Tesla Founders Blog

Martin,
Thanks for sharing! And it’s great to know that people notice what you are driving. I haven’t seen a Tesla in life yet but I’m watching out for them! Quick question, did you have your hood in the trunk?

Martin sez:

The soft top rolls up into a bundle about 10″ in diameter and about 24″ long, and stores neatly in the bottom of the trunk.

Hey Martin, go easy on the McLaren will you. That’s one of the greatest road cars ever built and I don’t see anything very ostentatious about it. Every feature is there for a good reason. Even the gold leaf in the engine compartment is there not for added bling but because it’s the best material for the job. For ‘ostentatious’ try the Bugatti Veyron, or maybe put some big orange stripes on your car .

Seriously, I enjoyed the article and I totally sympathise with your bitching at ‘Darth’ Musk.

Martin sez:
From the msn encarta dictionary:

Seems about right for a million-dollar gas guzzler on city streets.

It always nice to read about you ride by the way, have you ever tried to beat ferari on speed? will tesla win?

Hey Martin,

Thank you very much for the thorough review of your car; she is very beautiful. To answer your question about a performance meter, GTech Pro has always ringed a bell with me although I have no experience with the unit myself – http://www.gtechpro.com/rr.html; coincidently manufactured by Tesla Electronics Inc. and named after Nikola as well.

As for the iPhone performance apps, Autoblog.com has made headlines on the G-tac and Dynolicious but neither of them look too promising – http://www.autoblog.com/tag/iphone/ (first two posts).

By the way, have any journals or even the SAE approached you about writing something for submission given your wealth of knowledge? I think that would be a great experience worth considering if the opportunity ever came up.

Martin,

Great post – you described it so well I felt like I was there (I howled at the parking meter story, sounds like something I would do).

I suspect that 165 miles is probably the typical range for how people really tend to drive, especially when all that power is available and tempting.

Keep the Tesla Roadster on the roads and in people’s minds – people’s perception of EV’s as a punishment car is slowing fading.

I have a new idea for a marketing product for new Tesla Motors vehicle owners. The product would enhance owners’ image of the vehicle provide and forum to introduce related merchandising products. Please contact me if you have interest. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Mike

Martin sez:

Note that I am no longer employed by Tesla Motors. I suggest contacting either Darryl Siry or Ze’ev Drory at Tesla motors.

“I am constantly amazed at how many people have heard of Tesla and how the car has fired peoples’ imaginations.”

I’m finding the word is getting out a bit now. Every week I meet a new group of people and I’d say 20 percent already know something about the car now when a year ago it would have been five percent.

Hmm….maybe so. But the McLaren, especially in a sober colour, is the least flashy of all the supercars. Compare it with Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bugattis, Pagani Zondas, Koenigseggs etc. All have more bling per square inch. The Big Mac looks modest alongside them. If the owner chooses to use his car mostly on city streets the car can hardly be blamed for that. In environmental terms this is probably still better than owning several different cars for different purposes. Although I’m sure most McLaren owners do that too. All in all, I’d argue that while some of its owners may well be ostentatious the McLaren itself isn’t.

Martin, thanks for the roadster impressions. It keeps our spirits up while we wait for ours.

Any idea what distance you can get with the roadster using mileage-extending driving habits? Our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters live around 250 miles away. I’m afraid we won’t be able to take the roadster for a visit unless we find ways to recharge it on the way up and back.

Keep us up on any changes or additions you make so we’re ready when we get our roadsters.

I agree with your assessment of the JVC unit. I wish it could be replaced with a Dash Navigation unit that had the capabilities required by Tesla.

Finally, congratulations on the Mayfield Fund appointment. I hope identifying cleantech opportunities keeps you out of trouble!

Martin sez:

I don’t care about sat radio, etc. I don’t want a lot of extras, like the ability to type in names for radio stations.

This is a great 1din head unit that my friend has.
No navigation but with the right connectors it will do bluetooth, ipod control, and you can plug in a usb drive and play music off of it. He’s got a cord running in the ash tray, and just plugs a tiny thumb drive directly in, plays straight off it.

http://www.cartoys.com/Default.cfm/p/Alpine%20CDA9886_AM_FM_CD_MP3_WMA_AAC_Receiver/

It’s at least a year old so alpine may have refreshed the line already.

Does it have satellite radio?

@ Franklin:

Yes, and it does have an interface for navigation as well, just no screen. But you can have the directions put through the speakers without doing a analog audio in.

I would be careful with the free bridge tolls and the clean air stickers. I have a bit of experience driving CNG vehicles with clean air stickers around the bay area (PG&E company cars). During rush hours when the HOV lanes are carpool only, you can use the carpool lane to bypass tolls if you have the stickers, but only during those hours. The signs around the bridges will tell you what times carpools/clean air cars can go in the bypass lane. The first link TEG provided about free tolls for ZEV’s at all times speaks of a law that has yet to be passed.

