Tesla's new steering yoke appears to be analogous to an airplane steering yoke. But an airplane's yoke does not only control roll, but also pitch. Indeed, there's the potential for *five* extra axes (up-down, left-right, front-back, & two extra roll axes)
Why do I bring this up?
In normal driving, I expect most drivers to prefer a traditional locked steering position. But we must remember that ***Plaid has three independent motors now***. The car is capable of so much more than traditional handling; it should even be able to do stunts like spin in place.
The degrees of freedom get even more extreme when you get to the Roadster with the SpaceX options package. Now you have *every degree of freedom possible* in terms of maneuvering.
How do you control this with just a roll-only steering wheel? Answer: you can't.
While I don't know that Tesla *plans* to do this, it is certainly *possible* that Tesla's experimentation with steering possibilities is the first step toward the introduction of steering systems that, when in Track Mode, give the driver additional axes of control freedom.
Honestly, I really want to know *how* they're getting a 0.208 Cd. That's significantly better than a car of this general shape would normally get.
Note that most manufacturers BS about their drag coefficients - but at least thusfar, Teslas usually match their claims in testing.
I wonder if this is all just a long slog of minor improvements, or whether they're implementing any of the long-proposed "cheats" for drag reduction, such as base bleed or suction to maintain flow attachment. I don't see any signs of that, but...
Either way, the claimed Cd is now 90% that of the claimed Cd for the Model 3. I suspect (whether from S not being as good as claimed, or 3 having since improved) that it's closer than that. But either way, it seems they're overcoming Model S's greater cross-sectional area.
So there's been a lot of chatter about @Gfilche's rumours that Apple plans to use a Toshiba lithium titanate battery in their electric vehicle, due out four years from five years ago, and now four years from today.
But what is it?
@LimitingThe gave a pretty good description, but in short, it's an old technology where instead of graphite+silicon, the anode is lithium titanate nanocrystals. These offer a very stable structure with a massive surface area for high power densities and great longevity.
They also, however, are not only very expensive, but are a fundamentally lower voltage chemistry - and lithium intercalation densities are not great either (you have a lot of titanium and oxygen relative to how much lithium you can intercalate).
Time for another #BearyTale - "The Tale of The Demand Limitation"!
According to this tale, Tesla gave the game away when they started listing peak capacities in their earnings reports, which surely can be assumed to have near-zero downtime related to holidays, upgrades, supplier limitations, etc, and pretty please don't read the fine print.
Gee, then, I wonder what happens when we plot out the ratio of peak capacity to production as total capacity changes dramatically due to new lines and COVID closures.
(Averaging between EOQ rates and not counting GF3 Q3 '19, as it's listed as "preproduction" and was near-zero)
A quick thread for the #ButNorway! bears: Let's just check your acceptance of a few basic facts here.
1) You do realize that Tesla's global sales have consistently grown corresponding to *new capacity growth*, right?
2) You do realize that this corresponds to *production limitation*, regardless of where they choose to allocate production (wait times) or what pricing they choose - right?
3) You do realize that a company exponentially shifts demand with linear adjustments in prices, right?
4) You do realize that the indicator of how much a company needs to boost demand, relative to their prod. capacity, is encapsulated in their auto margins, right?
5) You do realize that Tesla's margins are *growing*, and are now a huge >27% wo/credits, >22% w/credits - right?
@momsbyof3@seastar898@Creeks2013@oldcanadaseries Their backstory is crazy. Maye's father was a member of Technocracy, which Canada feared aimed to overthrow the government. He worked in tons of random jobs, incl. help establish chiropracty in Canada. He took his whole fam to SA and they lived like Indiana Jones, looking for a..
@momsbyof3@seastar898@Creeks2013@oldcanadaseries ... lost city (which they never found). In SA, Maye started dating Errol Musk, who she too late realized was a serious manipulator and abuser; he even manipulated her into marrying him by telling all her friends and family that she had said yes, so she'd be too embarassed to...
@momsbyof3@seastar898@Creeks2013@oldcanadaseries ... back out. She finally did divorce him, with three children from the marriage. The older two wanted nothing to do with Errol, but Errol's mother convinced a young Elon that his father would be lonely without him, so he chose to stay - which he quickly came to regret. Errol...
Elon: <some journalists are only interested in innuendo, namecalling, and outright falsehoods about me; I'm done being nice to them>
@nickbilton : <writes article full of innuendo, name calling, and outright falsehoods, while damning Musk for not being nice to people like him>
The lack of self-awareness by @nickbilton is staggering.
Or maybe he literally is this blind to his extensive use of innuendo, name calling, and outright falsehoods? Nick, would it help if I held up a mirror to you and your work?
"vainglorious" - @elonmusk's Twitter feed is a *constant* stream of him pushing away praise of himself and heaping it on others. Here, less than 24 hours ago: