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Der Spiegel Interview with EM

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Hey people,

as most of you are probably aware, the German magazine "Der Spiegel" published an interview with Elon Musk in its latest issue. Since there were a few points I hadn't heard about yet. Since the article is behind a paywall I thought it is a good idea to put the important points here. I am sorry in case I had just missed these things and they are not actually news.

Here you go:
-Batteries from Gigafactory contain about 10% of Cobalt sourced from Canada (Not Kongo. Question was directed toward protection of human rights)
-EM expects to build a battery factory in Germany within the 5-6 years timeframe.
-EM thinks German OEMs should put a lot more effort into developing batteries, thinks Germany has good preconditions to do so (b/c of a lot of engineers living there).
-He thinks Toyota and Daimler sold stakes to realize profits, nothing more.
-Tesla in talks with BMW about cooperation around battery, charging network and carbon fiber body parts.
-“BMW has relatively cost-effective production of carbon fiber body parts.”
-Doesn’t think that the reduced oil price has effect on electric cars, doesn’t think oil price will fall much further.
-Software Update next month will let the car recognize when you are out of reach to the next charging station and automatically warn you (It will also provide routing to the nearest SuperCharger).
-EM thinks fuel cell is ridiculous, three times less efficient, highly flammable, thus risk of explosions
-Autopilot works on 90% of driven kilometers. Problematic is driving around places without road marking or where kids are playing. Tesla will solve this within the next three years.
-EM wants to talk with Tim Cook (of Apple), because Apple is highly interested in the car business. All he can say is that Apple is not about to buy Tesla. (and vice versa ;-) )
-EM thinks small, autonomously driving, electric pods could be a great way of individualizing public transport.
-He would like to see a lot more tunnels. Because buildings are three-dimensional he thinks roads should be too. Alternative of flying cars is not the way to go because they are loud and can fall on your head.

Source: DER SPIEGEL

--Hans
 
"Software Update next month will let the car recognize when you are out of reach to the next charging station and automatically warn you (It will also provide routing to the nearest SuperCharger)."

The software has provided routing to the nearest Superchargers for a long time now, all you have to do is select the Supercharger list in the nav and choose your preferred Supercharger.

Having the car alert you to not having enough range to get to the next Supercharger on your nav route is long overdue and is a trivial feature to implement unless the software attempts to factor in other parameters besides distance, meaning speed, elevation changes, headwinds, altitude, precipitation, snow, etc. Which of course are all important and need to be included in the calculation.
 
I think this is the most interesting bullet in the list!

EM wants to talk with Tim Cook (of Apple), because Apple is highly interested in the car business. All he can say is that Apple is not about to buy Tesla. (and vice versa ;-) )

A collaboration on software, perhaps? With a wide ranging software collaboration with Apple, Tesla could provide a supported app development / release environment, Safari browser on the 17",..., not to mention assimilate a world-class software development environment.
 
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Per km, I think Austria and Switzerland are ahead of the USA in that regard. With so many high mountains, I suppose it made more sense.

List of tunnels in Switzerland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of tunnels in the Alps - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tunnels_in_Norway
There are over 900 road tunnels in Norway with total length exceeding 750 km

:p

mqdefault.jpg
 
I think this is the most interesting bullet in the list!
A collaboration on software, perhaps? With a wide ranging software collaboration with Apple, Tesla could provide a supported app development / release environment, Safari browser on the 17",..., not to mention assimilate a world-class software development environment.

I found that tidbit really interesting too, but taking as far as you posted... Um, yeah... Can't wait to hear the handwringing that'd cause from some people :tongue: But I don't think it's at all likely. To the extent it means anything, I'd expect it to mean CarPlay will eventually show up on the screen though.

And as discussed in past threads, this would not need to be exclusive with the broadly similar Android UI remoting solution, and doesn't imply that iOS is in any way used by Tesla, nor does it mean they won't still have their own nav, media, etc.
One could argue whether they'd feel the need to spend as much time on their own interfaces for the same functionality, but could also argue they'll learn from the android and apple efforts both in what to do, as well as what not to do.
 
I dunno...I would rather see collaboration (by BMW) on charge port standards & participation in Level III charge station deployment for now...

I think this is the most interesting bullet in the list!



A collaboration on software, perhaps? With a wide ranging software collaboration with Apple, Tesla could provide a supported app development / release environment, Safari browser on the 17",..., not to mention assimilate a world-class software development environment.
 
-He would like to see a lot more tunnels. Because buildings are three-dimensional he thinks roads should be too. Alternative of flying cars is not the way to go because they are loud and can fall on your head.

Source: DER SPIEGEL

--Hans

A car falling on your head would ruin your day. Alternatively, having a lot of tunnels in California would not be the best idea or anywhere where there is a lot of tectonic activity. Basically anything falling on your head is something to avoid in everyday life.
 
A car falling on your head would ruin your day. Alternatively, having a lot of tunnels in California would not be the best idea or anywhere where there is a lot of tectonic activity. Basically anything falling on your head is something to avoid in everyday life.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/tunnel/pubs/nhi09010/13.cfm

People Who Know About This Stuff said:
Technical Manual for Design and Construction of Road Tunnels - Civil Elements
Chapter 13 - Seismic Considerations
13.1 Introduction

Tunnels, in general, have performed better during earthquakes than have above ground structures such as bridges and buildings. Tunnel structures are constrained by the surrounding ground and, in general, can not be excited independent of the ground or be subject to strong vibratory amplification, such as the inertial response of a bridge structure during earthquakes. Another factor contributing to the reduced tunnel damage is that the amplitude of seismic ground motion tends to reduce with depth below the ground surface. Adequate design and construction of seismic resistant tunnel structures, however, should never be overlooked, ...

I just had to search and find out...
 
I found that tidbit really interesting too, but taking as far as you posted... Um, yeah... Can't wait to hear the handwringing that'd cause from some people :tongue: But I don't think it's at all likely. To the extent it means anything, I'd expect it to mean CarPlay will eventually show up on the screen though.

And as discussed in past threads, this would not need to be exclusive with the broadly similar Android UI remoting solution, and doesn't imply that iOS is in any way used by Tesla, nor does it mean they won't still have their own nav, media, etc.
One could argue whether they'd feel the need to spend as much time on their own interfaces for the same functionality, but could also argue they'll learn from the android and apple efforts both in what to do, as well as what not to do.

Agree. EM is not a fan of the walled garden approach....more likely open source like the patents. Also EM uses android phone FYI
 
Agree. EM is not a fan of the walled garden approach....more likely open source like the patents. Also EM uses android phone FYI

Hooray!. Now lets expand beyond Apples and Googles, please! I didn't like either option when shopping for a smartphone. There is room for better smartphones to come along that do not include walled gardens and require full surrender of the control of your phone optionality or contents. I wouldn't buy car that is married to one technology, especially Apple's. I certainly wouldn't buy a car married to Google either!
 
I think this is the most interesting bullet in the list!



A collaboration on software, perhaps? With a wide ranging software collaboration with Apple, Tesla could provide a supported app development / release environment, Safari browser on the 17",..., not to mention assimilate a world-class software development environment.

You guys know about this, right: Apple Should Buy Tesla - Business Insider
 
Here you go:
-Batteries from Gigafactory contain about 10% of Cobalt sourced from Canada (Not Kongo. Question was directed toward protection of human rights)


--Hans

Can anyone parse this a little more? Does this mean that 10% of the battery content is Cobalt, and that all of the Cobalt is sourced from Canada? Or does it mean that 90% of the Cobalt used in the batteries comes from sources other than Canada?