For the performance computer, may I recommend the Performance Box from Racelogic. A bit pricey at $499 MSRP, but it is very accurate (GPS based) and can store a lot of data using a standard SD memory card of your choice. Racelogic provides most of the performance measurement devices used by the auto mags these days and the Performance Box gives you 98% of what their top of the line systems offer at a fraction of the price.

I’ve been using it for a couple of years now. It is very repeatable, easy to use and will even measure lap times on a road course.

Downsides? If you go through a tunnel while accelerating you may lose your data for that run

Martin: Here’s another helping hand from “a Mac-righteous Apple fan” (ha!) to make it a bit easier to browse these new photos:

Roadster Impressions Photos

Your description of the day trip around the Bay invoked a sigh of nostalgia from me. My wife’s folks lived in Berkeley for years, on Shattuck Avenue (I’m sure you know it well), and thus we have spent a lot of time there, even contemplating sunsets from hilltop. Her sister also used to live in Claremont, and I can’t tell you how many times we have driven past the Claremont Hotel on the way to the tunnel.

Harrumph. Wouldn’t you know that Borg Gates would interfere with the iPod and iPhone interface…! Sheesh. I hope that you can find a decent alternative. What a bummer to own such an incredible car and not even be able to listen to your music!

The handling and acceleration of the Roadster sound wonderful! The range sounds more than adequate for an EV, in my humble opinion. Nothing else out there even comes close!

Hey…! Who spilled the french fries on the passenger floor in the 5th photo? (He ha hee!)

I think Martin may be critical of the McLaren more thanks to the identity of its owner than anything else. Elon Musk owns a McLaren.

One thing Elon Musk would never do: Admit he needed quarters! That was hilarious!

I’m glad you and spectators are enjoying your Tesla! Are you disappointed about the range after seeing over 200 miles promised?

D

Regarding the range:

I think that some people tend to overlook the fact that ICE vehicles also get poorer mileage, or range, when they are driven hard, uphill, etc. I think that the driving conditions where EVs really outshine ICEVs is in stop and go traffic, such as “rush” hour in and around big cities. In this situation ICEVs are burning gas continually while moving relatively little, while EVs only consume electricity while they are moving (and then recapture some of that energy again while braking).

If you look across North America (& Europe) and ask yourself “How much gasoline is burnt by vehicles just sitting in traffic (or drive-throughs), and how much could we reduce our energy usage if we could eliminate it?”. Well, I don’t know exactly how much it is, but I would guess that it’s a lot. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that switching from fossil fuels to electricity would not only be cleaner, more secure, and cheaper… it would also reduce our overall energy usage.

I know, I’m preaching to the choir…

So “Space-Ex” is still solvent. After failure number 4 – if ever, Musk won’t be solvent for long. Elon orders fabrication on Falcon 6 to begin? Sounds like W’s exit strategy to me

I think you are looking for an Escort Passport G-Timer 2. I have one an it’s excellent. It measures 0-60, quarter mile, G forces in every direction and more. About $199 new.

T.J.,

I would’ve guessed that you were younger than that… It must be the youthful tone of your posts!

My 2 cents on Berkeley nostalgia: a girlfriend lived in Oakland for several years, which doesn’t sound like an impressive address, but she was on top of a hill next to Lake Merritt, a convenient and deluxe locale with great views. We used to go to Berkeley for breakfast at Mama’s Royal Cafe, which I always enjoyed.

Global warming and EV’s aside, the Tesla is supposed to be a damn fun car to drive. No one cares what the MPG on a Corvette or Porsche is… why do we care about the Roadster? Martins point – he’s not buying gasoline and still having a hell of a lot of fun driving – regardless of range.

Since getting my Neuton battery powered lawn mower, I’ve tried to explain to people the joy of not buying gas… some people are getting it.

I didn’t get the mower to save the Earth, I got it so I could break away from petroleum. It’s a new way of thinking, it’s as powerful as a 5 hp gas mower, and it’s quiet. Plus, it’s kind of fun to mow now.

Nobody really cares about the mileage of a Porsche 911 because you can go to a gas station, take five minutes and be ready for a few hundred more miles.

With the Tesla, you have to go back home and wait about five hours before you can drive again. That’s a genuine problem if you live in a remote area and need to visit the big city once every week or so – it would be very easy to get stranded.

I greatly admire Tesla, and Martin, but this is a legitimate problem.

D

For performance metrics, please check Racechrono at http://www.racechrono.com/?lang=en

Malcolm, my thoughts exactly. I’ll try to repeate them more often myself.

It is kinda strange people do not demand of Ferrari to lower the cost, increase the fuel economy etc. They take them as they are – super cars – and dream of them. Tesla is Super Car.

# Jeff Holman wrote:
## … former 911 owners that drive roadsters they’ll go from a huge carbon footprint to little tiny …

It is somehow ironic to talk about the tiny “carbon footprint” of the roadster when you consider that the body is made out of carbon-fiber… Different kind of “carbon footprint”.

Several times you mention “not using any petroleum”. In California, only a very small % of electricity is generated from oil. Nationwide between 1 & 2% of electricity is generated from petroleum. Pretty small, but not zero.

In California, a large % of electicity is generated via natural gas (nationwide it is about 20%). This is a tragically wasteful use of natural gas, which has much higher value uses both in industry and residential. We are stealing this precious fuel from future generations who will need it for these uses. (but then, we are screwing future generations by not coming to grips with Social Security and Medicare, also, so we might as well use up all of the clean fuel too).

The most environmentally friendly electricity source is nuclear.

More environmentally friendly than solar? Yes, because the energy cost to produce solar cells is quite high compared to their lifetime output.

How about wind? Ignoring any visual issues (I don’t mind looking at windmills in most places, including off Hyannisport (sp?) Massachusetts) and bird problems (not sure how real these are). The problem with wind is that it does not blow all of the time. Therefore, you need to construct and maintain backup sources of electricity to cover the installed capacity of windmills. This consumes resources to construct, and means you have to burn some kind of fuel when the wind does not blow.

Of course, that duplicate capacity problem is true of solar also.

If we make like France and generate most of our electricity from nuclear someday, your Tesla will be truly environmentally friendly.

…and by the way, the Energy Information Administration has lots of statistics:

http://www.eia.doe.gov

We’ve been “busy” on fusion power for 30 years, no luck.Fuel cells and hydrogen power at least 25 years effort and no luck. In 2001 Denmark got 15% of electricity requirements from Wind. In 2007 wind generated electricity was providing 23% of Denmark’s electricity needs and is still growing. The only major economy with faster wind power adoption is the US. And our winds are on average stronger than in Europe. Some luck!

TEG,

I suppose carbon fiber body panels are one small way of sequestering greenhouse gasses.

RE fusion: The fusor-variant called the Polywell is currently being tested at EMCC (the late Robert Bussard’s company), where the principal researcher says it has “run like a top” over many months. They are accumulating data in hopes of confirming Bussard’s earlier claims of having solved the basic physics problems of the fusor idea. Upon confirmation of Bussard’s findings, the next step will be to build a larger fusor (perhaps as big as a high-ceilinged living room), in order to demonstrate the practical production of utility-quantities of electricity, with luck using the radioactively “clean” boron-hydrogen reaction that was Bussard’s favorite. I’m expecting to hear substantial news, one way or the other, before this year is out.

At least Bussard isn’t saying that it already works and he just needs a little money to make a prototype…

Gabe, actually Bussard isn’t saying anything right now. He’s dead. But follow the link in Steve’s post to find out what he did say about it.

We digress again. Martin! Fantastic post. I’ve only been to the bay area once so far, but loved it and can’t wait to go back. The idea of tooling around some of the most beautiful landscape in the US emissions free strikes a cord with me.

If I’m in the neighborhood again (and I intend to be), I’ll look you up and maybe we can have coffee. I don’t need to ride in the Roadster, but I’d love to meet it’s father.

All I said is what Bussard is not saying. I stand by the correctness of my assessment. He is not saying what I said he is not saying.

I had an old kooky physics prof who told us about various cold/controlled/above unity fusion experiments.

His basic premise was that if group A failed at producing useable fusion, then we would never hear about it again. And if they succeeded, we would never hear about it again – they would have vanished into the Men In Black, Shadow CIA, Oil Cartel (make your pick) dungeon with all the other ZPE and QV and PM people.

@Frank
That’s because Salmon are the fish equivalent of a roast rump – not bad, but pretty easy to beat. And I like your plan, by denying Salmon access to their breeding grounds, we also destroy the food source of our number one enemy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYC3fngxmfg

ala the Colbert Report.

“I haven’t yet found a place to stash parking meter change in the car…”

Hi Martin,

This issue, and more specifically the lack of a glove box, has a number of owners looking into third-party alterations of the Roadster after they take delivery. Would you mind sharing some history about how the decision was reached to NOT include a glove box in the car? If this has been covered somewhere else already, please point me to that discussion, as I must have missed it.

Thanks.

Martin sez:

That said, I will try to find/make a small change box that fits in the tray above the passenger’s knees.

