Tesla to blanket the US with supercharging stations in 2 years

[Gadzooks]

[mesmith31]

[aturnis]

I wouldn't call 100 charging stations across the entirety of the US "blanketing". Two per state, really there will be entire states with no charging stations. This is whack.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by aturnis

I wouldn't call 100 charging stations across the entirety of the US "blanketing". Two per state, really there will be entire states with no charging stations. This is whack.

If the cars prove popular those stations will grow like broadband and cellular coverage.

[SPATCH]

Originally Posted by aturnis

I wouldn't call 100 charging stations across the entirety of the US "blanketing". Two per state, really there will be entire states with no charging stations. This is whack.

Yes this is whack, guys. I require instant gratification and do not ever think of things in a broad context and most certainly do not think in terms existing outside of my own lifespan. /america

[aturnis]

Originally Posted by the_spatula

Yes this is whack, guys. I require instant gratification and do not ever think of things in a broad context and most certainly do not think in terms existing outside of my own lifespan. /america

All I said is they need to scale back the hype when they really aren't doing much. Hell, they won't even have one in every major city. KC probably won't see one.

[SPATCH]

Originally Posted by aturnis

All I said is they need to scale back the hype when they really aren't doing much. Hell, they won't even have one in every major city. KC probably won't see one.

You ever hear the phrase, "Rome wasn't built in a day"? Jesus Christ, man.

[aturnis]

Originally Posted by the_spatula

You ever hear the phrase, "Rome wasn't built in a day"? Jesus Christ, man.

Jesus Christ man. Get it through your head. All I said was don't call it blanketing. Maybe polka dotting, or pimpling. Maybe even back acne-ing.

[aturnis]

What's disappointing is I talked with a rep from Philips the other day, and asked about their innovations in low voltage lighting, specifically their color kinetics line. He told me they were pretty much going to completely scrap low voltage lighting. I was shocked.

The reason, the "industry" prefers line voltage. Meaning, electricians don't want to learn how to install/troubleshoot it, and don't want to lose that scope of work to low voltage techs b/c it likely wouldn't require a license. Total copout.

So they'll continue making LED lights that screw into your existing wiring and have a driver locally that fails long before the LED's will, b/c of all the wasted energy to heat, and continue selling them for $65 a pop.

Screw that. There is no reason I shouldn't be able to run a cat 5/6 to every light location and power my light with a poe or upoe switch, with a central driver hooked up to a simple APC battery backup so I don't lose lights during a power outage. Not to mention full controllability from "smart" devices.

Would make troubleshooting and upgrading much much easier in the future when more high tech systems come out. Such as light harvesting and LiFi tech(internet over light).

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I'd actually be more interested to know about the engineering challenges facing the reactors.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

I'd actually be more interested to know about the engineering challenges facing the reactors.

I really can't speak to ITER as much as I can NIF. With NIF you have a hohlraum, which is basically a little metal cylinder that holds the fuel you plan to fuse.



NIF has 192 lasers that they fire simultaneously at the hohlraum which are supposed to create the necessary heat and pressure to cause ignition. The problem so far has been that the compression hasn't been even... and it has to be. There are two ways to address the issue. 1)you mess with the hohlraum 2)you mess with the lasers. There are quite a few who think it's simply a question of increasing the laser output which is of course easier said than done.

They were making gains on these fronts when Congress and Obama decided to redirect their resources and scale back the project. They are still moving forward but at a much slower rate.

The most frustrating thing about NIF is that everyone agrees that it SHOULD work right now. They have met the requirements that everything we know to create the computer models say we need to meet. As with anything like this it may never work, BUT they are so close "in theory" that they could try one thing and get ignition tomorrow. Of course they get fewer and fewer chances to try different things with less and less funding.

Ok that was a very simplified version of the main issues they face at NIF. NIF is a mix of engineering issues (increasing the laser power, hohlraum shape, size, material, etc) and the fundamental physics issue of why it doesn't work now when the models say it should.

It;s important to remember that NIF is BRAND NEW and already people are giving up on it. The facility was supposed to achieve ignition in September of 2012. They are only what, 8 months behind?

Fun fact for those who have seen the new Star Trek movie... the warp core in the movie... that's NIF! (well parts of it at least)

[HC_Chief]

That Tesla sedan is frigging sweet. I have seen several on the streets here in Cali over the past few days. I would love to have one....too bad they are $100k+

[AustinChief]

Another pic from NIF.

(as far as I know that is not standard attire nor does NIF have photon torpedoes... as far as I know...)