Founder, Publisher, and Editorial Director of the 925, LLC publications.
Seth Weintraub is an award-winning engineer, journalist, and publisher who won back-to-back Neal Awards from 2007–2010 during his three-plus years covering Apple and Google at IDG’s Computerworld.
From 2010-2011, Weintraub covered all things Google for Fortune Magazine, amassing an impressive rolodex of Google contacts and a love for Silicon Valley tech culture.
It turns out that his hobby – the 9to5Mac news site – was always his favorite, and in 2011, he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to 9to5Google, in addition to adding the style and commerce component of 9to5Toys gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of Tesla’s first Model S EVs off of the assembly line, which began his love affair with electric vehicles and green energy — this, in turn, became Electrek in 2014. To cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAVs led by China’s DJI, DroneDJ was born in 2018, and then more recently, Connectthewatts and SpaceExplored were launched to cover connected fitness and space.
From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies, with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid, and London before becoming a publisher/writer.
Seth received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Master’s from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.
Weintraub is a licensed single-engine private pilot and a certified open-water scuba diver, and he spent over a year backpacking to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his wonderful girlfriend, Alana, and two amazing sons.
More: About.me. BI 2014 profile.
Tips: seth@925.co, or llsethj on Threads/BlueSky or link at top of page.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1jwWwJ-Mxc&feature=youtu.be]
Good ad spot to hit the masses with on Superbowl Sunday. I agree with the thesis that the idea electric cars is in its infancy but the future is so certainly bright.
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534&v=RBkND76J91k]
This is my exact reason for starting this site.
[tweet https://twitter.com/llsethj/status/402446541031755776]
Redditor AFDIT gives a good overview overview of the talk above:
EVs:
Solar:
Tony Seba, author of “Clean Disruption” gives the keynote address at the AltCars Expo and Conference,Sept 19, 2014.The keynote is titled “Clean Disruption: 100% electric transportation and 100% solar power by 2030″.
The book ‘Clean Disruption’ and this keynote assert that by 2030:
• All new mass-market vehicles will be electric.
• All of these vehicles will be autonomous (self-driving).
• Up to 80 per cent of parking spaces and highways will be redundant.
• Taxis as we know them will be obsolete.
• The concept of car ownership will be obsolete.
• Oil will be obsolete
• All new energy will be provided by solar (and wind)
BMW of North America, Volkswagen of America and ChargePoint Inc. will construct up to 100 charging stations in “express charging corridors” from San Diego to Portland, Ore., on the West Coast and Boston to Washington on the East Coast.
Construction has already started on the Western corridor, where a string of new charging stations will allow vehicles to travel the length of California and into Oregon. As many as 100 stations will be up and running by the end of 2015, said Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint’s president and chief executive.
Each station will include one or two 50-kilowatt DC Fast chargers or 24-kilowatt DC Combo Fast chargers, developed by BMW in partnership with Bosch. Those chargers — typically used for BMW and VW vehicles, as well as the Chevy Spark EV — can bring a vehicle up to 80% power in less than 30 minutes.
A lot of important considerations here (original Press release). These may or may not be compatible with Chademo cars (Nissan Leafs in particular) and Tesla will need an adapter if these will work at all with their vehicles. (All Electric Vehicles can take advantage of the Level 2 AC chargers but those only provide 20 or so miles per hour of charge).
The bigger consideration for the broad idea of these chargers is that for sub-100 mile vehicles, it doesn’t represent a complete long distance solution. The BMW i3, Chevy Spark, Volkswagon eGulf and all of the other cars that get <100 miles/charge and indeed what Chargepoint is calculating in the Press release and the graphic – this only represents a stop gap.
You travel for an hour (maybe 90 minutes tops) then you charge for a half hour (20 minutes gets you to 80% in a perfect situation).
That’s not going to be a great trip, though it may make a trip from Boston to New York or other 150-200 mile trips bearable.
Tesla is still king of the EV road trip wit its 200-300 mile batteries and Supercharger network which allows fast charging up to 130kW. That means Tesla drivers can easily travel 3 hours between charging and get back on the road in about a half hour – which is similar to gas road trips.
GM and others are planning 200+ Mile EVs for 2017 and beyond however these charging stations are going to max out at 50kW meaning that to fill a 200Mile range battery will take an hour plus – still not a great situation for road trips. SAE Level 2 DC charging spec maxes out at 90A, already far below Tesla’s 130KW Superchargers.
SAE DC level 3 charging however might be a solution with its insane 240kW max. That would theoretically take a 300 mile battery pack to 80% charge in 10 minutes…the future.
Press release follows:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVD8fmMwWPA]
I just got the update this morning and am starting to play with the new stuff. Above is a great video overview of the changes.