In “USA Today” is an article about an elect. off road motorcycle called “Zero X” designed by former aerospace engineer named Neal Saiki. Article says that “Saiki developed a quick -cooling material that surrounds the 168 batteries designed for Milwaukee-brand power tools that are bundled into every pack” . Batteries cost $2950. Bike costs $7,450. Can go 40 miles per charge, which they say is 2 hours of trail use. Company CEO Gene Banman says: “the goal is to take this elect. drivetrain into different segments of the motorcycle business-we want to be a big motorcycle co.” -the Tesla of the motorcycle world? They say Li-Ion batteries weren’t used because they’re harder to cool. Wonder if range would be like 80 miles or more with same size Li-Ion pack ? They show picture of motorcycle- has “basic industrial look”- could use some real industrial design. So : EV cars, airplanes, motorcycles- here it comes: the Electric/Solar Age . Now, like I’ve said many times- if only the govt. would really get seriously with it. Of course that includes getting out of the middle east quagmire . Dubai is going absolutely bananas with highrise buildings and other (many other) types of architecture-they will soon have the tallest tower in the world, and later will lead the world in tall towers -per article in latest “Architectural Record Mag. ” Saudis are also looking into building mile high skyscraper (which Frank Lloyd Wright did a design for). Real question is: with the wealth of the likes of countries like Dubai, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where (in the halibut) are these turkeys in rebuilding Iraq ? They could finance a half- million man revamped Iraqi army in no time flat-and we’d make a profit supplying them the weapons-it’s perfect. They could also be the ones building up the Iraqi oil industry instead of the likes of Exxon-for a nice piece of the profit, which would justify their rebuilding of the Iraqi military and their stake in a new, prosperous Iraq. Of course that’s not part of the Cheney/Exxon plan. Result: the American people are the suckers once again. So , while the likes of Dubai build up their country and infrastructure we’re stuck in the U.S. with marginal development: and this (friends and neighbors) ain’t good (at all) for the economy and advancement of this country-Particularly seeing as how construction is such a big part of our economy, like it of not. Like I said before, starting in 2010 the potential with serial hybrid cars and solar will be absolutely, and obviously, thru frickin’ the roof (and the plan Israel is adopting, which could be an option here, to “charge for batteries per usage” on the EV cars could totally cancel out the added car price caused by battery cost). There will be the triple benefit of starting to pull the plug on oil (keeping billions of dollars here in our economy) , reducing c02 and expanding the economy potentially bigtime via green tech. Unfortunately neither Obama or McCain have the required JFK- like moxie. They are both, shall we say “a product of the system” (complete with strings attached to arms and legs). Products outside the system are no longer allowed. So, again, no matter what, this country won’t live up to it’s potential-as that is no longer allowed. The Chinese already invest more in green tech. than we do-and that there is a pathetic commentary. Guess there’s something to be said for undemocratic “command and control” economies. China will also pass U.S. this year as world’s largest manufacturer “4 years ahead of schedule” (by ABC News Report). They make 17% of world products. U.S.= 16%. Some truly major U.S. green tech. manufacturing would be a welcome addition- but noooo ! Too many of our “fearless leaders”, with lobbyists attached to them like leeches, are far too much halibutheads (times 2 at least ) for that to ever happen.

P.S. to Harvey- yeah, I’d rather be Martin minus 10 not plus 10-make that minus 20, at least. With the way I keep goin’ back to JFK you know I had to be old enough to have been there. Actually I saw him give a campaign speech in Staten Island N.Y. in 1960. Per Martin question on warranty: “I don’t need no stinking warranty ! “. Both my parents are still alive with minimal warranty related problems-this is probably a good sign, but I’m just guessing. As for my brother- he’s a frickin’ energizer rabbit who never stops moving. He has a log in his Dodge Durango where at every 1000 miles he writes down where he was-usually a different place, that’s how much he gets around-never a wasted moment with him. Of course being the older brother he’s smarter and more practical (definitely) than me. He doesn’t follow EV’s solar & etc., or worry about anything political or environmental, or other larger issues-since it ain’t got nothing to do with his real life, as in the one he can control.

And here….

This is sorta off-topic, I know, but I just have to say it.

I was shocked and dismayed to see that Plug-In America has invited Elon Musk, of all people, to speak at its first fundraiser on September 27. As much as I love the Roadster, I wouldn’t want to lend him an ear if they donated funds to me.

I would much rather hear what Martin has to say, or others whom Edison fired in his purge of Eberhard loyalists, like Wally Rippel. In point of fact, it shocks me that Plug-In America would “honor” Edison like this, since (I thought!) Rippel was one of their own.

What a world, what a world….

T.J.,

minus 7, but close enough. Glad to hear there are no warranty issues…

I know people that have a similar outlook to your brother, and sometimes I think that it would be smarter for me to take a similar approach, but I just can’t seem to do it…

All the best,

Chris H.

Why make a box when you could have one of these:-

http://www.happcontrols.com/amusement/darts_foos/26106500.htm

I’ve just answered my own post, haven’t I

# Yanquetino wrote:
## I was shocked and dismayed to see that Plug-In America has invited…

One word.

$

Dark Knight fundraiser?

Tesla Motors news said Tesla has hired Mazda head designer. I can’t think of any Mazda that impresses me deisgn-wise. But they said he also worked at GM on the Pontiac Solstice, which is nice (but didn’t say if he designed the whole thing). I’d go to a design school and have a professor(s) and students see what they could come up with, since I’m not partial to the concept of name names getting all the opportunities. Guess if Zero X motorcycle had a Tesla- like cooling system for Li-Ion batteries, that would make for the required range.

Article: In Search of the Flux Capacitor – Part Deux

http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1511

CNET News has story on 800,000 MW of PV solar, enough to power 250,000 homes, being built for PG&E by two companies- Optisolar and Sun Power-never heard of Optisolar. Sure are a lot of solar companies popping up. Facility to be “biggest grid connected PV solar plant in the world”. Also, latest issue of “Wired Magazine” has cover story on “Better Place Project” of Shah Agassi to take EV cars mainstream, starting in Israel, then Denmark and San Francisco.

Martin-you obviously didn’t get the “Muskrat Solar City” optional solar charging panels. I forget, do you have solar on house ? Solar charging-that’s the obvious ticket. Here’s an idea for blog post: do you know what car companies will hit with EV’s or plug-ins by 2010/2011- and how fast do you think this and solar in combo will hit/takeoff here an worldwide ?

Has anyone else noticed/experienced that teslafounders.org no longer directs here? The only URL that seems to work for me is teslafounders.wordpress.com

Martin sez:

I never owned the .org. This site should respond to http://www.teslafounders.com and http://www.teslafounder.com.

Martin,

I read recently (on the TMC site) that your Roadster has already been in for scheduled maintenance work at the Menlo Park Tesla Store. First of all, can you confirm this? If this is true, then could you perhaps give us all an idea of what kind of maintenance is required at this point in the car’s life-cycle? Was this kind of scheduled maintenance originally planned for the Roadster, or is it a recent addition to the ownership responsibilities?

The reason that I’m asking is that I was under the impression that there would be very little maintenance required for the Roadster, based on comments made by various people in various interviews over the last few years.

Lastly, and I hope that this is not too delicate a question, how much does the scheduled maintenance cost (if anything at all)? Over on the TMC site they are throwing around the figure of $1000.00 for the service. Is this figure correct, and (I know you prefer to stick to “just the facts”, but I’m going to ask anyway ) do you think that the cost is justified? That is, is the service necessary, and significantly involved enough to justify the (unconfirmed) cost?

I (and judging by the buzz on TMC, many others) would appreciate any information that you can share on this topic.

All the best,

Chris H.

Hyundai is coming out with Li-Ion serial hybrid in 2010-looking to use it in Sonata car.

In news (”Red Herring”) : Google investing $10 million into geothermal power. Article says that by tapping just 2% of heat in earth between 2 to 7 miles deep, in continental U.S., could produce 2500 times the country’s annual energy use (per MIT study). The big island of Hawaii is a geothermal slam-dunk. Australia is also investing $12 million in geothermal- and since they use a lot less energy, they have even better potential. Motto for 21st century: “Burning something to get energy is no longer cool “.

The U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab has developed a solar cell that is 40.8 % efficient. Wow-get the cost down and slap that on cars one day for “charge as you work”.

I found your new head unit:

Weight reduction. In keeping with the “performance through light weight” philosophy, the Eco Elise weighs 32 kg (70.5 lbs) less than the standard Elise S, yielding lower fuel consumption and better performance. The reduction in mass improves the handling and braking performance and also reduces the effort required to accelerate the car. The weight reduction philosophy has even extended to the audio system with an exceptionally lightweight stereo and speaker system from Alpine saving 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs). The system uses MP3/iPod technology.

From :
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/lotus-to-introd.html

So you’ll just have to ask Lotus to send you one, i’m sure you’ve got some influence in Hethel?

Martin sez:

Does it support bluetooth to a phone? This is the one fancy feature I need here in California, where you can’t talk on your handset.

Martin sez:

“Does it support bluetooth to a phone? This is the one fancy feature I need here in California, where you can’t talk on your handset.”

If it doesn’t they’ll sell you a box of sparks to make it work. They have an Ai-Net bluetooth box.

Chris,

Those numbers aren’t actually that bad compared to a lot of other rockets – the Merlin engines are fairly efficient. And if you’re completely anti-space because of the environment…well it’s a bit of a catch22 – we need earth observing satellites to tell us about the planet. I doubt very seriously that there would be much concern at all about global warming if there had never been a space age – it’s where a tremendous amount of data comes from.

