Popular Posts

Search This Blog

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Test drove the Fiat 500e today



Fiat is on a mission and they know how to show up with a bang
The test drive invitation was very compelling.
They had a quick and easy registration process - a hotline to ask any questions, while we waited in line. And once the test drive was done - you had Subway boxed lunch with some choice beverages to go. They intend grabbing market share - and are definitely putting their best foot forward.
How do they compare to the Tesla?
Read on...

Compelling features about the FIAT 500E?
0 to 60 in 9.1 seconds.
87 mile range.
And if you leased it, you received 12 days’ use of a gas-powered car?
83 kW electric motor delivers  111 horsepower
The turning radius is really good...makes an excellent test drive.
The interiors have a very refreshing cutting edge feel - it is a bit cramped sitting at the back seat, but I am a sucker for compacts!
It has a three-phase AC synchronous motor ,  111 horses and 147 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission. Energy is lies within a 24-kWh lithium-ion battery pack that lies underneath the body of the car - just like the Tesla.
How does it compare to the Tesla?
After rebate, it will be 20K. That is where the comparison ends.
Yes, it may not compare to the Tesla when it comes to performance or luxurious feel or range - but hey it provides you the bang for the buck. Tesla has a super charger grid, Fiat doesn't.

Fiat could be an excellent commute car to work or even for your kids.
The exterior styling works very well - and probably the most stylish of all the electric cars.
Spoke with the hotline after my test drive. The charging unit is $2k to $2.5K over and above; what about existing electric car owners who have setup? No answer from that

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Bullet Train? So 20th century! Are you thinking Star Trek ENERGIZE?

 

Elon Musk is now proposing a high speed transportation system called the hyperloop. NYC to San Francisco in an hour. How radical is that?

Elon Musk never shies away from taking the plunge whether it is space travel or electric car or paypal., does the Hyperlook look more imaginative? Well it took the Golden Gate Bridge decades of talk and inaction. FInally the proposal was presented in 1916 and the whetting took another decade; finally construction began in 1933 and the bridge was completed in 1937 ($35M, 11 lives lost). So what seems impossible is generally done. Elon Musk can definitely stand behind his talk, based on the plethora of accomplishments.

Elon has this vision of solar power for these tracks, and a pod system ("unscheduled" departure to suit your needs). Speeds would be approx 600mph, frictionless travel, noiseless travel (since you are traveling in a gigantic tube), and perhaps travel in a vacuum to enable the frictionless travel. The vacuum would enable supersonic speeds, but where do you get the energy for this travel? Solar?
Beats me. And how about the straight line travel? If you have too many curves, it would lead to passengers throwing up at such high speed. Regulatory permissions would be needed, perhaps even going over populous areas. So the approach for Musk would be to go airborne using his space travel prototype, flying higher than commercial airlines? That would lead to a lot of complexity. Keeping this a couple hundred feet above ground level.

Perhaps it will be like the pneumatic tube travel by the bank suction tubes, at the drive through; combination of compressed air and partial vacuum.

Elon Musk calls it "a cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table", cost less than a plane ticket or make a 300 mile journey via car., finish a 300 mile journey in 30 minutes - how cool is that?

Check out Elon Musk's grasshopper 12 storey flight prototype
Read about it here

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Holy Cow...How could they? Pilot Names

What after the TESLA?

Tesla Model S is seemingly the mother of all electric cars.
What else is in the pipeline to give the Tesla a run for it's "money"
Here are a few - The Tesla Model X will probably happen sometime in the summer of 2015 (book it now though)
What appeals to me is the two-seater electric car....hmm you are thinking roadster.
The Detroit Electric SP:01 is the world's fastest electric car, and is set to take on Paypal billionaire Elon Musk's Telsa Roadster
Nissan Leaf is not doing as well. Read this one
I do really like the Fiat
"At 108 MPGe highway, Fiat's 2013 500e electric car is the most efficient highway vehicle on sale in the U.S. It also manages an official 87 miles of range, greater than that of other similarly-sized electric cars and more even than some larger models.
While the 500's retro looks will always be an acquired taste, it's one of the more visually interesting electric cars on sale too. Not just thanks to its eye-searing orange paintwork, but also for the aerodynamic wheels, large white front grille and other white detailing.
Inside there's plenty of white and orange trim too, while the usual 500 dual-layer instrument dials are replaced by a TFT screen showing car data. A four-button console occupies the space you'd usually find a gear shifter. Like the BMW i3, customers will also get the use of a free loaner vehicle for longer journeys.
It's just a pity then that, despite all the effort Fiat and Chrysler have put into the 500e, that this one will remain a compliance car--so good luck getting your hands on one outside of California."

Diet drinks leading to weight gain? How atrocious

There is always a price to pay...no matter what
You are ingesting diet beverages - think aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin - with absolute abandon - but the effect of that is manifesting on your waist-line and your blood sugar, with the same abandon.
The metabolic imbalance consequence is far reaching
What gives you ask?
Here is a study diet soda consumption and weight gain over time.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/07/11/200488420/do-diet-drinks-mess-up-metabolisms

A key conclusion has been that the artificial sugar throws our body into a tail-spin and we do not know how to handle the "real thing" whenever it hits our system.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Estimate your Quantified-Self

Your daily life quantified into patterns of moods, behavior, external state (air quality, heat), physical state (blood pressure, blood sugar). This technology that involves data collection and data correlation is categorized as QUANTIFIED-SELF. Read this one

Lots of devices...You have one yet?

Activity monitors

Sleep monitors

Other

Popular Posts

Pages