[tweet https://twitter.com/llsethj/status/558299277886521344]
[tweet https://twitter.com/chevrolet/status/558315603111735297]
Great news for those who were hoping for wider distribution of the low cost EV that accelerates faster than some Ferraris.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nPsQQkPev0]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWGKSv63DIw]
Really enjoyed this. Especially the solar/consumer options.
At a earnings call last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted that the Chinese market for Teslas was tricky because most of the target audience was chauffeur-driven. At the time, he said an executive back seat option was in the works. Together with the update of the site this weekend, Tesla introduced a new option for an executive rear seat which unsurprisingly looks like the front seats with cupholder/armrest but not as much lateral support.
I have a feeling these will be popular outside of China as well.
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[tweet https://twitter.com/chevrolet/status/554623862462488576]
As predicted, Chevy announced a Tesla Model 3 competitor called the Bolt EV concept today.
I can’t say I agree with the color choice but I like the specs. Specifically “over 200 miles on a charge for a $30,000 price tag” makes it a game changer and puts it in line with the Tesla Model 3. It also doesn’t look like it will be crippled in the interior space category like the Volt.
As for aesthetics, it looks like a Spark EV super-sized.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViA-972a_dg]
It is just doing speed now but the hardware in the car can do turning and lanes.
This is what I’ve been saying. As a plug-in Prius owner with more than half the i8’s range I can tell you both are BS as electric cars. Sure it looks sporty, but it ain’t a great car.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvwYLIOQiK8]
Yeah, that’s a clickbait title but truth be told…well…the reaction is probably as good or better than the title would have implied. I’ll let myself out now (sorry)
Here’s a few guys:
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INdBWri4WSA]
This is the same prototype Model X that has been shown off at other venues and isn’t the final version but it was nice to get a good look at it. Seeing it in person, I noticed the frunk is huge. What isn’t huge however is the legroom in back. I’m hoping Tesla has some novel solution to adding more legroom in the back.
Also, where does my snowboard go on the roof with those Falcon wing doors?
(image is a volt crossover concept car)
General Motors Co. plans to launch a $30,000 electric vehicle called the Chevrolet Bolt that would be capable of driving 200 miles on a charge by 2017, according to people familiar with the strategy, a move to gain ground on Tesla Motors Inc.
GM will show off a concept version of the Bolt on Monday at the Detroit auto show, eight years after the auto giant disclosed it would re-enter the electric car market with the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt, on sale since late 2010 and redesigned for 2015, is being upgraded to get better capability and sharper design, and has a backup gasoline motor on board in case juice runs out.
The Chevy Bolt, carrying a more capable battery manufactured by South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. , will be aimed squarely at Tesla’s forthcoming Model 3, a $35,000 electric car also slated to debut in 2017. The concept version of the electric car will be a hatchback designed to look more like a so-called crossover vehicle, according to people familiar with the design. The Bolt will be capable of driving four times farther than a Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid on a single charge.
This is great news for electric vehicle fans but a lot of questions still need to be answered. The foremost on my mind is quick charging. Will GM set up a global network of fast DC charging stations? With the Bolt be able to charge as fast as Tesla’s offering?
The pack for GM’s new vehicle could be built in LG Chem’s Holland, Mich., plant, where the Volt batteries currently are made by the same supplier. That plant would have a capacity to build about 60,000 Volt battery packs, or 20,000 of the larger packs for a new EV, or a mixture of the two.
LG Chems’s battery improvements to make it possible to for GM to create the low-cost EV include better durability and electrical controls. Also, LG will use more of the available storage capacity in the cell than it does on the Volt. Plug-in hybrids can use less available storage capacity because of the constant charging from the gasoline engine. If more charge is used, it would limit the life of the battery.
“We have progressed far enough that it gives us a high level of confidence that in the 2017 kind of a time frame, there are no show stoppers or gotchas that we don’t know how to get over,” Prabhakar Patil, the chief executive of LG Chem Power Inc., the U.S.-based battery arm of the Korean electronics giant, said in an interview.
The Bolt also will be a crossover which will appeal to a wide group of people and will go up against Tesla’s Model 3 (which is expected in a number of configurations including a crossover variety).
Some serious branding on this. More here.
Reports out of the Bay Area this morning say that a man and his 2014 were found at the bottom of a cliff off the 1A in Sonoma county north of San Francisco. The man was pronounced dead at the scene and represents the first owner fatality of a Model S driver. It isn’t clear yet if the crash was an accident.
A male driver died after crashing off of state Highway 1 north of Jenner in Sonoma County Tuesday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol. The crash was reported at about 8:20 a.m., when a passerby observed a car that had gone off of the highway and went about 300 feet down a cliff, CHP officials said. Emergency responders found a 2014 Tesla at the bottom of the cliff with a male dead behind the wheel, according to the CHP. The crash remains under investigation by the CHP and no other information was immediately available this afternoon.
