2021 Tesla Model 3 Performance on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Panasonic not sure about Tesla Gigafactory commitment; Texas dealers wary, too

Just about the entire US southwest is ready to jump into the financial bed with Tesla Motors as the electric-vehicle maker looks for a place to put its massive "gigafactory." But lithium-ion battery maker Panasonic? Not so much, says Bloomberg News. Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga spoke to a group of reporters in Tokyo and said he strategically understood the need for Tesla to go large-scale with its factory production, especially as it prepares to debut an SUV as well as a model that will be priced at about half of what a Model S costs. But, he added cautiously, there will be significant risk involved in the investment and his company hasn't committed to its involvement just yet. Texas dealers are already sounding the alarm against changing franchise laws to woo the battery plant. Panasonic or not, Tesla is taking the "go big or go home" approach to a factory that it says will cost about $5 billion ($2 billion already committed from Tesla itself) and may support 6,500 jobs. That latter point has states such as Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas tripping over themselves to figure out the financial incentives necessary to be the further production base for California-based Tesla. Texas auto dealers are already sounding the alarm against changing the state's franchise laws to woo the automaker's battery plant. An open letter sent by the Texas Automobile Dealers Association says it does not believe, "that economic development efforts to bring any business to Texas should in any way be connected to changing established laws in Texas for the singular benefit of any one company. ... We believe this sets a bad precedent for future economic development efforts by linking them to special interest changes in law." Last fall, Tesla expanded its battery-production agreement with Panasonic, saying at the time that Panasonic would provide almost 2 million automotive-grade battery cells for the Model S and Model X during the next four years.

Elon Musk's Hyperloop idea still in motion

After teasing the concept in 2012, Tesla CEO Elon Musk released some thoughts on a high-speed transportation project called the Hyperloop in 2013. He then promptly renounced any claim on the idea and said he would not actually build the open source project. The hyperloop didn't die, though, and is still attracting new brainpower. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies was officially formed with a JumpStartFund late last year, a few months after Musk made the concept public. The company has since grown into a collective of about 100 engineers who have full-time gigs with companies such as Boeing, Airbus, NASA and, of course, Musk's own SpaceX, Wired says. Some students at UCLA are taking part in the design process, which is detailed in a new "crowdstorm" document. The idea behind the Hyperloop is to build above-ground tubes where passenger capsules devoid of friction (with the help of either air compression or magnetic levitation) can travel up to 800 miles per hour between cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. The HTT collective is already talking about having economy- and business-class capsules. The good news is that the group says the early predictions for Hyperloop remain realistic. That means a timeframe of about a decade to complete the first system with a price tag of between $6 billion and $10 billion is still on the table. For now, at least. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. Announces New Designs, Crowdstorming Document and Core Team EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Dec. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. powered by JumpStartFund announced today the crossing of major milestones, bringing the company closer to the goal of creating a working high speed mass transit system. These milestones include the finalization of the company's 100 core team members and the publishing of a new crowdstorm document. Recently acquiring its 100 core team members, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is powered by the unique collaboration platform JumpStartFund. These 100 members are professionals, engineers and designers from some of the most esteemed organizations on the planet, including Boeing, Airbus, NASA, Harvard, UCLA, Stanford, and others, collaborating globally in the U.S., Asia, Australia and Europe. The company released a new crowdstorm document expanding on concepts and sharing the most recent developments produced by the company. Highlights from the paper include a detailed cost, route and safety analyses.

Carmakers, NHTSA to unveil auto-emergency braking agreement tomorrow

Happy St. Patrick's Day Eve. Tomorrow, there will be green beer, corned beef and cabbage, and automatic emergency braking for all. Weird combo, we know. But on St. Patty's we can expect an official announcement from a pact of automakers making auto-braking systems standard equipment by 2022. That's per a report from Reuters, which cites three sources familiar with the plans. Originally announced in September 2015 by 10 automakers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the agreement is expected to be even larger when the details are unveiled tomorrow. According to Reuters, the manufacturers of 99 percent of the US domestic market's vehicles will be represented by the new agreement. It's believed that standard AEB systems could prevent thousands of accidents across the country. Expect more on the official announcement when it's made. Related Video: