2018 Tesla Model X 100d on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Popular Science magazine's Best Of What's New 2012 all ate up with cars

Popular Science has named the winners in its Best of What's New awards, the victors coming in the categories of aerospace, automotive, engineering, entertainment, gadgets, green, hardware, health, home, recreation, security and software. The automotive category did not go wanting for lauded advancements:
Tesla Model S: the Grand Award winner for being "the standard by which all future electric vehicles will be measured."
BMW 328i: it's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gets called out for being more powerful and frugal than the six-cylinder it replaces.

Tesla tires turning on Stretchla Vanagon EV conversion project

It is one thing to say you are going to Frankenstein a Tesla Model S with a pair of Siamese-twinned Volkswagen Vanagons and quite another to actually start taking your newly-acquired, smashed-up electric sedan apart in an effort to bring it back to life. Otmar Ebenhoech is doing just that, and having no small successes along the way. The Stretchla project, as it is being called, has officially started and our protagonist has put together another bit of video to document his progress and let us know about some of the different challenges he's encountered and conquered. While our original post about this endeavor featured video of the stretched Vanagon's drivetrain removal, this latest installment focuses on the Model S. Otmar received the Tesla in less-than-operable condition. Otmar received the Tesla in less-than-operable condition and has been tackling some of the basic problems one might expect to encounter: lots of error messages and an electrically disconnected battery pack. Without the aid of a manual or technical diagrams, he's removed the battery pack and discovered why it wasn't sending power to the car. Scroll below to watch the ten-minute presentation and celebrate some initial victories. You can also check out the official Stretchla blog for more photos and updates, including the most recent one that discusses how he talked himself into paying (*spoiler alert) $42,000 for a wrecked, non-functional electric car, along with more recent struggles with the steering rack. Hit us up in the comments to let us know what kind of trouble you would get into with a Model S drivetrain of your own. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Tesla gets its own Smartcar, but it's not what you think [w/video]

The idea may be a good one, but to call your new car-based predictive technology "Smartcar" seems like you're asking for a lawsuit from Daimler, the makers of the Smart car. But dig a little deeper and you realize that the plan could work, and whether or not Daimler bites is something we'll let the lawyers decide. In the meantime, here are the details on what the Smartcar for the Tesla Model S is all about. "Whenever you can automate something, that's where the value comes in" - Smartcar CEO Sahas Katta The idea is that your car, using the Internet and a Smartcar subscription, should be able to figure out what time you head off to work each day. Once it does, it can have the cabin at the right temperature (heated in the winter, cooled in the summer) and the battery charged for the drive by the time you're headed out the door. The automated system can also tell the charger to only slurp electrons when lower-cost nighttime electricity rates are in effect. The slightly confusing part is that the Model S already has the capability to program nighttime charging built-in and it can also be pre-conditioned remotely without the Smartcar system, you just have to tell it to do so with your smart phone (see one happy driver doing just this in frigid temperatures in the second video below). The difference with Smartcar is that your Tesla will soon be able to do all this stuff automatically. For example, the system "predicts the required range for your next journey" and "will only delay charging to off-peak hours when it can confidently determine your vehicle will have enough range available for the rest of the day." Smartcar is being designed for the Model S and the upcoming Model X, but the developers say "we're working to bring support to connected vehicles from other manufacturers in the near future." The lead developer behind Smartcar is Sahas Katta, who readers might remember from his GlassTesla project, which integrated Google Glass with a Model S. We called him up to ask why it makes sense to pay $100 a year for a Smartcar subscription when the features it offers are available in the car's default settings. Katta had obviously thought the arguments through, and told AutoblogGreen that he knows plenty of Model S owners who don't remember to set these triggers every day. "Whenever you can automate something, that's where the value comes in," he said.