Then’s there SatRadio, sat phones, GPS, getting the BBC live, learning about the sun and the solar system…For my money, what the Hubble alone has shown us of our universe is worth the couple of hundred thousand tons of CO2 it took to put it there and keep it serviced.

Hi Gabe,

in terms of relative efficiency, I’m not too surprised to hear that the Merlin engine ranks highly, however my point was more about the absolute mass of fossil fuels being consumed, and thus the mass of CO2 being produced, which in turn results in a very large carbon footprint for one individual.

I realize that you were not accusing me of being “anti-space” (I think I know you better than that… ), but I just wanted to mention that I was a member of the Planetary Society for several years, and the Mars Underground. BTW, many of EM’s “big ideas” and “deep thoughts” are borrowed shamelessly (and without proper acknowledgement) from these two organizations. He simply passes them off as his own, but what’s new there, eh?

It’s not that I think that EOS and space exploration are unimportant (they are), it’s just that I think we have more important, more immediate, problems that we need to deal with here on Earth before we try building greenhouses on Mars. Keep in mind that at this point SpaceX is attempting to be a FedEx service to LEO. If they are successful, and profitable, they could spawn an entire industry of copycat companies, each one launching several dozen flights per year. I imagine that the total amount of fossil fuel products that have been conserved by all the members of Plug-In America since its inception is less than the amount of kerosene that SpaceX will burn in its first Falcon 9 launch. My point is that PIA and EM are essentially opposites, regarding their philosophies of energy usage.

One more thing. Most of the data on the concentration of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere was collected by hand in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as well as by weather balloons. EOS data is good for keeping track of how much of the Earth’s existing rain forests are being cut down from year to year, how big the ever-expanding “dead zones” in our oceans are getting, algal blooms, which ice shelves are collapsing, how much smog we are producing from our coal-fired power plants, etc., most of which can also be collected (and is often double-checked) by ground level observations. The Earth got by just fine for 4.5 billion years without EOS.

I have mentioned this before, but what the heck, one of the biggest problems we (as a species) are going to have is to convince EVERYONE that they have to reduce their personal carbon emissions. A great number of people will try to claim that they should be the exception for one reason or another. They will hire lawyers, and lobbyists, they will cry and shout and kick and scream, for their “right” to continue to pollute the air that we all breathe, to produce emissions that put ALL LIFE on this planet in jeopardy. But guess what? Nature does not listen to lawyers, or lobbyists, or crybabies. The equation is simple: If we continue to increase levels of atmospheric CO2 on this planet, there will be consequences that are beyond the comprehension of many people. To give you an idea: after Venus underwent a runaway greenhouse effect it’s surface temperature found a new equilibrium of 460 degrees Celsius, and a new atmospheric pressure that is approximately 92 times that of Earth’s. Prior to that, it is believed that Venus’s atmosphere and climate were similar to Earth’s at the present time. Once we trigger a runaway greenhouse effect, there is no turning back. Life on Earth will end.

I hope you understand my concern.

All the best,

Chris H.

Chris: I is interesting how you put the entire pollution of the Falcon as Elon’s. Don’t you think his customers have anything to do with it? If they shared your concerns, then they would pay the premium for a pollution free rocket.

Roy,

good point, and I was half expecting someone to bring it up.

When LCD TVs were $10,000+ few people had them in their homes. Now that they are less than $1000, a lot more people have them. The point is that as a product or service gets cheaper, more people will buy it.

EM’s stated goal for SpaceX (or one of them, at least) is to reduce the cost of launch services by a factor of 10. If he succeeds in doing that, guess what? There’s going to be a lot more organizations, and individuals, buying those services. Think about it, mid-size corporations could afford to have their own satellites, and many would.

If EM did not provide a low cost ride to orbit, then many of those customers would never even consider the option of purchasing launch services. It’s true that some customers would purchase launch services even at pre-SpaceX prices, and perhaps the emissions related to these launches could be considered a shared responsibility, but when it comes to customers who purchase the service because it is affordable to them now, well, I think EM carries full responsibility for the emissions from those launches.

Just one point of view, I know…

BTW, just for the record, I tend to think that SpaceX will be successful on flight 4. They pretty much have to be if they are going to survive.

All the best,

Chris H.

Hang on a bit. The biggest contributer to Co2 emissions isn’t space exploration or aviation or road transport.

It’s construction. Poor levels of insulation and air-tightness in the fabric of buildings wastes enormous amounts of energy.

For someone in the Channel Islands you seem to be worrying unduely about electricity rates in California.

The cheap rate on the UK mainland is (at present) just below 5p per kWh. If you get the Tesla’s average mileage of 220 miles per full charge, that equates to 4.15 miles per kWh.

So that’s about 1.5p per mile.

