Fascinating interview and congrats to winning team. Very exciting to see the young engineers take to building radically new transportation systems/concepts like Hyperloop that will transform the future of mobility/transportation! Graduate student Chris Merian, chief engineer for MIT’s Hyperloop team, speaks with Radio Boston’s Meghna Chakrabarti about the team’s success in the recent Hyperloop contest
“…really cool engineering challenge that we are really passionate about, and seeing our hundreds of hours of work rewarded like that was really, really nice”
Mashable shared this nice infograph developed by Gocompare.com that breaks down the details of the much anticipated Hyperloop, a new form of transportation backed by innovative entrepreneur Elon Musk. It warrants attention, knowing it is backed by Elon Musk, who has already wowed the world with his transportation ventures like SpaceX and Tesla. It is expect that Elon Musk will unveil the Alpha design and discuss the details of the Hyperloop on August 12.. Can’t wait!
All controversies aside, Elon knows how to make loads of money and mastered the art of having a ton of fun while raking cash.. Colbert, one of the best modern day comedic talk show host, gets to grill Musk..The result is captured in the video below..
Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, SpaceX, and electric car company Tesla Motors, sat down with Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert to talk about his latest venture, SpaceX.
Colbert listed Musk’s many accomplishments, then asked him: “Where do you find time for your secret identity as Batman? Because you’re either a superhero or a supervillain.”
“I’m mostly an engineer,” Musk said. “Oh yeah, engineer,” Colbert scoffed. “Bruce Wayne’s a banker.”
Colbert told Musk later, “You’re the future, man.”
Musk told Colbert that he hopes SpaceX, which successfully launched the Falcon 9 rocket into orbit this past June, will be ready in the next few years to take NASA astronauts into space.
After a lot of hype and delivery of 250 Tesla Roadsters, the company’s Model S was unveiled today in Hawthorne, California. It is expect that production will be ramped up to 20,000 units annually by the end of the first year of production; after the $7,500 tax break, the Model S will start at just under $50,000 – $49,900 to be exact; and 440-volt charging will be available. That base price is for the 160-mile range pack; a 230-mile range pack and a 300-mile range packwill also be available. The biggest hitch: the car doesn’t go into production until Q3 of 2011.
Transportgooru thinks this is a game changer and here is the “why”:
According to Tesla’s numbers, buying a Tesla S will save you $10-$15K vs a comparably priced gas-powered sedan when gas is $4 per gallon. For an equivalent comparison, you’d have to lease a $35,000 gas-powered car.
The car fits seven people and their luggage: five adults and two children in rear-facing seats under the hatch inside, with luggage in the boot up front.
If not people, it can fit a mountain bike with its wheels still on, a surfboard and a 50-inch television at the same time.
On a 220V outlet, the car can be recharged in 4 hours.
The quickness: the standard S will get to 60 in 5.5 to 6.0 seconds. A coming sport version will get to 60 in “well under five seconds,” the company’s folks say.
These facts are what one would come to expect from a conventiona, gasoline powered automobiles that rules the roads today. As more charging stations pop-up around the country, these vehicles will make transportation seamless. The few cons that could be obviously recognized are the re-charging times and the lack of charging stations at public locations (Gas stations, parking lots, etc). With the conventional gasoline cars, refuelling is quick and doesn’t take more than 5 minutes at the gas stations, which means you can continue travelling without enduring massing delays while traveling longer distances. It can be expected that unveiling of such cars renders a wonderful opportunity for regional electric companies to enter a niche market to provide “electricity” through charging stations in the service areas along highways, just like a gas station. Or even better if these charging stations are added to existing gas stations. If charging times can be shortened with the advent of new technology (See the TransportGooru article about MIT’s breakthrough research on batteries, allowing for lightening quick charging times)
Click here to read the entire post on Autoblog’s site anddon’t forget to check out the eye popping Tesla Gallery. Here is Wall Street Journal’s interview with Tesla at the North American Int’l Auto Show (via YouTube):
