Apr 04
The Tesla car company isn’t shy about breaking from automotive standard practice, building fast, near-silent
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Oct 30
Tesla Officially Opens West Coast Supercharger Circuit, Covering San Diego To Vancouver
Posted in: Today's ChiliTesla’s West Coast Supercharger Corridor opened today, making it possible for owners of the Model S to travel free between San Diego and Vancouver, using Highway 101 and Interstate 5. This makes a Supercharger reachable within 200 miles to over 99 percent of Californians and 87 percent of those in Oregon and Washington.
A lot of attention has been paid to Tesla’s efforts to make a coast-to-coast trip in one of its vehicles a reality, via Superchargers and other charging stations, but blanketing the West Coast means that Tesla S owners can now travel from essentially the Mexican border to within the Canadian one without paying any money to fill their cars, and with a minimal amount of charging time required. Superchargers can charge a Tesla S to a capacity worth around 200 miles of driving distance in just 30 minutes, and the stations are positioned near restaurants and shopping centers to give you something to do while your car powers up.
To promote the new corridor, Tesla is having two Model S vehicles make the trip from San Diego to Vancouver, and they’ll be pushing updates to their various social media properties along the way. Spoiler alert: those cars are definitely going to make it without incident.
Supercharger rollout continues globally, with Tesla announcing plans in September to cover 100 percent of the population of Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and Luxembourg, and 90 percent of the population in England, Wales, and Sweden with a station within 320 kms by the end of 2014. Getting past that basic excuse of “I can’t buy one, there’s nowhere to charge” is clearly a huge part of the company’s global rollout strategy, which is why each of these Supercharger network expansions is a big win for Tesla and for founder Elon Musk.
Aug 25
The Tesla Model S did make our headlines more than a week ago, bumping into an utility pole and causing a blackout of the area along the way. This time around, here we are with additional details concerning the Tesla Model S – it could very well be hacked. The Model S allegedly has a weak spot, which would be the security of its API (application programming interface) authentication.
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Tesla API Deemed More Vulnerable To Hacks By Expert original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Aug 16
Stop me if you heard this before but an electric car and an electric pole walk into a bar… Okay, seriously. This is one of those ridiculous local news stories that are too perfect to be true but actually are. A Tesla Model S crashed into a utility pole in Tennessee and caused a local blackout.
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Aug 07
Tesla Model S deliveries begin outside of North America, starting with Norway
Posted in: Today's Chili
Tesla’s four-door Model S has been trickling into North American garages for a couple of years now, and it seems that production has ramped up enough to finally begin deliveries internationally. Starting today, Model S buyers across various ponds will begin to see stock appear. As seen above, the action is starting in Oslo, Norway, where that guy in the driver seat looks particularly charged up about the parade that awaits. Sorry. It seemed funnier in the moment.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Tesla (Twitter)
Jul 17
It can’t be easy to build a car, but the factory where Teslas are born makes it looks like a piece of cake. The folks over at Wired took a look behind the scenes to watch rolls of aluminum transform into fully functional electric cars, and it’s a sight to behold.
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May 29
May 07
Tesla Model S Has Secret Menu
Posted in: Today's Chili
Do you love Easter Eggs in video games as well as other kinds of software? Who would have thought that an Easter Egg of sorts can be found within the menu system of an electric car? That is exactly what folks discovered about the Tesla Model S, which so happened to have picked up just about every kind of automotive award that it could possibly pick up last year, but that does not mean it is the perfect ride. There is a new range of menus which remain hidden within the giant touch screen in the Model S, dropping hints that a couple those features might be on their way – in addition to a lane departure warning, too.
There is no firm word on what those options would be, but at least we do know that the software in action is in the prototype stage at this point in time. Of course, one cannot rule out the possibility that Tesla could very well install a slew of sensors on the sly without informing anyone, and to have these features switched on, it might require a whole lot more than a mere software update. Other unannounced apps that were hinted in the hidden menu include an image viewer, a sketch pad, a scheduler/calendar and different test apps.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Terrafugia TF-X Plug-In Hybrid Flying Car , Mitsubishi Works On Wireless Remote Charging For Electric Vehicles, 
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Apr 26
The Tesla Model S’ Battery Is Now Covered By A Nearly Unconditional Warranty
Posted in: Today's Chili
Without proper care batteries can wither and die like a delicate tulip roasting in the bright sun from an unseasonably warm spring day — a fact made exponentially worse when the battery in your $60k vehicle no longer functions properly.
With that in mind, Tesla just unveiled an impressive new warranty for the Model S battery pack. With the notable exception of a vehicle accident or a curious owner opening the battery pack, under this new plan, Tesla will replace the battery pack for any reason including user error and improper maintenance.
Best of all, users do not have to worry about servicing the vehicle on a regular basis. Annual checkups are now completely optional, meaning the warranty will still be valid if the owner never takes the vehicle in for service.
Tesla states in a blog post today that the company took great pains in developing a proper battery and therefore if something goes wrong, it’s on them, not the owner.
If needed, the battery will be replaced with a factory reconditioned unit with an energy capacity equal to or better than the original pack before the failure occurred.
Sounds like a fair deal for the pricey Model S.
Better yet, Tesla also announced a service loaner program in which if an owner’s Model S needs to go in for service, the company will deliver a fully decked out Model S as a loaner until the original is repaired. Take a shine to the fancy loaner? No worries, Tesla will let you keep the loaner and pay a price that is lower by 1% per month of age and $1 per mile. As Tesla notes in the announcement, this practice will ensure the loaner fleet is constantly refreshed with new vehicles rather than becoming the equivalent of a rental car fleet.
If nothing else, Tesla and its billionaire founder are becoming very good at playing the media game. This announcement comes just weeks after the company rolled out a new payment plan (complete with a very shady marketing plan) to make the Model S more affordable. And let’s not forget Musk just not-so-quietly put up $50k of his own cash to speed up construction on LA’s 405 freeway. Why pay for press when you can get it for free?
Apr 01
Thinking of picking up the budget Tesla Model S? Think again: the electric automaker just announced that it won’t be sending its 40 kWh battery pack option into production, citing a lack of customer demand. Customers who opted for the lower range configuration will still get a car, of course, but it will be a 60 kWh machine with software restrictions on range. It sounds like a raw deal, but Tesla promises customers that the artificially limited Model S will reap unexpected benefits from the battery swap — that is, improved acceleration and a higher top speed. All of the company’s 60 kWh cars will be built with Supercharger hardware, too. Finally, the company announced that it surpassed its first quarter sales goal, having delivered 4,750 Model S vehicles on its planned 4,500. This gives it a head start on its year-end goal of delivering 20,000 cars in 2013 and presumably secures the Q1 profits it promised shareholders back in February. Curious onlookers and Department of Energy collectors can find the details after the break.
Filed under: Transportation
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