Martin,
you asked about g meters. You may have heard that iPhones (iPod Touches) can measure performance. Here’s one application for it:
http://www.hunter.pairsite.com/gmeter/

I don’t care exactly how many cents per mile it costs to drive a Tesla-it beats the halibut out of a gas car, and the rest is all gravy. Martin should go back to D.C. with Al Gore and give a feature length multimedia presentation (Spielberg style) to congress about how it could be green tech./green car party time circa 2010/2011 if our dumbed down, dam (with an added n) govt. would get the halibut with it.

Only trouble with Joe Biden iz: he looks like a used car salesman-(albeit a future Tesla salesman) . He would clearly explain to doubters that if you can afford a Tesla Roadster you can clearly forget how many cents per mile it gets. Now get Spielberg on the horn an tell ‘em to put together a good spiel (the family trade) for Al & Martin !

Nanosolar website says that EV cars are 4 times more efficient than fuel based cars. Also have a graph comparing “distance a car could go” based on energy generated from a 2.5 acre piece of land. Bioethanol distance=22,500 KM, PV solar distance=3,250,000 KM. I don’t know if this is distance per year or what, but it shows differential-another Convenient Fact. “Harvesting natural earth phenomenoa”, what a concept : solar, wind, geothermal (& tides, river power) vs. burning current or ancient organic matter-in the future it’ll be no contest.

Is case anyone was wondering about the presidential race situation, do a google search on “Evelyn de Rothschild and Hillary Clinton”. The Clintons have been farm team members of the Rothschild banking family from day one- or, more aptly, from when Bill was 18 and campaigned for the guy running for gov. of Arkansas at the time- one Winthrop Rockefeller- member of the the U.S. branch family of the cabal running the planet-whose most connected/prominent member is David Rockefeller. This cabal is, of course, that which killed the Kennedys and M.L. King-and brought us Bush/Cheney, and phony Iraq war (oh, and Vietnam too-but of course) -actually the total phony “us vs. them” arab conflict as well. Bush family has been more tied in with these weasels than any family in U.S. history. They hit the U.S. with a scam/strife like Iraq every now and then, and then they offer up a time of peace and “change”-so here comes Obama-” Mr. (in the pocket) Change” . Yeah, so “then there’s Obama”, who worked for a year (between Columbia Univ. and Harvard law school) at a strange company called “Business International Corp.” (found on Obama wikipedia site, unless since removed- I haven’t checked). When this company’s founder died it was sold to two groups: Economist Group of London (a known weasel outlet featuring Henry Kissinger and other cabal valets) and members of the english Rothschild family (per wikipedia site again)- of which Evelyn Rothschild is one. So there you have it. Oh, but I forgot to mention: Gore’s oldest daughter also married a member of the Schiff family- Jacob Schiff being one of the Rothschild agents who set up our Federal Reserve/IRS in the early 1900’s, along with, among others, members of the Warburg banking family-the other Rotshchild set -up family assigned to run the U.S. The Schiff family lived next to the original Rothschild (Amsel Mayer) in the Frankfurt ghetto circa mid 1700’s. Of course dumbed down America knows nothing of this. A ” U.S.A. Today” poll said that 3 out of 4 democrats would like Hillary to run again some time. Oh yeah, for what ?-what is this an annointed dynasty ! ? (well yes Virginia, it is-by the Rothschild et al cabal in fact). So, 300 million people in this country and “Billary is all we get?”-brilliant-a nation of dummies on our hands, on average. As for Gore, I do believe that if he really fit into the cabal’s long range plans du jour, they would have herded America into voting for him in numbers that would have clinched it (he was a victim of premeditated mass media sabotage, per recent “Vanity Fair” mag. article). Perhaps there are “kinder, gentler members of the cabal” overuled by the uberweasels. Who knows ? As for McCain, who knows as well-but you know halibut well that he’s been pre-approved. Your last real president, I hate to tell you was JFK- it would have been RFK but they made sure he dropped out early. Poor expendable Sirhan was framed-not a lone nut, just another lone patsy (MK Ultra and all of that-all records of which were conveniently destroyed right after the Pentagon Papers were leaked- couldn’t risk another leak on that item, you know). So, we have the Bush Dynasty and the Billary Dynasty, with a “Jimmy Carter-like in-from-left -field agent of change named Obama sprinkled in to make it all look legit. This is all scripted Star Trek stuff. Yeah- the Kennedys were NASA by comparison: no script, it was real. Welcome to the Truman Show.

Doug, any of these? :
California commuter
Assorted 3 wheelers
RQR XR3
Fire Aero
Triac
T-Rex

I know Martin isn’t favorable towards 3 wheelers due to their general lack of safety equipment.

How about these?

