Transport Evolved

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transport Evolved 78 - Karma Chameleon

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Michael Thwaite and guest Kevin Sharpe as they discuss the week's news in the world of electric cars, including BBC Top Gear's Luxury Car of the Year award, the latest on the Chevrolet Volt battery pack fires, and much more.

 

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Transport Evolved - Steve speaks

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Michael Thwaite and guest Steve Fambro as they discuss the closure of Aptera Motors, the latest on the Chevrolet Volt fires and much more. Full shownotes at Google Moderator

 

[JRP3]

Nikki strikes again, the Volt coolant did NOT catch fire, it caused a short circuit that led to a fire.

 

[mpt]

I don't think the final cause is out yet, is it?

 

[TEG]

Coolant likely cause of Volt fires, says AP source | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews

...A source briefed on the Volt's investigation told the Associated Press that crystallized coolant resulted in an electrical short, causing the battery to catch fire...

Source Claims A Coolant Leak Is Likely The Cause Of Chevy Volt Fires | Fox News

...The coolant did not catch fire, but crystallized and created an electrical short that apparently sparked the fires, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the findings are not final...

 

[JRP3]

All the more reason to not make such statements. However not one bit of official or credible information that I've seen has mentioned the coolant igniting. The most recent info I've seen suggest dried coolant crystals causing the short circuit, which led to the fire. Hence the longer time frame needed for it to occur.

*TEG beat me to it.

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

lots of great suggestions for today's transport evolved, including;

"ECO tires for EVs only?"

"Charge Bay Alert!"

"Should EV manufacturers vet customers?"

"Polar: Electric Car owners are rich and can pay to charge"

"Smart ForTwo Delayed"

"AMP electrifying Jeep GC"

"Tesla pricing 50,60,70,80"

"EV Oasis charging $6-7 per fast charge"

"Karma on eBay"

"Drag racing world recognises EVs"

"Hybrid sports car from Toyota"

"Pre-order Revenge"

"US Nissan dealers appearing on the map but not offering public charging"

"Ford stays mum on Focus EV range but production is happening. Jan delivery"

http://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=1b4da3

 

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Transport Evolved 81 - Rich people can charge

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield fromh Green Car Reports and Michael Thwaite from TeslaMotorsClub, along with guest Will Dron from TheChargingPoint as they discuss the week’s news in the world of green and electric cars, including the latest from Polar Networks, the 2012 Smart ForTwo Electric delays, the official pricing for the 2012 Tesla Model S and much more.

 

[dpeilow]

Different day this week?

 

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Transport Evolved 82 - Predictions Show II - Revenge of the predictions {I knew they'd come back to bite us}

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield and Michael Thwaite as they end 2011 with the Transport Evolved predictions show. Full shownotes available at Google Moderator

 

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Transport Evolved 83 - Towable {* we have a new set; let me know what you think}

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, Michael Thwaite and special guest Olmo Tomas Mezger as they discuss the week's green automotive news, including the Volvo XC60 Plug-in Hybrid, Ford's First 2012 Focus delivery, a battery fix for the 2012 Chevrolet Volt, and a tow-hitch for the 2012 Nissan Leaf.

 

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Transport Evolved 84 - Bugging Depression

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield fromh Green Car Reports, Michael Thwaite from TeslaMotorsClub, and guest Tom Saxton as they discuss the latest news in the world of electric and green cars, including the latest from the 2012 Detroit Autoshow, Plug-in America's advocacy seminar and much more.

 

[JRP3]

I don't know if you can do anything about it but your mic is very low and echos. Maybe get closer to it, and hang a sheet or something behind you. Everyone else punches through and sometimes you are hard to hear.

 

[mpt]

Thanks for the feedback; I'll check the levels.

 

[Mycroft]

Hey, at least half his face isn't covered up by a huge pop filter like Nikki's usually is. It's been better, the last couple of episodes.

You guys are doing a great job with the show by the way, pop filter notwithstanding. It's cool listening to some very knowledgeable folks discuss an interesting topic.

 

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Transport Evolved 85 - Activate the ActiveE

Join Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield from Green Car Reports, Michael Thwaite from TeslaMotorsClub, and guest John Voelcker as they discuss the week’s news in the world of green cars, including the first ever test-drives of a U.S. BMW ActiveE, Fisker Karma recalls, plug-in choices and much more.

 

[Doug_G]

On the topic of firmware bugs affecting the drive train, Tesla was not totally immune to this. When my Roadster was brand-new, I had an occasional power train error resulting in a shutdown, but it only ever happened right after starting up. I was told it was some kind of timeout related to CAN bus messages; probably a timeout was set too short somewhere and random bus latency would rarely cause it to trip. It only happened a few times, and only right after starting up, so it wasn't a safety issue; all you had to do was remove the key and start over. A firmware update completely cured it.

I would of course expect the Model S to be more strenuously tested, given the relative maturity of Tesla now compared to the Roadster launch, but I would not be surprised if some obscure glitches slipped through the cracks. Non-deterministic real-time systems can be a b**** to test!

 

[ckessel]

As a software guy, I'll be pretty stunned if it doesn't have bugs. You just can't get all of them and it gets cost prohibitive to try beyond a certain level of quality assurance. Hopefully Elon's background in software means he's hired the right guys and set the right vision for the quality targets. There are some techniques specific to high reliability software (I used to work on medical software), so hopefully those will be applied.

 

[JRP3]

Remember the LEAF also had an early glitch that would throw an error light, and if you shut the car off to clear it, it would not restart, leaving some people stranded..

 

[Norbert]

Model S does have the advantage that it can update software via download.