contribution to the FIA Formula E Championship. It’s fantastic too for such a highly-established outfit to show its commitment to sustainable motoring and with two US races on the inaugural calendar – Los Angeles and Miami – I’m sure American motorsport fans will have a lot to cheer come race day.
– Alejandro Agag, Chief, Formula E
Formula E’s first season will run from September 2014 to June ’15, running entirely on street circuits, including one in London. Berlin was unveiled as the final venue on the calendar last week.
