Nice comment (3)

I find myself glued to these comments in this Yahoo article https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uaw-boss-says-workers-shouldn-104507319.html

Tesla workers "are scraping to get by?" Those workers get a decent wage/salary, bonuses, and stock options. The latter have been highly lucrative for many. I'm not aware that Tesla, despite high turnover from a pressure culture that trickles down from their demanding CEO, has a problem recruiting talent and workers due to compensation. IF the UAW cared at all about the competitiveness of the companies that pay their workers, they would be seeking a partnership agreement that minimizes labor costs with an upside on profit sharing and wealth creation that comes from a highly functioning management/labor relationship. This fencepost hard ball negotiating philosophy from the UAW is so last century, and completely out of touch with the competitive reality of this century. The "bailout" by taxpayers of GM simply burdened the company with ongoing costs from the UAW, since it was structured as a blatant political payback to the UAW by Obama/Biden. Allowing GM to go through bankruptcy, as every other company in their situation does, would have led to a healthy GM not burdened by UAW in every factory. The highest performing factories at GM were NOT UAW factories. Sadly, in a nasty payback fashion, all non-UAW factories were closed in the "bailout" negotiations. Some Unions get it, the UAW doesn't.

Tuning color of the glass roofs in Tesla cars

The glass roof on every Tesla car should be adjustable to three modes: fully transparent (viewing starry night), fully silver (deflect sun light in hot days), fully black (absorb sun light in cold days to warm cabin).

The car console can have a triangle-shaped UI to represent the three extremes, and let user select any point inside the triangle to tune the color of the glass.

Tesla robotic vacuum

 Robotic vacuum should be the next little thing that Tesla makes and sells.

Can play out the full advantage of the huge charging cycle abilities of Tesla battery tech, e.g. 4680. If i run the vacuum twice daily, for two years, that will be close to 1,500 cycles. Batteries of most robot vacuums never survive that many cycles. 

in addition: electric motors (tiny), metal construction body (compared to flimsy plastic bodies of vacuums on market), running on wheels (also tiny), auto sensing -- all the reason for Tesla to spare some time on this and disrupt the market.

Nice comment 2

 Darth Teddybear  barrettp • a day ago

Blah! Gasser engines are still about 30% efficient at their very best! Usually less - and not rarely MUCH less!

Like I said, there are no production gassers that hit even 50% peak efficiency! Mazda has a prototype engine, but as mentioned it is more complicated than standard engines, and to hit beyond that you need to add WAY more complications - pneumatic valves, variable compression, and so on. That adds on tons of cost and failure points. And this is 50% PEAK! Do you understand? It's not 50% constantly, all the time, at all conditions, and only at the crankshaft! Pass through the drivetrain and it's 10-15% or more below that.

WHY BOTHER?! It's stupid. Electric motors are 90+ percent efficient essentially through the entire power range. You have instant massive, basically maximum torque from standstill; gassers have zero torque at zero RPM. Electric motors have only ONE major moving part - which spins so no vibrations, no reciprocation with associated annoying rattling and shaking and no high-wear consumable parts like drive belts, cam belts, spark plugs, oil filters, gaskets, piston rings, piston sleeves, and so on, and the vast majority of EVs have no clutches at all. Some don't even have differentials. Electric motors are also nearly silent running; gasser engine noise is a big source of stress and mental health issues with people working and living in urban areas; difficulties to relax, sleep problems and so on. Even talking near a busy street is difficult because of all the bloody noise.

Plus the pollution, as mentioned. Gasser exhaust damages the brains of human beings, it diminishes intelligence in children. This is all scientifically proven.

So tell me again why you think gassers are such a good idea. Filling up cancer juice in just 5 minutes, so you can kill yourself, everyone you care about and the rest of the planet some more? Try harder, mate!

http://disq.us/p/2jm848n

Excellent comment - 1

http://disq.us/p/27jcbky

Mike Ceranski • an hour ago

In my opinion, the root software problem isn't new code. It's legacy code that is embedded in function specific devices -- often called "PLCs", short for Programmable Logic Controller. PLCs are hardware devices perfectly suited for handling all the functionality for a specific set of tasks like windshield / washer operations. This sounds like a real time-saver but it can cause MAJOR issues if integrated into a BEV operating system. When the wipers automatically fire, or are turned on manually by the driver, that voltage request must be sent and approved by the BEV battery management system (specifically the electrical / battery sub-system) to ensure there's enough electricity for everything happening in the vehicle. Imagine a coder who doesn't fully understand all possible electrical actions/states of the legacy windshield PLC and therefore doesn't cover all possible voltage needs, much less simple error states (ie, the washer fluid is empty). The legacy windshield PLC probably wasn't designed or built by VW but by a sub-contractor who likely never considered a thorough API for their windshield PLC much less a fully functional & documented two-way API that would allow complete communication between a BEV's opsys and the windshield PLC. Now multiply this by 20, 40, or even 50 PLCs embedded in today's legacy autos. PLCs for climate control, dashboard controls, lighting, ABS, traction control, etc., etc. None of which were designed to be sub-systems in full communication with a software overloard (the BEV opsys). That's one of the reasons Tesla is so far ahead; they avoided the siren call of off-the-shelf PLCs and made it all software sub-systems that are part of the Tesla BEV opsys. The added benefit is that OTA updates can update any subsystem from braking to power management to... you guessed it, windshield wipers. (Which means there is hope that Tesla windshield wipers will eventually get really, really good. But it will probably be a serious bit of AI that finally conquers the "windshield" challenge. Weather comes in a LOT of different forms so automatic windshields have a ton of variables to handle. It isn't a minor thing to handle the weather in Norway vs. Hawaii vs. Vancouver vs. Coober Pedy in Australia. Sorry about the long post but this is a really deep issue and clearly exposes why legacy auto makers will never be truly successful in EVs until they completely change their internal paradigm to the car as an iPhone on wheels.