The crash represents the first owner fatality behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S though a stolen Model S that hit a pole at over 100mph and split in half killed the suspect who was then revived and died a few days later in Los Angeles.
Tesla previously boasted how safe its Model S was including the 0 fatality record which will obviously have to be revised.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/550297471289552898
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter this morning promising to deliver on an announcement he made at the D event a few months ago.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ6lZJWL_Xk&start=563]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cA1doO_9h8]
More of the same…I’d like to see the P85D put up against the Bugatti Veyron Supersport in a 0-30. It might be close
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/548257415536594944]
This might improve the resale value of these guys though I don’t think Tesla has any plans to release a new one. As Musk adds, nothing is immediately in the works for the Model S but I’ve heard that a 100+kWh battery is being tested for possible future use with the Model X.
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/548269323681529856]
Update: Here’s the post
Battery technology has continued a steady improvement in recent years, as has our experience in optimizing total vehicle efficiency. We have long been excited to apply our learning back to our first vehicle, and are thrilled to do just that with the prototype Roadster 3.0 package. It consists of three main improvement areas.
1. Batteries
The original Roadster battery was the very first lithium ion battery put into production in any vehicle. It was state of the art in 2008, but cell technology has improved substantially since then. We have identified a new cell that has 31% more energy than the original Roadster cell. Using this new cell we have created a battery pack that delivers roughly 70kWh in the same package as the original battery.2. Aerodynamics
The original Roadster had a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.36. Using modern computational methods we expect to make a 15% improvement, dropping the total Cd down to 0.31 with a retrofit aero kit.3. Rolling Resistance
The original Roadster tires have a rolling resistance coefficient (Crr) of 11.0 kg/ton. New tires that we will use on the Roadster 3.0 have a Crr of roughly 8.9 kg/ton, about a 20% improvement. We are also making improvements in the wheel bearings and residual brake drag that further reduce overall rolling resistance of the car.Summary
Combining all of these improvements we can achieve a predicted 40-50% improvement on range between the original Roadster and Roadster 3.0. There is a set of speeds and driving conditions where we can confidently drive the Roadster 3.0 over 400 miles. We will be demonstrating this in the real world during a non-stop drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the early weeks of 2015.We are confident that this will not be the last update the Roadster will receive in the many years to come.
Happy Holidays.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e-jquwHKtI]
Same as Ferrari. The first 30 seconds seems unbeatable by ICE engines according to Motor Trend. The P85D takes 0.83 seconds to hit 24 mph and 1.2 seconds to reach 33 mph. They clocked the full 0-to-60 run at 3.1 seconds, a tenth of a second quicker than Tesla’s own number.
And it seats 7.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zrVehqN4ZM]
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/545967015521820672]
It appears that Tesla Motors is ready to open its super-quick battery swapping stationn along the Los Angeles to San Francisco route according to Tweet by CEO Elon Musk, above.
Update: Tesla now posts some details on their Blog:
At an event in Los Angeles last year, we showcased battery swap technology to demonstrate that it’s possible to replace a Model S battery in less time than it takes to fill a gas tank. This technology allows Model S owners in need of a battery charge the choice of either fast or free. The free long distance travel option is already well covered by our growing Supercharger network, which is now at 312 stations with more than 1,748 Superchargers worldwide. They allow Model S drivers to charge at 400 miles per hour. Now we’re starting exploratory work on the fast option.
Starting next week, we will pilot a pack swap program with invited Model S owners. They will be given the opportunity to swap their car’s battery at a custom-built facility located across the street from the Tesla Superchargers at Harris Ranch, CA. This pilot program is intended to test technology and assess demand.
At least initially, battery swap will be available by appointment and will cost slightly less than a full tank of gasoline for a premium sedan. More time is needed to remove the titanium and hardened aluminum ballistic plates that now shield the battery pack, so the swap process takes approximately three minutes.
With further automation and refinements on the vehicle side, we are confident that the swap time could be reduced to less than one minute, even with shields. Tesla will evaluate relative demand from customers for paid pack swap versus free charging to assess whether it merits the engineering resources and investment necessary for that upgrade.
I agree except probably 50 years.
Such is the pace of change in this industry, however, I have since driven two such vehicles that would improve the motoring lives of a great many people. The first was the Audi A3 e-tron, and the second this Tesla Model S, which is not only the most important car to arrive in the UK this year, but arguably the past 20 years.
It is significant because it’s a fully electric vehicle, as opposed to the petrol-electric hybrid Audi, and also because it moves the game on in a way few cars have ever managed.
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(as of this writing 2/3rds of the readers agree in the poll.)
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDD-xDJtCxg]
Further illustrating you are driving around a computer in your center stack.