Zap Alias
BugEV
SAM
VW GX3
Sparrow

Gabe-I caught part of it on PBS but I’m on Pacific Time, not been aired by other networks yet-will watch ABC at 7:00. I note that Gore mentioned Lincoln’s lack of experience-same as I did here a few days ago-”right on, far out ” (per John Denver). Gore said Lincoln served one term in congress-what he should have said was that that consisted of one 2 year term in the House of Rep.- Lincoln agreed with “party bosses” to do this and then to step down so that someone else they liked could run. Yeah, everything I’ve ever heard Gore talk about I’ve agreed with. He’s been the best out there for decades (since RFK Jr. and Joe Kennedy II aren’t in politics). It’ll be great on Jan. 21. ‘09 when the pig is finally out of the Pig Pen on Pennsylvannia Ave. – it will require a thorough hosing down. McCain’s ads are incredible- spreading lies- which means he is basically another die-hard republican style disinformation monger. Not even 10% of this country should be dumb enough to go for it- how’d we, of all “advanced countries” get so dumb and gullible ” on average” ? – answer: the power of the conniving lobbyists/media/spin doctors. That’s still no excuse, per Lincoln’s “you can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”. Far too many people in this country continually fall into the first category-like a frickin’ ball and chain dragging the rest of us down. The housing crisis is a perfect example: lying Wall St. weasels, lying weasel mortgage people, and dumb home buyers-the perfect storm. Not only that, the dumb home buyers have huge credit bills-they say that the avg. American has a credit card bill of about $16,000. Incredible-I’ve never in my life had a credit card balance-not even $10 bucks-and my mortgage has been paid off for a few years now. But, as an architect, guess what ? – it’s a recession out there for halibut sure in my line of work-thank’s to all the “Green Day style American Idiots” out there. Eight years of Gore would have changed everything-or eight years of just about any Kennedy you could name (but of course “that’s not allowed”-in our faux-free country/world).

TEG — nope, sorry. Those are all definitely too tall.

Maybe what I saw was somebody’s home project.

Thanks for trying (again)!

Chimp,

You’ve got a cool idea, but the problem I see is that you’d be fighting with Tesla itself on some items (transmission, batteries, motors, main components, ect) and with all the other car customizing outlets on others (stereo, wheels, tires). All of the Tesla’s parts are either extremely proprietary or off-the-shelf (even if it’s lotus’s shelf), as I understand it.

The best you could hope for is to create a clearing house for accessories that have been tested and are known to work well with the Roadster.

Either way, your biggest problem is going to be a very small market for the next couple of years.

Martin sez:

But it would sure be fun!

Hi,

for those of you that hadn’t seen yet the production chevy volt to be in Transformers 2.

Regards

Does anyone have experience with the Kenwood DVD/Navigation Package? This pairs their KVT-512 in-dash DVD player with the KNA-G510 navigation system — which is actually a re-branded GARMIN nav system. I have a GARMIN 2820 nav system now and love it. Does anyone know if this Kenwood solution would fit in the Roadster?

Having been in fly-over land, I’m curious to hear what your real, hard thoughts are on energy usage are now. Do you feel we’re ready to have a Great Dpression/WWII moment where we all tuck in and dig deep and get things done? Or will we continue to limp along and pretend like there are no problems?

Will the presidential election give a true indicator of our direction? Should I continue to practice my french-canadian?

Martin,

Can you comment on your experience with the MultiVex side mirrors and the MicroMirror replacement of the OEM rearview mirror? Have the results been to your liking, and would you recommend their use for other Tesla owners?

Martin sez:

Will do soon.

Martin,

Very upset to see 60 Minutes (10-5-08)give your kudos and all of the credit for your vision to E.M. I will be drafting them an email. We know the truth Martin and Mark.

Sincerely,
Susie Stutsman

Martin, Thanks for the ride!!! I have been impressed with what you and your friends have done from day one! I’m surpised that the car has been allowed to go as far as it has! It is about time you have finally recieved yours!!!
I would like to ask you why can we not make a conversion kit that would bolt up to any gas cars transmission? An adaptor plate,your motor,a bed plate,add all of the ACC. that go with whatever car your converting. The cars systems run on the regular 12 volt, while your motor runs on your battery pack.Two seperate systems. By taking the gas engine out, you how have room for all or most of the items needed for your motor.By not running everything off your battery pack it should run longer!By using a mutiple gear transmission you would also be able to keep the RPM’S down while you would be able to increase your speed also adding to the batteries life!!! There are many cars out there that would do just fine with 248 HP under their hoods!!!There are a great many things or ways that you could use your motor.I am not looking for anything from you, I am just tired of seeing the little guys —- — So that the money man can make more of what he really doesn’t need.It is long overdue for someone to take control out of the oilmans grasp.
Thanks ME !!!!!!!!!