Watch This Tesla Drive Itself at the Press of a Button [video]
techcrunch.com
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It's difficult to explain in just words how fast 3.2 seconds is and I had a difficult time grasping it myself until I actually sat in a Tesla P85D and experienced it going from 0-60 in a blazing quick three seconds. It felt like a completely different (and much quicker) car than the previous single-motor P85. The car accelerates so quickly with so much force that I found myself in disbelief and awe. Tesla truly engineered an amazing new version of the Model S.
This new dual-motor version of the Model S is available to order in the performance version and will be available in the 60kwh and 85kwh version vehicles in February. Overall, having an AWD dual-motor version expands the appeal of the Model S to more market segments, especially those in colder areas. And the addition of a dual-motor performance version catapults the P85D into the realm of a true super car.
Also in an unexpected and shocking move, Elon Musk announced Tesla's Autopilot hardware at last night's event. Most people were expecting some trivial driver assist features like lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control. Further, in previous interviews Elon had alluded to Autopilot being ready by the end of 2015. But in last night's announcement, Elon outlined a 4-part Autopilot system that would allow for driving to become increasingly autonomous over time.
The Autopilot system comprises of cameras, radar, sonar, and gps/navigation integration. At first, the system will allow for drivers to use Autopilot to keep in one's lane and to slow down or speed up depending on objects in front. Over time with software updates, Autopilot will allow for full autonomous driving from freeway on-ramp to freeway off-ramp. Autopilot will also allow for the car to be able to park itself or even for it to be summoned by the owner.
In my test ride last night in a P85D, there was a brief section where we were able to see the car drive itself autonomously. The car followed the roads as it curved and also adjusted for speed limits. It also managed to change lanes by the driver just turning the signal light on. It was quite impressive.
What's further impressive is that Autopilot is a feature that is now added on to the Tech Package at an additional minimal cost (new Tech package costs $4250 vs old Tech package costed $3750). This is a great deal and will make the car even more appealing to more people.
Here's the official video from last night's presentation by Elon regarding dual-motor and Autopilot. The Autopilot description is especially interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ6lZJWL_Xk
(ps, for those interested I curate a weekly email newsletter called Tesla Weekly, http://teslaweekly.com, with the latest news regarding Tesla)
Yes, an oranges to apples one. A $10,000 bike compared to a $100,000 car? A ~400 pound machine compared to a ~5000 pound one?
Yes, the Tesla is really cool, and has staggering acceleration, but let's not get silly with comparisons (and accolades) here.
You're right, it sounds like a reasonable frame of reference.
> I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around how they can replicate that experience inside of an _electric_ car.
Your gixxer (and my poor, now deceased, ninja) could only do it because these are vehicles not much heavier than 2x the weight of the owner. Insane power/weight ratio will do that for you.
But their engines, like any internal combustion engine, suck at low speed. Have you seen the dyno curve for torque? It's really low at first, and only then starts climbing, and climbing, and climbing.
An electric engine gives you maximum torque at any speed. Now imagine that on your sportbike. ;) When technology is more mature, all electric engines will run circles around internal combustion, on the 0-60 track.
So to compare how fast a S P85D is... Lamborghini Veneno is 2.8s 0-60 costs $4.5m. Porsche GT3 is 3.3s 0-60 costs $130k
The S P85D is a sedan family car with the power of a race car.. 2 electric motors powering an AWD setup. New models go 10 miles further then old models with a single electric motor. That's Innovation to be excited over.
We have a 55 mph zone near our house that anyone not from the area seems unable to believe (as it's a narrow, fairly winding two-lane road) and you get stuck behind them puttering along at 35 for a few miles.
[Note: The route to a friends house years ago did exactly this as you got away from developed areas.]
They are. All phones who have Google Maps installed, and have enabled reporting (anonymous) position data (might be default on some phones) are helping Google both see if there's a traffic jam somewhere, and see what the actual driving speeds on the roads are (by sampling at a certain interval and seeing distance traveled over time).
I happily contribute to this, I think it's a great idea to crowd-source traffic data. I do hope Google makes the data publicly available though.
The car should use the minimum speed limit from its set of stored speed limit signs, rules about local roads, and what it sees. If the car sees a speed limit sign that's "too high," it should call back to the mothership for a proper investigation (by the autodrive maker or the local police or both).
OLD POST (where I got your situation reversed):
It _should_ drop to 25 mph, because maybe someone in authority put a real 25 mph sign there. Then they should investigate who did that.
The countermeasure would be to take over the wheel.
The eventual countermeasure would be to have the speed limit sign broadcast its number over radiowaves, which is of course still something people can mess with, but requires a higher bar than a can of glue.
() { :; }; /usr/bin/media_play 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'